Hitachi has raised the bar for 2,5" 7200rpm notebook hard disks with the introduction of it's Travelstar 7K320.  As the name suggests, the maximal capacity is 320GB, 60% more compared to it's predecessor. Hitachi also claims a performance advantage of up to 12% and 22% less power consumption (Hitachi says the power consumption will be similar to it's 5400rpm disks). 

The disk features a 3Gb/s SATA interface, can resist shocks of 400G and can also be purchased in a Bulk Data Encryption (BDE) or enhanced-availability (EA) model for 24x7 use. The drives are also available in smaller sizes, the smallest being 80GB. Full specifications are as following:

• Height: 9.5mm
• 252 billion bits per square inch maximum areal density
• 400G/2ms operating shock
• 4.2ms average latency
• 12ms average read time
• Verbuik: 1,0W idle, 0,8W low-power idle
• Serial ATA 3Gb/s, 1.5Gb/s encrypted
• 115/110 grams in weight
• Soundproduction: 2,5Bels idle, 2,8Bels actief
  

Though the EA model won't be available till the third quarter of this year, the other versions are already on the market.