On the other side of the world, MSI showed off its latest 11.6-inch notebook, the U270, which, according to the company, runs AMD’s new 1.6-GHz Zacate processor.
The Zacate chip combines a low power CPU with high performance integrated graphics capable of handling HD video, 3D gaming, and other tasks that you would normally need a discrete graphics card to handle. The folks at Netbook News got a chance to check out the U270 at an event in Taipei, but the laptop will also make an appearance in Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show next week.
Besides the 1.6GHz “Zacate” which includes dual CPU cores, graphics processor, and HD video decoder on a single die, the “Brazos” platform-based Wind U270 features a 11.6-inch 1366 x 768 display, 4GB of RAM, and a 320GB hard drive.
Additional hardware include up to 4GB of RAM, a 320/500GB hard drive, integrated graphics (the DirectX 11-supporting Radeon HD 6310), and SD card slot, D-Sub and HDMI outputs, as well as an USB 3.0 port, which is quite impressive, given the fact that, after all, we're talking about a fairly low-power portable computing solution.
MSI's laptop also makes use of the ECO power-saving technology, which, coupled with the rather impressive power-saving capabilities provided by the Brazos platform, should make for a device offering quite an impressive functioning life.
It's interesting to note that the Brazos platform seems to gain more and more traction, with an increasing number of ultra-portables featuring this APU being tipped before CES, and we're actually quite sure that we'll see even more designs make an official appearance during the Las Vegas trade show.
Features and Specifications
• 11.6-inch display with resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels
• Powered by AMD Brazos platform
• 1.6GHz Zacate accelerated processing unit
• A large touchpad, & Chiclet keyboard
• 1.3 megapixel web camera
• 4GB of RAM
• 320GB/500GB hard drive
• Radeon HD 6310 graphics
• DirectX 11 API support
• D-Sub and HDMI interface
• SD card slot
• Card reader
• USB 3.0 port
• ECO power-saving technology
