UMPCs are fun and all, but a lot of people have complained that they usually don’t come with QWERTY keyboards. The ones that do usually do so by giving us a slide-out set of keys, but the crew at FlipStart Labs weren’t happy with the ways things were going. So, the Paul G. Allen company produced the “industry’s first compact PC with a clamshell design.” Clamshell? Doesn’t that just make it a laptop?

Not exactly, because based on the picture that they gave us, the FlipStart is ridiculously small. It’s certainly larger than the average PDA, but it’s remarkably more compact than a full notebook. At the same time, they say that it has the “full functionality of a home or office workstation.”

Key features include a high resolution screen, Ultra Low Voltage Intel Pentium M processor, Windows XP or Vista Business, full Windows application support, access to Outlook without opening the lid, and plenty of connectivity via embedded WiFi, Bluetooth, and mobile broadband.

Prices start at $1,999 with shipping expected to commence at the end of the month.