Complementing the US launch of the U123, MSI today started supplying the Wind U115 Hybrid to UK shops. The netbook is the company's first system to use Intel's Atom Z500 line and uses a 1.6GHz example of the lower-powered chip along with a unique hard drive and solid-state drive combo to extend battery life. Unofficial tests show the system lasting as long as 13 hours on its standard 6-cell battery and 25 hours on a 9-cell pack.

The newer Intel mainboard chipset also gives the new Wind hardware decoding of H.264, MPEG-2 and VC-1 videos without significantly burdening the processor. It has 1GB of RAM and uses a 160GB hard drive for most of its storage, with the 8GB solid-state drive holding just the essentials.

Pricing in Britain varies but currently sits between £450 and £500 ($716 and $796) depending on the retailer. MSI plans to bring the U115 to the US but hasn't set a definitive release date. [via Netbook Choice]