Gigabyte has announced the launch of its new M912V, a small notebook that brings a new face to the Eee PC brand. The company is bringing to us is a 8.9" portable solution that packs together a considerable number of features. Gigabyte's M912V is a Tablet PC coming with a 180 degrees swiveling screen which can lie flat over the keyboard to be written upon. The featured resolution is 1280x768 on a LED-backlit display which prolongs battery life and provides increased visibility on a thinner panel.

The M912V features an Intel Atom processor and comes with 2GB of DDR2 memory. It offers a 160GB SATA HDD for storage. The tablet is also equipped with 802.11b/g wireless, Bluetooth, and a 1.3MP webcam. For connectivity, Gigabyte's M912V provides users with three USB 2.0 ports, VGA port, 56k modem, NIC, an ExpressCard slot, as well as an internal expansion slot for HSDPA.

The M912V 8.9" portable solution manages to put together all the features mentioned above into a frame weighing only 2.86 pounds.

The launch of ASUS Eee PC opened the gates for a new area of consumer products, one that catches ground fast, particularly for the numerous manufacturers that rushed to develop their own products to grab a bit of the market share. Unfortunately, most of them remained close to the original Eee PC design, making minor changes like larger screens or keyboards, or different storage options, but it all came to the same solution: an affordable small, portable notebook. Gigabyte's M912V adds some condiments to the salad.

PCLaunches announced that the new portable solution would be available for purchase starting with the end of this month, and that its price would be set at $699. We should expect some tight competition by that time, since the MSI Wind and the Eee PC 901/1001 will hit the market pretty soon.