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Gigabyte specs its new netbooks

by on07 April 2009


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Looking good, skinny and touchy


Gigabyte
didn't quite get it right with its first gen netbooks, the M912 series. It did feature a touch sensitive swivel screen, but punters found it to be a bit on the pricey side, so in spite of some interesting features it didn't do all that well in the market.

Well, the company is looking to change all that with its trio of new netbooks, and at this point it seems they'll turn things around, for the better, of course.

We saw the new models back at Cebit, and the one that truly stands out from the crowd is the S1024 ThinNote. It weighs just 890g with a 6-cell battery, and measures just 20.8mm at the waistline. Due to its slim chassis, it features a 1.8-inch 4200rpm hard drive in 60GB or 80GB flavors. It's powered by an N270 CPU, and we are a bit surprised the ThinNote didn't end up with a more power efficient Z-series Atom. The Puolsbo chipset can't cope with SATA anyway, so it would have been a nice match for the PATA 1.8-inch drive. Nonetheless, a 10-inch screen and a 6-cell battery in just 890g sounds impressive.

The M1022 BookTop is the more sensible model. It's powered either by the N270 or N280 CPU, and it will be available with 3.5G support or Wimax. It will also come with a stand/docking station of sorts, which is a nice touch, especially if you've got a Wii. Who knows, with some dimmed lighting, wine, chocolate and Barry White in the background, they might even procreate.

Gigabyte is still not dropping its touch sensitive netbook concept, and it's launching the 10.1-inch T1028 TouchNote to replace the 8.9-inch M912 series. Like the M1022, the T1028 will also be available in N270 or N280 versions. Like its predecessor, it packs a swivel touchscreen, albeit a lower res one than the M912, and it should come with a lower launch price than the M912.

It's not easy to stand out from the crowd in the netbook market overflowing with equally matched Atom-based products, but Gigabyte has a few aces up its sleeve. We're betting our money on the ThinNote, because it's ridiculously small and light, and unlike the others, its touchpad buttons are in the right place. All three should launch soon, but we don't know the exact date yet. They should cost around $500, and the ThinNote will apparently even be a bit cheaper than the others.

You can find the product pages here.

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Gigabyte showcases its 10.1 inch netbooks
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