MSI Press Release Details MSI Wind Notebook Pricing [MSI 10” Wind Goes For Asus Eee PC’s Jugular]

With Computex now well and truly in full swing, as expected, it seems that the mini/micro notebook war is heating up what with Acer just announcing their Aspire One, Dell seemingly set to announce their new Mini Inspiration, Asus officially unveiling their Eee PC 901 and Eee PC 1000/H models and now MSI playing what is undoubtedly somewhat of an ace card in choosing to announce pricing details concerning its MSI Wind 10” display micro notebook – and, you have to hand it to MSI, as they’re obviously intent not only on taking the game to Asus, but on taking no prisoners.

Proudly billed as the ‘the first 10” notebook to feature the speedy new Intel Atom 1.6GHz processor’, MSI’s Wind measures in at 10.23″ x 7.08″ x 0.748″ yet sports a keyboard ‘only 20% smaller than of a full sized keyboard’ which, in terms of size, is actually smaller than both Asus’s Eee PC 1000/H and HP’s Mini-Note which both boast 92% standard notebook sized keyboards. (We should point out at this juncture, for those uninitiated with the battle taking place, that, apart from the employment of an Atom processor, the following, seemingly contradictory elements are key points in the micro notebook wars: over all device size (the smaller the better), display size (the bigger the better, whilst not at the expense of overall device size) and the closer the keyboard is in terms of size to that of a standard notebook the better (but, once again, not to the determent of overall device sizing). You can now take a breath whilst we attempt to slip out of these brackets).

Battery life, another major point of conflict in the current micro notebook wars, is stated as being just 5.5 hours (by way of comparison, Asus claim that the Eee PC 901 and Eee PC 1000/H offers up to 7.5hrs (as yet unconfirmed independently) whilst Acer’s newly announced Aspire One, according to Acer’s press release, offers up to 6hrs).

Memory-wise, The MSI Wind offers up to 1GB of RAM (XP version) which is the same as its main competitors, and, of course, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth and an integrated webcam are all present and correct as well as a series of colour options in the form of the usual suspects: black, white and of course, pink.

So we come to the all important pricing (yet another key frontline in the micro notebook wars).

MSI state that their XP powered Wind will retail for just shy of $500 whilst the Linux model will resale at around $400 with the former becoming available from June 16 and the Linux version following later in the summer, which sits in the same ballpark, pricing wise as Acer’s Aspire One. Quite how this will compare with Asus’s new Eee PC 901 and Eee PC 1000/H remains a mystery at the time of writing, however, as Asus have not yet seen fit to offer pricing details – that said, if rumours are to be believed, the new Eee’s will be somewhat more expensive.

We strongly suspect that Asus may be revising the previously intended (rumoured) price points for both their new Eee PC’s accordingly following MSI’s announcement and the Wind’s pricing being announced. That said, we are still awaiting Dell’s unveiling of their new Mini Inspiration which could just perhaps spice thing up still further.

Interesting times lay ahead and, allowing for the fact that there’s only one of me, TFTS will try to cover events as and when they unfold in all their glory.