The Gigabyte T1028M Touchnote is likely to be here on Wednesday this week (thanks Mobilx) which means the live session, as stipulated in the bloggers lawbook, will have to be on Wednesday evening rather than Thursday or Friday as I mentioned before. Keep watching though as I’ll be updating on the delivery status. In preparation, I’ve been checking out detailed specifications, updating the product page and looking at some downloads which include the manual [PDF Link. Other links have been added to the link-list.]
Stand-out specs for me are the fast, 160GB SATA disk (power drain may be high on it though,) Draft-N Wifi support, Bluetooth 2.1 support, 4 or 6-cell battery options and pre-wired 3G antenna (according to Mobilx.) It’s almost a bonus that it’s got a swivel touchscreen! I also note that it’s got an ElanTech SmartPad which should have multi-touch support. I’ve been trying to find another netbook with draft-N, Bluetooth 2, multi-touch pad, battery options and a SATA drive but I can’t find one yet.
The unit comes with handwriting recognition software called ‘Pen Power’ although this appears to be focused towards Chinese input. There’s also a smart manager UI:
Note the inclusion of easy screen rotation and an on-screen keyboard. (Likely to be the XP built-in OSK)
…and there a nice battery check feature that you can use when the device is off.
Overall it looks like there are some very interesting features on the T1028M so I’m looking forward to checking it out and taking it to Amsterdam with me next week. I’ve updated the specifications and added a couple of videos to the product info page so check it out for the latest.
April 7th, 2009 at 7:42 am
More info on the Gigabyte Touchnote includes multi-touch pad, BT2.1 and Draft-N support. http://cli.gs/NQ5j08
April 7th, 2009 at 8:24 am
“been trying to find another netbook with draft-N, Bluetooth 2, multi-touch pad, battery options and a SATA drive but I can’t find one yet.”
Eee 1000H has draft-n, bluetooth2, multitouch, 6-cell battery and SATA HDD.
Chippy Reply:
April 7th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
You are absolutely correct Sir! Believe me, I spent a lot of time looking but obviously didn’t look close enough!
The Touchnote is 250 Euro more which gives you:
Touchscreen
Pre-wired Antenna and SIM slot
BT 2.1
Easy upgrade (RAM, pciexpress-mini, HDD)
Expresscard/34 slot
I guess if you need those options, 250 euro is very good value. If not, the 1000H is probably the one to go for.
Steve
rabbitwiter aka: rabbimarketmaker says Reply:
April 8th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
hippy & rahul, it is just amzing to see that not one big guy on the notebook block has given everyone everything that they could ever want & need on the huge menu of offerings already out there…& as the saying goes if you really have to have it you way, you just gotta do it yourself & i am about to just do that on the fly…otherwise you can always go the “DIY” route & OR GO TO HYPER-PC… but they are not cheap, 5-10k but for sure they can do the job right just the way you want it…
April 7th, 2009 at 8:37 am
Dear Hippy, just spoke to an undisclosed tiawanessa high ranking executive in this products developement…& the the rea! dig scoop is that the higher end with all the bells & whistles are still in the last phase of a beta…T1028, & that they should be rolling off the line by end of very merry month of may, & if you read the link to specsheet pdf. on your http://www.umpcportal.com all he upgrades like the bigger n280 processor & significantly higher screen resolutions & graphics card & 3g, ect…yada yada yada, wil be onboard & be-in-sync…within a month or so…& that that product should really blow away any potential of the future competition…along with a reasonable int’l level price point…i just cant wait…for this baby & my future ocz/hyper-pc.com “DIY” with the few on-board raid terabyte level hd’s & the new SSD & last but not least most important…long awaited new duo multi single board processor intel I7, & or latest zeon’s in a laptop formfactor…
Chippy Reply:
April 7th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Thanks Rabbi!
The N280, G40 (unconfirmed afaik) higher-res screen and 3G will be interesting options. Shame there’s no HDMI-out.
S.
April 9th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Any info if that UI will be available for the M912? Is it Vista/7 conpatible?