Super-small, super-affordable notebooks have become one of the hottest properties in computing. ASUS's success with the Eee PC has led to other manufacturers competing for a slice of its pie. MSI, maker of graphics cards, motherboards and the occasional overclockable notebook, is the latest to try its hand in this area. Its effort, called the MSI Wind, isn't just here to make up the numbers. It could turn out to be the best of the lot.
The Wind has plenty going for it. Like the Eee, it will be available with a choice of screen sizes. MSI plans to ship an 8.9in. version of the Wind later this year, but will initially release a 10in. version with a native resolution of 1,024 by 600 pixels. This isn't particularly high (especially considering the 8.9in. screen on the HP 2133 Mini-Note runs at 1,280 by 768 pixels), but that's no bad thing. Icons and on-screen text are easier to see on the Wind than they are on almost any of its rivals, and the fact it doesn't have a glossy screen coating means you can use the notebook outdoors without having to contend with high reflectivity.
There are two USB ports on the left side and a third on the right. That's two more than a MacBook Air and one more than the HP 2133 Mini-Note.
The Wind offers plenty of connectivity. It has three separate USB ports, which really puts the MacBook Air's single USB to shame. It also humbles HP's 2133 Mini-Note, which has just two USB ports. The Wind ships with Bluetooth, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and a wired Ethernet port in case you need a more robust network connection.
Usability is a huge issue on mini-notebooks of this ilk. Most have keyboards that are seemingly designed to hasten the onset of arthritis, but that isn't the case with the Wind. MSI says the Wind's keyboard is pretty much identical to those used on some of its larger notebooks. We can't verify this claim, but we can tell you that the Wind is very easy and comfortable to type on. It isn't quite as good as the keyboard on the 2133 Mini-Note — few are — but you certainly won't produce as many typos as you might with an Eee PC.
The core specification of the Wind is very solid. Unfortunately we can't tell you what CPU it uses, as that's currently confidential. There is much speculation on the web, however, that the Wind will use an Atom processor — Intel's soon-to-be-released low-power, high-performance chip. What we can tell you is that the Wind felt significantly quicker in use than other machines in its class.
The F10 key doubles as the overclock button. Hit this while the notebook is connected to the mains and it ramps up the CPU speed.
The Wind is the first machine of this type that can be overclocked at the touch of a button. Like the MSI TurboBook GX600, the Wind uses MSI's TurboDrive Engine, which overclocks the Wind's CPU by approximately 20 per cent if the device is connected to the mains. If the machine is running off battery power, the TurboDrive reduces the CPU's clock speed by around 50 per cent and dims the screen brightness to help extend battery life.
The Wind will ship with a 3-cell battery as standard, which MSI says will offer between 3 and 4 hours of life. This can be upgraded to a 6-cell model — which is ever so slightly bulkier — for a claimed battery life of around 6 hours. We haven't had time to run an independent battery test, but Windows XP forecasted 7 hours of life from the 6-cell unit — an impressive amount.
The Wind will ship in two versions, one running SUSE Linux, and the other running Windows XP. The XP model will retail for the surprisingly low cost of £329, while the Linux model is expected to cost around £200 — although it might not necessarily have the same specification as the Windows XP version. Our £329 XP sample came with 1GB of RAM, an 80GB mechanical hard drive, a 4-in-1 memory card reader and a 1.3-megapixel webcam.
Downsides
The most obvious drawback with the MSI Wind is that it's slightly larger and heavier than an Eee PC 900. We're not saying it's huge, but it's a few millimetres wider and at 1.3kg it's about 300g heavier than its main rival. If you absolutely have to have something under 1kg, get an Eee PC 701. Or a Toshiba Portégé R500, if you have the budget.
The fact it's slightly bigger means MSI can incorporate a very usable keyboard. But it lets itself down with the touchpad, which is too small and narrow for our liking. It's definitely not as bad as the touchpad on HP's 2133 Mini-Note, and the mouse buttons aren't as clunky as those on an Eee PC 900, but if there's one area for improvement it's this.
Here's the Wind next to an Eee PC.
MSI, probably for price reasons, has chosen not to build a 3G module into the Wind. Unlike the Eee PC 2G Surf, or notebooks such as the Dell XPS M1330, you can't just connect a SIM card, press a few buttons and surf at your leisure. Instead, you'll have to rely on traditional methods, such as a Wi-Fi hotspot, or a USB modem if you want to get online.
Our final gripe is perhaps rather harsh, but we feel it's worth mentioning. The graphics chip in the Wind is fairly lame. It uses the integrated GMA 950 on the Intel 945 chipset, which is perfectly capable of playing back HD movies and most other types of graphics, but don't expect to be able to play many games or run other graphically demanding applications on this system.
Outlook
We're already in love with the MSI Wind. In fact, it could well be the best mini-notebook on the market. It has a superb keyboard and screen, its performance is impressive and it's very affordable. It'll face stiff competition from the forthcoming 10in. Eee PC, and 8.9in. rivals from HP, Acer and Dell, but we're pretty confident it'll hold its own.
