One of the major benefits of the larger chassis is a much better keyboard. The keys are bigger than those on all but the HP MiniNote, and even those with the stubbiest of fingers or disjointed of typing actions should get along fine. We found the board rigid and free from flex, and the firmly attached keys were responsive and featured a decent travel.
Available in white and black
The touchpad isn’t the largest we’ve seen, but it’s accurate, responsive and more than adequate for the job. Unlike the HP and the Acer, the touchpad buttons are placed in a more traditional location below the touchpad, which we found more comfortable to use.
Available in a range of colours, it will initially go on sale in either white or black. The chassis is slightly larger than that of its rivals. It measures 259 x 178 x 36mm - rising to 46mm if you add the six-cell battery - and weighs 1.3kg weight, so it's by far the heaviest SCC we've seen. The glossy design is tidy and cohesive – more so than the slightly fussy Eee PC 901 – and looks surprisingly expensive, putting other MSI models to shame.
The Wind’s screen is attached by two slender hinges, which proved robust. The back of the screen is much thicker than the LED panels sported by more expensive ultra portables, like the Toshiba Portégé R500, but also offers a lot more resistance to pressure. As such, you’ll be able to throw MSI in your bag without worrying too much about it.
The touchpad isn’t the largest we’ve seen, but it’s accurate and responsive
Under use, warm air is expelled from an array of big air vents on the left side of the chassis, with cooling vents on the bottom. With the bottom of the chassis partially covered when used on our knees, the MSI stayed cool at all times, even after long and intense periods of use.
COMMENTS
Dumping
Dumping in this context is giving away at very low price and likely below cost, specifically to undermine competition.
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumping_(pricing_policy)
In many case this is illegal although the problem with software is that you can argue the cost is zero. Still the EU has done some good work so it seems reasonable to suggest they should look at the price charged for XP on these devices
Linux version has lower spec -- a monopoly issue?
The linux version looks like it will have a lower spec, e.g. only half the memory of the XP version, no blue-tooth, and no 6-cell battery option.
These different default specs make it hard to work out what, if anything, MSI and others are charging for XP licences: perhaps this is a deliberate policy --- of course Microsoft could not possibly be imposing a constraint that requires companies to refrain from shipping direct non-XP equivalents. That would be one way of hiding any activity that might interest some regulators, such as leveraging an existing monopoly position to gain advantage in a new market ... something frowned on in many jurisdictions.
Just another laptop
This isn't different to any other 10in Laptop. Hard disk based, way over a kilo, designed to run Windoze. Boring.
These things should be called LCRCs - Lightweight Cheap Reliable Computers. Small isn't necessarily a plus point, but under a kilogramme certainly is, whatever the size. No moving parts is always good for reliability.
What's exciting about the Eee PC is that it's all solid-state, and designed for Linux. So more reliable, and weighs less. Cheaper too, as long as 8Gb suffices for the O/S and apps.
Microsoft are badly wrong-footed. They can shoehorn XP into it (but XP is obsolete soon isn't it?) and there's not a hope in hell of it running Vista.
I think I read that ASUS have a 10 inch Eee in the pipeline, hopefully still all solid-state. Ideally they'll keep the weight under a kilo.
And customers seem happy enough with Linux. Let the floodgates open!
Feh!
Not quite a sub-notebook. The only "sub" things are the specs. Since when sub-notebooks are supposed to be desktop replacements? I agree that most people don't use more than 10% of the computing power they're provided with, but then, how do you explain that you get only these useful 10% *for the full price????*
Sub-notebooks are supposed to be for basic tasks, text typing, a bit of browsing and e-mailing. If you need some storage, go external, you can get an 8 Go SD card for less than 30 bucks anywhere (of course, this POS NEEDS a large drive as it wont take a SDHD card...), and if you have reasonably large pockets, external 2.5' drives are ridiculously cheap these days.
So it has the horsepower of a sub-labtop and the pricetag of the real thing (and I'm generous. I got a low-end all-purpose laptop for that price 2 years ago, and I got 2 times 1.6 GHz, a crisp 1280x800 display - that's without framebuffer support loaded-, and an almost acceptable video card. All other specs were better, too). I wonder how many ludites will fall for it. Or is the weight so important? how many years locked in the basement does it take to be unable to lift a real laptop anymore? C'mon, even the battery life is very unimpressive! (while we're talking about that, when was the last time you happened to be lost more than 10 m away from a power point? If you ask nicely and order a pint, no bartender will bar you from using the mains.)
There was a very interesting giveaway in the ad^H article, "the Wind’s 1024 x 600 pixel resolution is below that of the minimum 1280 x 800 we use during PCMark and 3DMark tests.". That wouldn't be a problem if you didn't tout the "impressive colour accuracy" and "impressive display" every other sentence. Also, regarding the "display" issue, the problems you had when fiddling with images make it look like it has an incredibly nice display -as long as you don't try to do anything else than staring at the desktop background.
Though this kit probably don't bring anything worth mentionning (appart from the confirmation that MSI kits are still the easyest way to separate a fool from his money), it is interesting to note that, in spite of the price, IT DOESN'T RUN VISTA (which my 2-yo 350 pounds laptop does, albeit at a neurasthenic-compliant speed). Yay XP (I feel dirty now. Anything but Vista anyway). The last salesman I met didn't believe me when I told him XP wouldn't be pulled before Windows 7 release. Sounds like the billions $ spent in advertisement and bribing were not enough to rescue Vista finally.
