MSI Wind U100 Mini Laptop Review
Netbooks, also known as the mini notebooks or the ultra portables, have been the latest trend among people, and especially among the businessmen. Netbooks are a miniaturised version of the laptops, and are mainly used for quick computer works and web related applications. These are mainly used for accessing the internet. Almost all the electronic giants in the market have produced these themselves. As these have a great demand in the market at present, few companies have cropped up in view of their production. One of such companies is the MSI.
MSI, which stands for Micro Star International, has now announced the advent of its latest netbook, the MSI Wind U100. Wind stands for Wi-Fi Network Device and this has been named so because the main purpose of it is accessing the internet. This one, as most of the netbooks, is cheap in price and effective in performance. It is actually a competitor for Asus’ Eee PC. But this has better screen, cuter design, a better and a bigger keyboard and longer battery life. But it has stronger competitors in front of it to beat, such as HP’s Mini notebook, Acer’s Aspire One and many others. To know whether it can withstand the competition, we need to have a look at it and examine the whole of it; read the following review to know the facts for yourself.
Design:
Slim with better input controls:
Just like any other netbook, the MSI Wind U100 is very small and cute. It looks belittled due to its rounded corners and nice design. Wind U100 comes out in five striking colours of red, blue, pink, black and snowy white. Starting with the visual side of the things, if you think that the white model looks good, the grandly titled ‘Empire Black’ model looks even better. With its dimensions being (W x D x H) 10.23 x 7.08 x 1.24 inches, it is certainly quite a slim netbook and, it weighs only 1.18 kg, which is far lesser when compared to the other laptops, that weigh almost twice of this one. The design is one of the more interesting aspects of the netbook. It is almost perfectly engineered to make it look very stylish and professional. Of course, it is still glossy, and so, the fingerprints will be a problem, but the shiny finishing seems to be almost inevitable on the netbook of these days. Though there is no cleaning cloth provided, the MSI does give you a rather nice zipped case, with a fake leather exterior and soft fleece lining from the inside.
Built Quality:
Once you open the piano black lid of the nettop, you will find that the MSI logo is now off-white and the interior of the notebook is thankfully of matte black finishing. However, marks from sweaty or greasy hands will be still visible on the palm rest of the touchpad. The built quality, as in the case of its predecessor is decent enough, though the wind’s lid tends to wobble a little bit for a few seconds after you open it, and this does not inspire as much confidence in the hinge as the Eee PC’s more stable and considerably larger version. This is highly unlikely to be a problem if you are careful, which is necessitated anyway by the mechanical hard drive that is more vulnerable to the life’s bumps and scrapes than a solid state drive. Essentially, however, in terms of looks, nothing much has changed apart from the colour and a bit of that added bulk that creates a slight tilt to the machine. As you must have guessed, this bulk is mainly because of the larger battery, which is a six cell model rather than the former three cell packs that the previous Winds were endowed with. This also gives the MSI theoretical parity with the Eee PC 901 and 1000.
Display:
The 10 inch display of Wind U100 is better than that of the 8.9 inch one and is more comfortable for viewing. The screen is a bit heavier than normal and the unit actually lifts itself off the ground a bit when the screen is tilted back too far. The TFT LCD display backlit with LED is bright with vibrating colours and the display it produces is quite outstanding for a netbook. The viewing angles are so great that it looks almost the same from different angles, and the shifts are too small to bother viewing. The screen resolution is 1024 x 600 pixels and the overall display is very good.
Keyboard and Trackpad:
The keyboard of MSI Wind U100 is a bit broader than normal and is quite comfortable for typing. The traditional notebook is comparatively uncomfortable for typing as the panel is very small and so are the keys. But this one is almost perfect. Unfortunately, the Fn key is still located on the outside of Ctrl, but aside from that it provides a pleasant typing experience. The touch pad is pretty smooth and has a good feel. At the bottom right of the front bezel, there is a series of lights that indicate whether the respective option is enabled or disabled. In order from right to left, they are the Hard disk activity LED, the scroll lock toggle, the Num lock toggle, the Caps lock toggle, battery charging, sleep mode indicator, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth light. These lights are more in number than any other netbook. We are certainly pleased with the overall design of the nettop.
