Published in Reviews

MSI Wind notebook starts the storm

by on30 May 2008

Index


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Review: All you can eat in 10 inches

 

MSI's Notebook version of Wind was quite promising from day one, but we were concerned that this tiny notebook looked too good on paper. We managed to get one of the first samples of Wind PC U100, and after a few days with it, we can tell you that this machine is generally better than we expected.

The test unit that we've got has a 10.2-inch display that can show respectable 1024x600 resolution. This is enough for any Web page and it will feel comfortable to type or surf. The display and the notebook are wide screen, which makes it look even bigger.

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The Wind PC notebook, branded simply as U100, has a CPU that is bigger than Neutron but smaller than Molecule, but we don't dare to tell its name before next week. The CPU, as we wrote so many times before, works at 1.6GHz and runs Windows XP really fast. It runs between 700 and 1600MHz, depending on what you do.

The machine is also equipped with 1024MB memory, but the graphics card uses a modest 16MB, whereas the rest is reserved for the system. Another positive surprise is an 80GB Western Digital hard drive, as this is really enough storage for most notebook users. There will be a version with a smaller SSD drive and a smaller screen, but we won’t talk about them today. It measures 260 width x 180mm depth x19-31.5mm hight. 
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The machine also comes with a few surprises such as three USB ports, web camera and microphone. Let’s not forget 10/100 LAN, 802.11B/G wireless and stereo bluetooth.

Let’s go from the right side. You have one USB, memory card reader that reads SD / MMC / MS cards, microphone and headphones port, VGA out and LAN port. The left hand side features two USBs a fan exhaust, power supply port and Kensington lock. The fan is very quiet and you can sometimes hear the hard drive as the machine’s fan will be almost completely silent.

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The keyboard is small but anyone who has ever worked with 12-inch notebooks won’t have problems getting used to it. I am typing this on a plane on a Wind PC notebook, so imagine that this notebook fits on the food tray in the plane and feels really comfortable. On the other hand, why not see for yourself, as the picture below shows this notebook and some food on the small food tray table, which further paints a picture of just how great this little thing is.

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The touchpad is very comfortable and nicely designed and you have bunch of LED lights that will tell you if bluetooth is on or off, is wireless on or off, whether the notebook is in sleep mode, battery indicator, caps lock, num lock, network and hard drive activity. Let’s not forget that Wind notebook U100 has two speakers that can play music quite loudly. They are positioned on the bottom side of the notebook. 

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MSI has introduced an on-screen status display that shows you what feature is on and off, and you turn things on and off by pressing the combination of FN and the desired key. You can bend the monitor by more than 90 degrees which is also nice and the brightness at lower settings looks acceptable; and it will certainly save you a lot of battery time.

The machine comes with a three-Cell battery with 24.2 Watt hours that is enough for two to three hours of work. However, battery life greatly depends on the brightness of the screen and what you’re doing.

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We tried to surf the net, connect on wireless networks, type, listen to music, publish stuff at Fudzilla, write articles and watch some YouTube videos and the machine worked just fine. It can even cope with normal divx Video. We couldn’t really try a DVD, as there is no DVD drive in this tiny machine, but you won’t really miss it. When you play DivX AVI you have to count on 20 to 30 percent CPU time, which is not that bad considering that this CPU has 4W Thermal design power. 

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There will also be a six-cell battery with 52WH capacity that should be enough for 4.30 to 6 hours, but we still don't know the price of such an option. MSI told us that a fire happened in the factory that makes the batteries in China, and therefore they couldn't send us a sample notebook with a six-cell battery. The notebook weighs approximately 1.2KG with the 3-cell battery, which is heavier than Asus Eee PC, but we don’t really mind.

The only bad part is the plastic. It doesn’t look as cheap and doesn't squeak as the one found on Asus Eee PC, and the display is far better than the 7-inch Eee PC 701 that we've seen before. However, the Wind PC casing still acts as a magnet for fingerprints. MSI needs to bundle a wiping cloth and to replace this plastic at its earliest convenience. Another good thing is that MSI changed its logo and this new one looks much more attractive than the previous one.

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The machine weights about 1.2KG with a three-Cell battery, which is quite heavy, and the power adapter is quite small.

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We managed to run a few tests and we've found out that only thing that really doesn’t run that fast on this notebook and CPU is video and audio encoding. This goes much slower than on a normal Celeron CPU.

We ran 3Dmark just for fun and scored 571 points. It is a sad score but that’s due to the ancient 945GME chipset. We believe that the chipset is the weakest link of this machine, as the chipset dissipates and needs more than the CPU. We still cannot prove this claim but we've heard that 1.6GHz CPU has TDP of 4W, while the chipset has 8W. This is simply unacceptable, but we'll have to live with it. You can guess that the next generation notebook entry level platform will end up with a better chipset.

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The CPU works between 792MHz and 1548MHz (12x132MHz) and the machine is great for a few browser windows, WordPad or word processing, picture viewer and some instant messaging programs. It is as fast as you would need and the speed won't be a problem.


Conclusion

We believe that a lot of people who never had a notebook will consider buying Wind PC U100. It is small and light, it has all you need from a notebook and it is as mobile as it gets. The battery life is not great, but it is still within acceptable levels. The 80GB Western Digital drive really helps a lot and 1GB of memory is enough for just about anything a normal notebook user might need.

Realtek W-LAN uses Windows W-LAN manager; that is a bit primitive, as it forces you to type the password twice but it works quite well. We do believe that W-LAN can and will get a bit faster, but at least it works stable in four W-LAN environments we tested.

Plastic is the biggest minus, as it leaves greasy fingerprint trails all over the small and cute case, but it’s nothing that a nice wipeoff cannot solve. From a design point, MSI deserves 9.5 of 10. We showed the machine to a dozen computer enthusiasts and non-geeks, including a few girls, and they all agree that this notebook looks great. The female part of audience said that it looks really cute, and they could imagine themselves having one.

The price of €399 for this machine will sound unreal, as it costs just €100 more than Asus Eeee PC 701 but has a much better and larger display, better CPU, more memory, a real 80GB HDD inside and more connectors. We are sure that MSI will ignite some price wars, but we were impressed by MSI Wind PC U100.

We still don’t know how you put three USBs a camera, microphone and Bluetooth in this tiny machine and still keep the price at a really acceptable level. Even the keyboard works well and feels good. As proof to this claim I wrote this article in less than an hour in the plane heading to the capital of Spain.

Wind PC notebook is as big as a paper planner, fits any, even the smallest of bags, and still packs enough power. It is as good as it gets and we will be surprised if we see anyone making anything much better than this. 

This is a perfect second machine for people that already have a desktop but really need to be mobile now and then. We can see this tiny thing as very popular in universities, as it has a student budget price and it has all the features that any student might require. This is a perfect PC to show off in a local cafe, as the ladies might actually come to you and start a conversation about your cute notebook.

We can highly recommend it to anyone who can live with a 10-inch display and really likes ultra mobility.


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Last modified on 01 June 2008
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