Viliv S5 PRE-H 4.8-Inch Portable PC Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I purchased mine with Windows XP home on it. VERY fast UI... I was actually amazed by its speed out of the box.
'Cube UI' is junk, dont bother using it, in fact you can safely remove pretty much everything that is installed on it out of the box. The only thing you should keep is the viliv manager software, so you can run the calibration and such.
Worked great out of the box, locked up 2 or 3 times... its to be expected.
I installed Vista home premium on it, took quite a while to get it up and running. If you plan to do the same, here is how to do it 100% trouble free. Grab a 8 or 16 gig jump drive. Copy all the vista files from it, onto the jump drive using a desktop pc. Download the Vista service pack 1 and service pack 2, OFFLINE install files, copy them onto the jump drive. Download ALL of the s5 drivers from the myviliv site, put them on the jump drive.
Mine was formatted as fat32, you need to run Convert Disk to make it a NTFS drive, before you can install Vista. This takes about an hour. DO NOT convert the disk if you dont plan on installing vista immediatly, as XP is unstable on NTFS, on this device.
THEN do the install, takes about an hour. Once installed DO NOT try to install the drivers yet. I did, and thats why I had such a harsh experience. Install sp1 and sp2, takes about 3 hours total. THEN install the drivers.
If you try to install the drivers without sp1 and sp2 installed, you will have a massive amount of headaches and wierd issues. Once sp1 & sp2 were installed, completely flawless install.
Battery life: is amazing. I use it all day long, I charge my cell phone off it. It is very impressive.
Storage: The hard drive in it is NOT a solid state, but for the price, what do you expect? The partitioning is a little odd. the c drive is about 30 gigs, the d drive is about 20, and the rest is the emergency system restore.
Screen size: 4.8" screen, very tiny, but amazingly crisp. Everyone is amazed at how readable it is. The resolution on it is 1024x600 out of the box, with Vista installed I can set it to 1024x768. At the higher resolution the touch screen is a little off, and calibrating doesn't help.
Wifi: Very good range/speed. Much better than I had expected.
Connectivity: It has a USB Host and USB link. I couldnt get the USB link to work on my Desktop pc running Windows 7 64 bit. I had it partially working on XP Pro. I could add/remove files on it, but I couldnt access the internet while linked.
USB host works perfect, no issues with keyboards, web cams, etc.
Media: It comes with K-Lite codec pack installed, I would install the Mega Codec Pack.
Portability: Simply awesome, its a little large for a 'pocket device', especially when compared to a cell... But its a FULL REAL COMPUTER, that can actually fit in your pocket.
Speed: It is surprisingly fast. I wouldnt expect to be able to play modern games on it, older ones should work great.
Browser: No issue playing you tube videos, or browsing the web, it has a REAL web browser on it, not the junk that comes on cell phones.
Portable browsing: No issue installing PDA net and tethering it to my myTouch. Can get internet access, anywhere that my cell phone has reception, by tethering it with a usb cable.
GPS: It has one, but I haven't installed any navigation software yet.
Bluetooth: Has it, but havent tried it yet.
Stylus: They give you a 'pick' that is attached to a leash to use as a stylus... It is junk, grab a 2.99 stylus and be trouble free.
Virtual Keyboard: I disabled the Haptic feedback, and the battery life got even better. The keyboard is a bit clunky, but does work, and is slightly better than the usual virtual keyboard software you find on similiar devices. My only real complaint about the virtual keyboard, is when your trying to type in something and you get a drop down of suggestions, this will always block the virtual keyboard, and you have to close and reopen it. If you install Vista, you might consider using the 'Tablet PC Input' instead.
Supposedly you can re-program one of the buttons on the device, I haven't figured out how yet. There are 4 buttons and 1 joystick like button on the unit. They all support short/long keypresses, to do different actions. A short keypress on the [menu] button, brings up the start menu. a long press, allows you to use the joystick as a mouse. That is one of the coolest things they have done. You will have to use this when installing vista, as the touch screen drivers wont install until you install SP1 and SP2.
Another suggestion, change your power options so that 'Closing the lid' and 'hiting the power button' put it to sleep, instead of shutting it down. The suspend/resume speed is fantastic. Litterally 2 or 3 seconds to shut down/start up. Actual cold boot takes 5 to 10 minutes.
Overall, I have to say 'Viliv, you did an amazing job!'. If it was more expensive, i'd say 'Not sure if its worth it' but at 500 its very well worth it.... Perfect price point for it.
Only thing I would like on it, that it doesnt have... is an SDHC slot. I am a little disapointed that it doesnt have one.
Also, if you are trying to decide between this and the 600 dollar promo version, you might want the promo version. Its the exact same hardware, but they give you accesories that cant be bought in store. I had to make my own mounts using plexi, a heat gun, and a dremmel. Still havent found a decent hard case for it yet. Currently I am using a soft case that is made for a PSP... and while its a very snug fit, it does work.
Overall, I am VERY glad I made this purchase. This is, in my opinion the best on the market at this price point.

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Viliv has crafted an amazing, ultra-portable, fully-functional internet device, and rich in features. Despite all this, battery life and power are unabated. The Viliv S5 features a superfine 4.8" WSVGA display, 60GB HDD, and an Intel AtomTM Silverthorne 1.33GHz CPU. From a pocket PC standpoint, the S5 has a surreal (for its size) battery life of 6-hours of use. Along with a instant-on feature that allows you to resume Windows XP from sleep in under five seconds--and commensurate 200-hour standby time)--the S5 is unique in being a truly ultraportable device that delivers the full rich web experience. Rich web is complemented by rich media. The S5 supports 720p HD video playback, and features integrated Wifi, Bluetooth, and GPS. The impressive UI technology includes on-screen keyboard with haptic feedback like a smartphone, as the Viliv "Cube UI" overlay that allows you to select up to 36 bubbles (5 categories, 180 total programs) and assign them to any of the available "bubbles", even arrange programs by type so you can keep your productivity software separate from your play software, and switch between them with the flick of your finger.

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