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Mobinnova Beam netbook spotted running Android, sporting other improvements
Mobinnova had already mentioned that it planned to ditch Windows CE in favor of Android for its Beam netbook before the device was actually released, and it looks like it's now finally made the jump, as evidenced by Laptop Magazine's recent hands-on with the netbook. Whats' more, the 8.9-inch device was also seen sporting a few other minor improvements, including some new media playback keys on the keyboard, and CinemaNow pre-installed on the system for downloading movies. Expectedly, you won't have access to Android Market, btu Mobinnova says it will include some games that "leverage the Tegra chip's multimedia prowess," and that it's even working on its own app store for the device.
NVIDIA Tegra 2-powered Mobinnova Beam hands-on
Right on the heels of NVIDIA unleashing its Tegra 2 (T20) platform, Mobinnova is jumping into the picture with one of the first smartbooks powered by the new platform. The device may be small, and quite thin, but it has got a lot going on. First off, the design is nothing short of cool: the back of the rounded device actually snaps down to reveal its ports and to prop up the entire chassis. Under the lid it has a flush 8.9-inch display, but its smaller size causes the keyboard to be quite cramped. The touchpad has integrated mouse buttons, but we noticed that it was tough make selections by left clicking. You'll probably want to stick with double tapping on this one. Under the hood the Mobinnova Beam is powered by Tegra 2, which is based on a 1GHz ARM Cortex A9 CPU and a GeForce GPU. It'll also have 256 MB of memory and pack 512MB of flash storage (though you can expand that with the SD card). The unit we saw was running Windows CE with a software interface developed by Mobinova, though the plan is to release an Android version. We still found it to be easy to navigate with all the applications centered on a carousel of sorts. As promised by NVIDIA, a 1080p video played on the 8.9-inch display and on a 42-inch 1080p Philips TV (take that Atom!) quite smoothly. In our brief hands-on the overall performance seemed snappier than the past Mobinovia with the first Tegra chip: Firefox opened in about 7 seconds and navigating to web pages was faster than we'd anticipated. We don't have any word on pricing, but Mobinova will only sell this bundled with AT&T connectivity. Hit the break for the full PR and some video. %Gallery-81921%
