Advent 4211

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Review

We’ve had cause to mention the Advent 4211 a few times in the last few weeks, but if you missed our previous coverage, here’s one-sentence recap: the Advent 4211 is essentially the MSI Wind U100 under a different name and with a much lower price.

MSI sells the Advent 4211 to Dixons Sales Group under an OEM arrangement and it does something similar with Medion and the Akoya Mini E1210 in Germany. The price difference, according to MSI, is due to the Advent having a lesser 12-month warranty (the Wind has two years) and less sparkly finish, but we suspect DSG’s more aggressive pricing strategy plays a part, too.

We were very impressed with the MSI Wind U100 we first saw it, but much of that love stemmed from its big battery that promised six hours or so of use. But when the Wind actually went on sale, MSI had downgraded the battery to one that’s good for only a couple of hours. Not a huge problem per se, but MSI didn’t lower the price to compensate and at around £350, the Wind U100 ceases to be great value.

At £280 though, the Advent 4211 is a much better deal and yes, it really is identical to the Wind U100 in every respect. It’s obviously a different colour, but we don’t dislike the dowdy grey finish, since if anything, it’s less likely to draw attention when you whip out your netbook in public. We stopped short at dismantling both netbooks to perform an internal examination, but SiSoft Sandra reports the same set of components of both models.

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