MSI U230-033US 12.1-Inch Netbook - 4 Hour Battery Life

by MSI

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 11.7 x 1.2 inches ; 3.2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 5.4 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0036OR9BA
• Item model number: U230-033US
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,049 in Computers & Accessories (See Top 100 in Computers & Accessories)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 14, 2004

Product Description

U230-033US MV-40 ULV 1.6G 2GB 320GB 12IN BT WL W7HP gray

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great "ultraportable" laptop for a great price!, March 21, 2010

By 

Sivart Eel - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: MSI U230-033US 12.1-Inch Netbook - 4 Hour Battery Life (Personal Computers)

I'd never heard of MSi - before browsing online for a laptop a couple months ago, but must say I am very impressed with the quality of this little laptop! It's nicer than the $1500 Dell I use at the office.

At 12", this computer was the perfect size for me. I was underwhelmed by the traditional 10" netbooks when I tried them out at a local retailer - screen was too small for me, and I didn't care for the cramped keyboard. Nor the Windows 7 starter edition or slow CPU.

Enter the MSi U230 - I've got the single core AMD Neo MV-40, but rarely ever notice any slow down. I would have spent the additional $50 for the dual core version, but it wasn't released yet when I bought my computer (it's still hard to find from most online retailers!).

Pros:

-Faster CPU compared to traditional netbooks with Intel Atom chip
-Windows 7 Home Premium (runs fast)
-2 gb Ram, upgradeable to 4 gb (I did this on a whim, wasn't really necessary as Ram doesn't max out at 2 gb most of the time)
-Full sized keyboard makes typing easy with little frustration
-1366x768 resolution, lots of space for desktop icons, web browsing, watching videos
-SD card slot, webcam, 3 usb connectors
-ultraportable size and weight (but you don't get a cd/dvd drive - I suggest picking up an external one)

Cons:

-4 hour battery life as advertised is a stretch
-Won't perform as well as larger, dual core CPUs notebooks

In reference to battery life, it's advertised as 4 hours but I've found around 3 hours is more realistic. However, you can undervolt the CPU by about 20%, without losing any performance. I get stable performance at 0.85v at 8x and 0.70v at 4x using RMClock. Doing so I've stretched the battery life to over 4 hours with light computer tasks (running spreadsheets, web browsing, etc.).

Overall I highly recommend this laptop, especially if you are just looking for a laptop to compliment a desktop system, and aren't happy with traditional netbooks.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Better than Atom netbooks, August 4, 2010

By 

FERNANDO CASSIA "-Writer and Computer Geek-" (Buenos Aires, Argentina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: MSI U230-033US 12.1-Inch Netbook - 4 Hour Battery Life (Personal Computers)

For the price, this netbook features a faster, and dual core CPU.
This one is much snappier than my Intel Atom N270 based netbook.

Two gigs of RAM expandable to 4 makes it run the latest Ubuntu Linux or Win7 with plenty of room (no swapping).

The screen resolution makes it able to display 720p HD content.

In short: a great deal.

5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very Slow CPU on battery, April 14, 2010

By 

Dmitry Dudkin - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: MSI U230-033US 12.1-Inch Netbook - 4 Hour Battery Life (Personal Computers)

Main problem that CPU speed locked to 800Mhz on battery.

According MSI "maximum clock of 800MHz @ Battery Mode"!!! You can't watch video on battery because CPU so slow and AMD chipset don't support acceleration for many video codecs (like WMV9, DIVX). First time, MSI told me that it is CPU+chipset limitation. But AMD respond that "the power state can be adjusted through the Windows properties. But If you are unable to get the processor to run at full speed while on the battery, even after adjusting the windows power management properties, than the issue is a hard code in the BIOS that the manufacturer set and is not a limitation of the chip or chipset and is something you will have to bring up with them."
After that, MSI told me that I need to disable PowerNow to get full speed. But if you disable PowerNow then you will have 1600Mhz ALL TIME...even on idle. In this case the battery will spend so much faster (less 1 hour). PowerNow was made to dynamically switch frequency and voltage on the fly to save the battery in idle mode and receive full power when it necessary. And it must work as declared.
Now, MSI close the issue and don't want to resolve it.


Dmitry

P.S. MSI U210 have same issue but still not resolved.