Amoi notebook (impressive!)

I found this small Chinese notebook producer recently and I was impressed with their line of notebooks (also includes the recent Napa ones!) in sturdy magnesium cases. The line includes also 12" and 10" subnotebooks.

Take a look yourself: http://www.amoi.com/product/products_index.asp
> Computer > Sonoma or > Napa

Edit:
Amoi = 夏新

 

ugh.that site takes forever to load.. but they have some really nice looking designs (and some odd ones, white and black?)

are they the ODM or are they just a distributor of an ODM? I recalled Winstron often made black and white notebooks..but for the most part, most of them look totally new to me

 

Yeah, this is a slow butt website. Wow though, they arel quite beautiful. I think some of the Sonoma notebooks rival Sony and Asus in style. Even the black and white 14" looks attractive to me. To Specs up to part for the most part. But not even the 15.4 A717 seems to offer dedicated graphics in the Sonoma line.

The first two Napa notebooks are ugly though. The picutres of the black and white ones, look black and silver... kind of like the XPS M170 to me. The A737G looks cool, be it the graphics are still weak for the size(Yes, I have the x300 and that is find for me. But not for others.) M535G looks particularly nice. 14" with a dedicated graphics solution. Nifty.

 

I was mainly attracted by their subnotebooks line.
Here
you can see 49 different pictures of their 12" subnotebook T30. Below are its specifications (to avoid slow downloads at amoi.com site):

Processor Intel LV Pentium M , 2MB L2 cache (Dothan),FSB 400MHz
Intel ULV Celeron M , 512KB L2 Cache, FSB 400MHz
Packaging Micro-FCBGA
Chipset Intel 915GM + ICH6M chipset for Pentium M
Intel 910GML + ICH6M chipset for Celeron M
GPU Integrated in Intel 915GM/910GML Chipset (Intel GMA900)
LCD Panel 12.1" WXGA, 1280*800
VGA Out ONE DB 15-pin VGA Port
TV Out —
Memory DDR2 400, 2 SO-DIMMs
Max. memory up to 2GB (1GB + 1GB)
HDD Parallel ATA, 30/40/60/80GB, 4200/5400RPM
—
2.5" 9.5mm Height
ODD Ultra Slim ODD,9.5mm Height
(CD, DVD, COMBO optional)
Audio AC'97
Audio Jack Line in, Headphone out
Speaker Stereo x 2
PC Card PCMCIA Type II x 1
USB 2.0 Express Card Supported
USB USB 2.0, 2 ports
IEEE 1394 4pin x 1
Card Reader —
LAN One RJ-45 port for Ethernet, 10/100M
—
Fax/MODEM One RJ-11 Telephone Jack
WLAN 802.11 a/b/g, miniPCI
FM —
IRDA+Remote Control —
Hot Key 2 Programble Hot Keys
Web Browser/Mail Client (default)
Keyboard 82-key full-size keyboard
Touchpad 4 buttons (2 scroll buttons)
AC Adapter Auto-sensing voltage support, 100-240V AC; 65W
Battery Li-ion, 6cell (3S2P,4400mAh)
Battery Life up to 5 hours
Dimension 300mm(L) x 222mm(W) x 25.1mm ~ 33.4mm(H)
11.8inch(L) x 8.7inch(W) x 0.99inch ~ 1.31inch(H)
Weight 1.80kg (3.97 lbs) w/ Std. Battery & WLAN Module

Its Napa analogue T515 is even more interesting (the distributor in Germany told it is expected here in May).
The version with 1.5GHz LV processor is sold in Germany starting from 1359 Euro.

 

yes definitely, that model is great looking! I like the way it hinges, reminds me of a powerbook or Asus W2v/V6. not too fond of the mouse button though

 

a couple more Amoi shots

 

The silver one there one the bottom is super pretty. Did you have contact with it and its build characteristics?

 

nope, pure web find. From what i gather, amoi has been breaking into the cell-phone market, and about 18 months ago they engineered their first notebook from the ground up (Chinese engineering).

They're for sale in Europe (Germany, at least) but I haven't seen them anywhere else.

 

I haven't seen any of Amoi notebooks. So, my answer is based on web search only.

The notebook you are interested in is Amoi V3. It is (or was) available in China only. It is a 1,3kg light 10.6" WXGA notebook with Transmeta Efficeon TM8600 processor. More details: http://www.transmeta.com/success/notebooks/amoi/amoi_v3.html

Amoi has similar looking follow up 10,6" models: the current Amoi T31 with ULV Pentium M, and the new one Amoi T333 with ULV Yonah.

According to what I read the build quality af Amoi T31 with its Al-Mg alloy case is very high.

Now I feel myself like a promotor of a Communistic China businesses.

