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.
- Model name – M912X (M912X-579B)
- CPU type – Intel Atom (Diamondville)
- CPU speed – 1600 Mhz
- Graphics – Intel GMA 950
- OS – Windows Vista Home
- Display Size – 8.9″ 1280 X 768 Touchscreen (touch weight unknown)
- RAM – 1024 MB (limit/upgrade possibility unknown)
- Hard Disk –160 GB (2.5″)
- Battery capacity – 32 (Whr)
- Weight – 1200 gm
- Size (w/h/d mm) – 235/180/42 mm
- Physical Interfaces
- USB2.0 (x3)
- MIC-in
- Line-out
- VGA
- Ethernet 10/100
- SD card slot
- ExpressCard/34
- Wireless Interfaces
- 802.11b/g
- BT2.0
- WebCam 1.3mp
I’ve highlighted the stand-out specifications. More info and prices after the pic… 
The specs of the high-end X version look very interesting and could provide important features for some users. In theory, the 32Wh 3-cell battery should power it for well over 3 hours (4 hours is claimed. No word on a 6-cell option yet,) the large-capacity 2.5″ HDD should be fast and the hi-resolution touchscreen, ExpressCard34 slot give it an edge over standard netbooks taking into the ‘pro mobile’ category.
The other two models are:
- ‘Middle’ M912S with a lower-resolution 1024×600 screen, smaler 80Gb drive, XP Home and no Bluetooth
- ‘Entry’ M912S with the same 1024×600 screen, a 4GB Flash drive running Linux and again, no Bluetooth.
As for the price, it’s impressive. Even for dollar holders. Mobilx are offering three of the four devices and here are the prices that have just been posted.
Update: The availability dates have changed since this article was written. The dates changed again. Back to the original!
- Entry M912S – 476 Euros (including EU sales taxes – $623 for export) Availability: Sept
- Middle M912S – 558 Euros (including EU sales taxes – $731 for export) Availability: Sept.
- High-End M912X – 615 Euros (Including EU sales taxes – $805 for export) Availability: End of July
All three devices are available for pre-order now. Check out the details in the product database.
Windows Vista Home, 160GB, touchscreen, 32wh battery, ExpressCard slot and the 1280×768 screen in a small package for 615 Euros. Not quite the sub 1KG device I was hoping for and in need of some hands-on before it’s declared a pro-mobile price-breaker (Vista with 1GB has a question-mark over it) or the first ever sub 500 Euros Tablet PC (it could be a light-touch screen) but it’s looking promising. We should have one for testing in a week or two so we’ll let you know. (Tune to Chippy’s Twitter or Friendfeed for the announcement. We’ll do a live session on the day we get it.)
July 9th, 2008 at 12:37 am
Would this be a lot better with Silvethorne?
July 9th, 2008 at 12:39 am
I have been waiting for the specs and price on this device and it seems very promising. I would import one but first I would have to know if A) What is the tablet function like (heavy, light, active?) and B) Can the RAM be upgraded anymore. Come on Chippy work that magic ;) I need info
July 9th, 2008 at 12:50 am
Silverthorne would bring some battery life advantages but the main difference would be the reduced motherboard size leaving more ‘design’ space and possibly room for extra card slots or even a 4th cell (as in the Clevo)
@MikeN I think i’m out of UMPC magic for today but i’m sure there will be more tomorrow ;-) Test device will be on it’s way very soon.
Steve.
July 9th, 2008 at 1:02 am
@MikeN.
I was watching this video. It looks like soft touch to me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7i2J40uD3Y
Steve
July 9th, 2008 at 4:15 am
Chippy,
any word on whether there is a pci miniexpress slot on the mother board for internal hdspa/cdma capability? If I coule install my pci miniexpress modem and add a gig of ram I would abandone my Samsung q1u for this machine immediately.
jimcapraro
July 9th, 2008 at 6:57 am
ugh, why do they keep dropping bluetooth on the linux versions?!
and the entry level price seems a bit more steep then i would have expected.
well, at least they keep the expresscard slot around on the entry one, that makes it nice and flexible. but the first linux friendly wwan card i bumped into was about half the price of the entry level computer…
at that price i would much rather have liked to use my phone…
July 9th, 2008 at 7:58 am
umm.. i’m sorry, but could you confirm the dimensions?
are you SURE that this “UMPC convertible tablet” is 1.65inch thick??
seriously? boy I thought they must be able to squeeze it into 1 inch or less by now..
chippy, please take a closer look at the thickness of the machine when you get a sample and doing a review?
July 9th, 2008 at 9:06 am
This _could_ be really nice. Although the pricing isn`t as good as I`d hoped. If you use paypal it`s 690€ to germany (including shipment). Considering that I only payed 1000€ for my ibm x60 tablet with sxga+ screen, this just is a little too expensive for my likings.
But if the screen is bright and has good viewing angles I might buy it nevertheless.
As I understand it 1GB is the maximum amount of Ram that can be installed?
July 9th, 2008 at 10:06 am
@Nobby
I as far as I understand it the maximum is 2GB. An earlier article mentionted that Pioneer Australia is shipping a device which supposably is a branded M912 and the specs for that read (in the source article) the maximum is 2GB. However Gigabyte itself never made any statement (to my recollection) about the maximum RAM size.
