It's a big question.
First, the Medion UMPC is right around $1,000 and I think they have an $800 model. If that's out of sight, price wise, then I'm confused. You can hardly get a decent laptop for that. UMPC's provide very portable everything...it is definitely a full computer. My question is if anyone owns an UMPC. Generally, I want to know how Media Center performs on it, since most UMPC's are 1.2 GHz or less. The slowest machine I run MC on is 2.4 GHz.
This is a huge topic but it's still a bit ahead of its time. There are so many applications it's mind boggling. I can picture using it as an mp3 player. It's not that big and considering with wifi, you could have 100% of your music, it would be handy and chuck full of music. It would easily fit in a small backpack, too.
Apparently, few if anyone here owns an UMPC so there isn't much to say. Yes, my question is like saying How Does MC run on a computer? But UMPC's are extremely new (somewhat anyway) and they essentially started at version 1 not too long ago. Each version works out big kinks, like battery life, performance, expandability, weight, and adds features. They are changing at a much faster rate than desktop PCs...which pretty much have almost no limitations compared to a laptop, which has some, but the UMPC has essentially all limitations. I doubt you can do much expansion on an UMPC.
It's also a question about the UMPC in general. Would you buy one? It's hard to say without actually using one. I personally like the two handed operation. You could walk while using it. Even tablets aren't as convenient in most cases. They require one whole arm to hold the thing and one to add input. With the UMPC, both hands can type on the extended keyboard.
Plus, tablets are heavy and can become heavy after long periods of holding them. These are smaller. Any discussion would be great...if anyone owns an UMPC?!