MSI Wind U115 gets a UK launch date and price

MSI may have announced the Wind U115 netbook with a combination hard drive and solid state disk back in January. But while we’ve seen the netbook unboxed, tested, and dissected some details have been hard to come by. Like the price and release date. Now Hexus is reporting that MSI will begin shipping the Wind U115 in the UK in May for a whopping £499. That’s the equivalent of $731 US, which seems like a lot of money for a netbook that isn’t really all that different from the Wind U120, which you can pick up for $330.

What the Wind U115 does provide is excellent battery life. The computer uses a low power 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 CPU. And thanks to its somewhat unique storage solution, the operating system and your core program files can hang out on the solid state disk and you can power down the hard drive when you’re not using it. MSI says the netbook should run for up to 12 hours on a charge with a single 6 cell battery. And while that’s pretty impressive, once you pass the 8 hour mark, I think a lot of people are happy. And you can already get 8 hours of battery life out of several netbooks that are selling for close to half the price of the U115, including the Asus Eee PC 1000HE which sells for under $400 and the upcoming Samsung N110 which will likely go for between $440 and $500.

But it’s always possible that MSI is suggesting a retail price of £499 and leaving it up to retailers to mark the computer down to a more reasonable price.

You can read more about the MSI Wind U115 in the Liliputing Product Database.

Posted on Thursday, April 2nd, 2009, 11:04 am by Brad Linder

Justyn

“once you pass the 8 hour mark, I think a lot of people are happy”.

I know what you mean by this, but I disagree. OK, I know it's just semantics really

I think the threshold is really at the point where you can use the netbook for a full day and not bother to have the charger with you. Like you don't take your phone charger with you when you go somewhere for the day.

While the NC10 etc can manage 8 hours you have to keep the power supply with you if you're going to be using it a lot of the day, because it could well last only, say, 5 hours, depending on what you're using it for.

So if the U115 really can squeeze out 12 hours, but several hours less during a day with sporadic periods of heavier use, we're probably very close to the point whereby any extra battery life would always go unused in one day.

It's at that point that I think most people will stop caring if battery life is any longer.

I'm looking forward to the point when you only ever charge your netbook at night!
Philip

UK prices are always high, if/when it comes to the US just go ahead and replace the £ with a $ and you have a much better estimate of the price… for example the 1000HE is £330 – £400 and the Samsung N110 looks like it will be about £400 still on the expencive side i suppose but the others have been out for a while and when released were more expencive
Pingback: MSI Wind U115 Coming to the UK in May | MSI Wind News and Reviews
Justyn

“once you pass the 8 hour mark, I think a lot of people are happy”.

I know what you mean by this, but I disagree. OK, I know it's just semantics really

I think the threshold is really at the point where you can use the netbook for a full day and not bother to have the charger with you. Like you don't take your phone charger with you when you go somewhere for the day.

While the NC10 etc can manage 8 hours you have to keep the power supply with you if you're going to be using it a lot of the day, because it could well last only, say, 5 hours, depending on what you're using it for.

So if the U115 really can squeeze out 12 hours, but several hours less during a day with sporadic periods of heavier use, we're probably very close to the point whereby any extra battery life would always go unused in one day.

It's at that point that I think most people will stop caring if battery life is any longer.

I'm looking forward to the point when you only ever charge your netbook at night!
Philip

UK prices are always high, if/when it comes to the US just go ahead and replace the £ with a $ and you have a much better estimate of the price… for example the 1000HE is £330 – £400 and the Samsung N110 looks like it will be about £400 still on the expencive side i suppose but the others have been out for a while and when released were more expencive
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MSI Wind U115 gets a UK launch date and price

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