It feels like every man and his dog is making an EEE clone these days and it makes sense. Cheap, light and small laptops are the future of portable computing and Microstar International (MSI) are entering the fray with their somewhat amusingly named “Wind”.

Somewhat bigger than the Asus EEE and with more customisation options, it incorporates either an 8 inch or a 10 inch TFT screen and a decent looking keyboard.

It looks like it will be based on the Intel Shelton platform, with processor speeds ranging from 1GHz to 1.5GHz, 1Gb of RAM and a choice of solid state or conventional hard drive storage. It will support (and presumably ship with) Linux or Windows and battery life is claimed to be around 7 hours, although that sounds somewhat optimistic.

While still a prototype MSI has been showing off several differently coloured versions, all of which look pretty good and will likely reflect the usual high MSI quality.

Prices are anticipated to range from £250 for the cheapest model up to £550 for the all singing and dancing one.

Frankly, I can’t wait!

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