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jkOnTheRun is reporting that the much anticipated 8.9 inch UMPC Tablet PC from Gigabyte, the M912, will finally see the light of US retail in July. The swivel touch screen immediately puts this on on my “Potential purchase” radar since I love the concept of being able to switch a UMPC from Mini-laptop mode to tablet PC mode. The M912 joins devices from Kohjinsha in the very narrow touchscreen UMPC niche.

Looking at the form factors of the two styles of devices, I like the fact that the smaller Kohjinshas have mouse controls alongside the screen for use when the screen is covering the keyboard, but from what I understand the Kohjinsha does not run Tablet PC software, rather being just a XP/Vista UMPC with a very limber touchscreen. The ability to run as a proper tablet gives a tremendous advantage to the Gigabyte model (as does the larger screen) and should mitigate the physical controls alongside the smaller Kohjinsha screen. Another plus is that the Gigabyte should be available more widely in the US, while Kohjinsha devices are only available in the US through Dynamism or other top-dollar Japanese geekcandy importers.

The impressive specs are as follows:

• Atom 1.6GHz processor
• Intel 945GSE chipset
• 1GB DDR2 RAM
• 160GB HDD
• 8.9”LCD panel/WXGA 1280×768, w/Touch screen, LED Backlight, as 180° rotation angle
• 80 key keyboard
• 3x usb ports, dual 1.5 watt speakers
• 1.3mp webcam
• Bluetooth, 802.11b/g wireless
• Li-ion 4500mAh, Battery life 3.5 hrs
• Windows XP, Vista Home Basic or Linux (for full Tablet PC support, you need the Vista model)

No word yet if the RAM is upgradable but for running Vista Tablet, I would like 2G please. Also, 802.11n would have been a nice touch on a high end machine.

The price point of $699 is not surprising but in the upper reaches for the UMPC market…and no word on if the Linux version will be discounted. Still, this looks to be a top of the line unit with the addition of the tablet capability, so many buyers may view this as not an overpriced UMPC but a budget Tablet PC.

Zealot (469 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

By day a department manager and writer for a major network device vendor...by night Zealot stalks the mean magnetic streets, striking fear into the hearts of bandwidth abusers and theme park mascots. Zealot has been involved with mobile devices for more than a decade now, starting off with dumb phones, moving to PDAs and then to smartphones, notebooks and netbooks with the odd PMP thrown in. Most of his mobile time currently is spent on a Treo Pro, Zune HD, Thinkpad T61, Gigabyte M912M or a Hackintoshed Compaq Mini 704. He proudly groks the Geek community and considers himself a Neo Maxi Zune Dweebie (thanks Will Wheaton!).