We first caught a glimpse of Gigabyte's M912V laptop a month ago, when pictures of a mysterious tablet-style sub-notebook first hit gadget sites. Today, Gigabyte has finally shed light on the system, publishing a press release with details and pictures.
As rumored, the M912V features an 8.9" touch-screen display that can rotate 180 degrees and fold onto the keyboard—just like on a regular tablet PC. At 1280x768, the display has a higher pixel density and slightly wider aspect ratio than 8.9" panels on Asus' Eee PC 900/901 and similar laptops. Gigabyte also says the display has LED backlighting.
Gigabyte's M912V with the display twisted (left) and folded (right). Source: Gigabyte.
Among the M912V's other attributes, Gigabyte lists a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB of DDR2 memory, a 250GB 2.5" Serial ATA hard drive, 802.11g Wi-Fi, an ExpressCard slot, optional 3G mobile connectivity (HSDPA), Bluetooth, a 1.3-megapixel camera, and a 3.5-hour battery. The diminutive tablet PC runs Microsoft Vista Home Basic and weighs in at 2.87 lbs (1.3 kg).
If a report by PCLaunches.com is accurate, the M912V will reach store shelves this month at $699. That price tag will position the system well above vanilla 8.9" subnotebooks, but in the same range as Asus' 10" Eee PC 1000 series. (Thanks to DailyTech for the link.)
