Welcome to this week’s netbook roundup. In this space every Monday I’ll highlight netbook news items that might not need their own individual posts but may still be interesting.

• 9 Cell Acer Aspire One battery good for nearly 9 hours If you are looking for an ugly, but effective super-battery, one has become available for the Acer Aspire One. These are third party batteries, but could give you one hour of run-time per cell (that’s 9 hours, for the math challenged).

• Need help deciding what kind of device you have? Engadget reports on a funny flow chart that will help you determine which exact category your preferred mobile computing device fits into.

• Eee PC 701 with a multitouch display Video A short video from eee-pc.de that shows an Asus Eee 701 with a capacitive multi-touch capable screen. Windows 7 is on the 701 in the video providing the software for the multi-touch demo.

• MSI Netbook Lasts 1.3 Days with Single Charge (On Saturn) Kevin C. Tofel of JkOnTheRun jokes about the endurance of the MSI Wind U115 [Portal page], but it really does last quite long. Apparently eee-pc.de has tested the U115 and was able to run it for 13.25 hours on a single charge, which is extremely impressive.

• RoBe:Do netbook-powered autonomous robots Click through for a cool video of an Eee PC powered robot making and delivering popcorn to its human owner, all initiated through twitter!

You probably caught wind (corny and probably overused, I know) of MSI’s latest U120 [Portal page] netbook, but you may not have seen a prototype at CES with a glowing trackpad. I’m not quite sure who this is supposed to appeal to, but we can at least be happy knowing that, as far as I can tell, this isn’t actually part of the U120 yet. I’ve always hated superfluous LEDs on notebooks, and this light-up trackpad is taking it just one step to far.

If they are going to make something glow, why not have a backlit keyboard? On a regular laptop, the screen is often large enough to provide the necessary light for typing in low-light situations. I haven’t found this to be true in my netbook experience. Unless you tilt to screen to shine on the keyboard (putting it at an unrealistic viewing angle) there often isn’t enough light on the keys. A backlit keyboard on a netbook might actually have some use.

The first MSI wind was considered to be one of the better netbooks out there. MSI might not be Asus in terms of new netbook announcements, but they certainly didn’t slack off when it comes to churning out an improved model. The MSI Wind U120 [Portal page], as you might recall, features (among other things) a new hybrid storage system that uses an SSD and HDD, a-la Sony VAIO TT. Engadget has a hands-on gallery from CES 09′. Take a look at some of the shots below, and head through the Engadget link for additional images.

[Engadget]

Ben reported on the new MSI netbooks recently [Not your standard cookie-cutter specs] and highlighted that MSI will use the Z530 and Poulsbo chipset, the Menlow platform, originally designed for MIDs, and not the existing netbook platform. They aren’t the first netbook devices we’ve heard about that will use this platform as the Dell Mini 12 is already out there using it but it could be that we see a lot more of these as it offers an interesting marketing possibility at a time when netbook manufacturers are trying to make their products stand out from the crowd.

LaptopMag recently interviewed MSI and asked about their decision to use the Menlow platform. The answer gives us some clues.

Why would MSI use Menlow? Part of the answer comes from MSI in the LaptopMag interview:

“Now we are going to come out with the U110 and the U115. These are similar to the past systems in size and will look like the original Wind but they utilize the Intel Atom “Menlow inch processor the Atom Z530.

The U110 and the U115 will be out in late January.  The biggest difference between these two models is their battery life. With the U110, we will deliver 8 hours of computing time; and 10 hours with the U115. Both will use a 6-cell battery.”

So it looks like the 1.6Ghz Menlow platform is attractive because of battery life. Not surprising as it offers a lower idle power and lower in-use power. Battery life is a very important differentiator. Menlow’s hardware video decoding (1080p using H.264) can be used to differentiate too but here’s something that is more interesting and you probably won’t hear any product manager talk about it in these terms. The Menlow platform goes up to 1.8Ghz and CPU speed is about the best differentiator a marketing group could hope for. In netbook quantities, I wouldn’t expect any noticeable difference in the price either. $20 at the till maybe. When your average netbook customer is standing with a Saturday sales rep. in the local electronics store and has a choice between a a Samsung NC10 at 1.6Ghz and an MSI Wind at 1.8ghz, for the same price, which one is the customer more likely to go for?

