14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that another one of the netbooks that MSI was said to be working on has surfaced. After the U130 and U135 netbooks from the Wind series were officially introduced by the hardware maker, MSI is now confirming the Wind U160. Engadget fellows managed to score a few pictures of the rather glamorous laptop and even to confirm that it would be introduced in January at the Consumer Electronics Show.
The pictures aren't exactly as revelatory as a data sheet or a spec list might be but one can still make out the design ups and downs and some of the I/O options. The product appears to be equipped with a Chiclet keyboard and the border between the palmrest and the touchpad is blurred, with the latter only noticeable thanks to the raised dots.
No details were given on the specifications, although they will likely not be all that different from those of the U130 and U135 (although actual specs haven't been totally disclosed for them either). The U160 likely has 160GB or 250GB storage and 1GB RAM, but its design and use of the 1.66GHz Atom N450 outrule any major difference from the other Pineview laptops introduced so far (such as Dell's or HP's).
There is a certain feature of the device that may still stupefy end-users. MSI claims that its laptop will be able to last on battery power for as long as ten hours. While this claim may sound rather optimistic, such a long battery life is possible as implied by the recently Pineview-fed Dell Inspiron Mini 10 mobility bundle, which has an alleged battery life of up to 9.5 hours.
As with the other netbooks, as well as with the as-of-yet unconfirmed Wind U140, the actual product launch will be made at CES 2010. Still, even though actual details on the device are scarce, MSI did reveal its current price. The Wind U160 will be available for $350.
