ECS G10IL

Beyond being one attractive netbook, the ECS G10IL packs built-in mobile broadband support, a feature that sets it apart from the other netbooks on the playground.

The built-in Ericsson F3507g WMC 1.0 Data Modem coupled with a slot for a SIM card under the battery allow the 10-inch netbook to connect to a GSM network, like AT&T or T-Mobile. Our review unit came with a working modem so I popped in a colleague’s AT&T SIM card.

What do I think? Only that every mini-notebook should come with this feature.  When you have got your netbook but no Wi-Fi, it is like having cereal without milk. There is no reason that you shouldn’t be able to share your phone’s data connect with your netbook while on the move.

Setting up the connection was fairly simple. I removed the battery and slid in an AT&T 3G SIM card.

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With this week’s announcement of Lenovo entering the mini-notebook space, there were lots of oohs and ahhs over its S10’s design. I haven’t yet gotten an in-person look at the S10 (like our bud at notebooks.com) but today the ECS G10IL arrived in my hands. The G10IL is one damn good looking 10-inch mini-notebook that may very well give Lenovo’s beauty a run for its money.

I have a pre-production ECS G10IL and the company has not yet made public what brand the notebook will come to the U.S. market under. We just know it won’t be branded as ECS. Nevertheless, here are my first thoughts on the potential MSI Wind and Eee PC 1000H killer.

To see the ECS G10IL put under a microscope, tune into our live broadcast tomorrow, August 8 at 1:00 p.m. EST.

Stunning Lid and All-Around Design
As I said before, the ECS G10IL is one nice looking netbook both from the inside and out. The lid is covered in a white glossy finish but is inlaid with thin silver stripes. The unit we have is not like the one that we saw  at Computex; it has a glossier lid and a different hinge.

When we put the ECS G10IL next to an MSI Wind, the G10IL looks shinner and more attractive. Also of note is the ECS’ circular and sturdy hinge (check it out in the video), which looks very similar to that of the Sony VAIO FW Series.

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Like with all the men once in the running to be the The Bachelorette’s new beau, it takes a lot right now to stand out in the mini-notebook market. How could it not? You have ASUS flooding the market with loads of Eee PCs, and MSI’s Wind is everything we could have wanted in a netbook for a seriously affordable price. But Taiwan-based companies like Gigabyte and ECS haven’t been deterred and are coming up with new, innovative ways to stay in the game.

We spoke with ECS vice president of sales Henry Kwan who thinks his company’s G10IL entry will bring something new to the market. Kwan shared that the G10IL will:

• Have EDGE, HSUPA, and HSPDA mobile broadband support. It will not have WiMAX support, like the Everex CloudBook Max.
• Come in two display-size variations: an 8.9-inch and a 10-inch. The 10-inch display will be the most likely to hit the U.S. market.
• Be available in the U.S. starting in September. There will be an 8GB SSD version running Linpus Lite 9.4 Linux and a 80GB hard drive version running Windows XP. Pricing will start at $399, but the least expensive systems will not include 3G options.
• Will be the first mini-notebook designed and marketed for business use, not education.

Check out the full interview and image gallery below and stay tuned for our full review of the ECS G10IL, which we expect to receive in early August. You can read our hands-on from Computex here.

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Finding a specific mini-notebook on the Computex show floor is like searching for buried treasure—it takes a bit of digging. Elitegroup Computer System’s (ECS) G10IL was one of those treasures I went in search of this morning. Though ECS wasn’t demoing the system at its booth, I stumbled upon a system that looked strikingly similar to the first shots of the G10IL at the Intel Atom booth (or what I am calling Netbook Heaven). A simple check of the system properties confirmed my suspicions.

Despite the system being locked to the table I was still able to get a solid look at the mini-notebook. Check out our first impressions, pictures, and videos of the ECS G10IL. Read the rest of this entry »