MSI Wind U100

MSI Wind U100

Published October 27, 2008 at 02:24:21 AM, by Travis Simon

Today we’ll be looking at the MSI Wind (U100) netbook. This 10” netbook sets some feature standouts at a very nice price point. It has Bluetooth, Wirless b/g/n, LED backlighting, and this model sports the hefty 6-c ell battery pack – toting it’s battery life to nearly 6 hours (3 more than the 3-cell). Of course, the standard now for Netbooks is the Intel Atom CPU - but other variables can occur. This model has 1 GB of RAM, a 160gb hard drive, and came with a nice little carrying pouch.

Design
The MSI Wind – which they’ve coined as a acronym for “Wi-Fi Network Device” is the latest Netbook offering from MSI. This 10” LCD screen netbook comes in a few different configurations and colors – our model we ordered is the “white” model (not the Love edition either which has fun little heart design all over it) and sports some decent sex appeal. The LCD bezel isn’t too large, the latchless LCD design is always a plus. There’s a simple row of LED lights to tell you the status of normal network / HDD operation and it features a unibody touchpad button (which, is something to discuss later)

The size for this netbook is similar, if not almost identical to most other netbooks out there measuring in at 10.23" x 7.08" – with the height ranging from .75” – 1.25” with the battery at the back. It’s a little larger than some, mostly due to the 6-cell battery, which also means it’s somewhat significantly heavier than some at 2.6lbs. The battery however, protrudes downwards helping in providing air circulation / heat dissipation which isn’t bad. It also raises the keyboard to a more comfortable typing angle. All good things, but the size is notably bigger, but the gains are well worth it in my opinion.

Keyboard:
The keyboard on the MSI wind is actually very tactile. It offered great travel distance and the noise was minimal. The layout is very familiar, with the only gripes coming from the crowd either not used to the function key where it is. You can’t win them all – but I have no real complaints against they keyboard. It’s a plus that it’s white as well, (not backlit) but it offered better visibility in extreme dark areas. There was some flex, but not in the amounts that would merit it bad. I did notice however that the keys in some areas were taller than others (corners, edges) and were very, very close to hitting the LCD, time will tell how wel this holds up to the abuse bloggers / travelers will put it through, but my thoughts is that it will hold well.

Display Quality:
Being LED backlit, the LCD on the MSI wind carries a 1024x600 resolution and it has a matte finish. The color push on the MSI seems to be slightly green – but more importantly, the viewing angles on the MSI Wind is amazing compared to similar netbooks. I was successful to have nearly 180 degree left to right without severe color shifting, and even though it was not glossy, the color representation was very nice. You will get darker and better “contrast” with a glossy screen (as in the Aspire One) but the tradeoffs are that it produces extreme glare, and from what I have observed, extremely limited viewing angles.

The contrast is a bit low, but that isn’t a huge concern for a netbook – as it contains no optical drive to fully take advantage of video content (although, you can watch video on it, but not optical media).

Connectivity
The MSI Wind, much with other netbooks, offers some consideration as to how you wish to use the unit for it’s connectivity installed. Most if not all netbooks offer at least one USB 2.0 port but anything after that is sort of up to the manufacturers.

On the left, you have 2 USB 2.0 ports and the poser connection.
The right houses one more USB 2.0 Port, a 4-1 card reader, microphone in, audio out, VGA out, and an Ethernet port. It’s pretty simply for exterior ports.

However, it’s sometimes whats inside that matters to most. With the Wind, this models sports the ability to connect via B/G/ or the new N standard for wireless networks. It also has Bluetooth built in – taking advantage of not using a USB port for using Bluetooth devices that might require a dongle. It’s something that I think should be on the priority of the netbook crowd – purchase one that will fit your current or future needs, not based on price alone.

Upgrading
Upgrading is possible, but not without seemingly voiding some sort of warranty. The RAM and Hard drive can be upgraded, but much further than that isn’t possible. Again, these netbooks are made for a purpose, and modifying past these thresholds often isn’t beneficial, and down right dangerous. There is a small following of how to overclock the Atom processor using software, which we will cover on a later date.

Performance
We take a different approach to testing these specialized machines and is outlined on our “How We Test page” located at http://www.laptoplogic.com/about/test/ We try to run the tests in as a controlled environment / variables as possible. But, sometimes we’re limited to the software / hardware provided. In this example, Windows XP is loaded on the machine, giving us standard benchmark programs to be run.
WorldBench 6: 33
Considering the raw power required by some of these tests, and the paltry processor and specifications provided – a score of this nature isn’t surprising, but it’s notable to see that it can do some of the intensive application test runs (although much slower) If you plan on doing heavy Photoshop or audio rendering, be prepared to either have extreme patience, or a different laptop / computer in mind.

