MSI is going to launch Wind, an ultralow-cost laptop that runs on Intel Corp.’s Atom microprocessor, this June in America. The U.S. edition of Wind will come in two different versions. One will cost $549 and run Windows XP. A few things set Wind apart from competitors, including the 1.6-GHz Atom microprocessor, a larger screen size and a six-cell battery that gives it around six hours of power, according to MSI.

Wind also carries an 80GB hard disk drive instead of a flash memory-based solid-state drive. The second type of Wind will have Novell Inc.’s SUSE Linux operating system and will be priced at $399.

The Linux device shares the same screen size, hard drive and microprocessor as the first version. But it carries a three-cell battery that allows only around 2.5 hours of power and does not offer wireless data transfer using Bluetooth, which the XP device does. The Linux version also comes with less dynamic RAM and 512MB compared with 1GB for the XP laptop.Wind laptops will have many color option. Both can access the Internet via Wi-Fi 802.11b/g and sport 1.3-megapixel Webcams and three Universal Serial Bus ports.

Popularity: 2%