Customer Reviews

MSI Wind U100-279US 10-Inch Netbook (1.6 GHz Intel Atom Processor, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, XP Home, 6 Cell Battery) White

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

UPDATE to firmware 1.09 (ships w/ 1.06 if I recall) - on battery FN+F10 cuts processor speed in half and blue power LED turns green saving battery power for less intense applications. On AC with this firmware FN+F10 overclocks the uP by 8, 16, or 24 % (I would stop at 16% for stability) - the led glows a redish orange to alert you to the overclocked status. U100 will remain the performance leader in the family while the 115 will become the battery longevity leader.

News Flash 01/01/2009 (Taiwan) MSI announces U115 and U120. U115 is a hybrid with 32GB SSD and 160 GB main disk. U120 is a power user system with larger main drive and built in 3G networking. Amazon is expected to carry them early january as they are ready to ship.

Note: amazon suggests you buy a $22 case - this unit comes with a zipper pouch designed for it so you don't need to buy the case shown above separately. If you do buy the memory you will have to break the computer's warantee seal to install it, which I did and have no regrets. All the good details are below if you want to know more about this and what you can do with it.

Comment 12/20/2008 I've been asked about the 9 cell battery - I uploaded a photo tonight of its side view against the 6 cell that comes with this notebook. It took 1 week to arrive by airmail from China. I ordered on a Saturday and it showed up the next Saturday in my mailbox. Click on "other photos" at the top of the page to see more info about the 9 cell 7200 mAh battery. It's a true 8 hour battery system now.

I went into the U100 with pretty low expectations - I wanted a "disposable" laptop to take on a cruise that could handle my digital photos and videos but had to be small and light compared to my dell 17" desktop replacement. I was thinking of a 1.6 ghz cheapo laptop and had not had the best experiences in the past but this blew away my expectations. Update: at first the trackpad seemed to be missing scroll features and have just a single button. I did finally find the trackpad features on its boring white surface (I'm accustomed to drawings showing the scroll zones) - the two right hand corners (upper and lower) are scroll points and I was accustomed to scroll edges instead. The other feature I "found" was the singular button under the pad is really 2 - its a rocker button set, press the left side and its the left button, right side is the right mouse, you can still tap the pad and drag but there is a left OR right button. Can't press both at once as it pivots in the middle. So the boring white square really has 2 scroll areas in the corners and a 2 way switch underneath. Back to the review now.

First off, the display is LED backlit - and its more than bright enough to read outside! My dell 17" 1920x1200 laptop display can't do that. I was so impressed by this point that I said "This one's a keeper" - ripped off the warantee sticker and read other's reviews of mods to get down to work.

Here's your upgrades summary for the wind based on your $ and what's laying around

0 - rating super-easy - the wind's SD cardslot is 8 times faster than other laptops. What took 8 minutes to read on a dell laptop and HP quad core desktop only took one minute to transfer on the Wind, probably because they interfaced the SD ram onto the motherboard differently. It's fast enough to cache windows software on it. Buy an 8-16 GB card, stuff swap space and your frequenly used software on it, and move windows files around to make it faster. Having a fast ramdisk can really speed up the OS with some practice.

Another super easy upgrade is optimizing your battery pack. Most U100's are 6 cell (5200 mAH @ 11.1V or 2 strings of 3 cells) - some are 3 cell units and just have less runtime. You can buy a different battery - I ordered a $78 9-cell 7200 mAH recently for my 2nd battery (Dell wanted $145 - sorry I just can't bring myself to that)

1 - rating EASY - add 1.0 GB by snapping a $10-$15 1GB 667 200 pin module into the convenient ram slot MSI left under the hood. Time: 15 minutes if you've opened a laptop up, 30 minutes if you've changed a watch battery. For 15 minutes and 15 dollars you just doubled your system's main memory.

2 - rating Moderate - you really don't need this as it comes b/g/n but the network can be upgraded to a combo a/b/g/n instead of the b/g/n card. If you have an 802.11a network then this is possible - do it while you're doing the ram upgrade. You don't really need to but the network is adaptable to 802.11a systems.

3 - rating - experienced - You can buy your wind U100 with a 120 or 160 GB drive from the factory - but if you want a 320, 360, or 400 GB drive you can get a 9.5 mm SATA drive and stretch the factory drive image onto the larger one. Use Norton Ghost to transfer the factory image to your new disk and pull the cables then swap out the SATA connector and screws.

