NetBook Expert

The Mobinnova Élan has been shown off by NVIDIA for quite some time now. It is a tiny netbook that has a rather large battery compartment sticking out of it, promising a lot of power. But the main feature of this 8.9 inch portable is not that it has an extra long battery life. It is being shown around by NVIDIA because it is one of the first (probably the first) netbook to be built around the NVIDIA Tegra platform.

NVIDIA’s Tegra promises to be quite a useful platform for small portables. It involves the use of a power-efficient, low voltage ARM-based processor in conjunction with a powerful graphics chip. This gives the platform the ability to have stunning graphics with low power consumption.

The Mobinnova Élan was only the initial name of the portable. It is now being called the Mobinnova Beam and that is what it will be known as officially when it is launched at next year’s CES. The official word on the ultimate fate of this device is still nothing significant except for the fact that it will be tied to a carrier when it is launched at CES 2010.

This device is capable of delivering true HD video at 1080p resolution. And even while doing that, it will give you a battery life of 5-10 hours. If you are playing music, it will give you a battery life of 24 hours. Well, with that really large battery case, it would’ve been slightly stupid if it did not have such a long battery life. But still, that is impressive.

However, since this device is running on Windows CE, which is an embedded OS, it is somewhere between a netbook and an MID. The price is pretty right though, at $299 when it launches.