Photos: New MSI Wind U100 gets much longer battery life

Remember the MSI Wind -- the netbook we nearly soiled ourselves over back in May? It's back and it's better than ever. MSI has listened to our feedback, tweaked a few things and unleashed what, on paper at least, sounds like the best netbook we've seen.

The most significant change is the new battery. Whereas the old model used a paltry three-cell unit, the new Wind benefits from a six-cell, 5,400mAh battery. Obviously, this adds a tiny bit to the overall size and weight, but you'd have to be a major pedant to hold that against it.

The new Wind lasted 3 hours 39 minutes in our classic BatteryEater test. That's a solid 102 minutes longer than the old model -- enough to watch an extra feature-length movie. With more frugal use, the new Wind is likely to achieve over 4 hours of life.

There are other new additions to the Wind. It now has a larger hard drive -- 160GB instead of the 80 or 120GB drives supplied previously. You also get high-speed 802.11n Wi-Fi, so you can connect to compatible networks at up to 300Mbps. Naturally, it can still connect to more common 802.11g networks.

MSI is aiming for a price of around £350, which seems like good value to us. In its current state, the Wind is a real contender for the best netbook ever -- it's comfortable to use, well designed, has good battery life and a good screen.

What do you reckon? Have a look at the pictures over the page then let us know in the comments below or in our forums. -Rory Reid

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