We have been seeing a lot of new trendy laptops these days. Other than boasting of higher specs and powerful components, the touch screen and screen mobility has become readily apparent and noticeable. Gigabyte showed this to us when they unveiled their initial M912 and now they are coming up with a new one in the M1028.
the Gigabyte Touch Note M1028 has an 10.1-inch swiveling touchscreen, comes with up to Intel’s 1.66GHz Atom N280 processor and has a 160GB hard-drive. Connectivity includes WiFi a/b/g, Bluetooth 2.1, and in the case of the M1028G there’s 3.5G and WiMAX connectivity. All four run Windows XP Home, have three USB 2.0 ports and an ExpressCard slot, and there’s a choice of two batteries: a 4,500mAh 4-cell pack or a 7,650mAh 6-cell pack. Weight with the former is 1.3kg, while with the latter it’s 1.48kg.
Four versions of the convertible were announced, two – the M1028M and M1028G – with a WSVGA 1024 x 600 display, and two – the M1028X and M1028P – with a WXGA 1366 x 768 display. Each has 1GB of DDR2 memory (2GB maximum) and the Intel 945GSE graphics chipset, except for the M1028P which has the HD-capable GN40 chipset.
No word on pricing for the Gigabyte tablets or which models we might see in the US and when. Still, our brief hands-on with them suggested they have very usable keyboards and responsive touchscreens, and the extra real-estate over the original M912 is welcome when you’re dealing with bigger on-screen buttons for your finger to poke at.
