Always Innovating’s Touch Book goes into production

Always Innovating has been working on its Touch Book for quite some time, but now it has finally gone into production and for those that are interested in getting their hands on a device that is something of a hybrid between an MID and a netbook, then this might just be what you’ve been waiting for.

The specs might not be to everyone’s liking though, as the Texas Instruments OMAP3530 doesn’t really compete with even the slowest netbook processor, as it only runs at 600MHz. However, the idea with the Touch Book isn’t raw CPU power, instead it’s all about long battery life and as such it comes with up to two batteries depending on the configuration.

But before we get ahead of of ourselves, let’s take a look at the rest of the specs first. The Touch Book also has 256MB of RAM, 256MB of Flash ROM (not unlike many Smartphones), an SD card slot (an 8GB card is provided), an accelerometer, Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR and a WiFi dongle that offers 802.11b/g/n support. The screen measures 8.9-inches and has a resolution of 1,024×600 pixels, that’s the same as what you’ll find on most netbooks.

The Touch Book also has three external USB 2.0 ports, but oddly enough, you can also access four internal USB ports and one of them will be taken up by the WiFi dongle. This means that you can add small, internal USB devices, such as a USB key for extra storage etc. to the Touch Book which is an interesting idea. At 1.36kg with both parts connected, it’s not a light weight option, especially as you can get Atom powered netbooks that are lighter.

So what about the batteries then? Well, this is the interesting part, as the Touch Note “tablet” part has its own 6000mAh battery, but the keyboard adds a second 12000mAh battery, which in theory should triple the battery life. Always Innovating only claim 10h+ battery life which seems a little bit on the weak side considering the two batteries. The keyboard is 95% the size of a normal keyboard according to Always Innovating and the keyboard module also features a touch pad.

On the software side of things, the Touch Book will come with a custom Linux version with a “unique 3D interface for starting applications with your finger”, Firefox 3.0 with YouTube and Daily Motion video support and a wide range of other little Linux applications and add-ons.

Price wise you’re looking at $399 for the complete setup with both parts, or $299 for the MID/tablet part of the Touch Book and an additional $99 if you want to add the keyboard later on (and yes, it’s actually $1 cheaper to get the two parts separately).

You can find the product page here with a pre-order link on it.