Amtek Elego to Hit the U.S. Mini-Notebook Market

July 2nd, 2008 by Joanna Stern

Back at Computex I spotted a wooden mini-notebook made by Amtek called the Elego. Some digging on the FCC Web site yesterday seemed to confirm that the 8.9-inch netbook sporting an Intel Atom processor will be coming stateside. This version of the Elego is bumblebee yellow-and-black. The materials on the site indicate it will also be available in black and white models.

The specs are promising. Measuring 9.2 x 7.0 x 1.0-1.3 inches, the compact Elego weighs only 2.1 pounds. A 1.6-GHz Intel Atom CPU and anywhere from 256MB to 1GB of RAM give the machine its internal power. According to the printed user’s guide, this system will have a 2GB to 4GB SSD or a regular SATA hard drive. It has built-in 802.11b/g wireless connectivity.

As for ports, the Elego includes a headphone, mic, LAN, VGA-out, 4 USBs and a card reader. The screen is 8.9 inches and has a 1024 x 600-pixel resolution. A webcam is centered on top of the display and the materials indicate that it could be either 0.3 or 1.3 megapixels.

From my short hands-on experience with the Elego in Taiwan a few months ago, I noted the sturdy keyboard and the comfortable trackpad. The arrow-shaped mouse buttons also struck my fancy. Stay tuned for more details on the Elego and its availability.