The Tech Report Reviews MSI's Wind Netbook

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://techreport.com/articles.x/15291/1' target='_blank'>http://techreport.com/articles.x/15291/1</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"With variants of the Eee PC dominating the burgeoning netbook market, it seems as though every manufacturer is now rushing to squeeze out its variant on the theme...The Wind U100 sits as a sort of standard bearer for this new wave of netbooks. It's a remarkably balanced piece of engineering, delivering on nearly all of MSI's early promises. But rather than facing off against the original Eee PC, the Wind must now contend with a fresh batch of rivals, including HP's Mini-Note, Acer's Aspire one, and new Eee PC 900 and 1000 series models from Asus. Keep reading to see whether MSI has crafted a worthy competitor in the U100, and whether the system is a compelling netbook in its own right."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1219642174.usr1.jpg" border="1" /></p><p>This is the netbook that I've ordered for myself...well, the 6-cell battery version, not the 3-cell version they reviewed here. As much as I loved the design of the <a href="http://www.digitalhomethoughts.com/news/show/90128/hp-s-2133-mini-note-great-design-but-compromises-abound.html" target="_blank">HP 2133 Mini Note</a>, having both an under-powered processor incapable of playing DVD-resolution video <em>and </em>only having 90 minutes of battery life (at best) was just too much in the way of compromise. After look at the Acer Aspire One and the MSI Wind, I settled on the MSI Wind - but looking at the review of the <a href="http://techreport.com/articles.x/15338/1" target="_blank">Asus EEE PC 1000</a>, I'm suddenly feeling a bit torn. I'm not interested in the SSD version, so I'd get the 1000H version, which I can get locally for $549 - right around the same price as the MSI Wind. The hardware is damn near identical, so it comes down to things like the screen, the battery life, etc. Choices, choices...</p>

[onlydarksets]

Why did you decide against the Acer? It's got a smaller screen but a larger hard drive, and it's $200 cheaper (http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0293528). Am I missing something with the Acer?

[Macguy59]

Good question. Reviews for the Aspire One are tough to come by.

[Gordo]

I am hoping to sell my EEE PC so I can upgrade to the Acer, so I am also wondering.

[Jason Dunn]

Why did you decide against the Acer? It's got a smaller screen but a larger hard drive, and it's $200 cheaper (http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0293528). Am I missing something with the Acer?

What I read about the Acer was that the keyboard was particularly small and it felt cheap and flimsy overall. There aren't a lot of reviews of it though.

Here's a video that shows all three of the netbooks I was looking at:

YouTube - Msi Wind - Asus Eee 901 - Acer Aspire One (http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=3PQzc6eChjM)

I'm going to be using it for writing and email more than anything else, so the bigger keyboard and properly-sized enter key are important to me.

$349 is also very cheap for the Aspire One...my best price is $439 for the XP-based version.

What I really wish is that I could see all three of these in person, but that's hard to do...

Here's another good video:

YouTube - Acer Aspire One, Asus Eee 901, HP 2133, MSI Wind Hands On (NCIX Tech Tips #16) (http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=0CuxV-jsrk8)

[Macguy59]

Excellent. Thanks for the links Jason. Now all we need is to add the Dell mini to the videos . . .

[Jason Dunn]

Now all we need is to add the Dell mini to the videos . . .

I've been emailing my Dell PR contact and getting zero response - it's ticking me off, because I really want to know more about the Dell netbook...

[Chris Gohlke]

I'm holding off until the Dell comes out. The last thing I saw was that they were supposed to be shipping by the end of the month, so we should hear within the next few days.

I loaded Ubuntu on my Eee and must say it makes a heck of a difference even over the full desktop KDE interface that is built in on the Eee.

[Jason Dunn]

I'm holding off until the Dell comes out. The last thing I saw was that they were supposed to be shipping by the end of the month, so we should hear within the next few days.

Oh wow, I forgot it was that soon! Dang...if it's only a matter of days/weeks, I definitely want to consider that unit...

[Macguy59]

Picked up the Aspire One this evening. The version with XP and 120GB HD.

Very initial impressions are:

Even smaller than it appears in the video

Whisper quiet

Very lightweight

The screen while small is of good qualty with good brightness

Keyboard is fine even with my large hands

Trackpad is ok but I really dislike the horizontally oriented left and right buttons. I always have to look down to locate them

Boot up time is on the slow side but once loaded runs XP pretty well

Movie trailers via WMP run fine (I will try to rip a movie and transfer it via flash drive tomorrow to get an idea of playback)

In the meantime I will try to answer questions anyone might have,

[onlydarksets]

Picked up the Aspire One this evening. The version with XP and 120GB HD.
...
In the meantime I will try to answer questions anyone might have,


Does it boot into full-blown XP, or is there a "dummies" interface you have to hack away first? Thanks!

