Published: Friday 6th November, 2009 | Author: Parm Mann
Products: Booktop M1305
Companies: Gigabyte (All Gigabyte content)
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email to a friendRemember the GIGABYTE Booktop M1022 on show at CeBIT back in March? Using a docking station, the system fused netbook with nettop and left us thinking that a second-gen product with discrete graphics housed within the dock itself could be interesting.
As it turns out, GIGABYTE agrees, as the Taiwanese manufacturer has done exactly that with the Booktop M1305.
The system, pictured above, is listed as "coming soon" and comes bundled with a docking station equipped with an NVIDIA GeForce GT 220 graphics card - allowing users to take advantage of a little extra graphical power when not on the road.
What's useful is that unlike the Atom-powered Booktops of old, the new M1305 is a well-spec'd system in itself. Sporting a 13.3in, 1,366x768 display, the notebook houses a choice of Intel's ultra-low-voltage Core 2 Duo, Pentium or Celeron processors, coupled with up to 4GB of DDR2 memory and integrated Intel 4500MHD graphics.
There's up to 500GB of storage, a built-in fingerprint reader, a number of connectivity options - including Wireless N, Gigabit Ethernet and Bluetooth - and a six-cell battery promising over six hours of battery life.
Making good use out of the docking station, GIGABYTE has seen fit to equip it with six USB ports, HDMI and DVI out, and a DC-in jack.
It isn't the best-looking solution we've ever seen, but if the price is right, it might strike a useful balance between on-the-go convenience and docked functionality.
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Until we get reliable high speed mobile internet so we can start storing all our apps and data in "the cloud" (i.e. no additional synching required), there'll remain some kind of market for dockable portable computing...Quote
http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3665
It has an Intel CULV 1.3GHz CPU, overclockable to 1.73GHz via a Turbo mode (much faster than atom) and a G210 512MB graphics card (50% faster than 9400M), *as well as* GMA 4500MHD integrated graphics. 14" LED backlit display too. And get this, it has nearly 13 hrs battery (idle) or nearly 9 hrs battery (websurfing). And that's in Turbo mode.
And get this no 2 - the graphics are switchable *on the fly*. So you don't need a dock to play games and it doesn't matter if you're in or out. "Oh I want to play games" - switch G210 graphics on and play. "Finished playing games" - switch off graphics and start saving batteries...
I agree that docking stations can have other benefits but the main one for me would be output to normal monitor, full size keyboard and mouse, so that it's more like using a desktop (when at home). But you could just plug all those into this when you get home anyway.
Sorry to sound like a fanboy but I rarely get enthused about laptops (so many compromises) but I finally think we're at a stage where they have a very good balance between all the things I want (low power but powerful CPU, game playing power and long battery life + portable & light).Quote
... and a G210 512MB graphics card (50% faster than 9400M), *as well as* GMA 4500MHD integrated graphics....
... "Oh I want to play games" - switch G210 graphics on and play. "Finished playing games" - switch off graphics and start saving batteries...
I'd be more excited if the G210M wasn't essentially a 9400GT - that means that, even at the relatively low native resolution of the laptop, it'll still be a poor option for modern games. Sure, it'll be better than GMA4500, but it's still no more than an occasional / light gaming solution. I'd be interested to see it compared to a platform-formerly-known-as-Congo notebook, which I suspect could handling light gaming with equal aplomb and lower power drain...
As you say, dockable laptops are far more about connecting up to an external screen / mouse / keyboard: and this is where docking with gfx makes sense: a GT220 is a significant upgrade over a G210, and would let you game @ 1680 x 1050 on an external monitor. The main thing about Gigabyte's implementation isn't the technology inside it, it's that it proves the concept.Quote
The main thing about Gigabyte's implementation isn't the technology inside it, it's that it proves the concept.
Hence why I wish they'd put a graphics card with a bit more kick, just to see what the concept was capable of. Now imagation if Lucid can be make their chips able to add and remove cards on the fly, and couple this with the technology. It will mean that, crazy as it sounds, that you could have a good graphics card, say a AMD 5400 ish, in your laptop, and someting like a 5770 in your docking station, and the Lucid chip will be able to use both of them, giving you the equilevent of say a slightly underclocked 5850 when at home and docked.Quote
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