According to the rumor mill, the clamshell styled Viliv N5 is going to be available for purchase as of this May. According to the details, which come courtesy of Pocketables, “the plan right now is to release the Viliv N5 in May.” In other words, nothing official has been announced as of yet.
In terms of the Viliv N5 and what it has to offer. Well, feature wise it has a 4.8-inch WSVGA touchscreen display, a 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z520 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 32GB SSD and is running Windows 7. Additionally, due to the clamshell design, the N5 also comes sporting a QWERTY keyboard, albeit a small QWERTY keyboard.
Honestly I am not sure about these style of devices, I was able to mess around with the N5 during CES for a few minutes and for me the small keyboard is a device killer. I am in the mind set that if the keyboard is not large enough to touch-type is is not as useful. Personally on a device with a 4.8-inch display I would feel better served by a virtual keyboard, or the ability to pair it with a full-sized Bluetooth keyboard for the occasional typing. That said, my personal feelings regarding the keyboard aside, the Viliv N5 appeared to be a very nice device when I was able to check it out.
Read [Pocketables] Via [CrunchGear]
I haven't tried the keyboard on the N5 but it's larger than the keyboard on my Ameo (HTC Advantage). I can touch type on that with 4 fingers at reasonable speed to I expect the N5 will be an improvement on that. These portable devices are always a compromise, but I have to say your suggestion of a virtual keyboard seems like a much worse solution. Firstly it would be less compatible with Windows apps (keyboard shortcuts etc.). Secondly it would take up a large part of the screen while you type (and Windows is not optimised to that). Thirdly I hate virtual keyboards and much prefer to keep the touchscreen free of finger prints.
Thanks for letting us know about the probably revised release date.
It's well into the 1st week of May and I've heard jack about the n5. What's taking so long?! :/