Looks good.. and I need one... Does it sell with Linux? I am *not* paying a windows licence for a laptop that "cheap".
MSI Wind hands-on video and Aspire One/Eee PC 901 comparisons
With your appetite has been whetted by the Wind unboxing video, here comes the starter – a hands-on video of MSI’s new netbook. You can also see some side-by-side comparisons with the only other two Intel Atom-powered netbooks available at the moment – the Acer Aspire One and Asus Eee PC 901.
The MSI Wind is the netbook a lot of people have been holding on for, since it seems to combine all of the best features of other small, cheap ultraportables – a big screen, large keyboard, to name the two most notable.
We’ll be publishing a full review in the next day or so, so until then, you can read our first impressions after the cut.
Update: Our full review of the MSI Wind U100 has now been posted.
The MSI Wind is the biggest of the three Intel Atom-powered netbooks we’ve seen so far, but not by much – it’s just 10mm wider than the Acer Aspire One. That extra centimetre is there for good reason, though – unlike the other 8.9in screen netbooks, the MSI Wind has a 10in, 1024 x 600 display.
Build quality feels very good – the Wind seems solidly made and there are no creaks in the case or unsightly gaps. The lid has the same glossy finish and sloped edges as the Acer Aspire One (a design touch we like) and the curved front edge of the base helps make the laptop look a little slimmer than it actually is.
That extra case width also means that MSI has been able to fit what is perhaps the best netbook keyboard we’ve seen so far. It’s much larger than that on the Eee PC and a little bigger than the Aspire One’s, and pretty comfortable to use as a result. Two very welcome touches are the oversize Enter and Backspace keys – other laptops this size have shrunken keys.
The extra 1.1in of the screen doesn’t make a huge amount of difference compared to the 8.9in screens on the Aspire One and Eee PC 901, but nor does it add much to the laptop’s bulk either. It’s extremely bright at its highest setting, but not quite off at its lowest and you’ll still be able to use it comfortably with the brightness cranked right down.
In terms of specification, the Wind is on a par with the competition – 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270, 1Gb RAM, Intel 945 graphics – but this model has an 80Gb hard disk. This makes Windows XP a much more viable proposition on a netbook – the Eee PC 901 really struggles to hold Windows XP and a handful of applications, even in its 20Gb (4Gb + 16Gb SSD) form. The drive on this review model was partitioned as a 39Gb C: drive and a 31.5Gb D: drive, though the second partition is empty.
Our review model has Microsoft Office 2007 installed, though I’m not certain whether this will be included with retail models – look for confirmation of that in the full review. Another uncertainty at this stage is the overclock/underclock button. As with the Eee PC 901, there’s a keyboard shortcut to underclock or overclock the Intel Atom processor, but it doesn’t appear to have any effect on our review MSI Wind. We’ll look into it and let you know what the deal is later.
We’ll be publishing a full review of the MSI Wind in the next day or so, but in the meantime, here’s a 10 minute tour of the netbook, along with some comparisons with the Acer Aspire One and Asus Eee PC 901.
Originally published on www.mobilecomputermag.co.uk, now incorporated into Broadband Genie
© Dennis Publishing
© Dennis Publishing
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Comments
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Nice little overview of the Wind, but it would be much better if the video was steady, Between the bobbing and weaving of the camera, while waving around the system in front of the lens, and your habit to drifting to the right leaving the focus off-center, it made the whole experience painful to watch.
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Would help.
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Anyone notice that MSI Wind keyboard rearrange the key location for "@","#", and some other symbols.That means SHIFT-2 is not "@" anymore, SHIFT-3 is not "#" anymore.It is a BAD design and I don't like it.
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I'd only consider buying the MSI wind if I can get a version preinstalled with Linux. That said, I'll be getting the Acer Aspire One because it's cheaper, does come with Linux preinstalled and although the MSi has more storage I consider that a moot point since you could easily just get a couple of 16 - 32 GB USB memory sticks to expand the the available storage on any of these machines and even then the Acer will still be significantly cheaper. I find it difficult to understand why anyone would want one of these lovely little machines running such a horribly bloated and insecure system as windows.
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This is the British version, they have a few keys in different places.
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That's not a fair comparison between the Enter keys. The MSI keyboard looks like it's using the International English layout, whereas the other one is using the US Layout. Here's a picture of the MSI Wind with the US Layout.http://images.msiwind.net/displayimage.php?album=2&pos=8Personally, I hate the Intl. Layout cause it puts various keys in awkward positions, and has the backslash right where I'm used to pressing Enter.
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Looks like some spaces got inserted into that URL I posted somehow. Here's the correct one.http://images.msiwind.net/displayimage.php?album=2&pos=8
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That's the standard layout for a UK Keyboard.
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[quote=Good Review]Anyone notice that MSI Wind keyboard rearrange the key location for "@","#", and some other symbols.That means SHIFT-2 is not "@" anymore, SHIFT-3 is not "#" anymore.It is a BAD design and I don't like it.[/quote]Well, we don't like your keyboard layout either...That's a UK keyboard layout. It's a standard Qwerty setup for the letters, but you'll spot a few differences in other characters - both quotes, pipe, at, hash, tilde, backslash are all placed differently, and we've got euro and sterling symbols added. Suffice to say, this device will be localized for the region it's being sold in - the US version will have the US layout you expect.(Thanks goodness he wasn't reviewing a French model - you'd have gone through the roof with an Azerty layout...)