Battery Performance
With a hefty 6 cell battery powering the 10” LED backlit netbook – this thing seemed to last for ages. Granted, not as long as the preposterous near 9 hours with the x200 – but trying to do only so little things efficiently for nearly 6 hours was tiring. I love computers, but when things go on for that long, my eyes hurt, my hands are sore, and usually I’ve got a neck cramp from being hunched over.

Maximum: Running on maximum backlighting, both wireless modes on (Bluetooth) and max volume - I managed just over 4 hours and 20 minutes of battery life.

Medium: With the backlight to 75%, Bluetooth disabled, and volume at 75% I ticked just over 5 hours and 25 minutes of real world usage.

Low: With the backlight on its lowest setting, wireless completely off, and no volume – I managed somehow to finish read that e-novel I’ve always wanted to and squeezed 6 hours and a few minutes out of it. 6 hours is a long time, make no doubts about it, I wouldn’t trade this sort of battery life on a netbook for anything, weight and size aside of it, it makes it a true road worthy companion.

DVD watching isn’t really an option since these carry no optical drives – however, you can load an image of your legal DVD onto the machine to watch, which is exactly what I did. After 5 hours and 10 minutes on full volume and full brightness, the MSI Wind went to sleep hinting that I should plug it in. That was two runs of the same movie…needless to say that if you want to watch a movie first, then do some spreadsheets and writing later on that cross country flight, you’re more than welcomed to, and probably have some battery left over when you land to check those annoying email requests you can’t handle till you get to your office anyways.

Real-life usage:
Using the MSI wind was a nice addition to my very busy life. The major gripes that come with using this device is the lag the processor sometimes inhibits when trying to multi-task some things, but that’s expected from the unit every so often with this CPU. Another gripe I have is with the touchpad – there seems to be some discrepancy of which touchpad the MSI wind will come with – some coming with the Synaptics touchpad with gesture control, and the Sentelic touchpad – which is what this unit came with. I’m not a true fan of any touchpad, although some are better than others, the touchpad on most any netbook leaves something to be desired. More so, the odd control of how the “scroll” functions work with this touchpad leave something to be either learned or adjusted to. I found it too sensitive, wary, and unmanageable at times, and at others, it worked as prescribed. An external mouse is highly recommended (Bluetooth can work out of the box with this netbook, rejoice and save a USB port!)

The screen estate at 10” was just big enough to do exactly what I wanted to do with said unit – it typed well, it showed pictures relatively well – web surfing was easy and watching the few ISO dvd’s I’ve made for such testing somewhat fun. And being that the processor is pretty thermally efficient, placing it on my lap, hand, or any odd place it seemed to do just fine. Noise was minimal on this unit (unlike some other netbooks I’ve come across with e.g Aspire One) and the fan was never more than a louder hum when things were really put to the test for the unit.

Again, when getting a netbook, look for the features it has and the battery life. I’ve opted to review the 6-cell version, and while I’m sure the 3-cell carries all the same features, it seems to be just that much more worthy of taking along instead of my 15.4” widescreen that barely creeps over 2 hours of battery life. Having Bluetooth built in, and pairing it with my cell phones data plan was a snap, and even though a tad slower than the coffee shop Wi-FI available, offered me piece of mind that I wasn’t getting snooped on (as easily anways).

The noticeable improvements can come from the webcam and speakers. The MSI Wind has the least desireable speakers in the form of netbooks I’ve heard, and the webcame was very unresponsive. Compared to the Lenovo S10, and Aspire One – the Wind’s webcam offered less detail, more motion blur, and the worst color rendition of all. This might deter those who will be using it on the road for video conferencing, but for me, was moot for the price and performance and casual use it will obtain. But it’s definitely something to consider.

Conclusion
All in all – a worthy netbook, nothing spectacular about the specs as it matches nearly every other netbook out there, but with a decent hard drive configuration, Bluetooth, Wireless N, and 6-cell options to boot. It may look dull on the outside, but it’s sometimes what’s inside that count, and for this little 10” netbook - the LED LCD with amazing viewing angles, great connectivity, and a nice keyboard all fit the bill. One thing I don’t like is if I want to add Ram, I void my warranty – come on, let’s skip the drama and let people do what they need to do. Asus learned, and I’m assuming MSI will be right behind them.

Bottom Line:
10”, LED, Bluetooth and good keyboard are the standouts on this machine. It makes a great blogging / classroom companion. Anything much more than that and you should consider something a little larger with faster components.

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Technical Specifications

• Processor: Atom 1.6gHz
• Mamory: 1 GB
• Harddrive: 160 GB
• OS: Windows XP
• Weight: 2.3 - 2.6 lbs
• Screen: 10 inches
• Screen resolution: 1024x600
• Battery Life: 5 - 6 Hours