Early Look: Gigabyte S1024 Thin Note

Posted on July 18th, 2009 by Nidhi

The first of the Gigabyte netbooks is now available in the U.S. – the Gigabyte M1022 Booktop is selling on Amazon for $450. We’ve reviewed the ‘netvertible’ (twist and tablet) T1028M TouchNote and here’s our early look at the third Gigabyte netbook to make its debut at CeBIT – the S1024 ThinNote netbook.

gigabyte-s1024

Back when the S1024 ThinNote made its first appearance in March of this year, its N270-1GB RAM-80GB HDD-Windows XP specs seemed pretty good. But the past four months have seen a lot of developments and the specs don’t stand out. Especially not the low 80GB HDD capacity. But it does do some things well.

Features

  • Thin and Light - just as the name suggests. The S1024 ThinNote is less than an inch thick (0.8 inches to be exact) and weighs just under 2lbs. This probably explains why Gigabyte had to limit it to an 80 gig HDD. With these measurements though, the ThinNote S1024 will beat the Asus 1008HA as the lightest 10″ netbook.
  • 3.5G modem - Optional 3.5G in the soon-to-be lightest 10″ netbook? That’s pretty amazing! The S1024 ThinNote was built for portability and connectivity. All it needs now is a decently affordable price for it to stand a chance; remember how the NEC Ultra Light is ridiculously priced somewhere between $1500 and $2000!

Drawbacks

  • Mediocre Specs – What! This is worth listing as a drawback?? Probably not. But the 80GB HDD may affect some of you media-friendly folk. It really limits the amount of storage space you’ll have for your images, musics and (gulp) videos. Especially with all those space-consuming Microsoft updates you’ll need to install. (Sorry, I’m bitter about any netbook that releases between July and October with XP and not Vista which might qualify for a free upgrade to the amazing Windows 7).

    While Gigabyte hasn’t updated the S1024 Product Page yet, I’m hoping they’ll update some of the netbook features before it launches (whenever that will be).

  • Cheap plastic look – that isn’t too reassuring when you start thinking about the quality and durability of the netbook. Especially since Gigabyte is a new contended in the netbook battle and doesn’t have any strong reputation as of now.

Here’s a look at the S1024 Thin Note Specs

  • Processor – 1.60 GHz Intel Atom N270
  • Chipset – Intel 945GSE
  • OS – Windows XP
  • Memory – 1GB RAM
  • Storage – 60GB to 80GB
  • Display – 10.1″ (1024 x 576)
  • Connectivity – 802.11 a/b/g, Bluetooth, 3.5G option
  • Ports –2 x USB, Express card
  • Battery – 6 cell 3400mAh battery
  • Dimensions – 9.8″ x 6.7″  x 0.8″
  • Weight – 2lbs

There’s no word about pricing and availability as of the S1024 Thin Note yet. However it’s a good netbook to watch out for and should be priced competitively. After all, the M1022 Booktop is now selling for $450 – $150 less than anticipated. We’ll keep you updated – and we’ll post a video of the netbook in action as soon as we can get our hands on one.

Related posts:

  1. GigaByte M1022 Booktop Review – Where netbook meets nettop
  2. HP 2140 Mini Note Review
  3. GigaByte T1028M TouchNote Review: Asus T91’s main competitor?
  4. Netbooks Vs Mini Note Books Vs Mini Notes – A Matter of Terminology
  5. Early Look at Virgin Media’s Freedom Netbook

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