If there’s one segment in consumer electronics where it’s hard to stand out, it’s netbooks.  The race to the bottom line, together with strict rules from component suppliers regarding maximum specifications, means that the hardware of most machines follows the same, tired pattern.  To differentiate, some brands have gone for super-slimline designs, or extended battery life; Gigabyte, meanwhile, have taken a more unusual route.  Their Booktop M1022 netbook comes complete with a desktop docking station; our friends over at Mobilx.hu were good enough to send us a review unit to try out.

Docking stations certainly aren’t unusual in the laptop world, and many users – especially in enterprise situations – will have been slotting their notebooks into breakout docks for years now.  Docks for netbooks, though, are less common, although the principle remains the same: have a compact machine, in the M1022’s case a 10.2-incher, for travel, then hook it up to a full-sized display, keyboard and mouse with a single connection when you’re back at the office.

Gigabyte have taken the middle-ground with the Booktop’s dock.  With three USB 2.0 ports, ethernet, VGA output, power and a line-out socket, it provides more than just keyboard/mouse connectivity, but doesn’t offer anything that the M1022 itself hasn’t got.  The netbook sits upright, connected by a proprietary socket, and there are power and battery buttons on the front panel of the dock so that you can control the M1022 while the screen is closed.
…
Read full post here:
https://www.slashgear.com/gigabyte-booktop-m1022-netbook-review-2450266/