MSI offers Wind netbook with better batteries

Micro-Star International will later this month offer a new version of its Wind mini-laptop with a far better, six-cell battery than the one currently on offer.

People will still be able to buy a model with a three-cell lithium-ion battery inside, which is lighter than the six-cell model at 2.3 pounds (1 kilogram) versus 2.6 pounds (1.18 kilograms), but the six-cell battery offers potentially far better life. A three-cell laptop PC battery normally provides around 2 to 3 hours of battery life, depending on how the laptop is used and on what settings. A six-cell battery can offer 4 to 7 hours of runtime. The model with the six-cell battery will cost a bit more.

[ For more on products in the hot mini-notebook category, check out our hands-on looks at Asus' Eee PC 901 and 1000, the Cloudbook Max netbook, Elitegroup's G10IL mini-laptop, MSI's Wind low-cost laptop, Giga-byte's M912X mini-laptop, and Acer's Aspire one. ]

The company's main rival in netbooks, Asustek Computer and its Eee PCs, made six-cell batteries standard on its newest lineup of the devices, launched during Computex in June. Asus executives said that with energy savings from the Atom microprocessor on board, as well as other power-saving techniques, it was able to glean as much as 8 hours of runtime on the devices.

Battery life is important to the new category of netbooks coming out. The new breed of mini-laptop is designed for mobility, normally weighing around 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds), with 7-inch to 10-inch LCD screens, and able to connect wirelessly to the Internet via Wi-Fi or 3G networks. They are also less expensive than the average notebook PC, at between $199 and $599. The longer battery life increases their mobility by freeing people from plugs.

The new Wind laptops coming available in August will also add pink to the current lineup of black and white colors.

MSI's Web site also finally acknowledges a version of Wind carrying a Novell's Suse Linux OS instead of Windows XP. People searching for the mini-laptop will have to turn to page two on the Web page to have a look. Unfortunately, it appears the Wind-Linux will come with a three-cell battery instead of the six-cell batteries on the devices coming out in August.

Previously, the Linux version of Wind was not on the company's Web site.