Name: The World's Smallest Windows PC in 2007! OQO Model 02
Uploaded: 2020-04-13T16:29:07.000Z
Duration: 13 min 41 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Starting at $1,500 US dollars for the base model and

upwards of $2,300 fully-equipped, the Model 02 was quite the exciting product when it

This is from a specific point in the late 2000s where laptops, PDAs, smartphones, and

netbooks were all on the market simultaneously, each fulfilling their own mobile computing needs.

But the Model 02 was part of a new breed of device: the ultra-mobile personal computer,

The hype began with OQO's Model 01 all the way back in 2004, sporting an impressive sliding

display revealing a physical keyboard and mouse underneath.

The UMPC term hadn't even been coined then, but this was an early glimpse at what that

would entail: a one-two punch of technical capability and small size.

The OQO Model 02 arrived three years later with a similar form factor but an even more

impressive array of internal hardware, resulting in its claim to fame of being the world's

smallest PC to run the latest feature-complete version of Windows.

And it was introduced to the public by none other than Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates

during his keynote address for the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show.

-[Bill] These are actually some full-blown Windows PC devices that can even run

So you see this is one you take in your hand and it's just a touchscreen device, or this

is more traditional in terms of the input.

-[LGR] Eh, well he kind of introduced it anyway.

Mr. Gates didn't refer to the Model 02 by name,

and calling it a touchscreen was a tad misleading.

While the 02 did indeed feature capacitive controls for scrolling the screen vertically

and horizontally, touching the screen itself won't do anything beyond accumulate fingerprints.

Much like the Model 01 before it, the 02 featured an 800x480 resolution magnetic field sensitive

5” LCD screen, requiring an additional hundred dollar stylus pen accessory to interact with

Otherwise, the Model 02 is simply an x86-compatible PC in a tiny form factor capable of running

And that was the driving force behind San Francisco-based OQO Incorporated: building

computers with the capabilities of a laptop, but with the form factor closer to a PDA.

Shame they didn't last very long, as you may deduce by the obscurity of the company today.

Despite the planned Model 02+ making it pretty far into development, OQO never attained the

level of profitability needed to stay in business, and they shut down in April of 2009.

Curiously, a Model 03 popped up in 2010 from Chinese manufacturer Audiotone, but it turned

out this was an unauthorized copycat device and OQO had nothing to do with it.

So yeah, while things like the bootleg 03, the prototype 02+, and the HSDPA Model e2

all existed in some form or another, what we're looking at today is the original Model 02.

And this is courtesy of an LGR viewer named Joey!

It's only on loan to me for this video, but I'm more than grateful for the opportunity

cuz these things are exceedingly elusive, especially in fully working order.

Handheld computers from the mid-2000s are a real toss-up in regards to usable lifespan,

and this Model 02 is over the hill in that respect.

For one thing the sliding screen no longer holds like it used to, with the metal guide

rails barely keeping it horizontally steady anymore.

And the latching mechanism that once clicked the screen into place has long ago lost its strength.

A screen protector was at least installed from the factory, so the plastic on the LCD

No word on whether removing it will cause half the screen to die or not, but y'know,

Then there's the battery situation, or lack thereof, with the original 4500 milliamp hour

lithium ion polymer battery starting to bulge, no longer holding a charge or properly fastening

And finally, the little 1.8” 4,200 RPM hard drive inside sounds like it's on the brink of death.

[Vista startup sound, overwhelmed by noise]

While there was a 32 or 64 gigabyte SSD option available from OQO, it seems most opted for

Makes sense for 2007 though, being that that they were lower cost while offering nearly

The exhaust fans are also impressively loud, but that seems to have been an issue since

launch according to the reviews from back then.

Yeah it's not even doing anything that intense, it's just copying files from a thumb drive.

You sure wouldn't expect the 02 to sound so much like a hair dryer.

The same unfortunately cannot be said for the audio, with its internal speaker barely

cranking out enough sound to cover up the whirlwind of fan noise.

Oh well it still runs for the time being so let's see what it can do!

Starting with the keyboard, which is a nifty 58-key thing reminiscent of the Blackberries

The keys are rather close together and understandably tiny so it takes some getting used to, further

complicated by all the stuff that's moved around to use with the function key.

On the other hand, it has an actual numpad, so I can forgive the rest for most applications.

And it's even backlit when the ambient light sensor detects darkness, a handy feature for

those late night computing sessions on the go.

Then there's the “Track Stick” as they called it, which is the mouse.

Somewhat similar to the TrackPoint mouse on IBM ThinkPads in that it doesn't spin around

and stays in place to be nudged along the x-axis.

The two largest keys over on the other side are the left and right mouse buttons, a pretty

natural place for your left thumb anyway so that makes sense.

Along the bottom of the unit are a couple of nice surprises, including a full-sized

USB 2.0 port, the charging port/docking connector, an air cooling vent, a full-sized HDMI output

Not to mention Bluetooth 2.0, so you can even connect wirelessly to a modern smart device

and transfer data that way in addition to the physical connections.

So yeah expansion options are legit on the 02, with USB accepting hubs so you can plug

in all sorts of things, and HDMI allowing you to plug in displays at resolutions of

This of course defeats half the purpose of having such a small system to begin with,

but it's still a way more compact option than expanding a laptop, and way more capable

There was also this neat-looking docking station that OQO sold alongside the 02 that really