200GB Laptop HDD Announced

Creaking slowly up the scale.

Rather self explanatory title on this one but Fujitsu – not Seagate for a change – has broken a new barrier: the 200GB laptop hard drive.

No photos have been released (but come on, it’s a ”hard drive” how visually exciting can it be?) though the skinny is as follows:

200 of its very finest gigabytes arranged using perpendicular recording, a 2.5in format, 4,200RPM speed, promises of low power consumption (not specified), super quiet operation and the uninspiring name: MHV2200BT. The release date is mooted for Q3 though prices aren’t even a twinkle in the company’s eye.

As for my two cents I have to say about darn time! Hard drives are one of the few areas where notebooks still seriously trail their desktop counterparts and the gap is actually getting bigger. Given that we saw 160GB HDDs announced way back in June these piddling increases are starting to wear a little thin. Are we expected to wait another 18 months and more before we can buy a 240GB or 260GB drive?

With flash drive capacities doubling every 12 months manufacturers of the old moving parts brigade better get their act together or they’ll be getting serious competition in the next few years. 300GB using moving parts or 100GB of solid state flash? I know where I’d be spending my money…

Fujitsu UK