If this process works, if sales figures indicate a preference for 1.8Ghz, expect either a clock boost on the N270 CPU (which is likely of course) or, for the higher-end of the netbook market and the ultra portable notebook market, a lot more action with Menlow in 2009. From where we are sitting, it looks like Menlow could eat into even more of the traditional laptop market but if it’s a net gain for Intel, they won’t complain!

Check out the interesting interview and watch out for comments about Linux, touchscreens and a temporary HDD set-up.

Finally a breath of fresh air in an area of computing where the only major difference in products was appearance and price!

I’m really glad to see some interesting new stuff from MSI. We recently talked about the MSI Wind U120 [Portal page] which is just like the original U100 but with 3G and some increased storage options, but that isn’t very exciting is it?

Now news is spreading that MSI will be releasing two additional netbooks some time around January. The netbooks will be the U110 and U115; I’ve put the interesting things in bold:

• 1024×600 10" screen
• 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 CPU – which is a more expensive but less power hungry chip (2w) than the Atom N270 (2.5w) which is in almost every netbook you see today
• Poulsbo US15W chipset – most netbooks are using the Intel 945G. Poulsbo in combination with the Z530 CPU will make for a total chipset drain of 4.3w
• 6-cell battery
• Up to 250GB HDD for the U110
• Hybrid Storage – The U115 will feature SSD and HDD combinations. The idea is that the OS and programs can go on the smaller capacity SSD (8/16/32GB) for quick booting and program launching, then there will be plenty of room for media and other storage on the HDD (80/120/160GB). Computers such as the VAIO TZ have used a similar storage configuration. It will be important to the success of the U115 that this doesn’t consume too much power running both drives.
• Wi-Fi B/G/draft-N
• The rest is pretty common; Bluetooth, 1GB of RAM (up to 2GB on the U115), 3x USB 2.0 ports, 2.0MP webcam etc.

Like I said, all of this is new and exciting to see in a netbook. However, after reading this I can’t help but wonder how they plan on keeping the prices down. Nearly everything in this list will run the price up over current netbooks: new CPU+chipset, two storage drives, and draft-N Wi-Fi. We’ll have to wait and see but I would image the top end U115 will run you somewhere around $700 if not higher.

[Blogeee] via [Liliputing] [Electric Vagabond]

The upcoming MSI Wind U120 has been unboxed over at MSI WIND en Español. The MSI U120 is very similar to the original MSI Wind U100 [Portal page], apart from the U120’s standard larger capacity battery, larger HDD (120GB), 3G option, and color. The unboxing video isn’t terribly exciting; it seems a bit confusing that the box says "MSI Notebook" and "Wind Netbook" [my emphasis] on the very same side of the box. Head over to MSI WIND en Español to read some Google translated first impressions and see the unboxing video below.

[Liliputing]

Kevin C. Tofel over at JKotR has spent some time benchmarking the 6-cell extended battery for the MSI Wind. I have to say, I’m really impressed. Using BatteryEater, Kevin was getting 3 hours and 39 minutes running the minimum runtime test, which uses the CPU at 100% capacity until the battery dies. Running the test a 50% screen brightness, Wi-Fi on, and no Windows power management, it is easy to how a regular work load could give you nearly 5 hours of runtime. Kevin also ran BatteryEater after toggling the Wind’s ‘Turbo’ button, which cuts the CPU speed in half. Running at 800MHz, the Wind went for an impressive 4 hours and 59 minutes under full CPU strain. Kevin says that with regular usage and power management, you could hit 7 hours with the extended battery. Head over to JKotR to see the full article including a comparison to the Asus Eee 1000H.

Not Joanna Stern!

Joanna Stern, queen of netbook-land it seems, has published her full review of the MSI Wind and given it 4.5/5 on the morning that it officially launched. Good timing MSI!

The review covers pretty much every aspect of the device from design to battery life (Mmm, battery life. Why the cheap, low-cap batteries MSI? It could have been a lot better) and is the must-read if you’re considering the device, which, if the stats on UMPCPortal.com are anything to go by, is a huge number of people.

Laptop Magazine MSI Wind Review

The press release and product pages are now available.

Via Engadget.

MSI Wind details, specs and updates being added to our MSI Wind product page.