The Deep Blue H1 mini notebook had an early mover advantage in the UMPC market but it seems it wasn’t able to hold its ground against the newcomers. Let’s check out and see if this unit would have made a good competitor to the Asus Eee PC 701 series.
Blue Digital Systems went with a Via processor with the H1 — a 1.0GHz Via C7-M. It also has 1GB of RAM pre-installed and a 40GB HDD. In my 7-inch UMPC Rounds-Up last April, the Blue H1 came out on top as the cheapest and feature-packed among the four. (See unboxing pics here.)
Many claimed though that the Via C7-M processor was no match for the Celeron 900MHz. Of course, I had to test this myself. Using SuperPi, it took 48 secs. on the Celeron 900MHz and 7 mins. 26 secs. on the Via C7-M to run 1M digits. Either Via CPUs are too slow or they’re not built for floating point calculations (my guess is the latter).
The Blue H1 has a compact built though the battery pack is protruding from its back side. Like many other 7-inch laptops, the screen real estate is barely enough and with a body that’s 9.5″ wide, the screen’s 6″ horizontal width seems a bit small which made you think the space was under-utilized. It’s a little heavier than my Asus Eee PC but that’s because of the extra weight from the HDD (1.2kg).
The trackpad looks a bit small but after measuring, it’s actually the same size as that of the Asus Eee PC (1.75″ x 1.25″). The distinctive left and right click buttons helps for easier navigation. And while the keyboard size and orientation is the same, the Blue H1 has more space for palm rest which makes it easier to touch type.
The 0.3 MP webcam sits on top of the screen but it’s a little distracting to see the text that states “Digital Camera” beside it, in bold all-caps print.
The Blue H1 is cooler (less hot) too, maybe because of the low-power Via and the good ventilation at the bottom (there were 4 grill slots in there).
The default OS is Window XP and is quite responsive despite the low SuperPi results. It’s complete in connectivity too — 2 USB ports, 1 LAN, 1 modem, a 4-in-1 card reader and WiFi 802.11 b/g.
Over-all, this is a good 1st generation UMPC and could have easily surpassed the Eee PC 701 had it been marketed properly. It’s also 15% cheaper than most UMPCsd when it first came out. If Blue Systems can drop the current price down to Php9,995 today (compared to the 701’s Php13k curent price tag), I’m sure people will find it a good great bargain.
Wonderful post! it really got me thinking online coupons
where can i buy this?
@ paul, if you need hdd replacement for your blue h1 contact me in this number also 0923-960-5594.
@ carlo contact me if you need a motherboard replacement 0923-960-5594. i’m looking for an lcd replacement, and somebody offered me a blueh1 unit with defective keyboard.
my blue H1 is down… the DDR2 memory has failed… it is impossible to replace it because its fixed to the motherboard… need the motherboard replaced… does anyone know where i can get a replacement motherboard?
Found a mirror for the XP drivers @
http://www.asianic.com.ph/product/blue-h1-umpc
Hello, I’m trying to find drivers for XP for my Blue H1 but at the moment
http://ilikeblue.net/support_drivers.htm is DOWN.
Does anyone have a link to a mirror for XP drivers?
Would be someone so willing to be kind enough to upload if the drivers are not too large?
at last my keyboard failed me. Just bought a usb keyboard sa CD-R king for 200 pesos. not much complains though. asked servimax on how much to get the keyboard replaced… rather not talk about it na lang so just bought the external. hahaha far more cheaper.
after 9 months of slightly using my deep blue H1, the keyboard failed, bought an external usb keyboard para lang magamit ang computer. Please help saan pwedeng dalhin ito for repairs.
i bought my blue h1 last february and its still working well. don’t plug it in unless the battery is completely drained or it turned off on its own. you can save the battery lifespan by doing that.
if you need a driver disk, i can possuibly burn one for you. i still have the original with me.
