The Gigabyte Touchnote T1028M [details] is a great convertible netbook. I’ve been using one as my main laptop for nearly 4 months now and I’m very very happy with it. Of course I’ve retro-fitted one of the new Runcore Pro IV SSD drives and added a 3G modem which connects to the pre-wired antenna turning it into more than your average netbook but even without the SSD and 3G it’s a great convertible netbook. The only niggle I have is with the 3hr battery life. My Ultimate Netbook U20 battery pack does a good job of back-up power duties but to make things a little more compact I bought the 6-cell battery pack option.
At 68 Euros plus tax, I wasn’t too exited about the price but it turns out that its more than just another 2 cells. The 6 cell pack has 170% the capacity of the standard battery and is returning 5.5 to 6hrs on-net working time. As I write this I have over 2hrs left with 36% battery remaining with the Wifi on and the backlight at 70%. With the standard battery as a spare, I have a full day’s computing available without having to worry about mains power.
The sizing is good too with no noticeable increase in height and only a small section jutting out from the rear.
Unfortunately the 6-cell sticks out too far for it to fit into the supplied case but if you attach the standard cell and put the 6-cell in the case pocket you’ve got up to 9 hours of netbooking! Total weight of the T1028M with the 6-cell attached is 1450gm. (3lb 3oz)
If you’ve got the M912 or T1028M and need enough battery power for a full days work, the extended battery is the answer.
With the addition of the extended battery on the Touchnote I’ve run out of ideas for improvement. I honestly can’t think of anything that I don’t like about the device now. Agreed, it’s cost me way way more than any netbook available but there’s nothing out there that comes close. The T101H would be the only competitor but there’s still no word of a release date for that. If you’re waiting for the T101H, you might want to take a closer look at the T1028. (Note: The high-end version, T1028X, with the N280 and 1366×768 screen is available in the U.S. from the 2nd August)
While the M912V had an impressive high resolution display, the M912M, with its 1024×600 display seems to be more suitable for the average user. It’s a much brighter screen with great contrast and even brings better battery life. For 50 Euro less than the high resolution model, this seems to be a better choice.
We received the retail-boxed M912M from Mobilx.EU yesterday with the sole intention of checking out the differences between it and the M912X. After 3 hours of live testing, we’ve got the answers. I think the simplest way to summarise is to highlight the changes in the ‘lowlights’ and ‘highlights’ from our M912X testing.
Screen. M912M has LED backlighting. Brighter, better contrast. Not the best I’ve seen but certainly very good. If you don’t need the high resolution of the M912X, this is a better choice for all-round use.
Battery life. M912M averages 1-2Watts less (even more at high brightness settings.) 3hrs with the wifi on still requires careful setup but in general there’s a noticeable improvement over the M912X in all situations. An extended battery has been confirmed and will be available in October. (Details not 100% clear yet but the 6-cell battery is expected to be 150% capacity and not much bigger in size.)
Keyboard. No flex at all. Very good quality. Same keyboard as Eee PC 700,900 etc.
Heat build-up seems top have been reduced. This could be a result of faster fan.
Same, very fast 160gb 2.5″ SATA drive. (50MB/s+ read and write speed) This is a surprise highlight (I was expecting an 80GB drive) and makes a noticeable difference when starting up applications when compared to other netbooks and UMPCs.
Bluetooth is included. (Was previously announced without Bluetooth)
Fan appears top be on more of the time than with the M912X we tested. Slightly annoying but seems have a noticeable effect on reducing heat build up.
Optimised windows configuration. Gigabyte have taken the time to optimise window controls. Wider scrollbar, bigger close button. Very useful for users that might not know how to do this themselves.
Price. At under 500 Euros, which isn’t much more than many netbooks in Europe, you really are getting something different. 160GB of fast drive storage makes this very interesting as a media device. Touchscreen makes this fun as a low-end tablet. PCI-Express make 3G connectivity easy.
Some play/looseness in the screen pivot is an indication that the build quality may not be as high as on other convertibles.
Synaptics pointer with scroll area is high quality but the single-bar mouse buttons arent. ‘Squashy’ is the only word I can find that describes them. No worse than on the Medion Akoya though.
Screen has a matte finish.
Piano black screen casing looks really great when clean. Has a slight sparkle, not the patterned finish of the M912X that we tested before.
Crystalmark score: 26500. Impressive. I’m not sure anyone could really squeeze much more out of the Intel netbook platform.
One issue that we have found out about since testing the M912X is that the PCI-Express Mini slot, accessible under the removable panel, is locked by default and its not possible to unlock it through BIOS or software for use with a 3G card. I suspect this will be hacked before long but it makes it difficult for people wanting to upgrade with internal 3G. Using the ExpressCard/34 slot is obviously an easy alternative though.
Overall, the Gigabyte M912M is a nice, no, very nice, mini convertible offering a couple of unique features that are really worth thinking about. Media fans looking to carry around their complete library and use a netbook as a high quality media player should take a very close look at this one. Overall, I find it has better features and a better price than the M912X for the average user.
