Keyboards and UMPCs

Steve Paine blogged today that the the top 5 UMPCs in the UMPCPortal are laptops, ie all have keyboards. I can't say I'm surprised. In fact I truly miss not having a keyboard for my Q1 like I had with the Acer C110. The Q1 is great and I enjoy the UMPC usage scenarios that Steve lists. However, I would give up some lightness to have an attached keyboard that would be available on a moments notice. The main reason is that I am very proficient with a keyboard, much more so than with ink. I am getting much better with inking but no where near as proficient as with a keyboard. On top of that, I am on the train for almost 3 hours a day now and I find its almost impossible to ink due to the vibration of the train.

Personally, I give the manufacturers lots of credit for building what are essentially smaller form factor convertible tablet UMPCs. In my opinion it gives the user the best of both worlds, a UMPC and a laptop and the advantages that come with both.

With that said, I am going to start up the search again for a new device and blog about that search here. So stay tuned!