This is certainly surprising – some European sites have gotten their hands on some pre-release models of the upcoming 10-inch MSI Wind U115. That part isn’t surprising (although it’ll be a while before it hits the US). The surprising part is the battery life.
These sites are reporting around 13-15 hours of battery life.
Keep in mind, there are some things that differentiate the MSI Wind U115 from other netbooks in it’s class.
It’s got an Intel Atom Z530 (1.6GHz like the N270), however unlike the N270, it’s Thermal Design Power (TDP) rating is 2W, as opposed to the 2.5W of the N270. 20% difference right there, but other netbooks are using Z530, such as the 10-inch Dell Inspiron Mini 10.
Just as important (possibly more), it’s got two different drives for storage. It’s got a conventional/mechanical 160GB (2.5″ SATA) drive for data storage. More importantly, it’s got an 8GB Solid State Drive (SSD) for the operating system and other applications. That’s going to reduce the heat somewhat, but also the battery requirements. It can apparently turn off the 160GB HDD when it’s not needed, which saves on battery life.
EEE-PC.de mentions that they were able to get 13 hours with the 6-cell 5200mAh battery (a higher-capacity battery than most devices in this class offer). nvision (a Polish site) claims between 5.5 – 15 hours, depending on use.
There are also several pictures detailing the interior of the U115. As liliputing points out, it looks like most of the normal options that people like to upgrade can be upgrading, including both the SSD and HDD (and as they mention, it’ll probably void your warranty).
Read:
– EEE-PC.de (German) (translated – English)
– nvision (Polish) (translated – English)
via liliputing