VYE S37: UMPC With an Optical Drive?

The Vye S37, on the surface, seems like one of the more ideal UMPCs available. It's size is fairly comparable to other UMPCs, it has a 7-inch touchscreen, a tablet mode, and all of the other bells and whistles you expect and need on an Ultra-Mobile Personal Computer. The one thing it's got that no other UMPCs have, however, is one of the first things that was sacrificed when the first UMPCs were developed--an optical drive.

The omission makes sense, really. If you're all about portability and compactness (but don't want the tiny screen of a smart phone) you probably aren't carrying around a stack of data DVDs, so who needs an optical drive to access them? However, if your UMPC does everything else you need it to do, it does seem a little weird to have it be unable to play that discount DVD you found in a bargain bin during some down time on a business trip. The thing is, there's another reason to not have an optical drive.

That problem is power consumption.

When Sony's PSP (PlayStation Portable) first came out, all those years ago, one of the things it did which its competitor's didn't was include an optical drive--it was a UMD drive. The Universal Media Disc was yet another attempt by Sony to establish a new media format that they could control. Too young to remember Betamax? Perhaps the failure of the MiniDisc is more fresh in your mind? On top of those two bombs, Sony Memory Sticks aren't exactly being used by, well, anyone aside from Sony. Still, the UMD drive was in the PSP--and everyone complained about it.

The problem? Any time you have a moving part, you're going to draw more battery power to move that part. The UMD drive helped run the PSP's batteries dry that much faster. So, logically, an optical drive on a UMPC would be an equally bad idea. While the Vye S37's official product page doesn't mention battery life, specifically, a review of the UMPC the S37 is based on (the SR8KPO6S--catchy name!) over at WindowsForDevices.com claims that the 3-cell battery the S37 comes with can survive for 3.5 hours while the 6-cell battery (both batteries come with each S37) will keep you going for 7.2 hours.

That said, one can't help but wonder how much longer each battery would last without that damn optical drive on there.

The Vye S37 is available now for around $1300.