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@Good Review - it's not a bad design of keyboard; it's a UK British keyboard!
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[quote=Good Review]Anyone notice that MSI Wind keyboard rearrange the key location for "@","#", and some other symbols.[/quote]Shift-3 is £, Shift2 is ". @ and # over above right shift. Standard UK keyboard layout.
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The keyboard is a standard UK layout and as such, isn't a bad design ;-)Presumably when it is released in the US, they'll come equipped with the appropriate layout for that market.
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[quote=Good Review]Anyone notice that MSI Wind keyboard rearrange the key location for "@","#", and some other symbols.That means SHIFT-2 is not "@" anymore, SHIFT-3 is not "#" anymore.It is a BAD design and I don't like it.[/quote]Looks like the UK standard (and same as my Eee) to me. shift 2 = " Shift 3 = pound sign.
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[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout#UK_and_Ireland[/url]
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It's a UK keyboard....
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Once again we're stuck in rip off Britain - in the US, the linux version costs $399 but in the UK it costs £319!According to US pricing, it should only cost us £200. I`ll be buying internationally I think.
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That's a big pain in the left hand. I'll buy the Acer or the new Eee pc 1000 just because of that point.
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Really, was this filmed by the blair witch crew? How 'bout you invest in a tripod.
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What is the point of making these video reviews if you take no efforts to do it with any level of quality at all. Just because you're a computer geek doesn't mean you have to make a point of making terrible video recordings. and I never even post comments to reviews.
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one of the most important items on my list is battery life. From the pics looks like the Asus EeePC ships with 6600Mah with everyone else going for a 2200mah battery this and the flash drive will likely make it my choice.
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Sea Sick after watching this video.
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Yeap, I could consider the Wind if there was a Linux version on time in my country.Last time I checked, the Eee 701 just came last week (it was 9 months late) and still no signs of other Asus newer models:(Portugal)Since Acer is planing a good Linux aspire one this month, I'm betting my money on ONE.
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The reviewer noted that the speakers were facing the desk - and implied that they would sound poor in part, because of that.I think the curved frame would make the audio reflect off the desk increasing the sound quality.
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Maybe if you use your sonic screwdriver on the speakers you'll get a better kick out of them Doc.
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this is so funny - the way the guy records and he punches the keys on the keyboards like hes poking the Pillsbury doughboy
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Yes, the MSI Wind ships pre-installed with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop from Novell starting in July (according to the MSI website):http://www.msimobile.com/nblist.aspx?series=U
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The MSI Wind comes pre-installed with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop from Novell (and will be released in July according to the MSI website):http://www.msimobile.com/nblist.aspx?series=U
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horrible camera work. Plz no more blair witch camera work. buy a dam tripod!
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I've just had to go and barf, the worst video I've seen. Get a goddam tripe yer yellow toothed limey.
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I feel sick watching this video, u move the camera too much..., but, thanks for the review
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Thanks for the review. Very interesting and very good info. Although I agree with some of the less strident tripod comments, I appreciate your time and trouble. :-)As several people have mentioned, as long is it's a Microsoft-only choice on operating systems, I too will have to look elsewhere. But nonetheless, it's very nice looking hardware.
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You'll pay that license to Novell, not Microsoft, but there is one cost. The same is true for Xandros and the Eee PC and for Linpus and the Aspire One.Linux does not have to be free as in beer ... nor it has to be free as in freedom sometimes (there's proprietory items in Xandros and other Linux distros).Having said that, I'm quite happy Linux comes pre-installed in these little puppies, rather than Windows.
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I'd really like to know how they compare in weight. An extra inch, and a hard drive v. a solid state drive might make a difference. From 2 lbs. to 3 lbs would be bad. 2 to 4 really changes things.
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It DOES come with Linux; you just have to wait a bit longer for those units to launch. Even if it didn't, it's not as if the system is locked down to any particular OS. Stick whatever you want on there.
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I wonder how many Macbooks it took to create this machine...
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Thanks for this video, but why didn't you use a tripod? Even if you're using a mobile phone camera with no tripod mount, you can still get little tripod-mount clamps . . .Regarding the PC's, I hope for two things from netbooks:- Ubuntu netbook redux. It is a more standard and open OS.- and a VIA chip (OpenBook) It is a more standard, flexible, and open hardware platform.
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Yes, but they shortchange you with Linux.You only get 512K ram & NO bluetooth.At least you don't have Windows, but geez ...Personally, for the kinds of uses I have in mind for this type of device, I'd just as soon have the solid state drive too.
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Editor - Julian ProkazaWell, I was going for a kind of [i]Cloverfield [/i]aesthetic, but thinking about it, that film made me feel a little queasy too. Fine, I'll use a tripod from now on...
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It's not a bad design, it's English.And we can spell...
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A lot of remarks here about pre-installed Linux. You can always buy a laptop and install it yourself, so I don't get it...
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@nomorecorsaNo, you can't always install it yourself. Webcams, digitizers, video cards, . . . the list of components that don't have readily available linux drivers is lengthy enough, with problems common enough, to make your claim, "you can always install it yourself" absurd.
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Now MSI has launched the Wind with Novell Linux, great, but then only with the 3-cell battery even if you can get the 6 cell if you buy the Windows version. Sure I can replace Windows with Linux, but why do I need to pay to Microsoft to get a 6cell battery?
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nice review
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