After Asus revealed the Eee PC back in 2007, there were bound to be some who would follow suit and release their own ultra portable notebooks. With hotspots appearing throughout cities all over the world the market is becoming ripe for cheap, ultraportable, easy to use computers to perform basic tasks.
At COMPUTEX Taipei 2008, we got flooded with a wide assortment of Eee PC competitors. The two things that most of these units had in common was the fact that they had displays larger than seven-inches and most were powered by the new Intel Atom processor. On paper, one of the most appealing offerings was the MSI Wind U100. Although it has gone through its fair share of delays, the MSI Wind is now available for mass market consumption and we had the chance to take a review unit out for an extended test drive.
The MSI Wind comes with an impressive laundry list of features for such a tiny machine. They include:
- Intel Atom N270 Processor @ 1.6 GHz1
- GB of DDR2-667 Memory
- Intel 945GSE / ICH7-M Chipset
- Integrated Intel GMA 950
- 160 GB 5,400 RPM Hard Drive
- 802.11 B/G/N and Bluetooth Wireless Networking
- 10/100 Wired Ethernet
- Realtek High Definition Audio
- 1.3 Megapixel Bezel Camera and Microphone
- 4-in-1 Memory Card Reader
- 10" Widescreen LED Display, 1024 x 600 Resolution
- 3 x USB 2.0 Ports
- VGA-out video port
- Headphone & Microphone jacks
- 10.23" x 7.08" x 0.748"-1.24" (W x D x H)
- 2.6 Pounds (w/ 6-cell battery)
- 6-Cell 5200mAh Lithium Ion MSI Wind U100 Battery
- Windows XP Home Edition (32-bit)
- Included Notebook Sleeve
So, the Wind is, in the main, the breath of fresh air we'd hoped for all along. It looks good, feels good and its ergonomics are by far the best of the mini-laptop bunch. Its pricing brings it dangerously close to fully-fledged laptops, and leaves the value-for-money crown firmly in the Acer Aspire one's possession, but for less than a quarter of the Sony VGN-TZ31's cost, you simply cannot buy a better ultraportable.
Many of the netbooks on the market are extremely small. This brings with it compromises on things like the keyboards and trackpads. The MSI Wind U100 battery has one of the better laid out keyboard designs on the market. This is great for those that are looking to potentially work on it for extended time frames. The trackpad is also of a reasonable size but they made an interesting choice for the button. Instead of two buttons, the trackpad has a single button design that is used by pressing one side or the other for the two presses. This can be confusing for many people to use.
MSI has chosen to use a 10-inch format for the Wind U100. This makes the system a bit larger than average. As mentioned they keyboard is larger because of this. The 10-inch screen is also easier to read than the normal 8.9-inch screen. In fact, their LED backlit display is one of the best available in the netbook market. Even with the larger dimensions, the Wind has relatively small dimensions. Part of this comes from the fact that it ships with a 3-cell eee pc battery to keep its weight to a low 2.3 pounds. The drawback to this is a shorter battery life.
The Wind U100-035US model comes equipped with a Windows XP Home operating system. This gives the system great flexibility in being used just like a traditional laptop with applications similar to the desktop. Because the OS requires a bit more than Linux versions, MSI includes an 80GB hard drive to store the user partition along with a recovery partition. It runs smoothly even with the 1GB of memory but it could use a bit more. While it is possible to upgrade the memory, the whole case has to be opened which voids all warranties.
Overall, the MSI Wind U100 is a good balance between features and size that make it a solid choice for those looking at a netbook.
After my hands-on time with the ASUS Eee PC 901 and the Hybrid Engine that allowed you to overclock the Intel Atom processor for a boost in power, I really wanted to see what the MSI Turbo feature could do. Those who managed to get pre-release models of the MSI Wind saw gains using it, but as luck would have it MSI pulled this feature out before it started shipping to consumers.
The FN+F10 overclocking feature is no more, and replaced with a simple "ECO feature" that switches between msi wind wu100 laptop battery saver mode at 800 MHz and normal mode which dynamically switches between 800 MHz and 1600 MHz depending on processor load.
System performance -- with great help of Intel Atom processor -- was stellar. Boot times into Windows XP were on par with many full-size notebooks, and casual use programs opened up without any lag.
The subnotebook experience is basically identical to what you would find on a regular notebook, minus the gaming or fast photo editing. Programs like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Pidgin, Word, and Excel all open up just as fast and work just as well as you would expect on a modern computer.
Items that fall into a more intensive category like Gimp, Half-Life 2, or 720p video content don't work as well. Gimp worked great for basic photo editing, but some tasks took much longer than they did on my Core 2 Duo system. Half-Life 2 and the HD video content played between 1-5 FPS and were quite horrific. The Wind just doesn't have the horsepower for really intensive activities.
The normal benchmarks I use for notebooks were thrown out of the window for the MSI Wind because of various problems associated with the platform, so I chose to use a few creative alternatives. Futuremark 3DMark03 made a short comeback, as well as FPS tests inside the original Half-Life.
