New Blog 1: Msi U100

Wednesday 17 October 2012

Msi U100

MSI Wind came outfitted in a pearl white chassis that's perhaps a shade or two darker than the MacBook. (Black and pink are your other options.) It feels well built and not like a cheap plastic toy like the first Eee PC we reviewed last year. Though it has a spinning hard drive, it's very quiet during operation. The underside remains cool, too, even during long computing stretches, but the wrist rest and touch pad do get warm after a spell.When news and images of the MSI Wind first popped up online in March, we thought we had seen at least a competitor and perhaps the successor to the Eee PC, Asus' Netbook that started the low-cost, low-power laptop craze last year. When the MSI Wind arrived at our offices, unboxing the pearl white Netbook did nothing to alter our thinking. This 10-inch laptop boasts a polished design along with a slightly larger screen and roomier keyboard than the 9-inch Eee PC 901. And priced at $479, it's $120 cheaper than the smaller Eee PC. Inside, the two Netbooks share very similar configurations, including the 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor. The Asus Eee PC 901 puts that extra money toward a solid-state drive and bigger battery--two items that allowed it to run for more than 3 hours longer than the MSI Wind on a single charge. (Thankfully, help is on the way; MSI will have a six-cell battery out in September for a yet-to-be-determined amount.) Though its battery life leaves a lot to be desired, the extra space the keyboard affords is greatly appreciated; after using the 10-inch Wind for a few days, we wouldn't recommend going with anything smaller. Until you can combine a 10-inch screen with a six-cell battery, however, you won't arrive at Netbook nirvana.