When done you will have an optimized windows system for your use, with 2GB of ram, whatever network you need and hopefully 400 GB of disk. I optimized mine and it runs circles arond my old Dell now!

I've committed to the wind machine now as my old dell got about 1 hour on its largest battery. I'm getting 5-6 hours on the Wind. For the dell running it mobile was impossible and carrying the adapter was a necessity. I can walk out of the house with just the Wind U100 and not panick. (my dell power adapter became a deep cycle marine battery Optima Blue Top D34M High-Power Deep-Cycle Battery (870CA) and a 1000 W inverter Xantrex Technologies Prosine 1000 Prosine 1,000 to 1,500-Watt Power Inverter to provide AC power over 100 watts for the 17", 100 watt beast. The 6 cell battery pack on U100 runs it for almost 6 hours while the dell gets about 45 minutes on a heavy duty battery! I continued to be amazed about this little jewel.

Pros:
802.11 b/g/n! - and it's sensitivity is finding networks my intel board can not due to the plastic case instead of metal or metalized plastic cases.

BLUETOOTH - in a small sized unit like this I hardly expected factory bluetooth

FAST - the halfnium processor from intel is really holding up its deal for using no more than 4 watts of power - less than a night light and 25 times less than my dell system needs. This thing has the feel of a big heavy laptop without the twin fans and hotspots on the bottom. One observation - I thought that a dual 1.6 would be "slow" compared to a dual 2.8, but in reality there are other bottlenecks in performance than the processor speed. SELDOM does the processor get maxed out to 100%. By optimizing windows you can speed up the machine to more efficiently utilize the 1.6 ghz it came with, then people will think it's a 2.83 Ghz system!

Wide - the display has a modern widescreen 1024x600 format which I admit is a bit unusual but it is definitely widescreen and the 1024 lets you see a full webpage wide. Nitpick here - expect to scroll up and down a bit more than with a larger display - but side to side is fine at 1024 pixels wide. The scroll corners on the pad make this easy.

USB 2.0 x 3 ports - expansion here is no problem

SD card slot - another great feature, and it's running 8 times faster than the SD card slot on a brand new HP quad-core $2K desktop

Webcam - You can not tell me this tiny unit has a webcam, and a high resolution one at that? It does. It's a little dark until you adjust its settings. It's nice to have at times and built in. It also has an LED next to it to tell you its being used and you're on camera - great feature.

Built in microphone - someone thought about this. Most builtin mics sound awful because of fans and disk noise. The U100 has a tiny mic in the upper corner of the display. With the built in stereo speakers below the keyboard, there is enough separation between the mic and speakers to run skype on this and go out the 802.11 b/g/n link or USB cell modem.

RJ-45 - yep - got one of those in case you have a wired link and no wireless. Use windows to make a local access point out of your U100 for others!

mic/line interface (pink) and line / headphone (green) output plus VGA connector to link to a projector or a bigger display. Thats a pretty full compliment - not everyhing and doesnt have a digital output, but it will run projectors fine. Lots of aftermarket docking stations will help out if you find a need for parallel/serial/digital video, etc.

LED status indicators - A blue star indicates the unit is powered on and integrated into the power button which is fully configurable to be a suspend or hibernate button (or full off). There is a 2-key fn keystroke tied into the power control which is also definable, plus a sensor on the lid closing which at a minimum kills the leds if you don't want to disconnect. Down where the leds can be seen with the cover closed there is a blue led for bluetooth turned on, an LED for 802.11 on/off, snooze light, battery charging led, caps lock, num lock, scroll lock, and hard disk usage. I never expected so much indication in something so small and cheap.

Comment - neither a pro nor a con - there is NO LATCH on the lid. It has a spring to hold it shut and that works well for the purpose. A latch really isn't needed. The light weight is a great feature after carrying around a 10+ lb laptop to get a good display & graphics card.

Con - It's hard to find any cons but the trackpad is a tad small and not well documented nor integrated into the system driver. Some people complain its jumpy but I have not found that to be the case. It works fine with a few days getting used to like anything else. It lacks the scrolling edges of larger systems and larger trackpads but has corner scroll buttons. The only other system design con is they soldered the first GB of ram to the motherboard and put a socket in for the second $10 in memory to get to a full 2 GB. That socket probably cost more than $10. They probably did not know about the price drop in ram costs and left options open thankfully with the socket. I bought the 1GB ram with my unit based on other's reviews (THANKS guys!)

