Samsung is expected to unveil a new version of its Q1 ultra-mobile PC on Friday at the Cebit exhibition in Hanover, Germany.

The Korean company introduced the Origami Ultra- Mobile PC (UMPC) last year, and now the new version, called Q1 Ultra, has become lighter and more powerful.

Other changes include a sleeker overall look and a 7-inch touchscreen LCD (liquid crystal display) that offers 1,024-pixel by 600-pixel resolution, instead of the 800-pixel by 480-pixel resolution of the original. In addition, the touch-screen keypad on the Q1 has been replaced by a hardware keypad. The keypad is still divided in two parts, with half on each side of the device, so that users can type while holding the Q1 Ultra with both hands.

The Q1 Ultra ships with an Intel Pentium processor (running at 1.0 GHz), an 60GB hard drive and 1GB of DDR2 memory, and an external USB keyboard, and adds support for HSDPA networks and WiBro, a mobile version of WiMax, as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Optional extras will include a fingerprint scanner, dual digital cameras and a navigation pack.

The Q1 Ultra also received a software upgrade, shipping with Microsoft's Windows Vista Home Premium operating system instead of Windows XP Tablet PC Edition.

The Q1 is on sale from about US$1,300 to $2,000, depending on the processor.