Unveiled a few weeks ago, the PC-Z1 Netwalker Sharp made his commercial debut in Japan at Tokyo’s Ceatec. The opportunity for us to take a look at this tiny machine, which combines a display of only 5 inches to a full Qwerty keyboard for a weight of only 400 grams and a range estimated by the manufacturer for nearly ten hours.
Truly tiny, the PC-Z1 is driven by a Freescale processor i.MX515 himself articulated around an ARM core A8 clocked at 800 MHz. It also shipped 512 MB of RAM and 4GB of flash memory for storage of system and user data. Equipped with Ubuntu Netbook Edition, it starts in just a few seconds, and has been voluntarily restricted to specific uses: Surfing on the Internet, sending and receiving emails, consultation or editing office documents using OpenOffice.org and playback of audio files or video. It remains possible to install other applications.
We can control the mouse with a tiny optical block that takes place right above the keyboard, two clicks for them being deported to the left. With a memory card reader micro SD PC-Z1 offers 802.11g WiFi connectivity, a USB 2.0 port and a mini USB port and an output jack for headphones. The LCD panel displays for its resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels.
The goal? Allow online browsing in the move, using a portable terminal, but more comfortable to use a smartphone without reaching the bulk of netbooks. As such, the PC-Z1 has few chances to break in Europe, due to ergonomics compromised by its small size (161 x 108 x 19.7 to 24.8 mm), but it should find its audience in Japan, where there are already many computers of this size.
