Mineral Technology Announces the 7-inch Windows Running U91 UMPC

I have to admit that I am somewhat skeptical when it comes down to Chinese manufacturers that I have never heard before such as Mineral Technology, this company just announcing they are releasing a new seven inch, Windows running UMPC device, available in four different configurations.

Dubbed the U91, this tablet like device will be configured with a 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor as well as two-point WVGA multitouch screens, WiFi and GPS being also available while 3G connectivity comes as an option.

These features will be also accompanied by dual cameras, an SD card slot, VGA and Ethernet ports, and a trackpad, storage being provided by 16GB and 32GB solid state disks, the U91 also featuring 1GB or 2GB or RAM depending on the model.

When it comes down to the operating system used, Mineral Technology doesn't go into details, although one of the pictures provided depicts the Windows XP user interface, a decent option for such a device since that Atom processor could get pretty quickly overwhelmed by a more modern operating systems like Windows 7.

But speed is only one of the problems that I see when taking a look at U91's specs since that 7 inch low-res screen will most certainly have a hard time displaying a full-blown UI such as that used by Windows XP making the experience feel a lot similar to the one of Asus's original Eee PC since that also featured a WVGA resolution display. 

Moving past that, this chuncy device will start at $460 US, a pretty hefty price tag if you ask me, the base version coming with a 16GB SSD and 1GB of RAM while the top of the line U91G-A (packing a 32GB SSD and 2GB of RAM) will set you back $540.

Availability is also a problem since not many of these Chinese devices manage to make it outside their boarders and I don't think the U91 will be the one to break that rule. (via poketables)