Power - Fortunately the AC adapter is small, but it takes a long time to charge while running (charge is faster with the power off) If you run ALOT of usb stuff on the 3 USB ports and power them from the notebook, consider a 2nd battery. I use a USB cellular internet and GPS combo card most of the day on my unit and have found it takes 2.5 watts to run it thus reducing the runtime using the internal 802.11 b/g/n card. Using the FN key you can disable what you don't need like the 802.11 card, the webcam, bluetooth and help to save battery. The screen is so bright you can dim it on battery without a headache. I've uploaded a photo of the 9 cell vs 6 cell battery (extra $78 to buy an aftermarket 9 cell). Although the 9 cell hangs down further it actually makes it easier to grab the computer one handed and makes the keyboard more comfortable to use with the tilt. On the subject of power, 260 GB 2.5" solid state drives are available now to replace the factory 160 GB drive. They use 1/2 the power of the factory drive. They cost more than the U100 does, but if you want lots of storage and even more runtime, they are an option. I'll wait on that one.

What I like the most about the U100 is that it's STABLE (even with the 2GB addition and disk cache move and drive upgrade) - I've run stress testing for 24 hours since I received it and not a single fault has been found. UPDATE: I ran the stress test for 96 hours straight with no errors. This is good practice when buying any new computer while the warantee is in effect. Modern factories don't do long burn-in periods so its up to the consumer to check out their hardware.

Things to do list with your new U100

1 - go buy one of these - at $400 you're set to start and well equipped with windows XP home included and the Intel Atom (Halfnium) processor which runs 1/4 day on 0.73 - 1.2 volts and 4.3 watts / 1.6 ghz from its 6 cell battery

2 - buy some upgrades with the cash you have leftover to customize it. A 2nd battery is a great investment since a 9 cell will give you 8 hours of computing. (see my photo in the additional photos top of page)

FINALLY a laptop you can use for 8 hours without charging. Its about time. Don't be fooled by its small size and 1GB ram factory load - its really a 2GB 300GB disk system just waiting to come alive in the palm of your hand with every feature you need right now.

Length:: 2:51 Mins

I was fortunate not to miss this deal from amazon. MSI Wind is small and lightweight (2.6 lbs), better that my existing 7-lbs Dell laptop (see my video review). I was amazed to know the boot time is so short. When connected to my Netgear router, its 802.11n (wifi-N) is 135Mbps, surprisingly faster than wired ethernet. My only dissapointment is that this netbook is not design for extensibility. To upgrade the memory requires to unscrew the main body, which voids the warranty. Other than that, I really like it!

I just got this laptop today. Bought it last week at amazon for $475! The instalation is very easy. No unecessary software included so you don't have to worry deleting uneeded junks.

The boot up time is as fast as regular laptops. The keyboard is excellent. It took me just 10 minutes to get used to it. You have to press FN and F11 to enable the wireless switch.

I used word and excel at the same time, and had 3 windows open at the same time without any problems.

It's a nice little machine. I have the 6 cell battery, and it lasted for about 5 and a half hours (I didn't play any movies though). The matte finish won't leave any smudge on the laptop.

Overall, this machine is excellent. I am really happy with this laptop. The 10 inch screen is about right, not too small and definitely not big. My co workers were oozing when they saw it. Also, the LCD screen is pretty nice, it's clear and crisp. I don't know how it would look like playing movies tho, but I've tried youtube and the video quality is as clear as my HP slimline desktop pc.

The audio is not as good as the high end laptops. Of course, for $479, I don't expect the audio quality remotely comparable to the $1k plus laptops. The audio is just OKAY, not great but, then again, what can you expect from a cheap laptop with above average performance overall?

You won't be sorry to have this little puppy. And oh, the color is really nice.. pearl white!

This is by far the best Netbook to date on the market. I would give it 5 Stars but two things really bother me and a third thing is just frustrating (Keyboard, Touchpad, Balance).

Keyboard Issues:
The great thing about this Netbook is being able to type on it like a normal (huge) sized Notebook. I am a graduate student and type b/w 3,000 and 5,000 words a day and have no problem at all typing on it.

HOWEVER: for those people that use the Control Button (to do Ctrl C, Ctrl B and all other Ctrl functions) you will notice that it is not on the far left of the keyboard (the FN key is the farthest left button). I use it a lot and probably will get used to it quickly and I am sure most people who do not type as often will not notice it at all. And NOTE, this is the best keyboard on a Netbook out there (I have the Acer Aspire One and it does not even compare-- tactile feedback is better, keys are larger and the touchpad is bigger.

