Category of small cheap notebooks became very popular and there is no wonder why most of big brands want a piece of cake for themselves. But Asus got all of them off-guard. Because of that we’ve been waiting rather long for Eee’s true rival . We’ve already mentioned MSI’s agility which allowed them again to be first with new product on market. Their trump card wears name Wind and model that InsideHW had tested is MSI Wind U100.
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Even if we don’t pay much attention, during notebook tests, on package we just cannot overlook it this time. Picture that was used for package was chosen in that manner so that your new notebook looks like it came with a gift bow. Perfect package choice for this “little guy”. It is made of white, relatively firm plastic. To be honest, it would be unreal to expect small and lightweight notebook to have low price and to be firm enough. Small weight and firm case has for example Lenovo X300, but for multiple higher price. So in general, we are satisfied with quality made of MSI Wind notebook. Edges are rounded and whole design concept is pretty much neutral (whit such a design Wind will be suitable to most users).
Comparison with Asus Eee PC 900 is simply inevitable (two direct rivals ASUS Eee vs. MSI Wind). Screen on Wind has a 10’’ diagonal and 1024x600px resolution. Difference in screen size is 1.1’’ and Wind’s dimensions in total are much bigger from Eee’s dimensions. Wind is 26x18cm (1.9-3.15cm thick) against Asus’s 22.5x17cm (2-3.38cm thick). Keyboard reaches from side to side and typing on it is incomparably cozier than it is on rival from Asus. Only detail that bothers us is Enter key which is similar by dimensions to Shift key. It should be a little bigger. Touch pad on Eee Pc is bigger and also has Dual Touch possibility, so we prefer this one more than Touch pad on Wind.
It is important to mention that most of that weight enlargement comes from battery. Wind that we tested had 6-cell battery and with it Wind weights 1.3kg (30% more than Eee). With 3-cell battery it will weight exact 1.0kg, but because of shortage on the market of 6-cell batteries, Wind will be at first shipped with 3-cell battery. Why all this fuss with batteries? Because, with 6-cell battery notebook has much more autonomy than it does with 3-cell.
Warming up is less than is for Eee PC. Wind has also a few interesting details such are: camera, wireless 802.11 b/g adapter, Bluetooth and card reader.
While exterior has a lot of similarities, platforms on which are based Wind and Eee represent two different worlds. Eee uses old technology which became cheap enough over time. On the other hand, Wind has newest Intel processor, made especially for these types of devices. That CPU is Atom N270.
Beside small dimensions (which enables even smaller dimensions of device), Atom characterizes extremely small power consumption. Thanks to that, it is possible to use passive cooling solution which results in much bigger autonomy. Atom is manufactured in 45nm process with total surface area that is only 22mm2. Under full load dissipations amounts incredible 2.5W and if it’s in idle, dissipations are less than 1W. Atom N270 works at 1.6GHz which makes it able to respond on every task that can be expected from one ultra portable computer. As their main purpose is attached to Internet, a new name is already born - Netbook . If we look at their outstanding performances, we shouldn’t be surprised with great demands for Atom processors on the market. This is the main reason why shortage appeared in first place. We should expect that this sort of problem will exist in next few months.
Graphics card is integrated well-known Intel GMA 950 Accelerator. According to its purpose, nothing more or less is needed.
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One more big difference between these two competitors (MSI Wind and Asus Eee) must be mentioned – data storage system. Asus Eee PC uses Solid State Disks while on Wind is provided classic HDD. SSD advantages are: incomparable faster data access, bigger resistance on shocks and strikes and less power consumption. On the other hand, classic HDDs have much bigger capacity for the same price (Wind has 80GB storage).
Even though the both products have their own advantages, it seems to us that MSI Wind after all offers more than Eee PC. Expected price for Wind is around 400€ which includes Windows XP Home OS.
| S p e c i f i c a t i o n s M S I W i n d U 1 0 0 |
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| Processor | Intel Atom N270 at 1.6GHz |
| Chipset | Intel 954GME |
| Memory | 1GB DDR2 |
| HDD | 80GB |
| Optical Device |
none |
| Graphics Adapter |
Intel GMA 950 |
| Screen | 10'' (1024x600) |
| Connectors | 3xUSB, VGA, Bluetooth, Wireless 802.11b/g, card reader |
| Weight | 1.3kg |
