The U100 has been in the hands of some lucky previewers for a few days now, Doody has been kind enough to share his pictures and thoughts about the MSI Wind, which will hopefully be debuted at the Computex and released soon after, this is a brief overview of the MSI Wind.

We over heard someone from MSI being asked when the Wind notebook will begin selling. Someone suggested one month but the MSI representative said that would not be quite enough time. So, I guess it is still going to be a month or so until you’ll be able to buy one. MSI did give away two of these small new notebooks to a couple local Taiwanese press members and took their details for delivery later, so they couldn’t be too far off.

Specifications:
Intel Atom 1.6Ghz “Diamondville”
Shelton ‘08 platform - 945GMS + ICH7M chipset
1GB RAM (onboard) + 1 free RAM slot (667MHz DDR2, max 1GB)
80GB 5400RPM 2.5″ SATA HDD
The model is WD800BEVS - http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=202
5400RPM HDD, with a 12.0ms seek time. This HDD is running on SATA1 - 1.5Gbits/s. The weight of this is 0.117kg, so it’s one of the major components adding to the weight of the MSI Wind.
1.3MP Webcam
802.11 B/G Wifi (Atheros)
It’s using AR5007EG - http://www.atheros.com/pt/AR5007EG.htm
Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
10″ WSVGA screen (1024×600 resolution)
LED Backlighting - used by the MacBook Air as well.
3 x USB 2.0 ports
1 x RJ45 Ethernet port
Realtek RTL8102E Family PCI-E Fast Ethernet NIC - http://www.realtek.com.tw/products/productsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=14&PFid=7&Level=5&Conn=4&ProdID=145
1 x VGA-Out port, Mic-out jack, and Audio-out jack
Built-in stereo speakers (HD Audio) and mic
4-in-1 card reader (SD, MMC, MS, MS Pro)

3-cell battery - Approximately 2.5 to 3 hours battery life
Windows XP Home preloaded
1.2KG (with battery)
Dimensions: 260mm x 180mm x 19-31.5mm
(Source: www.msiwind.net)

Now the hardware, probably the most important thing has now been showcased.

Firstly let’s start with the new Atom 1.6GHz processor, the newest component going into the MSI, it is apparent that the Atom is only just better than a 900ghz Celeron in the ASUS EEE 900. The CPU has hyper threading which should give it an advantage over a Celeron.

Another feature is the 80 GB SATA hard drive, which has much more capacity but also has the risk which the ASUS EEE does not, that the hard drive will break, but then again not many people drop their laptops. Another great thing about the hard drive is that the 2.5 drive can be swapped with a SATA SSD drive easily; to compare this to the ASUS EEE pc it seems that the MSI wind has an advantage even though it’s a normal HDD.

The 945 Chipset can handle flash video easily, it has also been said in other previews that it can handle 720p video playback, but on msiwind.net we have been told it is stutter at parts, but who needs 720p on that size screen? The screen has a crisp display of 1024×600 and looks great, and compared to the screen of the ASUS the MSI looks much better even at 50% brightness.

The cooling also has been reported to be great, the Atom does not actually have a fan on it, but the case has a fan which blows air through the machine and then out of the ventilation mesh. It is reported to only reach 40 degrees when using 3D software, it seems the Atoms low power consumption really helps to reduce heat, and the touchpad however does get warmer due to the HDD.

The added features of the MSI wind are brilliant, the 1.3MP camera which seems to be standard these days, microphone which has been placed in a great position on the screen so video conferencing has high quality. It is reported that the SD card reader which unfortunately does stick out (but it shouldn’t be need for prolonged usage like with the EEE PC) when in use does support SDHC unofficially.. The addition of Bluetooth also seems to be great for mobility reasons, to connect your phone, headset, keyboard or mouse this technology really helps to reduce wires.

One of the most important features on the laptop is the keyboard, the ASUS EEE pc had a tediously small keyboard, but the MSI seems to have gotten around this with the bigger screen and thus the bigger potential keyboard space means the keyboard is 80-90% of a normal keyboard, which is great for people who will use their machines for work or education. Some other added features on the laptop are the on/off button which has a blue led which looks stylish but also a functional set of LED lights at the bottom right hand side of the keyboard. One for HDD, Wifi, Bluetooth, Power, Standby, CAPs lock etc… This leaves little to be confused about. The touchpad is small, much like the ASUS 701 but with Bluetooth a mouse can be used easily, the clicker on the touch pad is said to be stiff.

The battery life which was reported by MSI to have up to 6-7 hours charge for the 6 cell battery, and the 3 cell battery of 2 and a half hours. The 3 cell battery actually lasted 2hours and 19minutes but this was due to heavy testing and with normal usage the battery should last 2 and a half hours which was reported. The powerbrick also has a good charge but is also small much like the new ASUS EEE PC brick.

Another bonus seems to be that the software included on the device, with windows XP added programs like crazy cam which will let the user use the camera in different ways is a refreshing addition to the normally bare software on low cost UMPCs like the ASUS EEE Pc. It is also reported that vista will work and has clocked a vista rating of 2.7 not bad for a UMPC, in which aero is supported as well.

(Comparison of size in previous article - http://msiwind.net/new-comparison-pictures-of-the-msi-and-eee / )

It seems like MSI has gotten a lot of things right with the U100 MS WIND, where competitors have had drawbacks MSI has built upon them to nullify any drawbacks, in which there are relatively few, some would see the HDD as a drawback and others the limited power of the Atom, but others will be satisfied with the capacity and power efficiency of the machine.

I would like to thank Doody from the forums for giving the information and the pictures.

Staker

Source: http://forums.msiwind.net/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=25, http://article.pchome.net/content-630588.html

Tags: MSI Wind, overview, preview

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 at 11:24 am and is filed under MSI Wind, News, Site Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.