Review of the SonicBlue ProGear 1050 SE Information Appliance
by flung
6/30/2002
WhiningDog.NET

Introduction

The idea of having a Tablet as a PC has been around for quite some time now. We've seen plenty of shows most notably Star Trek where it seemed so cool to carry around a little tablet that one could tap on. (And just what were they tapping anyhow?) Unfortunately this idea has never caught on with the mass market because no one has been able to come up with a good use for a Tablet oriented computer that could not be done with either a PDA, Laptop or a small desktop system. To add to this problem, the lack of a solid user interface significantly hampers the ability for a person to use a system such as a Tablet Personal Computer. However, this hasn't stopped people from trying to continually build upon this idea of a portable light weight device. Systems such as the Apple Newton device to the current Microsoft Tablet PC and Mira devices show the array of avenues that vendors have pursued with this idea. One company that tried to create a market for tablet oriented devices was SonicBlue. It created a wholly owned division called ProGear back in September of 2000 in the hopes of selling what it called Information Appliances to vertical oriented markets such as Education industry and Hospitals. Instead of trying to hit the mass market, ProGear gambled on targeting specific industries which may have a need for a portable lightweight tablet that could connect to the local network and access information. The first such device was the ProGear 1050. Unfortunately this didn't quite work out too well for SonicBlue and ProGear and recently SonicBlue started running a firesale of all their ProGear 1050 tablets. Through some luck, I managed to get a hold of this tablet for my own personal use and today I'll be going over the details of the ProGear 1050 SE (uses the Windows 98SE OS) Information Appliance. Though you may not be able to order this from SonicBlue any longer, you can certainly try and find it on an auction site such as Ebay. However the point of this article is not for me to tell you to go out there and try and buy one of these tablets. Rather, I will endeavor to show you an overview of the tablet and the virtues and downfalls of a device such as this. Hopefully someday we will all be able to use a somewhat "perfect" Tablet PC.

And in this corner...

Let's first go over what exactly is the ProGear 1050 SE. The ProGear 1050 Information Appliance was meant to be a thin client system targeting vertical environments that had a need for a mobile, lightweight, wireless connectivity, and touch screen oriented device. It would provide handwriting recognition, long battery life, and a constant connection to the corporate network that it was a part of. At the heart of this device was a Transmeta Crusoe TM3200 400MHz processor. Why a Crusoe processor? Well the answer to this is obvious. A device is of no use if it runs out of power quickly in the field. One of the key attributes of a Transmeta Crusoe Processor is it's ability for low power consumption thereby increasing the battery life of a mobile device such as the ProGear 1050. The use of this specific Crusoe Processor however is something I wish SonicBlue did not use given the original MSRP price of this device and the performance of the system as a whole. However if you think about the vertical markets for which SonicBlue was aiming for, charging a premium for such a device would then make some sense. I will go into this in a little bit.
Here are your basic specifications of the 1050.

• Transmeta TM3200 400 MHz x86 compatible processor
• 10.4 inch LCD Flat Panel Display capable of 1024 x 768 resolutions. High contrast, polysilicon TFT display
• Customizable LCD Screen Cover
• TouchScreen - Rugged 5 wire resistive anti-reflective surface
• 128MB system memory
• 5.6GB 2.5" hard disk
• 1 PC Card Type II slot occupied by a 802.11b wireless card
• One USB Port
• IrDA v.1.1 high speed infrared port
• Microphone and speakers
• Multi-directional scroll button
• Light, durable magnesium case
• Portrait and Landscape display modes via software
• No fan
• 9" x 11" x 1" thick
• 2.8lbs w/o battery
• 3.5lbs with 6 cell battery
• Battery - Standard Lithium Ion 6 cell 3200 mAh 6hrs
• AC Adaptor

The 1050 SE came in a small box reminiscent of a small flat panel display box. It was fairly well packaged and came with all the necessary items inside. A nice touch by ProGear was the inclusion of a simple guide to get you up and running in no time. My device actually had a decent amount of charge in the battery so I was able to get it started in no time using Windows 98SE. Here are some pictures of the box and the contents of the box.

ProGear Packaging	ProGear 1050 SE	ProGear + Accessories

ProGear looking from the left side	ProGear looking from the right side

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