TOUCHPAD:
The touch pad left and right click buttons are molded into one button grouped together. Not a big deal but can get annoying sometimes as you will have to press hard or click on the very far left or right to make it easy.

Battery Pack:
Although the new 6-Cell battery gives amazing battery life (5-6hrs) it makes the device so "back heavy" that it is constantly falling over backwards. Not a big deal just something they could have fixed when developing.

Again these are small issues and this IS THE BEST NETBOOK ON THE MARKET. Coming from someone who types all the time you should not have a problem with the keyboard and you get a laptop that is 2.8lbs and one where everyone will tell you "that is the smallest laptop I have ever seen".

If you need a new notebook or netbook get this one, for the money you cannot go wrong!

I received my Wind two days ago and so far so good! I find the keyboard really easy to use. I originally purchased the new Dell Mini and did not like the keyboard. It is approximately 1 inch smaller, so that would make the keyboard smaller. The Wind also doesn't get hot at all, as the Dell Mini got pretty warm. Also, the Wind seems to be much faster, although they both were 1 GB RAM.

When I received it I had problems not getting my wifi connection. I did a search on my PC and saw where someone said to select the F11 with the function button. That was it - connected right away. When I went to write my review I saw there was the first review and that person stated the same thing. So make sure when you do receive your Wind you select FN button and F11 prior to trying to wifi connect.

I also purchased the package deal Amazon offered ($510 total)with the extra 1gig card. I did a google search and found someone had posted a video on how to install and they said you had to be careful taking the back off. We have tried twice with no success. The one side has a video plug and it just doesn't want to slip off very easy. I may check someone with more experience or may send the card back. I'm finding so far the 1gig seems to be working fast enough. The reason I purchased the extra 1gig was based on the performance of the Dell. This little Wind is so much faster. It took about 20 minutes on the Dell to upload about 250 pictures and the Wind took about 7 minutes!!

While I do have (am very happy with) a Dell PC and a Toshiba laptop, I wanted this for travelling. I love the 6 cell battery (lasts almost 6 hours) and this little Wind will work perfectly.

So far (even though only 2 days old) I am extremely happy with this little Wind.

Well, Goldilocks picked up an 7" Asus eee PC and said "This is bit too small for me"... then she picked up a 13.3" Macbook and proclaimed "This is a little too big"... then she picked up the 10" MSI Wind and said "This one is JUST RIGHT!!!".

Really, for me this netbook PC represents the "sweet spot" in size and usability. I appreciate that it is loaded with XP rather than Vista. It boots fast, and on the first charge, I got slightly over 5 hours of run time. I was lucky to get the Wind for the lowest price at Amazon!

Note that the picture shown on the Amazon page is of the 3 cell version, The 6 cell battery pack hangs down below the bottom of the case somewhat. Thickness at the rear of the case is about 1.6 inches. Two additional feet mounted on the battery pack support the rear of the computer. IMHO, the long run time, and the slight upward tip of the rear of the keyboard is worth the extra bulk. Total weight is closer to 2.8 lb with the 6 cell pack.

