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.
my Blue H1 is still working after 3yrs. I got a little scare for a couple of months this year nung naging unresponsive ng battery. but all of a sudden gumana na ulet sya kaya ito muna gamit sa bahay while sira yung PC namin. keyboards are still ok kahit na parate sya ginagamit dito sa bahay.
Current poblems:
a)memory slot not working anymore.
b)no more output ng sound sa laptop – u may only use it kapag meron kang headset.
ilikeblue website’s already down. the drivers uploaded at asianic’s website’s also down. can somebody please put the drivers up on the net? been having trouble with the webcam after reformatting it. D:
Closed na ba website ng BLUE? i guess so. Where can we contact them for netbook for repairs?
Thank u!
@chrischelle: i still have BLUE H1 drivers
good day. penge po nang drivers nang h1 notebook :d thanks
@JOEMEL – hi there! it will be a problem uploading a 100MB file into the net especially sa mga torrent websites because of my poor internet connection. i dont want to meet up or anything. but i would love to help you sana regarding the files. I know how it feels like to look for something and see a worthless crap i mean company like BLUE.
what are the items affected.. Basically, you can google it… Please list down the affected items… maybe i can help…
hi..
please..i need help..
I lost some of the drivers for my blue H1..
anyone knows where i could download it?
thanks!
Hi, still using my blue H1. oki pa din hanggang ngayon though am having problems with my battery kasi super bilis nya na maubos. i can only use it for 30 min then it goes dead so its always plugged on na lang. though other than that it still wonderful. using globe tattoo for internet connection and also impressed with the browsing and dl speeds. :)
I assumed bed bugs was a thing a long time ago, precisely why are many of us currently having this kind of big issue across the country with these kind of parasites?
help on my friends Deep Blue H1, she forgot the BIOS password…her Deep Blue H1 is loaded with windows 98 and wanted to upgrade to windows xp…but since she forgot the BIOS password…i can’t set it to boot from the xp setup…how could I help her? what should I do? thanks in advance.. :)
Tremendous information and facts for upload files for getting myself begin. Most definitely i’ll keep this particular website link and get back to this.
kuya hindi p0h ba pwede inta11an ng ibang 1aro??
kung pwede aman p0h pan0h naman??
I bought my deep blue h1 (with 60GB HDD) laptop last march 2009 and until now, I didn’t encounter any problems.. it started with linux, then I switched to windows xp sp3 and now I upgraded it to windows 7 ultimate.. although my WEI (Windows Experience Index) score is 1.0, my blue h1 can still run the OS’s aero glass effects.. i love this “cutebook” very much.
Antivirus: Microsoft Security Essentials (runs only on Genuine Microsoft OS)
Browser: Firefox 4 beta 4
Application: MS Office 2007
File Sharing: Limewire Pro 5.5.8 / uTorrent 2.0.4
Messaging: Yahoo Messenger 10
Tuning: Tune Up Utilities 2010
One thing, this is very interesting.. I can adjust my screen resolution as high as 1280 x 800. Very useful for my powerpoint
presentation.
Sadly, i think this unit was already phased out. Not lucky for those people who didn’t see the beauty and portability of this netbook..
I like blue…
san pwede bumili ng unit na to? magkano na sya ngaun? do u think its advisable to purchase?pls let me know asap,, 092325*****,, thanks!
does anyone have a copy of a recovery disk with the linux program for the blue h1?
before you reformat make sure you backup everything in your blue h1 drive.
if you have an external drive you can use that to reformat your Blue H1. XP or if you can find a windows FLP OS would be best for the H1.
Hello,I got H1 unit and its a bit lag when opening files i’m planning to reformat this but dont know how to. How do i reformat this ? please do share some ideas.
hi,
Linux ang OS ng H1Blue ko at wifi ang gamit ko sa internet for almost 2 years na.. Para sa akin best ang linux sa h1blue, excellent condition pa rin ung unit pero ung charger lng talaga ang defective 2009 pa bumigay. Ngayon, gusto ko sana gamitin ung wireless broadband ko sa Linux is it possible po ba? parang gagawing virtual modem ung usb bband? naisip ko lang na baka possible parang tulad sa concept ng mga emulator at virtual cd roms??
thanks
@doms,
search, download and update mo yung display driver ng blue h1 mo para makapag adjust ka ng mataas na resolution.
den
sorry for reposting. had some booboo on the previous post.
Hello, fellow blue H1 users. Maybe you can help with my problem.
Our netbook has small screen. There are occasions when the the pop window i.e during installation, can not be fully seen.
I am left using tab and guessing that I reach the proper button to click and then press enter.
Is there a way to go over this?
Thanks!
Hello, fellow blue users. Maybe you can help with my problem.
Our netbook has small screen. There are occasions when the the pop window i.e during installation can be fully seen.
I am left using tab and guessing that I reach the proper button to click and then press enter.
Is there a way to go over this?
Thanks!