MSI revealed the U115 Hybrid Netbook on Monday, which uses a solid-state disk jointly with a hard-disk drive for extra storage. The U115 Hybrid features an “ECO on” mode to temporarily shut off the hard drive for extending battery life, as solid-state drives are generally more power efficient. MSI claims that the U115 Hybrid’s battery life is “super-long”, but has not yet specified the actual estimated battery life. The U115 Hybrid has the following standard features as well as a few options to choose between:
- a 10-inch screen with a resolution of 1,024×600 pixels
- 1.6GHz Z530 Intel Atom processor
- Windows XP Home
- 1GB DDR2 522MHz RAM
- Bluetooth
- three USB 2.0 ports
- 1.3-megapixel or 2.0-megapixel webcam
- three- or six-cell battery
- 802.11b/g/n or 802.11b/g Wi-Fi
- 120GB HD with an 8GB SSD or a 160GB HD with a 16GB SSD
The netbook weighs in around 2.2 pounds with the three-cell battery. Pricing and release details were not specified in the release. If the price is right, this could make the list of potentials for my first netbook. Otherwise, I’ll just buy a cheap SSD netbook and use my external HDD for extra storage.