Optimus Mini Three Review and Video

Introduction, Unboxing, and Size Comparison
I was excited to hear about the Optimus Mini Three when heard about it well before I knew anything about UMPCs. The concept is simple: A three button keyboard with OLED screens behind the three keys that automatically change depending on the application you have loaded and the settings you provide. Since the working with an ultra-mobile, I realized just how powerful the Optimus Mini Three can be. I'll start with some unboxing and size comparison photos.






First Impressions
It feels great. Though plastic, it has some good heft to it and feels very solid. It can be organized in any way (vertically or horizontally) as shown below:


The displays are bright and the buttons responsive (if a bit soft) but there is no stand or graceful way to mount it. It's either sitting on the desk or in a custom mount.

The Configurator
There was no software included with my review unit, so I downloaded the latest version (1.0.23β) at the time of this writing from their web site. It included the "Configurator" application but not the driver. I managed to find the driver in the "windows 98 or others" .zip file on their site. The right driver appears as a "Prolific2 USB-to-Serial Bridge."

When I ran the configurator without the device driver installed, the system slowed down significantly. The device also shows no indication that it is plugged in when the Configurator is not running.

After a reboot to make sure nothing else was running, I loaded the Configurator. The first thing it did is crash. Get used to that: It does it often.

Loading it up again brought up the main configuration screen. Here you can set up applications and schema (called "Layouts") to show the buttons that will be available in that application.

Initially, I set the display to show my free memory and CPU usage in the first two buttons and the weather in the third. Hitting either status buttons brought up the Windows Task Manager. The time and weather button only had ten North American locales available: Guadalajara, Hawaii, Los Angelas, Maiamu, Mexico City, Monterrey, New York, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle. I couldn't find where to add more.

While setting the city, the display turned off. I assumed it was a screensaver, but pressing any of the buttons did not turn it back on. I tried loading Windows Media Player to see if the buttons would switch. Nothing again. When I quit the Configurator and loaded it again, it finally worked.

I copied the "web browser" scheme and associated it to Firefox. It worked like a charm though it would be better if "New Window" could be made to "New Tab." But wait! It can! I started to build a Firefox-specific scheme for the CTRL key layout. I selected each button as a "hotkey" and made the first Ctrl+T. I specified the text as "New Tab" and left the image blank. My Configurator application promptly crashed again.

While clicking through applications, The display did not often automatically switch. It also did not properly trigger buttons in some applications.

Custom Buttons
It is very easy make your own buttons to launch programs. The AFOF button can be dragged on to the Mini Three layout. The Options for that looks like this:
The results of that configuration:

The Video
In the following video, you can see that sometimes the Outlook scheme would load and sometimes it would not. You can also see an interesting "freak out" while playing a game.
PLEASE forgive the poor quality of this video: It didn't occur to me how bad I sound when I am sick.



I know the video ends with me mid-sentence, but I had nothing more to say. Next time I will try to write a review when I'm not hopped up on flu medication.

The Verdict
The concept is great. The hardware is great. The software is where it all goes wrong. This software is unstable, feature poor, buggy, and even had incidents where the translations to English weren't complete. There is light a the end of the tunnel: The manufacturer will likely release their own upgrades to the software AND they have downloadable SDKs for both button layouts and device interaction.

Who should buy this? Developers, early adopters, and people who have PCs for very specific, limited functons (like car PCs) and have the time to spend to make this interface work right. For the average consumer and at the current price point of US $160, I'd wait for the next software version to be released before I made the commitment to buy.