MSI X600 Ultra Slim Laptop To Cost £599

MicroStar International or MSI has announced that the extremely slim X600, the company's competitor to the MacBook Air, will be available in the UK for £599 by the end of the month.

The laptop is the slimmest ever released by the company and even at 2.1Kg, looks quite stylish. Measuring 9mm at its thinnest, the X600 bulges to 25mm at its thickest. The X600 is also the lightest 15-inch notebook ever released.

The entry level model comes with a ULV SU2700 processor, 3GB RAM and a 320GB hard disk drive whereas the more expensive version has 4GB RAM, a 500GB HDD, an Intel CULV SU9600 and an optical drive for £200 extra.

Central to the X600 is a 15.6-inch LCD screen - that's a full 2.3-inch bigger than the 13.3-inch of the MBA - which can show 1366x768 pixels (although there are reports saying that the screen will display 1680x1050 pixels).

The Graphics subsystem will be handled by a 512MB ATi Mobility Radeon HD 4330 dedicated card. The rest of the specifications is pretty standard; Wireless N, Vista Home Premium (ed: does it include free Windows 7 upgrade?), six-cell battery as standard, 1.3-megapixel webcam and HDMI out.