[Jason Dunn]

Does it boot into full-blown XP, or is there a "dummies" interface you have to hack away first? Thanks!

Which one, the MSI Wind? We've been discussing a lot of different netbooks in this thread. If you mean the MSI Wind, yes, it's full-blown Windows XP Home.

[onlydarksets]

Which one, the MSI Wind? We've been discussing a lot of different netbooks in this thread. If you mean the MSI Wind, yes, it's full-blown Windows XP Home.
The Acer - I was responding to byteme's offer to answer questions (http://forums.thoughtsmedia.com/f307/tech-report-reviews-msis-wind-netbook-90363.html#post690536), but it looks like it wrapped to the next page, and lost all context! I've updated to clarify.

[Jason Dunn]

The Acer - I was responding to byteme's offer to answer questions (http://forums.thoughtsmedia.com/f307/tech-report-reviews-msis-wind-netbook-90363.html#post690536), but it looks like it wrapped to the next page, and lost all context! I've updated to clarify.

Ah yes, the quote button is your friend. :D The Acer comes in different versions, the low-cost ones being Linux based, the higher-cost one being Windows XP.

[onlydarksets]

Ah yes, the quote button is your friend. :D The Acer comes in different versions, the low-cost ones being Linux based, the higher-cost one being Windows XP.
I'll remember that the next time I see*** long quote trimmed by mod JD ***

;)

[Macguy59]

Does it boot into full-blown XP, or is there a "dummies" interface you have to hack away first? Thanks!

Its full blown XP on the Aspire One. And an update of sorts . . . the unit must have been installing updates upon the 2nd reboot abd that's why it was booting slow. Subsequent boots have been pretty fast (compared to Vista). Been a long while since I've used XP

[Jason Dunn]

Its full blown XP on the Aspire One. And an update of sorts . . . the unit must have been installing updates upon the 2nd reboot abd that's why it was booting slow.

No doubt - an out of box XP (or Vista) unit will always have at *least* a dozen patches and updates to install...

[Macguy59]

Another update. The Aspire One had no trouble playing "Transformers" that I ripped and copied to a flash drive. It handles Quicktime movie trailers at 480p perfectly. 720p plays but the video gets a small amount of jerkiness and the audio seems slightly out of sync but this was streaming content. This weekend I'll save a 720p trailer to disk so it can play it without network interference. It also drives my 22" Dell widescreen monitor (1680x1050) just fine at 32bit color. I have to say I'm impressed with this little dude. I'm also a little ticked that it loads Office 2007 apps faster than ANY of my Macs :(
Using WB6 I'm getting transperency (Vista theme)

[Jason Dunn]

The Aspire One had no trouble playing "Transformers" that I ripped and copied to a flash drive. It handles Quicktime movie trailers at 480p perfectly.

Good to know! What bit rates are we talking here? I assume it's 720 x 480 or 640 x 480 in resolution?

720p plays but the video gets a small amount of jerkiness and the audio seems slightly out of sync but this was streaming content.

I'm surprised it did even that well - I don't expect it to play back 720p video, but I'd *love* to be proven wrong. :D

It also drives my 22" Dell widescreen monitor (1680x1050) just fine at 32bit color.

Wow - that IS impressive. I sort of thought that the VGA out port was more for show than anything else...I'm impressed it's that usable as a desktop PC replacement!

[onlydarksets]

Thanks for the update!

Another update. The Aspire One had no trouble playing "Transformers" that I ripped and copied to a flash drive.
Why did you leave it on the flash drive? For testing? I assume you had plenty of space on the 120GB HDD!

[Macguy59]

Why did you leave it on the flash drive? For testing? I assume you had plenty of space on the 120GB HDD!

I copied it to the HD

[Macguy59]

Good to know! What bit rates are we talking here? I assume it's 720 x 480 or 640 x 480 in resolution?

640x480

I'm surprised it did even that well - I don't expect it to play back 720p video, but I'd *love* to be proven wrong. :D

Given the horror stories I've heard about system lockups when tried on other mini's, I to was surprised. However, it really did play it albeit not well.

Wow - that IS impressive. I sort of thought that the VGA out port was more for show than anything else...I'm impressed it's that usable as a desktop PC replacement!


Frankly I was shocked it was able to drive it at all let alone at the native res. I also like that it came with very little bloatware. Running a Vista WB6 theme with transparency resulted in a minimal performance hit.

[Jason Dunn]

640x480

Cool, but what bit rate? 1 mbps? 2 mbps? 3 mbps?

[Macguy59]

On a side note . . . As I poked around some Aspire One forums I discovered that Vista and OS X can be installed on the unit but no sound or wifi under the later. Vista performance appears to be sluggish based on the videos I watched but in every case only the default 1GB of memory was used. When will people learn . . . ?

[Macguy59]

Cool, but what bit rate? 1 mbps? 2 mbps? 3 mbps?

Average bit rate of 1mbps