Malata’s PC-98905 netbook is what you would get if you took a Sony Vaio P, stretched it out a bit to give it  roomier, more comfortable keyboard, and placed a Lenovo TrackPoint-style nub in the middle of the keyboard.

Now the company is back with yet another knockoff. Basically the new Malata A802 looks exactly like the 98905 which is to say it has the same TrackPoint button, slim design, and 8.9 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display. Like its predecessor, this model also has a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU rather than the newer Atom N450 chipset. And it runs Windows 7.

But there is one thing that’s new: The Malata A802 has a touchscreen display.

I’m not really sold on touchscreens for clamshell-style netbooks. If you can’t twist the screen and hold the computer in tablet mode, I just don’t see why yo’d want to spend time lifting your hand from the keyoard to poke at the screen. But the touchscreen and Vaio P-like design definitely make the Malata A802 stand out from the crowd.

The notebook costs less than $600 US which is kind of pricey for a netbook, but cheap by Sony Vaio P standards. I doubt we’ll see it outside of China anytime soon, though.

via Cloned in China

When I first spotted Malata’s PC-98905 a few months ago, I thought it looked a lot like a Sony Vaio P. That’s because like the Vaio P, the Malata netbook is wider than it is deep and the base is pretty much all keyboard due to the lack of a touchpad. But I got a chance to check one out in person at the Intel booth and to be honest, it doesn’t seem all that Vaio P-like in person. And that might be a good thing.

Overall, the Malata PC-98905 is a bit bigger and bulkier than the Vaio P. And that means it has room for a slightly larger chiclet-style keyboard, which I found to be reasonably comfortable to use. There are large left and right buttons at the base of the keyboard, which are a little squishy. I can’t decide if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but I suppose you don’t have to press very hard to register a left or right click.

The pointing stick which replaces the touchpad is smack dab in the middle of the keyboard, much as it would be on a Lenovo ThinkPad business-oriented laptop. I didn’t get a chance to play with the pointing stick though, since the computer wasn’t turned on.

I couldn’t find anyone at the Intel booth that knew if the Malata netbook would be sold in the US. It’s possible that Intel only had it on hand to show the wide range of products using its Atom processors. The company is also showing laptops from vendors including Asus, Acer, and Dell.

The Malata PC-98905 comes with an Atom N270/N280 or N450 processor. It has an 8.9 inch. 1024 x 600 pixel display, 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB SSD, 1 to 2GB of RAM, and 802.11b/g/n WiFi. It has a 3000mAh/7.4V battery and measures 10.1″ x 5.6″ x 1.1″.

More pictures after the break.

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Remember that cheap touchscreen tablet-style netbook from Malata that we spotted last month? It looks like it might be headed to the US after all. The FCC has published some documents (PDF link) related to the PC, which is a pretty good indication that it could be available in the States in the not too distant future. I suspect the Malata PC-91008 might be rebranded and sold under a different name if and when it is released here.

It features a 10 inch touchscreen display that can swivel down over the keyboard for use in tablet mode, and in China it also had a reasonably low price tag, especially when compared with tablet-style netbooks from Asus and Gigabyte.

The Malata tablet has a 10 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 2GB of RAM, and up to a 320GB hard drive. It also features 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Ethernet, and a touchpad that supports multitouch gestures. It weighs just under 3 pounds.

via Netbooked

Chinese PC maker Malata’s PC-91008 is a netbook with a 10 inch touchscreen display that can be used in tablet mode. It looks a bit like an oversized version of the Asus Eee PC T91 (including the awkward right-shift key location). But the Malata version has a faster 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU and GMA 950 graphics.

The netbook weighs 2.6 pounds and has a 3400mAh battery. The base model has 802.11b/g/n WiFi, 1GB of RAM, and a 160GB hard drive and measures 10.4″ x 7.5″ x 1.1″. There are also options for 3G mobile broadband, 2Gb of RAM, and a 250Gb or 320GB hard drive.

The one thing this notebook really has going for it is a relatively low price tag of about $439 with Windows 7 preloaded. That makes it the cheapest 10 inch tablet-style netbook I’ve seen. Unfortunately, it’s only available in China at the moment.

via Shanzai

Chinese PC maker Malata has introduced a whole slew of new netbooks recently. And they all look rather… familiar. The Malata PC-98905, PC-91009, PC-91013, and PC-91007 appear to be clones of the Sony Vaio P, Asus Eee PC 1008HA, Asus Eee PC 1005HA, and Asus Eee PC 1002HA respectively.

What’s interesting is that Malata claims that all three laptops are available with 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 Pineview processors (although the Vaio P clone is also available with and Intel Atom N270 or N280 processor).

Like most Sony Vaio P clones, the PC-98905 doesn’t get everything right. In addition to using a different version of the Atom CPU (which is probably a good thing), the laptop has an 8.9 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel screen instead of Sony’s 8 inch, 1600 x 768 pixel super-widescreen display. But the laptop does support 8GB to 32Gb of solid state storage, up to 2GB of RAm, and 802.11b/g/n WiFi.

The Eee PC 1008HA clone has a 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display and supports up to 320GB of hard drive space, 2GB of RAM, and has 802.11b/g/n WiFi.The PC-91013 has similar specs, but it has a 6 cell battery and a slightly bulkier design.

Like the other Eee PC clones, the PC-91007 takes its design cues from an Asus product, but the netbook features virtually identical specs to the other models in the lineup when it comes to the Atom N450 processor, 10 inch screen, hard drive, RAM, and WiFi options.

via Netbook News.de

You know a PC category is hot when companies that aren’t known for making computer begin pumping them out. We’ve already seen a few electronics makers like Archos and Coby dip a toe into the netbook game. Now several Chinese electronics companies have announced plans to sell mini-laptops.

DigiTimes reports that LCD monitor maker AOC, Motherboard vendor Colorful, and electronics company Malata all have netbooks that are either already available in China or which are in the works.

If you haven’t heard the name Malata, that’s probably because this Chinese based company doesn’t typically sell computers directly to consumers. Rather, it makes PCs for companies you may have heard of to sell under their own brand names. So you may never see a Malata PC-81007 in a store near you, but that doesn’t mean you won’t ever be able to pick up this 10.2 inch laptop with an Intel Atom CPU and a 4000mAh battery.

All told, Malata seems to be pumping out 7 new models with screen sizes ranging from 7 inches to 10.2 inches. Oddly, while 4 models use the 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, the other 3 sport a 500MHz AMD Geode LX800, which while cheap and energy efficient isn’t exactly a speed demon.

All of the laptops support Linux and Windows XP, and have hard drive sizes ranging from 60GB to 120G, with the exception of the PC-8802 which also comes with an optional solid state disk in capacities between 2GB and 8GB.

[via Pocketables]