July 9th, 2008 at 10:55 am
ssd hard disk?
July 9th, 2008 at 11:45 am
I had heard that 1GB is the max RAM. This will be confirmed in the next few weeks though.
PC World had an encouraging article today saying that the screen was good.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/148105/hands_on_with_gigabytes_m912x_minilaptop.html
Steve.
July 9th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Hi All,
Does anyone know whether the 4GB SSD will be able to be switched out for a 2.5″ HDD?
Thanks
Sean
July 9th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
So by the time X version hits the UK were probably looking at a price of £500 which I gotta say is a bit steep considering the original rummors were around £350 on par with ASUS, Acer and MSI umpc’s.
The best version to me seems to be the M with Windows XP and 80GB HD although the lack of BT and the high res screen is a bit of concern its hardly gonna backrupt Gigabyte to include a £4 BT module is it?
If a re-seller can configure this with XP, BT and a 80GB HD and sell the thing for £350($700) its gonna sell like hot cakes. Does anyone think this is likely?
p.s do we have a price for the barebones version?
July 9th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Geez, some of guys are please….
Remember this is a touchscreen convertible TabletPC styke design, more expensive to build than a lil’ netbook….
If you compare to other similar sized convertible TabletPC’s I think you’ll see that overall M912 is very well priced….
Kohji SX3 is $1,199 USD at Conics.net for example…
Fujitsu P16x0 series is more than SX3, etc…
Just my 2 cents… ;-)
July 9th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Correction to my post above….SX3 is about $1,085 at Conics….
July 9th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Yup. The M912X is amazing value. Has some real pro features.
ExpressCard/34. 1280×768 screen. Touch. Swivel. 160GB disk.
Can’t wait to find out what’s under the hood.
Steve.
July 9th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Huh?
@ mobilx they are listing July 30 as date for the entry level device and Sept. 15 for the M912X!?!
So which version is correct?
July 9th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
@NobbyNobbs
July is for the ‘hi-end’ model only, it’s the first configuration to be released apparently…later in Sept the middle and low-end configurations will be available…
HTH…
July 9th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
@NobbyNobbs
thats what i wanted to ask too.
i’m a little bit confused.
julian.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:18 am
OK. Looks like some info has changed since I wrote this article. I will check with Mobilx although this does now line up with another report from PC World (see earlier comment)
Steve.
July 10th, 2008 at 9:42 am
By now also the first german retailers are listing the device (at a much better price). They are quoting 3-4 weeks (end of july, beginning of august) for the m912x.
July 10th, 2008 at 10:07 am
@Nobby:
Interesting, since I live in Germany too. Which retailer has the device. Could you provide a link?
Thanks
July 10th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Found it myself: http://www.notebook.de/index.php?section=shop&group=837&productid=13955
Interesting is that they say it comes with 2GB on-board RAM. No OS installed, otherwise specs like the high-end version. What’s more interesting is the price: 509 Euros (+14 within Germany). They have versions with the OS installed too. Looks like this is a reseller fitting the barebone version.
July 10th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Interesting I guess the fact that this German version contains 2GB means the memory is upgradable?
July 10th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
This german site have several versions
with NO os and 1GB of ram its just 459 Euros!!!!
http://www.notebook.de/gigabyte-m912-mit-intel-atom-n270-16-ghz-ohne-os-p-13941/
With 2GB of ram and Vista Home installed its 569 Euros
http://www.notebook.de/gigabyte-m912-mit-intel-atom-n270-16-ghz-2gb-p-13954/
July 10th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Yes, they have 1GB and 2GB versions with and without vista basic. Starting at 459€.
They told me that they were awaiting in about three weeks (beginning of august) but couldn`t give me an exact date.
I ordered the 2GB-Version (normally I would upgrade the ram myself, but in this case you got contradicting info about the upradeability of the device and I don`t want to take any chances).
For this price, this might finally be the netbooks I`ve been looking for (although it`s a bit heavy).
July 10th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
I also thought, that “on-board” RAM could possibly mean that the RAM is fixed and/or there’s only one Slot.
July 10th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Any word on suppliers non-European suppliers shipping to the US? Avoiding EU sales tax would be nice.
July 10th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
@Devin,
if you’re in US, you wouldn’t pay VAT…
As for other suppliers I’ve been in touch with Conics…he hopes to have it, said he’ll let me know…
July 11th, 2008 at 3:39 am
For N.American users:
Answer – 628949
Answer : Dear Customer,
I am sorry, but this product will not be released in the US/Canada market. It will be available in Asia and Europe.
Thank you for choosing Gigabyte products
Question – 628949
From : Barry [ xxxxxxxxx@solutions2000.com ]
Sent : 7/11/2008 01:02
Question :
1. When will the M912 be released?
2. What is the MSRP
3. Where – in Canada can I buy one?
July 14th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Availability date changed again, mobilx now report 15/09 as stock availability date for the high-end model. Also the 2GB option (which was presente till 13/07) is no more listed and a new configuration is born (M912V) with the same specs of the X version (XP home instead of Vista Home) altought it is not clearly stated if with or without touchscreen..
July 14th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Also the X version is now stated “MIDDLE” while the V version is stated “High-End”
July 22nd, 2008 at 10:38 am
Looks like we have are first uk price £374.95!!!
http://www.expansys.com/p.aspx?i=171309