Today was a pretty exciting day for all Home Automation Control fanboys. Samsung unveiled an updated Q1 Ultra with increased battery life in a smaller, more portable form factor — perfect for home control use!

The Q1 Ultra sports an integrated split-QWERTY keypad, mouse, and user-defined function keys, integrated 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR (even a factory optional 3.5G HSDPA cellular modem), a 300 pixel webcam, dual-array microphone, a 1.3 mega pixel camera which supports video recording and still pictures, a seven-inch wide WSVGA LCD touch screen that boasts a native, high-resolution 1024 x 600 that is LED backlit with 300nits of brightness.

As for processing power, Samsung chose the new Intel Ultra Mobile Processor running at a clock speed of 600 or 800 MHz, along with 1 GB of high speed DDR2 system memory. The Q1 Ultra will run a minimum of 4.5 hours of continuous run time via the integrated Lithium Ion prismatic batteries. All this in a smaller, 1.5 pound package.

I think Samsung has a winner with this — they’ll have a homerun if they drop the price down to $499…

These might replace my Viewsonic V110 Smart Displays.