A quick note to all of you waiting for the low-down on the M912M (LED-backlit version of the M912X.) A retail version has arrived here from Mobilx and I’ll be testing it out this evening.
We need to find out.
1) If the screen is brighter and has better contrast. (Likely)
2) How much more battery life we get compared to the M912X (Estimated 10-20%)
3) If it’s cooler than the M912X (probably will be in tablet mode.)
Nothing surprises me in any of the reviews. Laptop Mag, who published their review last month) highlights the battery life and the screen resolution as problem points along with small keyboard and lack of touch software. Hardware Canucks picks up on the same issues. Hardware Zone who, like LaptopMag, had a Vista version, highlights some exceptionally high battery drain figures.
I agree with most of the issues and documented the lowlights in my article after we did the live session with it in July. At least we all agree on the same things!
It really is a shame that the keyboard is the standard EeePC style keyboard as there’s definitely room for a better one. The styling could also do with some pep but some of those other issues might be cleared with the arrival of the M912M which is scheduled to be available next week.
Many of you that have been following the M912 screen saga will know that the M version, with it’s lower resolution 1024×600 screen, is said by Gigabyte to have the LED backlighting which should help on three counts. 1) Battery life. The 1280×768 CCFL-backlit screen seemed to suck exceptional amounts of power when I tested it so the LED-backlighting should help a huge amount. 10% less drain overall is the minimum I’m expecting but it could be up to 20% in some scenarios. This should take the device over the magic 3-hour battery life. 2) The brightness and contrast should be far better on the LED-backlit model. 3) There should be a reduction in heat both under normal use and in tablet mode. I’m quite sure that Windows XP is going to help too.
The M912M also comes with a smaller disk, lower price and, in some cases (check with your reseller) there won’t be a Bluetooth module. Maybe this fits with your requirements, maybe not, but for me its turning out to be an attractive package that I’m looking forward to testing. The Medion Akoya Mini is good (very good actually) but I need Bluetooth and with the ability to reach 3hrs of online battery life (30 minutes more than the Akoya Mini/Wind) the possibility of an internal 3G upgrade (Note: Some reports are coming in that the PCI Express Mini slot is not working) an easy 2GB memory upgrade, easy access to the hard drive and a fun, convertible touchscreen, has me really interested in the 912M as a better alternative. We’ll see next week when we put the Everun Note, the Akoya Mini and the M912M side-by-side.
It didn’t take long for the people over at Mobile01 to strip down the newly-available M912V! If this is your bag, then take a look. Its an easy device to take apart but for most things, you only need to remove the access panel on the back. At least the keyboard should be easy to change as I believe its the same as an Eee PC keyboard. (Country-specific keyboard mods should be possible.)
I know there are quite a few of you out there waiting for the M912 so rather than post this update in the forum, I thought I’d air the info here . If you’re waiting to push the button on an M912 but can’t decide what information is correct about the screens, here’s the latest word from Gigabyte.
For M912V/X which is 1280×768, the LCD back light is using “Inverter technology”.
For M912M which is 1024×600, the LCD back light is using “LED back light technology”
The info comes direct from Gigabyte and is the same as I heard before. The reports of LED-backlighting on the 1280×768 X/V models look to be incorrect so if you want the best battery life and, potentially, a cooler running system, wait for the M model. I havent confirmed if the T model (DVB included) comes with 1024 or 1280 screen yet.
Latest information on the X/V models is here. And on the M model here.
Now that I have your attention, take note that the M912V and M912X are now shipping. Mobilx have a quantity on 912V’s awaiting customs clearance and the X versions will leave Taiwan in a few days. Go get em!
The pic comes direct from Nvision where The Tech Report got some hands on. They seem to be impressed but question the battery life. Commenters there also question the price but when you consider the fast disk, hi-res screen, PCI-Express, easy access to card slot, disk and memory and the convertible touch feature, I cant see that there’s really much to moan about. This is a netbook that reaches into the pro-mo (sorry, prosumer-mobile) sector.
In the article you’ll see a reference to a new digital TV-enabled version which is probably why they’re at the Nvision show. We’ve just had news of that too from Mobilx. It will be a M912M with DVB-T module know as the M912T. Availability is planned for Oct but frinal price in unknown. Budget for something like a $70-$100 premium. This will be the first time we’ve seen a UMPC or netbook with integrated DVB module in Europe and with that fast S-ATA drive and the good media capabilities, raw MPEG-2 recording in direct digital from the DVB stream is going to be easy, making a great multimedia recording and playback system. SageTV should work a treat on this so fingers crossed for a built-in IR receiver, TV-out and remote control. Or will they ship with Vista for the media center? I hope not. I was going to get the M912M but if the 912T is running XP, I’m definitely going to wait for it. Stay tuned for more details.
In the Gigabyte M912X unboxing last week, the second thing I mentioned was the washed-out screen. The following morning, in my tests, it was clear that the screen was taking too much power. Ding! Of course, it was a CCFL-backlit screen.
