Hands-on with the Gigabyte M912

CNET Taiwan staff | Jun 04, 2008

Official product images usually tend to make the devices look better than they are in real life. We know, because every time we take pictures of the same products, they just don't turn out as well. Worse if we were using a compact digital camera. After seeing the official images of the Gigabyte M912 recently, the ultraportable notebook finally made its appearance at Computex.

The specifications of the Gigabyte M912 (M912X) according to the product description on display:

Processor: Intel 1.6GHz Atom processor
Memory: SODIMMx1, DDR II 667, up to 1GB
Hard drive: 2.5-inch SATA in 120, 160 and 250GB capacities
Display: 8.9-inch 1,280 x 768-pixel touchscreen, swivel LED panel
Keyboard: 80-key keyboard with touchpad
Web cam: 1.3-megapixel CMOS camera
WLAN: 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 2.0
Battery: 4,400mAh 7.4v, up to 4 hours
I/O: 3 USB ports, microphone and earpiece connectors, D-Sub, RJ-45 10/100M LAN, SD card reader, ExpressCard slot
Dimensions: 235 x 180 x 28-42mm
Weight: 1.2kg
Estimated retail price: US$656

The highlight of the M912 is its swivel screen.

Because it is also a touchscreen display, it's apt to call this a tablet as well.

This M912 runs on Vista Home Premium SP1, while the CPU runs on the just-announced Intel Atom N270 (1.6GHz).

The performance of the M912 doesn't differ too much from our earlier impressions of the Atom processor. We wanted to run the test one more time, but was constantly interrupted by other visitors.

There were many people who came to look at the M912, including foreigners.

The keyboard in its full glory.

The bottom right corner of the keyboard has a terrible design.

Nothing special on the touchpad.

On the left flank, you can find the ExpressCard/34 slot.

The power buttons is found on the right.

The stylus is stored on the top left corner of the screen.

This is the M912 that's running on Ubuntu, a version of Linux.

M912 in a fiery red color.

Rather artistic design, but we don't like it because it just doesn't feel right.

Matching colors on the control buttons on the touchpad.

There are also black and pink models on display, but these shades won't be available on the market, yet.

Translated by Damian Koh, CNET Asia | Picture credit: CNET Taiwan

Filed under: Notebooks
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