Gigabyte M912V Netbook - Hands On Preview

Display and Touchscreen

With most other netbooks accepting the non conventional 1024X600 resolution as standard, Gigabyte has taken it one step further. The 8.9" screen, the same physical size as many others, is capable of displaying resolutions of 1280X768. This is excellent news for netbook users. While obviously increasing viewing resolution, it also allows programs and applications not designed for anything less to be properly displayed.

Unfortunately, when you actually get to using the unit, the screen itself is rather dull and grey. The colours appear to be slightly washed out and contrast is relatively poor. A positive for the dull display, we found glare to be reduced over units featuring more glossy screens such as the Acer Aspire One. Unlike the Aspire One, whose vivid colours and high contrast still allow for clear reading; the M912, with its muted colours, becomes even more washed out. Viewing angles were acceptable; the side to side angle was viewable until approximately 60 degrees, while tilting of the screen made it fade at roughly 30 degrees if not looking straight on. With the tablet capabilities of the display however, you are able to rotate the screen 180 degrees so adjusting for direct viewing is simple.


The tablet and touchscreen features were a blast. This is what netbooks were born to do since lugging around larger 12inch+ tablet notebooks is not suited for the audience that tablets appeal to. School students and business types want to reduce their travel load to something that is lightweight and portable yet still efficient, thus making the small form factor of netbooks ideal.

For unknown reasons, Gigabyte chose to not to install Windows XP Tablet Edition as the OS, instead opting for Windows XP Home which includes no native tablet functions. Users will find themselves having to install third party software in order to take advantage of all the tablet features. Once installed however, the touchscreen turned out to be very responsive using either the included stylus or a finger. Very little pressure was required to direct the mouse pointer and the screen was not rough or resistant towards finger use, resulting in virtually no miscommunication.

While the use of XP Home instead of the Tablet edition is puzzling, initial reports stated that the system would be installed with Windows Vista Basic, far too meaty an OS for the netbook to handle. Gigabyte must have realized this and made a last minute change to the release specs, as there was still a Vista COA sticker and case badge on our test unit.

However, there were a couple of annoyances in with all the fun. By default the desktop is positioned as landscape mode for regular laptop use. Upon repositioning the screen to “tablet” mode, to switch the display into a portrait position, one must spend time rooting through the Gigabyte preinstalled software. Other tablets we have used are set to automatically prompt the user when they detect the screen has been converted or have a button to quickly readjust. We also found that with the screen “tabletized”, it blocked all form of air venting through the keyboard and the unit began to heat up rather quickly. While no negative side effects were experienced, holding such a warm object in your hands can be rather uncomfortable and it does raise some concerns about potential damage to the hardware.

Otherwise, using the Gigabyte M912v's touchscreen was a refreshing break from the notoriously small and cramped keyboards on netbooks. While there are many naysayers to the usefulness of touchscreens, navigation with simply a finger or stylus is undoubtedly much quicker than on the minute touchpad. That being said, this feature on such a low cost product is quite appealing to those who would use it.