NEC MobilePro versus Sony Picturebook?

A short while ago, someone did a revisit of HPC devices on one of the technology sites (he posts here once in a while too). On that site, someone else left the comment we get a lot: if it only runs XP. Of course I responded saying there are indeed XP machines like HPCs physically, but not functionally. Specifically I mentioned the Picturebook series and Lifebook P1000 series.

Then I came across a small comment in this eBay item description of a PictureBook:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6750441068
Not much, and the comment could be bias. Since then I have wondered if someone actually did a direct comparison between the MobilePro and the Picturebook, because they are indeed similar in shapes and sizes. But I haven't found any yet.

Has anyone had experience owning both of these? I would really like to hear about it.

I had a C1VN picturebook for about 2 months, and only had it that long as it took me a month to sell it at the price I wanted to get back.

But there are a couple of points in defense of the Mobilepro I would bring attention to.

1. Probably everyone who owns an HPC didn't buy it for its versatility as the eBay author mentions. I appreciate everything my 900C can do, but I didn't get it so it could do everything...because it can't.

2. He mentions that it runs from 1-2 hours on battery. With wifi, I could last about an hour before I started getting low battery alerts. To me this is a major drawback. I need something that will run all day long...my 900C does. I don't want to be carrying around a/c adapters and extension cords.

3. The hi-res screen of the picturebook is nice...for pictures. I prefered to lower my screen resolution as it was too hard to see and use when set at the max. The mouse pointer device was a pain for me. Too easy to overshoot, to slow to scroll, just didn't like it on the picturebook, but don't like it on any laptop. Personal preference probably. Give me a touchscreen anytime...I touch my icon...and viola...there I am. Still I liked TFT screen and wish I had one myself.

How about an auction selling a 900C? It would go something like this: Get instant on, absolutely no wait like my Sony Picturebook which takes 30 seconds to boot. Run for hours, not an hour, but many hours on a single charge unlike my Picturebook which is always running out of juice an hour into my project. Comes with built in touch screen for optimal program use, not icon scrolling necessary. Can use nearly every hardware peripheal, wifi cards, pen drives, usb cdroms and external hard drives, various printers, hubs, keyboards, mice, etc. Built in applications. Virtually virus and spyware free, unlike my Picturebook. Built very well, no moving parts, not sensitive as my Picturebook.

Okay, maybe I slanted it a little, but the point is HPC users didn't buy their machines to compete with subnotebooks...its apples and oranges all over again.

Rich

Thanks for the reply.

Yes that battery problem is important. Are you sure it's not just the battery being too old? Some people report to have 4 hours on a standard battery. It does sound a bit fishy to me tho. But on a double capacity, 4 hours should not be a problem. And then there's the quad capacity behemoth...

But aside from the common observations... I was also looking for comments in some other aspects, and in details. How do the keyboards compare? What about performance? How compatible is IE6 on the MP900C (did you get Flash to work)? And so on. There are a lot of things to consider.

It is just interesting to see two very different devices with very similar physical attributes