Exterior
Even when unpacking we have to face the fact that we don’t exactly get what we would have expected, but we won’t be sorry after all. There should have been a UMPC inside the box and we have an eeePC clone. There would be no problem with this, as I’ve been thinking about buying such a netbook for a while, but I didn’t do it yet. It’s hard to decide what category does this device fall into. Based on its size and features I’d say that it’s evidently a netbook. But then we have the group of tablet PCs, and it fits there too, as the rotatable and touch-sensitive display is a requirement there. It could be a UMPC too, as based on its definition (A mobile device with diagonal screen size from 4"-10" running any OS and supporting more than one computing/communication function.) it fits there too, but I couldn’t judge it as one based on the exterior. So let’s consider it as a nowadays popular netbook that has a tablet PC crammed inside it. Why should we consider it this way? Because this is what it is.
The package I had wasn’t the retail edition, so I don’t have 100% accurate information about the accessories, but it still came with a carrying case (made of the kind of textile that is used for the notebook bags too), a charger, and that’s it. I could use an extra stylus, but there is no real need for anything else.
Let’s not mention that the keyboard fell in my hands upon opening the device for the first time and let’s try to have an objective opinion. The case, weighing 1.3 kilograms, can be comfortably carried on a shoulder or even in a larger folder, but this is really the max weight, as it has some competitors that are less than 1 kg. Its size (235 x 180 x 42 mm at the thickest point) makes it perfect for the task it has been made for: portable and can be used anywhere.
There aren’t many ports and connectors, but we have the usual set we can see on netbooks. The Kensington lock is on the left, along with a UTP port, a USB-, an expresscard connector and the SD card reader. On the right we can see the small power button, the charger’s connector, two USB port, the microphone and headset connectors and a VGA connector where we can connect an external display (projector, monitor). There is of course no optical drive.
Usage
When opening the device we can se what does a netbook mean, as the 8.9” display can be rotated in 180 degrees and when folded back we get a comfortable digital book. Since it’s a touchscreen there is a stylus in the top left corner. Unfortunately it’s not very high-quality, it doesn’t have a telescope or a firm grip, but it has metal cover and it’s long enough. I’ve been okay with tapping too, but I could have used an on-screen keyboard or handwriting recognition. Otherwise I didn’t use the stylus much and I had no problems with this.
The things I didn’t like about eeePC are the same over here too. I can’t say that I have small hands or pianist fingers, so I had some problems with typing on the Gigabyte keyboard. As I prefer to ask opinions from others too, I have taken the device with me to the editorial meeting. I wouldn’t like to quote my colleague Bocha as our readers might not like them… So, if we’re not somewhere around 40-60 kg or we aren’t women we will need lots of time to get used to this.
The most annoying things are probably the size (the damn small size) of the TAB and the right shift key, but all kinds of typing was a real suffering for me.
Interior
You could have seen on one of the pictures that there is an Atom label on the keyboard. Well, this is true indeed, as the heart of the machine is the Intel 1.6 GHz Atom notebook CPU. The memory capacity was enough for dealing with all kinds of tasks, but those who think that that the 1 GB DDR2 400 memory is not enough can but another module as there is a free slot inside.
We can choose between a couple of kinds of hard drives. The one we had for testing had a 160 GB HDD with 8 MB cache, but we can choose between capacities of 120 or 250 GB. Unfortunately the hard drive means that we have moving parts inside. It would be great to have an alternative with a smaller capacity SSD. Everyone should decide if this is a positive or a negative aspect, as both alternatives have their pros and cons.
We could be unhappy about lots of stuff that are missing from the inside, but we’re a mobile communication site, so we had only one huge problem: the SIM socket. The manufacturers could really get used to putting these inside the device as I’m sure that the price of this is insignificant but there would be a great demand for it. I can see more and more people browsing the web with the “soap-trays” from network operators, so mobile internet is not the future, but reality. It would be great if notebook manufacturers would recognize this and wouldn’t omit this option.
During use
It’s surprising that the device – in spite of this kind of device being considered usually as a fast one that works instantly – has a boot time of about a minute and a half. It even wakes up slower from hibernation than other similar devices, but here the difference is insignificant. The slow booting is probably due to the operating system. We had one with Vista Basic but there is an edition that has Windows XP on it. We won’t get Office by default, but at MobilX there is a package that includes it.
There have been many people complaining about the device overheating and this was the thing I’ve been asked about most of the times. Well, this is really true, but the situation is not bad at all, we shouldn’t be worried. I’ve taken a look how hot does the machine get after stressing the CPU for two hours, the hottest part was at 37 degrees Celsius. This point is on the right side and because of this it might be a bit annoying that the heat is not distributed evenly, so the machine is quite hot under one of our hands and almost cold at the other.
I haven’t been completely content with the battery’s capacity. We can use the device in three modes and we’ve taken a look at how long can the Gigabyte netbook stay online while playing a video. Of course the best value was in Power Saver mode, as we had power for almost three hours of movie playback (to be more exact this means 8.5 episodes of Friends). In Balanced mode it was a bit less, 2.5 hours, while in High performance mode it couldn’t stay online for even two hours. Charging the machine from zero takes about two hours.
To tell the truth I didn’t take the device apart so I can’t tell how large the fan is and at what speed does it rotate at. I’m still sure that compared to other UMPCs I had for testing the device is almost completely silent, it has the volume of about an average notebook.
On the whole we’ve been content with the device, it had what we expected from it. The only big problem is the keyboard, but there will be quite a lot of people who can get used to it. Maybe the battery power could have been fine-tuned a bit more, but these features for the current price of about €460 EUR are quite good. Even more:
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| Gigabyte M912 |
Polacheck
Translated by Szaszati
You can read the device’s specs in this report.
Gigabyte M912 has been provided by MobilX.
The device can be purchased online at www.mobilx.hu.
Info line: +36-52-501-868