Ports:
The connectivity of the MSI Wind U100 Mini Laptop is identical to its predecessor. There is a card reader available, a four- in -one type. This card reader is compatible with SD, MMC, MS and MS Pro; hence, this is a multi-purposeful card reader. There are also three USB 2.0 ports available for data synchronisation. There are two headphone jacks, one for input and one output. There is also a facility for the connection of a cable to connect the netbook to either a monitor or a projector. The netbook also sports ports for the 15- pin graphics card output, for the Microphone, a line- in port and a LAN port. All these ports are pretty much necessary for a netbook as it needs connections to various external sources for data syncing.
Features:
The MSI Wind U100 is loaded with abundant features. Let us have a look at each one of them in detail.
Processor:
The MSI Wind is powered by Intel Atom N270 processor of 1.6 GHz frequency. This is a common feature in most of the present day’s netbooks and laptops. But this processor is a single core Diamondville type, which is one of the fastest and the best processor available for netbooks. Your applications run faster and with almost no problems with this processor. For a netbook, the 1.6 GHz processor is more than enough and so everything runs smooth. The Intel 945GSE¬+ ICH7M chipset is also a special feature that pacifies the system and its programs. A chipset is like a communicator between the motherboard and the external drives. So, the better the chip, better the communication and hence, better the performance.
Operating System:
The conventional MSI Wind U100 Netbook Computer features Microsoft Windows XP, but the latest versions of these netbooks are featuring Microsoft Windows 7 Starter edition. This operating system makes your system look lively and adds a feather to its cap.
Memory:
Some of the netbooks are almost equivalent to the laptops when it comes to the HDD capacity and RAM. Particularly, the MSI Wind is a very good performer. As discussed earlier, with the Intel Atom processor, you would expect the best performance and least problems. The 1GB internal memory is just enough for a netbook as there would be no applications that request for higher memory; and it is just the maximum amount of memory that Microsoft allows to have Windows XP loaded onto the machine. With a Hard Disk Space of about 160GB, it is not only double the capacity of the previous Wind, it is also the highest capacity hard drive of notebook we have yet reviewed, so those consumers after as much storage space as possible should find this Wind to their liking. The Hard drive is DDR2 SODIMM type and of 667 Hz frequency.
Software Bundle with MSI Wind U100:
On the software side of the things, this MSI Wind offers an odd mix of software, that is not particularly well tailored to a notebook. For instance, the only productivity software that is available is a trial version of the MS Office 2007, but you are stuck with the Internet Explorer 6 and Media Player 9, rather than the more recent replacements, unless you make an initiative to download the new versions yourself. This is accompanied by the optional installations of Norton Internet Security 2008 and the Cyberlink DVD suite and it is just as well they are optional as their use on a netbook is arguable.
For the sake of comparison, the Eee PC 1000H which also uses the Windows XP comes preloaded with the Windows Live Suite of Software that includes Windows Live Mail for POP mail, Live Messenger for instant messaging, Live Photo Gallery for image viewing and basic editing and Live Writer and Microsoft works for productivity and Star Office. Of course, except for the Microsoft Works, everything else can be downloaded for free anyway, but given the fact many of the consumers buying netbooks these days are not as familiar with such things, it is definitely an oversight on MSI’s behalf.
Connectivity:
The only other upgrade this version of the Wind has over its sibling is Wireless-N, so there is potential for slightly faster and longer range wireless internet provided you have a compatible router. Unfortunately, for all those who were hoping optional HSDPA would be part of the refresh, it is still not available. The internet features in the netbook are suffice and interesting. There is a built-in 10/100 LAN and a built-in 802.11 b/g or 802.11 b/g/n WLAN card. With all these cards, the internet access is very good and you can always connect your netbook to the internet connection in a Wi-Fi hotspot or any other network port available in your vicinity. The most advantageous fact is that the netbook access the web without many problems or any delay. Even browsing the internet is not slow and does not lead to hanging of the system. The Bluetooth facility is also not very uncommon nowadays. But this Bluetooth is better than most of the other nettops when it comes to performance.
Webcam:
The 1.3Mp webcam takes pictures of resolution 640 x 480 pixels. These pictures, though a bit scaled down, are still very good for a webcam.
Audio:
As before, the speakers are nothing special, any kind of serious music listening or movie watching requires as the use of headphones.
