MSI Wind hands-on video and Aspire One/Eee PC 901 comparisons
By Julian Prokaza on Tuesday, 01 July 2008
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.
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.
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- .. which means you are paying a licence anyway
|02/07/08 4:19 PM
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).
Havi ng said that, I'm quite happy Linux comes pre-installed in these little puppies, rather than Windows.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
(Thank s goodness he wasn't reviewing a French model - you'd have gone through the roof with an Azerty layout...)
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.
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.
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:(Portuga l)
Since Acer is planing a good Linux aspire one this month, I'm betting my money on ONE.
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.
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.
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.
Well, I was going for a kind of Cloverfield aesthetic, but thinking about it, that film made me feel a little queasy too. Fine, I'll use a tripod from now on...
No, 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.
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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