[celtica96]

Tired of waiting for the Archos 9? Discouraged by the reviews of the Asus T91 and Viliv S7? You may want to check out the Mirus Innovations CT9W7. I picked up one on Saturday and it's been fun playing around with this Windows 7 touch-screen netbook for the past 24 hours.

The specs listed below show it's not just targeted at children ages 6 and up. Big kids like you and me will find it to be a wonderful mobile companion. I own both a full-size Windows 7 laptop (Gateway P-6831FX) and a netbook with Windows XP (MSI U100-279US). I'll use these as points of comparison. The Gateway is my primary workhorse and it's in no danger of being replaced, especially after upgrading its CPU and installing Windows 7. However, the Mirus is giving my MSI netbook some serious competition for the role of lightweight traveling companion.

System Specifications:
8.9'' LCD Touch Screen (1024 x 600 pixels)
Water Resistant Keyboard and Touchpad
1.3 Megapixel Rotating webcam
Intel Atom 270 1.6GHz Processor
WLAN (802.11 b/g/n)
Ports (Ethernet, 2 USB Port, Headphone Jack, Microphone Jack, VGA out)
2-in-1 Card Reader
1GB DDR2 RAM
60GB Hard Drive
About 2.8 lbs With Battery
Windows 7 Starter Edition
Built-in Accelerometer
Educational Software (Note Taking, Handwriting Recognition, E-book Reader, Graphics Program)
1 Year Limited Warranty

At $500, the CT9W7 is hardly an impulse buy but it provides a tremendous amount of value. This small package includes some big attractions--a built-in accelerometer, a relatively zippy Atom processor, a touch screen plus keyboard, and Windows 7. Also, it's finger-friendly with Intel's Blue Dolphin interface and has a stylus for even better control. Battery life is above average and can exceed 5 hours depending on your usage. Finally, the build quality is very good and the unit feels--dare I say it--rugged.

Every netbook has its problems because of the compromises made in exchange for portability. Those for the Mirus include relative performance, size/weight, a crisp but funky webcam, a tiny right shift key, and a glitch in switching from landscape to portrait mode. Let's consider these one at a time.

The Windows 7 Experience Scores: CT9W7 Versus P-6831FX
Processor: 2.2; 6.0
Memory (RAM): 4.4; 6.0
Graphics: 2.0; 5.9
Gaming Graphics: 3.0; 5.8
Primary Hard Disk: 4.1; 5.2
Overall: 2.0; 5.2

The Windows Experience indexes for the CT9W7 show why the Mirus won’t be replacing my primary laptop. Nonetheless, I was impressed by the memory and hard disk scores. I anticipated much worse performance.

The Mirus is roughly 9.5" x 7.5" x 1.8 " and close to 3 pounds so it isn’t going to slip into a pocket and be forgotten. It's surprising that my MSI with its 10” screen is actually lighter (2.6 pounds). However, the Mirus' built-in handle and ruggedness make it a better choice to just grab and go.

The webcam has a decent 1.3MP resolution that produces crisp, still images. Unfortunately, the webcam also changes blue to red but this can be tweaked with an application like VLC. It's best used for static shots. (I was shocked to find that a person walking across the camera’s field of view may not even register!) On the other hand, being able to rotate the camera 180 degrees to take pictures is a real plus.

Most of the problems with netbook keyboards are due to shrinking a normal keyboard to match the size of the unit. I have large hands and any netbook keyboard is a challenge but Mirus made the problem worse. The CT9W7 has a narrower than necessary layout, which does not come close to spanning the width of the machine. The result is some tiny keys, the most problematic of which is the right shift key. The MSI U100-279US does a much better job with its size and layout, including a properly sized right shift key. Mirus should drop the extra Ctrl key and move the Page Up key to its place to give the right Shift key more room or better yet adopt the MSI layout. Complaints aside, I wrote this entire post using the CT9W7's keyboard. Overall, the keyboard is acceptable with decent travel and a firm touch.

Finally, the convertible has some odd behavior in tablet mode. The transition from landscape to portrait messes up the touch function. While in portrait orientation, the touch function stays stuck in landscape orientation. That is, when tapping on a button to activate it, the screen registers the touch somewhere else. The screen won't recalibrate in portrait mode so I'm wondering whether this is a Windows 7 issue. I have to check with Mirus customer service about this problem to see if there is a solution.

Overall, the pluses outweigh the minuses. The combination of Windows 7 and a touch screen really brings out the best in the netbook experience. Tablet mode's onscreen pop-up keyboard in Windows 7 is a great improvement over Windows XP Tablet Edition. Also, I love the ability to use the touch screen with either the Kindle eBook Reader or FBReader (0.10.20090707 comes preinstalled). Sound quality is good for both music and videos. YouTube plays well in a window but with a few frame drops using the full screen. The web browsing experience is far superior to something like the SmartDevices Q7 because of the screen resolution, Flash availability, and choice of browsers. Of course, there's room for improvement by reworking the keyboard, tweaking the webcam, fixing the touch-screen glitch, and swapping out the Intel 945 Express Chipset for an NVIDIA Ion GPU (not likely on this Intel spec'd product).

How can you purchase a Mirus convertible laptop? You can find one through a national retailer like Kmart, Sears, or Walmart. I ordered mine directly from Mirus Innovations to avoid shipping charges. I highly recommend going with the Windows 7 version ($499.99) because of all the extra tablet/pen features available compared to the Windows XP version ($479.99). Take the Intel Classmate Convertible out for a spin and you'll find it's not just for children anymore.