Intel Centrino Atom Shoved into Compact Gigabyte M528 UMPC

Although everyone is talking about the inclusion of the Atom in the area of subnotebooks, Intel is also getting that thing plunked into all sorts of other things. They say that Intel Atom will work just fine with smartphones, for example, or in UMPCs like the Gigabyte M528.

Powered by an Intel Centrino Atom 800MHz processor, the M528 has a feature set that can easily rival some of the larger mini-laptops that are hitting the market these days. The difference is that the Gigabyte M528 has a 4.8-inch touchscreen (800×480) and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Because it is bigger than a sliding smartphone, the keyboard on this is actually a strange size. It’s a little too big for thumbs, but a little too small to type normally.

Rounding out the spec sheet are a 4GB Solid State Disk, VGA webcam, 3 megapixel autofocus camera, 512MB RAM, and the Linux OS with Merry-Go-Round i-CON interface. The user interface is certainly different than the standard Windows Mobile experience.