Taiwanese phone and now PC maker Mobinnova has stepped away from it habitual Microsoft operating systems to be one of the first smartbook suppliers using Android, rather than waiting for Google’s Chrome OS. It announced the Mobinnova Beam in the dying days of last week’s CES show in Las Vegas, US. It will go right up against the Lenovo Skylight, also launched at the show, with a similar spec but different processor ‘ both significantly ahead of the Netbooks launched there.
This is a classic smartbook built around the Nvidia Tegra processor using an ARM Cortex A9 CPU, at speeds of 1 GHz, running Android. It comes as a 9.1 inches by 7.3 inches by 0.8 inch box (8.9 inch diagonal screen), and has wi-fi and UMTS 3G built in and is already qualified with AT&T for its Data Connect plan in the US. It claims to be the first device of this size to cope with HD graphics and has been rumored in the lead up to the show as the ‘Elan’. Battery life is promised as a full working day, but not specified in hours, and no price is yet published for the Beam.
The company says that unlike a netbook, the Mobinnova Beam can provide hours of full page web browsing, social networking, HD videos, music and high-end games. It also has a built in web cam.
‘We like to say the Mobinnova Beam is a ‘smartbook on steroids,’ says KC Kuo, CEO of Mobinnova. ‘The Mobinnova Beam meets our company’s goal of providing next generation, ‘cloud ready’ products that allow easy, enjoyable and instant access to content for hours, even days. We look forward to connecting this device to AT&T’s mobile broadband service, the nation’s fastest 3G network.’
It comes with the Roxio CinemaNow platform pre-loaded, as well as Facebook, Twitter and YellowPages and Adobe Flash 10.1, as well as a 3D user interface and the device has ‘instant start up’ built in.
The Beam supports 64GB of removable memory, offers full-page web browsing. No operator or retailer partners have been announced yet, except for it qualifying on the AT&T network.