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Gigabyte gets onboard the netbook trend with the M912V

Ever since the launch of the ASUS Eee PC late last year, numerous manufacturers have been striving to bring competing products to the market. While most have just been a slightly different take on the Eee PC with larger screens, larger keyboards, or differing storage options, they've all pretty much stuck to the same basic idea: a small, portable notebook with a somewhat affordable price tag.

Gigabyte is finally giving the segment a bit of spice with its new entry, the M912V. The M912V packs a wealth of features into its 8.9" frame. Considering that the M912V is a Tablet PC, its screen swivels 180 degrees to lie flat on top of the keyboard for writing on the screen. The display also features a respectable resolution of 1280x768 and is LED-backlit for better battery life, increased visibility, and a thinner panel.

Other features include a 1.6GHZ Intel Atom processor, 1GB of DDR2 memory, a 160GB SATA HDD, 802.11b/g wireless, Bluetooth, and a 1.3MP webcam. Ports are plentiful as the M912V comes equipped with three USB 2.0 ports, VGA port, 56k modem, NIC, an ExpressCard slot, and an internal expansion slot for HSDPA.

The M912V manages to house all of these features into a frame that weighs only 2.86 pounds.

According to PCLaunches, Gigabyte's new netbook will be available for purchase later this month with a price tag of $699. By that time, the competition should be heating up with the arrival of the MSI Wind and the Eee PC 901/1001.

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Tablet!
By ksherman on 7/7/2008 8:16:16 AM , Rating: 2
Nice! A $700 Tablet! Now we are talkin....




RE: Tablet!
By Rugar on 7/7/2008 8:55:28 AM , Rating: 1
No doubt. Netbooks are nice, but an inexpensive tablet is awesome. Depending on reviews, this may be my next purchase.


RE: Tablet!
By ET on 7/7/2008 9:39:33 AM , Rating: 2
Sounds very nice, except for the Atom. I have a Fujitsu P1510D, and have been thinking about upgrading it, but there was nothing really compelling. This looks like a decent step up for a reasonable price, except for the Atom (and Vista).


RE: Tablet!
By ET on 7/7/2008 9:41:33 AM , Rating: 2
Ah, I see that the product page also mentions Linux and XP (which was also posted here). Sounds better already. :)


RE: Tablet!
By Spivonious on 7/7/2008 9:46:46 AM , Rating: 2
MS made tons of tablet-oriented improvements in Vista. Why do you consider it a fault?


RE: Tablet!
By therealnickdanger on 7/7/2008 9:58:30 AM , Rating: 3
He's faulting the Atom - he doesn't think it has the balls to run Vista. If you have enough RAM and give SuperFetch some time to learn, Vista should run just as well as XP on an Atom-based netbook... but there haven't been enough tests yet to verify.

The upcoming Sharp D4 will prove it can be done.


RE: Tablet!
By icrf on 7/7/2008 12:15:54 PM , Rating: 2
I hear 2GB of RAM helps a lot with Vista (based on a lot of Q1U reviews). I wonder if this is expandable (a second slot) or just replaceable (swap a 1G stick for a 2G stick).


RE: Tablet!
By therealnickdanger on 7/7/2008 10:16:30 AM , Rating: 2
Here's an initial test with the EEE 1000 running Vista - looks fine to me!

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/9678/win_vista_on_ee...


RE: Tablet!
By ET on 7/8/2008 11:55:22 AM , Rating: 2
Thanks for the link. My main worry is replacing a 512MB notebook with XP with a 1GB one with Vista. Assuming that 1GB for Vista is like 512MB for XP, it will not be enough for comfort. However, getting the same 1GB machine with XP will likely provide a smoother experience.


RE: Tablet!
By murphyslabrat on 7/12/2008 11:27:20 PM , Rating: 2
So toss on an extra $42 for a 2GB stick of RAM from NewEgg...


RE: Tablet!
By RamarC on 7/7/2008 10:13:27 AM , Rating: 3
i'd buy that for a dollar (+$698).


RE: Tablet!
By icrf on 7/7/2008 9:57:34 AM , Rating: 2
I like it. I kind of wish there was an SSD option, but I assume that's a user-servicable part if I really wanted. $700 ain't bad for the package.

What chipset does it have? Is it the whole Centrino Atom platform? I'm mostly interested in the hardware H.264 decoding of Poulsbo.


RE: Tablet!
By therealnickdanger on 7/7/2008 10:08:12 AM , Rating: 2
IIRC, you can't run Atom without Poulsbo. Poulsbo is the combined north/southbridge specifically designed for Atom.


RE: Tablet!
By icrf on 7/7/2008 12:14:15 PM , Rating: 2
Oh, Centrino is just MID marketing? That's good to hear. I don't have to worry much about that detail in future system specs.


RE: Tablet!
By kingpotnoodle on 7/7/2008 12:54:25 PM , Rating: 2
You recall wrong, Atom runs with 945 desktop/mobile chipsets, but is not so power efficient when doing so.

See the Intel D945GCLF mini-itx board, and note that most of these sub-notebooks use a 945 derivative.

Poulsbo is what will crop up in the smaller MIDs, probably with the slower Atom chips.


RE: Tablet!
By therealnickdanger on 7/7/2008 2:09:29 PM , Rating: 2
You can only use 945 with the desktop Atom variant, not the mobile version.


RE: Tablet!
By psychobriggsy on 7/7/2008 3:08:16 PM , Rating: 2
Paulsbo is for MIDs and uses a CMOS version of the Intel bus running at 400MHz rather than 800MHz.

Other mobile and desktop Atoms can use any compatible Intel chipset with the non-CMOS based bus. Yes, this uses more power, hence the higher TDPs of Atoms with this bus type (the vast majority at the moment).


RE: Tablet!
By ImSpartacus on 7/7/2008 12:59:50 PM , Rating: 2
I'm interested most in the LED back lit screen. That, with Atom, would equal some nice battery performance.

A small SSD would've been nice though.


RE: Tablet!
By therealnickdanger on 7/7/2008 2:10:36 PM , Rating: 2
By the time this comes out, you'll be able to throw in a fast 64GB SSD for ~$250. Still under a grand for quite a sweet machine!


RE: Tablet!
By Oregonian2 on 7/7/2008 6:23:39 PM , Rating: 2
Interestingly, some of the alternatives (like the msi wind which my wife REALLY wants one of) has the LED backlight too.

This one is following the trend of incremental weight increases. EEE started around 2 lbs, and we're now getting close to 3 lbs. Low weight being one of the major reasons (IMO) in having one of these... so we'll be back to full laptop weight in another five or so model introductions. :-)