At 535 Euros inclusive of Windows XP Home and European taxes the Clevo TN70M is remarkably cheap for a convertible touchscreen device. The overall quality is good and there are no show-stoppers but there are a few issues that get in the way and are probably going to stop most buyers in their tracks. Relatively large size, 800×480 screen and a huge amount of competition from netbooks narrow the target customer down to a very niche segment indeed. In this review I take a look at the main features of the Clevo TN70M, give you some test results and opinions and see if I can find out exactly where the Clevo TN70N is aiming. Thanks to Mobilx.eu for sending the TN70M over for testing.
Based on the same Intel Atom ‘Moblin’ platform as the ASUS T91 with 1GB of RAM and a 60GB drive with a convertible touchscreen, a rotation sensor, fingerprint reader, optical mouse, BT2.1, expresscard/34 slot and a large, 4-cell battery it’s not short of interesting specifications and in my initial hands-on review I expressed surprise at how good the device was. It performed well and proved it’s value.
“…if you’re thinking about mobility, UMPCs and tablet PCs I encourage you to pause for a moment and take a closer look because this bargain basement device (that I’m calling a UMPC) has surprised me by turning out to be well designed and very, very usable. inch
Round the outside of the device you find reasonable quality plastics, two USB2.0 ports, expresscard/34, Ethernet 10/100, VGA-out, SD card reader, mic in and audio out along with the usual indicator LEDs. Just underneath the device pn the front-left you’ll find a stylus
Around the screen frame and 7 inch, 800×480 screen you’ll find the 2.0mp web cam, a fingerprint reader, optical mouse, mouse buttons and stereo speakers. The keyboard is a good quality affair, larger than most 7 inch ultra mobile PC keyboards but much smaller than those you’ll find on an 8.9 inch screen netbook. The rotating screen hinge is strong and stable.
You can see from the image that it’s a relatively small device compared to most netbooks and at just over 900gm it can be held with one hand quite easily.
The version I tested came with XP installed and booting up the OS was as usual with these 1.8 inch drive devices. About a 60 second wait. After installing Firefox it was easy to see that browsing was as fast as on similar devices like the Viliv X70, Viliv S5 and UMID M1. Very satisfactory. A quick glance at the battery meter showed that it was only feeding back percentage figures and wasn’t calculating estimated remaining battery life. That’s always annoying!
Despite the 800×480 resolution, the screen quality was excellent and the matte finish was a pleasure to use compared to some of the glossy screens I’ve tested recently. Brightness and contrast was good too.
Moving into a two-handed position with a thumb on the optical mouse I was very pleased that it was responsive and usable. This is an important feature for use in mobile situations and shouldn’t be under-estimated.
New article: Clevo TN70M Netbook/UMPC Review. http://cli.gs/dsAts
I don’t see why anyone would get this when it’s in every way inferior than the T91? The ASUS has pretty much the same weight, has better keyboard and screen. Actually for me the t91 has worse screen than kohjinsha alternatives but it managed to hold for more than 4 hours connected on 3G. And the SSD should be fast enough if it loads windows 7 faster than my c2duo laptop.
Clevo TN70M Netbook/UMPC Review. http://bit.ly/TZsS7
Hi Chippy,
I read both your review and the original Lazion review of SPARQ M7 (apparently = Clevo TN70M).
The Lazion review described a removable back panel to replace the 1.8″ ZIF HDD and RAM. Can you tell me if the TN70M you reviewed has the same back panel for hardware upgrade?