16 October 2009

Netbook from MSI with (almost) Notebook Performance








MSI Wind U210-006US Review
Price: $429.99

We used to know that common netbook's performance is below the notebooks. But the latest generation of MSI Wind-series notebook is different. MSI claims that it performs like a notebook, with the price of a netbook!


Let's see the specifications. MSI Wind U210-006US built around AMD Athlon Neo MV-40. It's 64 bit processor and running at 1.6GHz. A lot of netbook built on Intel Atom processor. AMD Neo is the competitor of Atom. Less battery life, but more power! It has six-cell battery.


To solve the battery life problem MSI has included Eco "button" that extend battery life. There are five power-saver settings: Gaming mode, Movie mode, Presentation mode, Office mode, Turbo Battery mode.


It also has integrated ATI Radeon X1250 as graphics card. Powerful enough to operate Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit) included in the box. MSI offers free upgrade to Windows 7.


The memory is 2GB. It's huge compared to some netbooks with 1GB of RAM. The storage is 250GB. Large enough for a netbook. As a netbook, this MSI Wind doesn't have an optical drive.


The screen is 12.1 inches with 1,366x768 native resolution. With 1.2x11.7x7.5 inches (HWD) dimensions. It weights 3.2 pounds. A little heavier than the other netbooks on the market with 10 inches screen.


The keyboard is good designed and comfortable to use. The letter keys are extra wide while the right shift key and the backspace key are smaller than those on full-size keyboards. The "Ergonomic De-Stress" keyboard design is very comfortable and results in minimal mistyping. The palm rests are glossy, comfortable, and cool.


The ports available are headphone and microphone jacks, three USB ports (two on right side and one on left side), a memory-card slot, an Ethernet jack, a cable-lock slot, VGA-out port, HDMI-out port. If you use Bluetooth you had better buy a bluetooth receiver because the MSI has none of it. But don't worry it has 1.3-megapixel Webcam.


There are two configurations of MSI U210. The U210-006US comes in white, while the U210-008US comes in black. The white one is more interesting for us.

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