Apple Newton vs Samsung Q1 UMPC

The Q1, and more specifically the UMPC concept, is the brainchild of Microsoft and Intel, so it's no surprise that it'll run almost any Windows application you can throw at it. It's a full-blown PC, albeit a very small one, so your imagination is the only limitation when it comes to deciding what to do with it.

It comes with Microsoft Office as standard, so you can start cranking out Word documents the minute you switch it on. Plus you get all the funky Windows utilities that come with the Windows XP Pro Tablet Edition operating system. Windows Media Player lets you listen to your tunes and watch movies, and you can fill the Q1's 40GB hard drive to the brim with all manner of free and paid-for software courtesy of CNET.co.uk's Downloads channel.

If you're into games, you're in luck. The Q1 may not have a dedicated graphics adaptor, but it'll let you play the odd bout of Sudoku or Solitaire to help while away the hours on a boring summer's evening.

The Newton operating system was coded from scratch in C++. Apple honed the OS to squeeze every last drop of computing power out of the StrongARM processor. The Newton team did not have to support legacy code or backward compatibility with a previous OS (something that is a huge problem for the Q1), and as a result the Newton software is lean and fast. It also uses a simple, intuitive interface paradigm that is far more suited to small-form mobile computing than Windows Tablet PC Edition.

The same is true of the Newton's bundled software. The Newton is pre-installed with applications like Works (for word processing, spreadsheets and drawing) and Dates (a calendar application that lets you write entries into a virtual diary). Hundreds of third-party applications are available for the Newton, like Nethopper (a Web browser), Chat-Buddy (an IM client) and a range of email clients.

The Q1 trumps the Newton with its ability to play movies. The Newton can play basic QuickTime files, but this is a novelty, not a serious feature. It's a mistake, however, to champion the Q1's movie-playing abilities as a point against the Newton -- movie fans would do better to buy a dedicated portable media player than deal with the poor battery life of the Q1.

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