MSI this afternoon said it has started shipping the X-Slim X340 within the US. The ultraportable initially surfaces in a single, $900 spec ($800 at Amazon) with a CULV (Consumer Ultra Low Voltage) 1.4GHz Core 2 Solo for its processor, 2GB of RAM and a 320GB hard drive. 802.11n Wi-Fi, a 1.3-megapixel webcam and Bluetooth are equally stock, as is a 4-cell battery. MSI doesn't provide an estimate for battery life but says the Intel chip uses a sixth the energy of a regular notebook and so doesn't need a larger battery pack.

Even so, MSI offers an 8-cell battery as an option and also provides the choice of the 13.4-inch system in either black or silver. Several online retailers should already have the X340 in stock; readers are invited to look at our CTIA hands-on for a quick preview of the notebook.