The Gigabyte M912MÂ and M912X tablet style netbooks are now shipping in Europe. The M912Â series of laptops stretches the generally accepted definition of a netbook in two ways. First, they’re a bit on the pricy side, at about $700 to $800 US. And second, it has a touchscreen display that you can swivel and fold down over the keyboard to use the computer in tablet mode.
But the Gigabyte M912 sports an Intel atom CPU and an 8.9 inch display, which helps keep it within the realm of netbookdom. The M912 series comes in several flavors. The M912X has a high resolution 1280 x 768 display, while the M912M has a lower resolution 1024 x 600 display. But as UMPC Portal’s Steve Paine points out, the M912M might actually be a better bargain. It sells for about 50 Euros ($70) less, and gets better battery life. Â Â
Paine does say the fan seems to run more frequently on the M912M than on the M912X, which makes it a noisier computer. But he says it also keeeps the PC from getting as hot to the touch as its more expensive sibling.Â
The Gigabyte M912 is available from Mobilex in the EU. If you’re in the US, you can place an order through importer Dynamism. It’s not available from other US based retailers yet.