In a press release last week, Fujitsu announced a 160GB 2.5" 4200RPM Laptop Hard Drive, a world's first. Using a SATA interface for newer laptops, the MHV2160BT is a monster. Large laptop hard drives in everyday use are becoming more and more common, as demand for space increases and the use of laptops as desktop replacements increases as well. Laptop hard drives being used as carry-around USB drives is fairly common as well, and for the cost of a 40GB IDE 2.5" drive and a USB adapter, you have a pocket-sized USB drive with more space than any flash device can give you. With 60GB and 80GB the most common sizes for new laptops and 120GB from Seagate and Toshiba around the corner, 160GB is something to be impressed by. Although the slow spindle speed would be a detriment to performance, the platter density increases and thus performance is helped by this, giving it a balance.
The drive uses an average amount of power for a laptop HDD and the press release makes no indication to the size of the on-drive cache. It supports NCQ, something desired in laptop drives, and should be appearing in the market as early as October 2005.