I sent an email to Gigabyte who have confirmed that the (production) 1280×768 screen is CCFL backlit. They also told me that the 1024×600 screened version is LED-backlit. The 1024×600 screen will be installed in the M912M version.
For those not familiar with the terms, CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp) is the old, power-hungry and often low-brightness backlighting method. LED (Light Emitting Diode) is the newer, much more power efficient and higher-brightness (mostly) method. In this case, it means that if you take a lower resolution screen, you get more battery life (it could be a significant amount, taking the standard 4-cell battery up to 3.5hrs browsing time) and, potentially a much brighter screen. All the LED 1024×600 screens I’ve seen so far have had great colour balance too.
I’ll happily drop that 1280×768 screen to 1024×600 to get the extra brightness and longer battery life offered by a LED-backlit model but there’s a catch if you’re thinking the same way. The 1024×600 screen is only in the M912M model. For that you have to sacrifice the Bluetooth (not a big deal) take Windows XP (which is likely to be faster and run better in 1GB) take an 80Gb hard drive instead of 160GB and wait 2 weeks longer until the end of September for delivery. Personally, I think it’s worth it and I don’t think anything else is going to come along that has the same features for the same price.
In summary then, there are now two models. The high-end version and the low-end version. The high-end version is available with XP and Vista. (M912X, M912V) The low-end version only with XP (M912M) There will be no Linux version.
Mobilx, the well-connected resellers in Hungary, got hold of a demo M912 netbook from Gigabyte yesterday and this morning at about 10am, it was at my home office. Thanks for sending it over guys. Much appreciated.
So here’s the unboxing video and overview. As usual, i’ll be putting my testing notes in the forum (see this thread) and I guess i’ll have some first impressions to post up tomorrow. Tonight though, its testing time – LIVE! Yes, I’ll be bearing all on camera again so that you can check that I’m not cheating with my CrystalMark tests! Join me on the live channel at UMPCPortal.com/livefrom about 6pm GMT [Update: Live session is over. Recordings are available here.] and feel free to ask questions. JKK will probably drop in with his touchscreen 901 and I’ll also have the SC3 and MSI Wind along with a stack of UMPCs if you have related questions.
For the HQ WMV version, see my Blip.tv page. For more information on the M912, see both the M912S and M912X details side-by-side on the comaprison page. The model i’m testing here is the M912X.
Mobilx have kindly run off a set of images of the Gigabyte M912 for us and, even more kindly, have sent us a demo device to review. We’re expecting that in our hands tomorrow or on Friday.
Just as a recap, the M912 is a netbook with a few special features. 1280×800 convertible 8.9" touchscreen. ExpressCard slot and disk options up to 160GB. It also ships with Vista OS options. The large-capacity 3-cell, 32wh battery means there’s a possibility of 4-hour working or 8 hours on an extended battery but we’ll wait to see what happens in our tests before promising you anything though! Gigabyte have managed to keep the whole package in the netbook pricing range which makes it an interesting option.
Oh, one more thing. A delay. It looks like the first M912 device are not going to be available until early September. We’re hearing whispers of Atom shortages which doesn’t surprise me at all.
Take a peek at the images. Apologies for the reduced color on the large versions.
While speaking with our friends at Mobilx this morning I managed to get hold of detailed information on the full M912 range of devices that are launching in Europe. Just a few minutes ago, they also finalised their pricing. It’s good! But first the details.
There are 4 versions, two of which will be available in July. One will be a barebones version which will be left to the reseller to configure with their own memory, storage and OS options. The other will be the high-end M912X.
The 912 surfaced a few days ago on the Gigabyte website without an image but the official image is up now. [Gigabyte product page]
With an 8.9" screen at 1280×768 in a case that’s not a few mm bigger than the Eee PC 900, it looks like it could be a real VyeS37 killer. Assuming the device is based on Diamondville, it will have similar performance and with its 32wh battery its likely to have a much better battery life than the Vye which was never the efficient device that it could have been. 3-4 hours is a possibility on the standard battery with this.
According to Crave, Taiwan [Translation] some pricing info has been given out too. RR Pricing is said to be a very competitive 20,000 Taiwanese Dollars which is about 660 US. Dollars. They also reveal that the device has a web-cam, 2.5" SATA drive and an ExpressCard slot. No details on whether it’s a hard or soft touchscreen yet.
The Gigabyte Touchnote T1028M [details] is a great convertible netbook. I’ve been using one as my main laptop for nearly 4 months now and I’m very very happy with it. Of course I’ve retro-fitted one of the new Runcore Pro IV SSD drives and added a 3G modem which connects to the pre-wired antenna turning it into more than your average netbook but even without the SSD and 3G it’s a great convertible netbook. The only niggle I have is with the 3hr battery life. My Ultimate Netbook U20 battery pack does a good job of back-up power duties but to make things a little more compact I bought the 6-cell battery pack option. 
While the M912V had an impressive high resolution display, the 
