Atom-powered LonMID M100 convertible MID doubles as phone

You may recall a brief mention last month of several new Intel MIDs being shown at IDF Beijing. An XP-based clamshell known as the BYD Mars received the most attention because the other side of its screen housed a phone, while a small convertible MID attributed to a company called NFS got the leftover interest.

I don't know what became of the BYD Mars, but my newshound (whose name changes with every tip) recently sniffed out a lot of interesting details about the so-called NFS convertible, which as it turns out, is also a phone too.

Meet the LonMID M100 by NFS-HLJ. The black and gold (shown below) prototype units measure 6.2" x 3.5" x 1.1" and aside from the handset that acts as the back of the M100's display, the mini convertible's specs are consistent with Intel's original Linux-based MID definition.

That means we're looking at the following:

• 800MHz Intel Atom Z500 processor
• 512MB DDR2 RAM (up to 1GB)
• 4GB SSD
• Midinux operating system
• 4.8" touchscreen (800 x 480)
• Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, 802.11b/g

The handset portion of the LonMID features a hardware keypad, 2.4" QVGA display (similar to the MIU HDPC), and SIM card slot.

 

In addition to front and rear cameras, the LonMID 100 is equipped with the following ports, interfaces, and hardware controls: camera shutter button, two headphone jacks, USB port, two miniUSB ports, microSD card slot, volume rocker, call buttons (talk and hang up), power port, power switch, and stylus slot.

It isn't clear if the LonMID M100 will ever go into mass production, as the unit PC Home got to check out was just an engineering sample, but I hope it does. Even though the thick bezel and keyboard border make the compact convertible look a bit chunky and I'm not a huge fan of Midinux, I still kind of want one. That full English QWERTY keyboard is calling me!

Thanks, Muke!