Today Seagate took the wraps off of their first hybrid notebook hard drive featuring a combination of standard hard drive storage and Flash memory. The Momentus 5400 PSD features only a 5400 rpm spindle but promises faster system response times along with extended notebook battery life and better storage reliability. We’ve seen hybrid drives like these in the past with Samsung and Hitachi, and improved speed and efficiency through this type of storage combo is likely to be the standard in coming years.

The 2.5 inch drive utilizes 256MB of Flash-based memory for storing data that’s frequently accessed providing a quicker responses and through this also requires less drive disk access, cutting the power consumption of the drive more than in half. Having the additional quick-access memory also aids in faster OS boot times according to the company.

The drive comes in 80GB, 120GB and 160GB capacities all with the 256MB of flash memory and connects to notebooks through a standard Serial ATA connection. No word on stand-alone pricing of the drives as of yet.

Seagate Momentus 5400 PSD (pdf)