Performance:
The performance of MSI Wind U100 10″ Laptop Computer well compliments its range of features. Its configuration is pretty decent and mainly, the processor and the memory part of it were good. The ports are very good in number. The internet connection is very good as it needed to be. The LAN ports and the WLAN cards help the performance of the internet connectivity improve. Particularly, the wireless internet and the LAN are one of the main attractions of this model. They perform well even under mediocre LAN strength. The 64 MB graphics card is minimal but as it is a mini notebook, there would not be much work for the graphics card since there would not be high end gaming on this. Everything else is fine and you can expect a very good netbook with a tag of good performance from MSI.
Battery:
The battery is naturally a lithium ion polymer type. This one is 2200 mAh battery and gives you at the most two and a half hour battery life time for a six cell type battery. The battery may vary with region also. In some region there is a 5200 mAh type battery and that one gives you a battery life of about five and a half hours. One thing you will notice with the MSI Wind is that there is an option to even decrease the battery life. It also features a turbo button that, when enabled, can further decrease the battery life in order to increase the performance. This is a bit silly to hear because you generally associate minimum battery consumption when there is the Intel Atom processor. Also, this option works only if the netbook is working on the battery power.
Warranty and Service:
MSI offers a limited warranty period of 1 year for parts and labour. Along with the warranty, there is also support over the phone from the technicians, in order to solve minute problems. This facility is available only between Monday and Thursday.
Verdict:
So there you have it. The new version of MSI’s Wind is identical to the old one, except you’re getting a 160GB HDD, Wireless-N and of course that all-important six-cell battery for nearly five hours of frugal use. It is a beauty when it comes to the design and the 10” 1024 x 600 screen gives very little reason to complain, with a nice anti-glare finishing, decent viewing angles, pleasing levels of brightness and a text reproduction that is very sharp and easy to read. It is a bit low on cost and hence very affordable, particularly to the students, as they are the primary users of these netbooks. The design is cute and the display is very good with great viewing angles. The features are fine and a few of them are very unique in their own terms. The overall performance is fine and the battery life is reasonable. This netbook may not be the right one for business professionals, but it is a very handy tool for students. Overall, it is an affordable one if you want to go with a cheaper netbook.
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MSI Wind U100 Mini Netbook – Technical Specification Table
| Manufacturer | Micro Star International |
| Model Name | MSI Wind U100 |
| Series | Wind |
| DIMENSIONS AND DISPLAY | |
| Dimensions ( W x D x H) | 10.23 x 7.08 x 1.24 inches |
| Weight | 1.18 kg |
| Available colours | Red, Blue, Pink, Black and White |
| Display type | TFT LCD display with LED backlit |
| Display Finishing | Matte Anti Glare |
| Display size | 10.0 inch |
| Display resolution | 1024 x 600 pixel resolution |
| PROCESSOR, MEMORY, STORAGE | |
| Processor type | Intel Atom Processor |
| Intel Atom Processor | 1.60 GHz |
| Second level Cache | 1MB |
| Front Bus Speed | 667 MHz |
| RAM installed | 1024 MB |
| RAM type | DDR2 RAM |
| Max RAM Supported | Yes |
| WLAN Standard | 802.11b/g/n |
| Installed Memory | 1GB |
| Maximum Memory Supported | 2 GB |
| Hard drive size | 160 GB |
| Spindle speed | 5400rpm |
| Optical drive | DVD drive |
| INPUT | |
| Keyboard | 105 keys |
| Track pad | Normal Touch Pad |
| GRAPHICS, VIDEO AND SOUND | |
| Graphics adaptor | Intel® GMA, 64 MB |
| Speaker Details | Built-in stereo speakers |
| Audio Processing | Realtek HD integrated |
| COMMUNICATION FEATURES | |
| Wireless | Compliancy : Wi-Fi® Network Support : 802.11b/g Wireless Technology : Wireless LAN |
| Webcam | 1.3Mp Integrated VGA Web Camera for Video over IP |
| Memory card reader | 4-in-1 card reader |
| CONNECTIVITY | 1 x DC-in 1 x external monitor 1 x RJ-11 1 x RJ-45 1 x external microphone 1 x headphone (stereo) 3 (Left 2, Right 1) x USB 2.0 1 x integrated VGA Web Camera with built-in microphone |
| SOFTWARE | |
| Operating System | Genuine Windows XP or Windows 7 |
| Office package | Microsoft Works with Office Home |
| PC type | Netbook |
| BATTERY | |
| Battery technology | 6 cell battery Lithium Ion battery , 2.5 hours lifetime |
| WARRANTY | One-year limited Warranty |
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