A lot of companies have seen the success of the Eee PC and have taken it upon themselves to come up with something better. Some of the offerings have been pretty hokey, and so far Asus has done well to retain the lead they got by being the first to market. MSI's upcoming device has given them a bit of a scare, though, so much that they are rushing to get new units at the door. MSI's “Wind” ultra-portable is not yet for sale, but if you want to see exactly what is in store for those who want one, there's some early reviews of them floating around.

It looks as if MSI's offering is definitely nothing to shrug at, with a good aesthetic appearance, a compact size that doesn't restrict typing too much, nice specifications and apparently a decent battery life. What the article brings out that I find most interesting is the “re-introduction” of the Turbo button. Rare but not unknown, this button will give the CPU a speed boost or a speed drop, both offsetting battery life. Apparently while sitting idle, the machine is capable of over 7 hours runtime – if you can believe the battery meter in Windows XP, that is.

The unit doesn't look much like you'd expect an “ultra-portable” to be, and resembles more closely an actual laptop. Price and size considering, it appears it offers a lot more value per dollar than the Eee PC does now. I look forward to seeing it in action.