MSI’s Wind U100 has earned quite a few admirers in PC Pro’s offices, but if there’s one thing lacking from it and all the current crop of netbooks, it’s integrated 3G. 

Right on cue, MSI have just sent us a few shots of their forthcoming Wind U120, which will be officially launching in January. Draft-N and HSDPA 3.5G will be integrated as standard, and we presume the rest of the specification will be the usual netbook fare. So you can expect an Atom N270 processor, 1 or 2 gigabytes  of memory and probably a 120GB hard drive as a bare minimum given MSI’s propensity towards mechanical disk drives in their notebooks. We have a gut feeling that it might even be the first netbook in the range to sport Intel’s forthcoming N330 Dual-Core Atom processor.

We’re pleased to see that the slightly boring, curvaceous form of the original Wind has been supplanted by a more angular, stylised two-tone design – perhaps in an attempt to inject a bit of a much-needed style into the netbook blueprint, in a similar vein to the Asus’ S101. 

Ergonomically, the U120 looks like it shares its predecessor’s keyboard, but those aggravated by the U100 single, rockable mouse button will be pleased to see that it seems to have been replaced by two discrete buttons.

Casting an eye around the U120’s chassis reveals 3 USB ports, 2 audio minijacks, VGA and an Ethernet port. Whether MSI’s newest arrival has any more surprises up its sleeve, we’ll just have to wait and see. Rest assured, we’ll be pestering MSI for a first hands-on look on an aggravatingly regular basis.  But, until then, you’ll just have to feast your eyes on the rest of the press shots below.