The open issue still is if Amoi is able to provide adequate support of its notebooks outside China. It is too risky to purchase a notebook which is not known to the internet community (the main source of support) and has no its own support base.

 

Thats a 10 inch little guy... the picture makes it look larger. You know I can't help but notice a slight resemblance to Sharp's little notebooks and Super Talent barebones. o.o

Fortunately I'm not much as interested in purchasing as I am more or less admiring the unique quirks of some of these models.

 

=O wow these notebooks are seriously interesting.. i really would want to get my hands on that t31 model.

Any possible news on if it goes on sale for the US?

and are these suppose to be great priced notebooks? or sony like pricing?

edit: I WANT THAT T31!!! lol

 

The price difference between Amoi T31 and Sony-T in Germany is like 500 euro (or more).

We can only learn about availability in the US if someone interested will write to Amoi USA and ask.

 

Wow something that's not on Ebay. I've been trying to find reteller for the heck of it. Haven't found one with the page in english so far. =P

 

42 nice pictures of 10.6" Amoi T31 notebook:
http://detail.zol.com.cn/64/63757/pic.shtml
(magnify each of them!)

EDIT:
and here there are 31 pictures of its predecessor Amoi V3 (with Trasmeta processor) which still looks very similar:
http://product.pcpop.com/000009217/Picture.html

 

This is a dumb question. But for a heck of it. Are these Glossy Screened or Matte? Trying to figure out how up to par these are with machines made in US, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan.

 

According to one German review of Amoi T30 (12") the screen is matte. It the same review it was written it is not sufficiently bright and has small viewing angles. In another less detailed review the opposite was stated concerning the brightness, and the display quality was praised. I have to see it myself.

 

Amoi T31 inside:
http://www.nbdoctor.cn/picture-page/picture27.html

 

Sounds kind of like a Panasonic screenwise. Anything about the keyboards?

 

Panasonic screens have lower resolution.

I have no information about the keyboard. The keys are small. I have measured from the pictures that T30 has 17mm keys, and T31 has 15.5mm keys. The measurement error is about 0.5mm.

 

I see. I've been looking up some of the other models. The 14" are more attractive from my perspective.

 

A German Amoi distributor has written to me that 14" core duo Amoi will be available in 4 weeeks.

 

Are they gonna go Jili? (I can't spell that, the Chinese cars set for release here in the states.)

 

Try to ask Amoi USA, or ask dynamism.com if they would import it for a reasonable price.

 

Hm, the distributor of Amoi notebooks in Germany says that the screens are bright with good viewing angles, and that they are A-grade (afaik, it only means the quality of the glass used, not the brightness).

Hopefully, I will be able to see these notebooks live at CeBit in Hannover next week.

 

ah, all this time you are German? never knew that

 

There are not only Germans going to CeBit.

 

I've asked for US distribution point and/or info relating. No word yet.

 

yay! you go get em! long live coffeeshark and his cadbury bunny

 

:|

they have a singapore branch
there's an it show next week
maybe they'll be there..
will see if i can dig out anything here..

 

i just got off on the phone with their rep here.

no notebook in singapore..
cant take a look at them
but they pointed me to a person to bug..

 

yeah, it seems that Amoi is still mainly an internal Chinese notebook brand, and even its presense on the German market is rather experimental and marginal. Still, I hope to see these nice notebooks soon and will report it here.

 

It's possible to translate a little bit of text in pages, with amoi pictures to english... (links to these pages with pictures provided by ivar).

http://translate.google.com/transla...fe=off&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=/language_tools

And when page is translated, you can try to navigate...

 

And here is full range of Amoi notebooks (Will be named XiaXin):

http://translate.google.com/transla...fe=off&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=/language_tools

 

http://www.amoi-usa.com/product/products_type.asp

http://topic2.amoi.com/english/cebit_2006/notebook.htm

 

Here you find some benchmarks of Amoi T31 with the low end configuration
Intel Celeron M 373 1.0GHz, 256M DDR2 RAM:

http://www.pcicp.com/digi/1128002288d6664_4.html

 

interesting design, battery lifts the bottom for cooling, but I would keep an eye on those hinges. keyboard has the small Enter key, but otherwise looks good. 3+ hour battery life is good for a celeron.

I don't like the scroller, but i guess you could get used to it.

thanks for the update, ivar.

 

You probably mean the extended battery of T31 which may serve this purpose. However, the standard battery 1800mAh just perfectly fits into the battery niche and makes the notebook looking slim and perfectly shaped. Though, the battery life is less than 2 hours then, I guess.

The system has small fan and it also radiates heat passively through the magnesium alloy case and also the keyboard. I have seen the pics of the inner design and the cooling system of T31 and will post them on next occasion.