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 ultra mobile PC 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.
August 26th, 2008 at 10:42 am
really looking forward to the M912M, hope there’s a launch of the ‘better’ M912 soon.
chippy: are you getting a demo-device bevore the offical launch of the M-version? really interested in battery-life :)
August 26th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
I dont think i’ll get pre-release on the 912M but i should be near the top of the list for retail ones.
Steve.
August 26th, 2008 at 10:58 am
“Now that I have your attention…”
Well said! :-)
August 26th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Steve, I was sure that after the IDF show you are going to announce that you will prefer the Viliv S7 over the M912m. I was wrong :) Can you share your thoughts why please … is it the size of the screen or the late date (Q1-09)?
August 26th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Im being greedy. I think I can squeeze in an M912 while I wait for the S7 which could be March 2009 before it appears.
Steve
August 26th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Hi Chippy,
My decision is still hanging in a balance on whether to get this. I really like this machine. The only concern is that everyone seems to think this fellow is quite hot. What is your view about this? Is it really HOT that it is unbearable, particularly, in TABLET MODE?
Thank you.
August 26th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Mmm. It does get hot in tablet mode. Its true. I’m rather hoping that the M version with LED bacllight will be cooler. I must admit that it is a minor worry though. I don’t intend to use it in tablet mode for extended periods personally.
August 26th, 2008 at 11:22 am
The tech report say the M912 will be released in North America? Have Gigabyte have a change of heart?
August 26th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
I read that it gets warmer than the eee’s but not as hot as the HP 2133. I think VISTA (more CPU / Disk usage) takes it’s toll too, so that the XP Version should be somewhat cooler.
Chippy himself didin’t examine to much heat in his life session, if i rember correctly.
August 26th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
the heat wasn’t the problem. the screen-brighntness is awesome shit. even indoor its sometimes bad if the sun comes in. outdoor no chance. so its dead for me. except the newer versions realy get led-backlight. but the kohjinsha SX3 has it right now. if they release the XP-drivers i think i will buy this device instead.
August 26th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Just to share information. I also read in some website in Taiwan, some M912 owner reported breakage of the hinge after 6 and 23 days of use.
August 26th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Good information. I’ll be watching out for this.
Thanks Manchester.
Steve
August 27th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
who were the girls @ gigabyte?!
August 27th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
yeah… *yowsa*
August 27th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Hi chippy, you can go to mobile01 and here
http://www.umpcfever.com/viewthread.php?tid=2381&extra=page%3D1. They talk about the hinge problem. It is quite discouraging.
August 28th, 2008 at 6:15 am
the M912 doesn’t get hot, like what Chippy said, it’s really a minor issue. i consider my Kohjinsha SH6 really hot compared to th M912X. though i have the latter, i’ll be getting the M912 as well. LED backlit screen makes a big difference after using the SH6 for several months. battery life without wifi i’m able to use between 2.5-3.5 hours. with wifi around 2.5 hrs.
August 30th, 2008 at 6:54 am
These and others are shipping with XP-Home…. but would it be possible to personally upgrade the OS to maybe…XP-Media Center or even XP Pro? I already have “real” original disks of both to use…
Thanks for the heads-up on these!
September 3rd, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Got mine last Friday! now have 2Gb of memory in it and installed Vista Ultimate!!! It runs Aero OK and is so much better with the tablet pc support.
Whatever you do upgrade to Ultimate to get the most from your M912!!!!!
June 24th, 2009 at 8:46 am
Thanks for this. Just subscribed.