Gigabyte Booktop M1022: Merging Netbooks and Nettops

Netbook LCD Quality

We ran our standard LCD quality tests using ColorEyes Display Pro to see how well this LCD panel performs. As mentioned in the introduction, the contrast ratio was noticeably worse than the ASUS 1005HA. Gigabyte still uses LED backlighting, but the display always looks a little washed out.

The default maximum brightness of the M1022 is good, measuring 210 nits. The ASUS 1005HA isn't nearly as bright by default, but if you use the free EeeCTL utility you can reach 250 nits while still maintaining the >1000:1 contrast ratio. Color gamut is also very weak on the M1022 panel, and the only area where it comes out better than the other netbooks is in color accuracy. The slight advantage it holds in average Delta E needs to be put into context, however: all of these netbooks and laptops have certain colors that they don't produce very well at all -- notice the spikes above 4.0. The spikes are a common trait of TN panels, which is pretty much the only thing we see in current netbooks, laptops, and notebooks.