Hannover (Germany) - One of the fuzzier elements in the surprisingly non-detailed list of specifications for the Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC), released by Microsoft this morning, was a minimum battery life of 2.5 hours. This despite the company’s initial goals of a handheld PC that could run for as long as two days, or as some put it, "all weekend," on a single charge.

But a report from the BBC this afternoon from the show floor of CeBIT 2006 states consumers are meeting these new devices with a great deal of skepticism...especially once they watch their batteries drain. Some prototypes that reporters have been keeping their eyes on, according to the report, have completely drained their batteries fifteen minutes after having received a full charge.

Now would not be a good time to haul out the argument that a few hours’ battery life more or less doesn’t matter much.

Without attributing its comments to anyone in particular or to attendees in general, the BBC report characterizes initial impressions of Samsung’s prototype as "lukewarm." Ironically slated to go on sale in Europe in April, its name is "Q1." Everyday portable PCs have much the same functionality, says the BBC report, while costing substantially less.