Details on MSI's micro-notebook

At CeBIT, MSI presented a future competitor to the Eee PC called "Wind" but did not provide many details. The Taiwanese firm has now fleshed out the project details. Customers will be able to choose from an 8.9-inch or a 10-inch screen. Both will have a resolution of 1024 x 600 and LED backlighting to lower power consumption and help make the device lighter and smaller. The keys will be 17.5 mm wide, larger than many sub-notebooks. The unit will also have a 2.5-inch hard drive with 80 GB. It will weigh 1 kg. Depending on the specs, Wind will be sold for €299 to €699 with Windows XP installed. It is not clear when it will be available in the UK.

HP has also started selling its ultra compact 2133 Mini-Note PC online from its US website. There, the least expensive unit starts at $499 with Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10, a 4 GB solid-state drive instead of a hard drive and a VIA C7M 1 GHz processor with a 400 MHz FSB. For $849, the top of the 2133 Mini-Note PC range comes with Windows Vista Home Basic 32, a 160GB 5400 rpm SATA hard drive amd a VIA C7M 1.2 GHz processor with a 800 MHz FSB. The 8.9 inch diagonal WXGA display has an unusual resolution of 1280 x 768 pixels at 168 ppi with a 15:9 aspect ratio. HP say the keyboard is 92 per cent full-size with a key width of 16.5 mm.

(trk)