san po kaya ako makaka hanap ng site to download the driver ng blue H1 pls help nman po kasi i change my OS to XP. dati po kasi linux thanks po
me too.. been using my blue h1 mini laptop for 6 months, gamit ko lang pag out of town pang farmville lang and ym (have to harvest para makahabol sa level! haha)
so far okay naman siya.. kaso hindi ko na nagagamit coz my husband bought me a pc set..
so yun lang, sayang kasi masstock lang siya, if anyone of you wants to buy my blue mini laptop please do text me 091766***** lady owned po and 100% working condition.. :) 8.5k polast price thanks!
so far so good pa naman blue h1 ko. been using it for more than a year na. running on windows flp. formatted it. for those having problems with the drivers of the unit you can download all the drivers in the blue website http://www.ilikeblue.net/support_drivers.htm, i got all my drivers there so far no problems after the reformat i just hope it wont bog down on me.
hey andrei, u r really rite.. dis unit is a big b*ll Sh*t…. my keyboard now is not working anymore….i dont know wat happend all of sudden its not working…to all of readers here, pls dont buy dis kind of laptop.
My GF and I bought a Blue H1 last October 2008. She takes very good care of it, and always warns me to put it down softly even when I was going to place it on her bed! Anyway, this brand has a lot of harware problems, particularly the keyboard. For the past year, she encountered malfunctions (or no function whatsoever) of the keys. This has occurred multiple times. Then just as the warranty expires, the keyboards fail again! So be warned. Another friend of her’s also junked her Blue H1 less than a year from buying it. Your better of buying the more expensive brands than this piece of sh*t.
@gelai: is it the new astone with 60 gig of hdd? then its much better than the blue h1 umpc cuz it has a faster processor and bigger hdd. But, if it is the older Astone, then I would choose Blue h1 because its cute hehehe but comparable specs with the older Astone. For me, Astone is a like a vtech toys. (no offense to astone users)
My Blue h1 umpc still works brilliant for 1 year, and all those bugs that I encountered were addressed by simply cleaning all the mess after using it then doing some maintenance every month by defragmenting and clearing all junk files, and always run the update with microsoft. I sometimes use it as my DVR for my video surveillance with the help of portable HD.
please help.. i have a blue h1 sinwap saken kpalit ng psp ko ska p990i. wla akng gnong alm s computer kya nkipg swap ako kc gusto ko sna mtuto. at first ok wlng problem, nung nag browse ako s net nag update microsoft ng genuine, hndi sha mavalidate meaning peke pla os n nkainstol gnawa ko pina reformat ko nangyri nwla wifi ska sound. nagrent ako ng pc nag hnap ako ng wifi ska audio driver, nka kuha ako s official website ng blue. yng wifi ok n, pero yng audio wla p dko alm kng pno ko iinstol ska kng ano dpat kng gwin. kelngan ko pba sha ipareformat ulit? ano b dpat n os ng blue h1? s annong site mkakpg download? mhal kc mgpareformat eh. help me please.. tnx. akhr****@****.*** 092356***** or 092274*****
im planning to get an astone umpc tonight. got a good deal from tipidpc.com. 8k. :)) but then i saw a blueh1 at the same price.. what you think is better?
please help. :)
sorry from my post above my HDD is not 22009 but MKGAL4009
i had no problems with my Blue h1, however maybe with abuse my HDD i think is broken, i tried bringing it to a computer shop to replace HDD however it is not the conventional 2.5″ HDD but rather the “Ipod Video-Like” 1.8″ HDD from Toshiba. Im planning to order from hongkong a 1.8″ HDD from toshiba also LIF/ZIF connector. However i am not sure if the connectors are the same.
If someone/somebody has more knowledge about this, pls contact me 091854*****. Ive been searching all around and i even tried the posted PICS to compare the connectors however im still not sure. my HDD is MKGAL2009 i think, its 40GB. and there are others versions oute there like 30GB MKGAL3006 and 3008, there are even 120GB versions. Are these compatible?