Mobinnova shows off Beam Netbook running Android

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010...4:05 pm

You’ll remember, the Mobinnova Beam is an 8.9 inch smartbook that uses NVIDIA’s Tegra platform. NVIDIA and Mobinnova have been showing off the Beam for months, but it’s yet to hit the streets. We do know that when it ships, it will be available with either Windows CE or Google’s upcoming Android OS but up until now, we’ve only seen prototypes running Windows CE. Now Laptop Magazine’s Mark Spoonauer has spent some hands-on time with a Mobinnova Beam netbook running Google Android.

Unfortunately, outt of the box, the Android version of the Mobinnova Beam won’t be able to download applications from the Android Market, but Mobinnova does plan to load some video games that will take advantage of Tegra’s 3D graphics capabilities. The device will also support 1080p HD video, and will offer a video download service via CinemaNow.

Still no word on the pricing or availability, but there’s a good chance we’ll eventually see the Mobinnova Beam offered at subsidized prices by mobile broadband providers.