The battle for the inexpensive UMPC (Ultra-Mobile PC) market has begun.  Several companies already have them; such as the CloudBook from Everex and the EeePC from Asus.  Both look “okay” but it would be hard to call them aesthetically pleasing.  ECS will be introducing its version of a UMPC and it looks like the smaller brother to the MacBook.

ECS calls their competitor to the EeePC the G10IL; the name could be better but I can’t imagine it being designed any better.  Not too many details have been released but it is said to cost below $500 and will ship with an interesting set of features.

Since it is still in production there was no mention of what processor it will use or the display resolution.  ECS says it will ship with a HSPDA 7.2 data card and will likely include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth but those features have not been confirmed.  There is a webcam, three USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet and a 56Kbps modem.  Seriously, a modem?  It’s already more useful than the MacBook Air on ports alone and is almost as pretty.

Pocket-lint has some very nice pictures of the unit.  It’s almost as if ECS stole a designer from Apple; or at least copied some diagrams from them (I’m not saying they did).  It has an uncanny resemblance to the MacBooks but they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  It even appears to have a chicklet-like keyboard.

Of all the UMPCs that have been released so for, none of them can hold a candle (design-wise) to the G10IL.

Because there are no details on the operating system, processor, display, storage capacity or memory, it could wind up being a disappointment when those specs are made available.  Here’s hoping the specs are just as good as it looks.

The G10IL was also the winner of the “Best Pre-Commericial Mobile Broadband Notebook.”  Let’s hope ECS comes up with a better name before it ships.

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Entry was posted on Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 2:58 pm under Notebook.

Read more entries by Jonathan Schlaffer.
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