I traded up to this from an Aspire 1, because the MSI has a more generous screen, which is 10" non-glare for the MSI Wind, and that's quite the difference.
In stock condition, the MSI is simply not as easy to use as the Acer. However, the MSI is field serviceable and backed by an excellent service dept; wheras the Acer is neither. For instance, it takes 2 hours to upgrade RAM on the Acer; but, it only takes 8 minutes to upgrade the RAM on the MSI.
The MSI's Ralink wireless card was a lot of nonsense, fortunately, I was able to acquire an Atheros for a minimal price. Installation was simple plug-in, and of course it works better *without* the hookup backwards (it was backwards from the factory). The wireless now reaches 1/3rd of a city block. I also installed an extra gigabyte of Kingston ram. That was really easy. Its like just a small philips screwdriver, slip a credit card round the edge of the case, and then plug in the upgrades.
And, of course, I uninstalled all of the trial-ware that had weighed it (both) down. It now runs Firefox, AVG anti-virus and Zone Alarm 5.5 (great free combo for portable fast security).
This laptop has its own fan club and forum. There's lots of custom options. For instance, the Windstille custom heatsink from Germany, a simple 10 ohm resistor in series with the fan, and MSI's own updated bios, in combination, sends the laptop up to 2 ghz speeds, while also running cool and silent (thanks to that little resistor). Level of difficulty is minimal--easier than a desktop PC, and now every bit as fast.
Despite the tiny size, this machine is field-serviceable, which is an absolutely brilliant design from MSI. The speed is much faster than the average netbook--even out of the box its faster.
Believe it or not, the hardware is so stable and compatible that you can even make an image backup with the classic version of Norton Ghost, right onto a USB thumb drive. How cool is that? This is 100% natively compatible hardware. That's not the only 100% score this makes. . .
The onboard sound chip, a Realtek, doesn't have a line in port. However, using digital loopback to measure, MSI makes a perfect score on RightMark Audio Analyzer. It takes a really stable computer to get a Realtek chip or any computer sound of any price, to an audiophile level score. Never seen that with a Realtek, and wouldn't have believed it. The MSI will hook up to a hi-fi with a simple cable, and you can REALLY enjoy your MP3's. ;) Teleconferencing is flawless (after loading the updated webcam drivers). Also, the lan port is flawless and extremely fast. The USB ports also have very good speed.
You get brilliant video, excellent sound, long battery life, an easy time of popping in a 1gb ram chip (for top-notch speed), a quality hard drive, rock-steady stability, and a slick, FAST little netbook. This is so much more useful than a full size laptop, because this little computer can go with you everywhere. It even comes with a matching padded satchel at no extra charge!
I'm very pleased with this computer.

Purchased from Amazon through ANT online. Doesn't seem to be much in the way of customer service except through an online email service. Had some issues beginning with there being no virus protection (I didn't notice for two day when I downloaded a Security Suite from my ISP, but the virus defitions didn't immediately update and MSI Wind got infected with a nasty Trojan virus. Ended purchasing an $80 external disc drive and reloaded all of the software and drivers) and the Windows XP continues to keep hanging up at "Standby" instead of shutting down (even after the reload). Screen stays on while SOMETHING keeps it from shutting down (I think this is an XP problem and not a MSI Wind problem. I still prefer XP over the Linux alternative). The tech support at MSI is also automated so that when I replied to one of their replies, I got their previous reply back with no new information. No help. Anyway, the computer is running very well now. I did have to update the BIOS (from vers. 1.06 to 1.09), which was manufacturer supported. It was a little techical, but online computer geek forums helped out with that process. All in all, with all of bickering, I think I would still purchase the machine again - only difference is it would be pink instead of white (purchased for the wife). I just wouldn't do it again through ANT online. When I contacted ANT about their return policy (originally I thought I had a defective machine), here was ANT's reply: "We are very sorry that item is not eligible for return or exchange. Unfortunately, products with customer caused item, packaging or accessory damage; OR that are missing items, accessories or packaging; OR with activated software or intellectual property agreements; cannot be resold as new - exactly as you received the product are not eligible for return or refund." Besides being difficul to fully understand, it sounds like if you opened the package, no return is possible. That's unacceptable.

Well, this is a great product. Feels solid, the only thing is the mouse pad is horrible for scrolling but you get use to it easy. I am not surprised the price is going sky high on this thing. Brought it from Amazon for 474, plus free shipping.

As a student, it meets all my needs.With impressive 6-cell battery which can last up to 5 hours and pretty good wifi range. in multi tasking,no hung-ups or not responding you might see "except for IE browser when you open many tabs,but that's rare" you can't even notice that you are working on intel atom processor.It shows really good transfer rate from/to external hard drive.Also,no overheating issue you might face, sometimes I use mine for 3:50 hours continuously and everything is ok, no heating from the bottom.About keyboard size, it is pretty close to the normal keyboards.In typing,you can type using both of your hands easliy, no overlapping to the next button or something.Roughly,all buttons is in it's standard place."I'm writing this review using msi wind,no complains:)". about mic,webcam and speakers, mic and spaekers are loud and claer since msi comes with(Realtek HD audio manager),but the webcam is really disappoining,it has good quality but bad response to anything moves" even your head movement when you are talking".What I like to emphasis is msi wind isn't suitable for 3D gamers since ATOM processor was not designed for 3D games. the only difference between Atom and other higher processors i've noticed so far is when you start a progaram,it doesn't pop up smothly or at once,that is you will see a half of the page and then it completes,but we are just taking about fraction of seconds.
I hope this helps....thanks