Intel joined Taiwanese mobile phone service provider Chunghwa Telecom to launch Gigabyte Technology’s M528 mobile Internet device on Monday in Taipei. The device, which runs a Linux OS, sports a 4.8-inch touchscreen, QWERTY keypad and 4GB solid-state drive, has an 800Mhz Intel Atom Z500 microprocessor inside. Gigabyte’s specs page for the device is here.
Well I’m interested at least. I’ve been considering getting a Nokia N810 for a while now, but never really gotten around to it. There have simply been too many small niggles about it for me. This looks like a really interesting alternative. With 4 gigs of solid state storage, a faster processor, plus a sim card slot of 3G wireless this seems like it could be what I’m looking for. The huge remaining questions are will they be able to make usable apps and OS and what will the battery life be like.
The Nokia devices are at an entirely different price point. The Gigabyte MIDs appear to be going for ~$600 without a service plan. The N810 costs half that.
I couldn’t find numbers on battery life, but knowing that ARM processors get significantly better performance/watt, the Nokia’s likely have a much better battery life, as well.
If the mid is shooting for the $600 range, i dont see it going to far. Before I pay ~$600 for a MID, it would make more sense to go with a loaded netbook. You can get a N810 for $200 fairly easy, and a N800 for 100-150. The battery life on the N810 is about 6-7hrs under heavy used, and it can literally go a week under light usage.
I suspect it will come down. And anyway if I can get one cheap with a data plan, that would be OK too. Still all the being said and done, I’d still be tempted at $600.
I can’t. I’ve looked but I’ve never seen one I could get for much less than $350. But then again I don’t live in the US. At $200 I’d certainly buy one.
Edited 2008-11-26 15:11 UTC
I have a N810, and this is probably the first true competitor. Depending on how the battery life goes, this would probably best the N810 hands down atm. The MID would be running standard linux. Moblin, intel blend, Ubuntu Mobile, pick your own poison. The N810 runs debian for arm under the hood, but it was never designed with running a regular distro in mind. With the ARM cpu, the N810 would be at a power usage advantage, but a software disadvantage against this guy.
Personally, depending on the price, i would probably take the gigabyte over N810. Having the ability to switch from some specialty intel blend, to ubuntu mobile, to whatever else crops up trumps maemo.
It IS possible to get full debian and kde onto a N810, but its a bit of a hackjob still, and alot of stuff doesnt work well. Usable, yes, but not very clean.
I either want a pandora handheld console or this as a cellphone. I wish someone made an addon that turned devices like these into potential cellphones.
I’m eagerly awaiting Linux iPhone competition, and something that my carrier can provide. I think they doors are about to bust open in this arena. Maybe Asus will follow suit with something similar? Eee Phone?
Edited 2008-11-27 16:24 UTC