Touchscreen Kohjinsha handtops get official
The touchscreen Kohjinsha handtop looks to be on track to shed its rumor status by the end of the month. Unofficially called the SA18 (UPDATE: officially called the SA1F00V and SA1F00W), the new convertible clamshell sports the same 100GB hard drive housed inside the SA1F00E and SA1FooH, as well as the same AMD Geode LX800 processor and Windows XP Home powering the entire SA series. There doesn’t appear to any cosmetic difference either, so really the only unique feature about the black and white handtops seems to be their 7-inch touchscreens (a glaring omission I complained about in my SA1F00A review).
Kohjinsha may also release another model in May or June that will be indistinguishable from the new units except for its U.S. keyboard (the rest of the SA series is equipped with a Japanese-layout keyboard) and native English OS. A touchscreen is definitely a step in the right direction, but I think it’s time for a second-gen unit (SA2 or SB series, maybe?). Adding the SA1F00V and SA1F00W to a lineup that already includes the SA1F00A, SA1F00B, SA1F00D, SA1F00E, and SA1F00H is stepping into territory usually reserved for Sony.
[My Kohjinsha via UMPCPortal | PC Watch]
