Aigo MID tested, ported to a real OS

The folks at UMPCFever got in some quality time with the upcoming Aigo MID (an Asia-centric version of the Gigabyte M528), which hasn't really been seen much outside of tradeshows so far. Apparently MIDLinux 2.0, which the device ships with, is running really well these days, which is encouraging given how abysmal it was earlier this year, but that didn't stop UMPCFever from swapping the OS for some Windows XP. While the Intel Atom processor seems to be beefy enough to handle what was requested of it, Intel's promised energy savings were not evident in the device, with a runtime as low as two hours. We suppose the best news is that Aigo's selling this starting at around HK $6000, about $770 US, a major improvement over the M528, but it still seems to be a far cry from the sweet spot for this type of device. Hands-on videos are after the break.

[Via UMPCPortal]

[sinjinn @ May 16th 2008 9:22AM]

those were great videos. probably the best unboxing/overview videos ever made in the history of the internet.

[DefPo3t @ May 16th 2008 9:47AM]

I second that and from know on i petition that everyone with a *leaked* *spy* *unboxing* etc use the same sand camera/camcorder that these guys are using !

[DefPo3t @ May 16th 2008 9:48AM]

sand** should be well wtf i didnt type sand sand = not there

[Bondtastic @ May 16th 2008 12:47PM]

I third that, it was actually a very quick and very thorough unboxing and review

[Magallanes @ May 16th 2008 9:25AM]

No matter how efficiency can be a cpu, without a decent battery and energy-saving component (specially the fans and lcd screen), the autonomy can be limited.

[sinjinn @ May 16th 2008 9:29AM]

i think it is very energy saving but the battery is tiny. if you had aftermarket batteries at triple the size it wouldnt effect the overall size of the device but would give very good battery life.

[Flashpoint @ May 16th 2008 9:28AM]

$6000 for this?

Why not buy a Win XP EeePC for around $600 (including a printer and optical drive)

[Flashpoint @ May 16th 2008 9:30AM]

Ok, I see its 6000 HK dollars.
$700+.

I think it would do better if it was closer to $400 but still, most people aren't buying this.

[Benga @ May 16th 2008 9:58AM]

Blind bat, put your foot in your mouth after you reread this thing and see the correct US price. Dummy!

[packetsniffer @ May 16th 2008 11:18AM]

Another stellar post by Flashpoint!

[darkstar @ May 16th 2008 9:35AM]

asus or msi or hp really should have a design using this form factor! i like how the kb slides out just like the oqo

[MBS @ May 16th 2008 9:47AM]

Lol, since when did Windows XP become a real OS?

[eggothewaffle @ May 16th 2008 9:52AM]

Since it's held the majority of the consumer computer market for the last couple years?

[DefPo3t @ May 16th 2008 9:58AM]

let me guess your one of those clueless *applefanboys*
well apparently apple thinks xp is a real OS seeing as they made bootcamp
oh and and i don't know how many xp copies have sold but it has to be getting close to a billion by now if not more, and if an OS with a user base as big as xp's then i don't know what is.

* i say clueless because this is the type of person that makes apple product owners and osx users look bad* *I also use XP*

[DefPo3t @ May 16th 2008 10:00AM]

*user base as big as xp's is, then i*
spelling correction !

[sorcerer @ May 17th 2008 2:24PM]

DefPo3t: the reason XP has sold so many copies lies with Microsoft's marketing department, not the quality of their OS. Replacing Linux with XP is like having a laptop with only one USB port *cough* MacBook Air *cough* - IMHO a really crappy option

[john @ May 16th 2008 10:56AM]

MBS: I was wondering the same thing...

The article's title is rather misleading. Here it promises a real OS, and instead it's talking about running windows on the device.

[MBS @ May 16th 2008 11:55AM]

Haha Apple fanboi, that's a good one!

[Bondtastic @ May 16th 2008 12:52PM]

What I LOVED was that the "real" OS has no driver support for:

The camera (can't take pics)
WLAN
PCIE
Audio
Video

and Multiple resolutions don't work

But it's a REAL OS.... please.. give me a properly working linux installation that wont bog down because it doesn't know how to properly work on 512MB of RAM (when was the last time you tried running XP on 512 and didn't feel like gravity testing your box!)

[porovaara @ May 16th 2008 11:05AM]

What is with this Paul Miller poster and his blatant trolls? Both posts by him today have had strangely worded feelings about XP. This one saying this device didn't have a real OS until this XP port and the most recent saying the OLPC was getting an OS people wanted (aka XP). That comment shows a complete lack of understanding about what that project was even about in the first place. I expect better of the editors than this obvious comment baiting.

[ady @ May 16th 2008 2:20PM]

Exactly my thought. The guy needs to get some perspective.

[dos @ May 16th 2008 2:48PM]

That's exactly what it is, comment baiting, for ad revenue and such. Pretty scummy tactics that Engadget has been using for a while, making this basically the Fox News of gadget blogs. Kind of disheartening, it used to be really good. Oh well, good thing adblock exists ;)

[packetsniffer @ May 16th 2008 11:27AM]

I must have missed the previous posts about this device; it looks pretty sweet. It seems to me that the battery life is actually quite good in such a small device; that's what happens when you run a full blown OS on something like this.

Off topic, but I don't think I'm ever going to understand why you guys so frequently use terms completely backwards (eg, porting a *device* to an *OS*).

[robjennings @ May 16th 2008 12:08PM]

You beat me to it. The headline confused me. You don't port hardware, you port software. That's embarrassing for a gadget blog. It reminds of when people use term "dowload" for any type of file transfer or even local copying, like "I downloaded the pictures to Facebook" or "I downloaded the files from my computer to my memory stick." Argh.

[Steffen Jobbs @ May 16th 2008 12:46PM]

Damn, that's nice. If it was made by Apple, ran OSX and had a multi-touch touchscreen, I'd buy it in an instant. If it had all the drivers for XP it still would be a good buy. I'd definitely use it for watching movies. The hard keyboard is nice. An Apple version wouldn't have that feature, so I'd probably buy a foldable keyboard if the virtual keyboard wasn't good enough. I don't understand why these types of computers don't sell that well. They seem like they could be fairly useful on the road.

[blackfeathers @ May 16th 2008 3:59PM]

:sigh:


i would like to love this product but after the muzac videos i don't know...

it just feels like someone installed xp onto a brick. imagine carrying a brick on your belt wherever you go.

i'd rather have a smart phone or iphone & an ultraportable like an eee or msi wind which are 2 devices that do things better for on-the-go.

[gylman @ Jul 13th 2008 8:37AM]

It seems to have some serious video playback performance issues (in XP, anyway). Cripes, my PDA (HX4700) can playback a 640x480 RMVB without skips.

I hope the performance in its native Linux is better!