«Nice....»

Like one of the other reviewers, I also purchased the EeePC 701 earlier this year. With it's many shortcomings, it was soon gathering dust.

I was a little hesitant in purchasing another netbook, but I'm glad I took the plunge. This system addresses the problems with the EeePC, and I doubt if it will be sitting idle for any extended period.

The keyboard is fairly large for a system of this size, and is comfortable for typing. The 10-inch screen, with a resolution of 1024x600, is adequate for displaying most web pages with a minimum of scrolling.

One of the better features, in my opinion, is the battery life. With the 6-cell battery, I get 4.5 - 5 hours with the wireless turned on and the screen at 50% brightness. Even at 50%, the screen is still brighter than my desktop LCD.

There are a growing number of choices in this market, most of them with similar features and hardware. I would recommend this system to anyone looking for this type of system.

[Tuesday, October 07, 2008]

«Geek love»

I'm a fan of the netbook concept. When I first saw the Asus EEE 4G I bought it on sight and never looked back at my old laptops...

Well, at least until the novelty wore off. After awhile the 7" screen and tiny keyboard drove me nuts. The EEE had a special place in my heart, but it was hardly practical. I fortunately sold it before the new crop of Atom-based processors came out, still hoping for a future machine that would "get it right."

The MSI Wind gets it right. The screen is just the right size, the battery life is terrific, build quality is solid, and the keyboard is a joy to use. After evaluating everything from the Acer Aspire One, the 901 and 1000 series Asus EEEs, all the way to the Dell Mini 9 (which I ordered -- and canceled after trying the Wind), this is the clear winner.

From a geek perspective, this is a fun machine to mod. I upgraded RAM to 2GB ($20), bought a new 250GB Scorpio hard drive on Amazon ($80), and then created a dual-boot Windows XP and OSX Leopard machine... Yeah, that's right, this baby runs the Mac OS like a dream. Do a search for MSIWindosX.iso and read up if you're so technically inclined. After replacing the internal wireless with a surplus Dell card that has a Mac-recognized Broadcom chip($15), I've got the only-to-be-dreamed-of 10", sub-3lb. MacBook that Apple never made... Much cheaper than the compromise of the Air.

Note: making this a Mac breaks the license of the OSX EULA. It also requires a fair bit of technical savvy.

[Saturday, September 13, 2008]

«A perfectly wonderful little machine!»

I've been working with my MSI Wind for a few weeks now - long enough to discover and then iron out one or two (common - and easily fixed) wrinkles. As shipped, the wireless driver is sometimes flakey - a quick upgrade, either from the MSI website or via Windows Update fixed that problem.
I chose this mini-notebook primarily because of concerns about cramped keyboards on other comparable machines. As someone who spends a lot of time writing and negotiating the computer world via the keyboard, I'm somewhat demanding on this point. The Wind keyboard is clearly better than most, if not all, of the alternatives. I've not tried the HP-2133, the closest competitor it seems, so I can't say from experience which is better. But I've now spent many hours using the Wind, and the keyboard is perfectly fine.
As shipped - Windows XP, 1 GB RAM, 80 GB harddrive, 6-cell battery - the machine is perfectly suited for 95% of all I need, i.e., wordprocessing, email, Internet. It would be fun to upgrade the memory and harddrive - but as is, the system works perfectly fine. The processor is zippy enough for most tasks, including video-phone via Skype.
Being able to carry all of this around in a package less than 3 lbs - and with a working battery life of at least four hours - is nothing short of amazing.
The only limitation for me is the screen size - but I knew this going in. For 95% of my work, it's more than adequate. Only when I need to edit and compare two documents side by side is the screen just too cramped.
In sum, as long as one is aware that a 10" screen has limits, and the Atom processor will likely be sluggish on intensive image and video processing - I can't recommend this device highly enough. My beloved MacBook Pro is now my desktop - comparatively too big and heavy to carry around; the MSI Wind is now my highly portable notebook.

[Sunday, September 07, 2008]

Customers who bought this item also bought: