Hands-On: Chumby Classic vs Chumby One

Posted 11/13/2009 at 4:30pm | by Norman Chan

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The newly released Chumby One arrived in the mail today, and we couldn't wait to see how it compared to the original digital connected companion device. The Chumby, in case you haven't heard of it, is a multi-function gadget that can serve as an alarm clock, RSS reader, gaming device, or music player. It connects to the internet with Wi-Fi, and runs user-created widgets to do cool things like read your Gmail or send you Twitter updates. You interact with it through a 3.5 inch resistive touchscreen, but it also has an accelerometer inside, since it's made to be held and encourages user interaction. 

We liked the first Chumby an awful lot, and the One doesn't look like it's meant to be a successor or replacement for that. In fact, we're not sure not exactly sure how the Chumby One is being positioned in the marketplace. One the one hand, it's a budget model, sacrificing the original's squishy appeal for a significant price cut. On the other hand, it also adds new functionality that makes it a better device than the Chumby Classic. 

First, the ceremonial unboxing ritual. The Chumby One comes in a utilitarian cube-shaped box, as opposed to the cute canvas sack of the original. This may seem like a minor change, but it's representative of the major difference between the two models -- the Chumby one is now housed in a rigid plastic chassis as opposed to malleable Italian leather. 

At the top of the device is a large button, which is actually larger than the one hidden under the first Chumby's "skin." Hitting this button takes you to the home screen or turns off alarms. There's also a new physical knob on the right side of the Chumby One, which is very convenient for quick volume adjustment when you're playing music from a connected iPod or Pandora.

Here it is compared to the first Chumby. The One looks and feels much smaller, though without the soft shell, it's not nearly as comfortable to hold in one hand. Since the touchscreen works best when you're gripping the Chumby with one hand and navigating with your other hand, the experience loses a little bit of charm and whimsy. It feels less like playing with a digital pet and more like, well, an alarm clock. Whether that affects your emotional connection with the Chumby is up for debate. 

The back of the device has a few minor changes. There's only one powered USB port, and the speaker is positioned above the ports instead of at their sides (a change from stereo to mono). There's still a headphone jack, DC power connector, and power button, but their placement has been optimized to avoid accidentally turning off the Chumby. 

On the bottom, you'll find a slot for the removable battery. Yes, the Chumby One comes with a replaceable Fujitsu battery so the Chumby can operate without being connected to a power outlet. We haven't had a chance to test out how long this battery lasts, but replacements sell online for about $15 bucks. Being able to take the Chumby along with use on trips is a definite plus. You can also note the FM antenna cord that comes out from the base of the unit. 

For international travelers, the Chumby One also comes with a variety of outlet convertors. 

Operationally, the Chumby One functions exactly as the first Chumby does. Since it's powered by a faster 450MHz processor (up from 350MHz), launching the Flash-based widgets, as well as normal menu navigation, feels more responsive. Widgets still take a few seconds to start up, and you still have to set up account-based widgets on the Chumby website. The resistive touchscreen works well enough, but we still wish it was capacitive. Resistive screens tend to "stick" a little when we try to use any kind of gestures -- they're much better for pressing icons than sliding bars.

Even with its faster processor, the Chumby is best used for text and image-based content. Video feeds, like TrailerAddict's widget, still don't seem optimized -- movie trailers we tested weren't silky smooth. 

As we mentioned earlier, another new feature is FM radio tuner. You can see the interface below. 

Chumby works great as a music player, and come with a wide selection of built-in internet radio feeds. It also plays music off of connected iPods, but won't play from music from an iPhone. One problem we encountered was that we couldn't get iPhone charging to work off of the Chumby's USB port. This wasn't a problem we had with the Chumby Classic, and hopefully it's just a bug.

But the biggest consideration for the Chumby One is its price of $120 (currently on a pre-order sale price of $100). That's about half of the Chumby Classic's $200 price, which put it out of reach for many people. $100 is still a lot of money if you only plan on using it as an alarm clock, but if you're willing to download and experiment with the Chumby widgets, the Chumby One makes the investment a lot easier to stomach. 

The Chumby One is available for pre-order now and ships on November 25th.