Jkk has pointed out that according to Aving, the new Wibrain M1 UMPC has left the prototype stage and will now get built for production. The new device is a handheld slider form-factor with a thumb keyboard. It’s great to see a new UMPC using this sliding form-factor, though the specs aren’t too impressive.

• 4.8” 1024×600 touchscreen
• 1.33GHz Atom Z520 CPU
• 512MB/1GB of RAM
• 8GB/16GB SSD
• WiFi/HSDPA/Bluetooth
• Touchpad
• Linux or Windows XP OS

From what we can see in the images, it looks like there may be a fold-up camera on the top of the unit like the one on the original Wibrain B1 [Product page]. There is also a USB port which has ‘Host’ written over it, so it can be assumed that you’ll be able to plug it into another computer and use it as an external HDD, though with only 8/16GB it would make for a very bulky flash drive! It looks like the unit will use a tiny trackpad to operate the mouse instead of a nub-mouse which would probably be preffered. The Wibrain M1 definitely has some tough competition in the space, going up against the entire UX series. Hopefully it will have good battery life and a quick SSD. The keyboard will probably be the deciding factor for many people, so let’s hope that it’s good as well! It doesn’t look like it in the pictures, but I’m hoping that the final production model will have a backlit keyboard. The Aving article says its for Korea but that could always change, and if it doesn’t see an international release but is still popular, I’m sure it’ll still be available through importers. Head over to jkkmobile for some more images.