- Average user rating:
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"Great for mobile user"
Pros: pocketable, plenty fast for business apps, great usability
Cons: loud fan, battery life
Summary: The real advantage of the OQO 02 is the pocketability. You can stick this in your pocket and take it everywhere, and it can run just about everything that your desktop can. Business applications run great and it can even run quite a few games as long as they're not 3D processor/GPU-intensive.
So far, I've used the OQO 02 for note-taking in meetings, the Internet, games, office apps, presentations, Skype, and watching DVD's. As long as the CPU is on full performance the video quality is smooth. I've also used the machine to compile some Java and C# programs, and while it's slower than my desktop, it is still usable.
The screen is really bright and the keyboard is actually fun to type on. WiFi has the same range as my notebooks.
Although the battery life is not that great, from a technical standpoint it may not be fair to compare the default OQO battery with the default Flipstart battery. The default Flipstart battery is the "high capacity" battery and it is an option to buy the "slim" battery. In contrast, the default OQO battery is the "slim" battery and the option is for a thicker, double-capacity battery. So if one has comparable batteries I suspect the battery life on each will be similar. Also, the OQO 02 uses very little power on standby. I've left it on standby overnight and the power drain was only 15%. Since it comes out of standby in seconds, the machine could be usable all day if you only need it in spurts instead of continuous use.
In comparison to the Flipstart, the OQO 02 is also available with more RAM (1 GB vs. 512 MB) and with a bigger hard drive (60 GB vs. 30 GB).
My only real gripe is the fan noise. The fan gets very loud when the CPU is working hard. This lessens the quality of the built in microphone and has also gotten me a few strange looks in meetings as everyone heard the fan rev up to speed. But aside from this complaint the machine is a real pleaser.

