MSI officially launches U110 ECO – 9hr battery life promised

MSI has today officially launched its Wind U110 ECO netbook. Its claim to fame is a battery life of nine hours. However, the press release doesn’t make it entirely clear whether this is with the supplied 3-cell battery or optional 6-cell battery. We’d go with the latter which would not be entirely unexpected given the choice of Atom CPU (featuring Menlow platform) and LED-backlit display, saving power over an LCD equivalent.

The unit is powered by a 1.6GHz Z530 Atom CPU and Intel Poulsbo US15W chipset. What I find confusing is that the press release also points to an ATi Radeon HD3200 for graphics duty which was certainly unexpected. However given that Intel’s chipset features integrated GMA500 graphics and only two PCI Express x1 lanes, it’s a bit hard to see how this could be possible. We await to see whether this is a mistake on MSI’s part or it is indeed true.

The U110 ECO will come with 1GB RAM (2GB supported) and feature a 10-inch (1024 x 600) LED backlit panel. It will also come with a 160GB hard drive, a multi-format card reader, WiFi support (802.11b/g/n), Bluetooth 2.0, a 1.3MP webcam (2MP camera optional) and three USB 2.0 ports. With the supplied 3-cell battery the unit weighs approximately 1kg and is 33mm thick, certainly making it quite portable. Pricing and availability is yet to be announced.

Technical Specifications

Processor: Intel® Atom Processor Z530 (1.60GHz)
Operation System: Windows XP Home / Windows Vista Home Basic
Chipset: Intel® Poulsbo US15W
Graphic: Ati Mobility Radeon HD3200
Memory: DDR2 533MHz, 1 GB (By module only) (Chipset support to 2GB)
LCD: 10″ 1024×600 LCD Panel
Storage: 160GB or above (2.5″ SATA HDD)
Card Reader 4 in 1 (XD/SD/MMC/Memory Stick)
I/O: D-sub x 1 , USB 2.0 x 3 , Mic-in , Headphone, RJ45
Battery: 3 cells / 6 cells ( option)
Wireles: 802.11b/g/n, 802.11b/g, Bluetooth V2.0EDR (option), 10/100/1000 Mbps GbE LAN
Webcam: 1.3 M / 2.0M (Option)
Sound: 2 speakers
Dimension: 260*180*19-31.5mm
Weight: ~1.0 Kg (including 3 cells battery)