MSI Wind U100 subnotebook review

Written by Stuyo

Monday, 27 October 2008

 

Page 2 - What's in the box?

Wind U100 arrived in our office in a small cardboard box, marked only by the well known logo and some ominous signs, meant to point out how much respect and care you have to use while handling the otherwise insignificantly looking box:

After opening the said box things improved by much. Most surprising is that the sleeve of the subnotebook is outside of the actual product box. Which is rather blue with mostly windy (cloudy, actually) design.

So lets open this one too, What's inside? A small notebook with the inevitable driver CD's and manuals. Of course in order to use them you'll need a second PC or at least external CD-ROM:

Naturally there is battery and charger included. The battery is sadly a 3 cell one, MSI had problems supplying 6 cell ones so (at least here in Bulgaria) this is what you'll get. The charger is quite compact, adequately enough compared to the size of the computer itself. If only we could say the same for the charger cable... It's almost like standard desktop PC power! This is a black mark for MSI, come now, I will have to carry the charger with me always, with that 3 cell battery it's not like i have a choice.

But hey, let's look on the Wind himself. Here are his specifications:

• 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor
• 10" WSVGA (1024 x 600) LCD
• Windows XP Home
• Intel GMA 950 integrated video
• 1GB 667MHz DDR2 RAM
• 80GB 2.5" SATA Hard drive
• Wireless: 802.11b/g and Bluetooth 2.0
• 3-Cell 11.1v 2200mAh battery
• Dimentions: WxDxH 260 x 180 x 19-31.5 mm
• Weight: 1,2 kg.

In the blue cloudy box of course is found the MSI Wind. Despite its 10” screen it is quite small and light. Its body is sleek and clean and bears only the MSI logo:

On the left are situated the power plug, 2 USB ports and some cooling vents. On the right he have an RJ45 for the network cable, VGA connector, microphone and headphones plugs, card reader and one more USB port:

No comments for the other sides:

Now time for opening the notebook and checking it out. Two things stick out instantly – the screen occupies most of the cover, leaving but a bew millimeters on each side. The second thing is the keyboard - it's almost normal sized:

The bundle included an Wind sleeve too. Unfortunately it was the white one. It offers sufficient protection and space for the notebook and its charger, has a pocket on the inside of the top cover, yet looks suspiciously "cheap". Expect not much from this sleeve, it offers the basic minimum of protection. It is indeed the free accessory - it works, but offers not anything that its more expensive brethren do: