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It is kind of a plain Jane once you remove the stickers (especially if you buy a black one), but I like that quality.Possibly the best thing about the MSI Wind is that the RAM can be upgraded in under 10 minutes, or 5 if you know what you are doing. This model does however support draft-N so if you have the router for it, you may have better luck. Typical web pages can be viewed without a lot of scrolling with the 10".The build quality of the MSI is very good. The 8.9s are cute for sure, but the extra screen size of a 10" makes a huge difference. I have tried a few netbooks already; the "Wind" or U100 (the model number for the entire Wind series) falls almost out of the netbook category; it's bigger than most netbooks. This one has a 6 cell battery; it does add weight, but it will get you through the day (unlike a 3 cell) and it's cheaper to get a Wind with the 6 cell rather than having to buy one.If you want cute, get an Acer Aspire 8.9 inch. On 802.11g, the reception on this one is the weakest of any notebook computer I have owned. Also, the network card and the hard drive are very easy swaps as well.Which brings us to the network card.
Some of the Winds don't. Installing the extra RAM will not void your warranty (even though you have to remove a screw under a sticker which says "warranty void if tampered"). There's no contest in my mind between anything with an 8.9" screen and anything with a 10-incher. This model has bluetooth. If you buy a Wind, spring 13-15 bucks for a 1gig memory chip, you'd be nuts not to. I called MSI tech support and they assured me that they have changed their policy in this regard. I love it; I purchased a bluetooth mouse and it works great without taking up a USB port. If you want a compact notebook that will do just about anything a full-size budget laptop will do, get the MSI Wind.
Gotta go online and beyond the PDF file to really get the whole story. Only problem I have is the Home and End keys seem to need something extra to get them to work, haven't figured that out yet. Being a fan of the Panasonic ToughBook approach to notebooks I was surprised and favorably taken by the QC claimed to have gone into the manufacturing process. XP will suck up the resources of only 1 gig's worth of RAM.
LED backlit LCD screen is marvelously sharp, even for astigmatic eyes like mine.Keyboard is solid, well thought out. An impressively well built device. Basic info: If you have to run XP Home in this then it will initially go online and start updating to sp3 and forward. So, gotta add another gig of RAM, or switch to Ubuntu. Otherwise, you will not fatfinger too much once you get the hang.
Once that's done with, most of the spiffy quickness you noticed out of the box summarily be lost. Or both. Time will tell. Even after I inserted another gig the Intel Atom strains a bit. F and J key guides could have been a bit more pronounced, however.
Which reminds me, most of the detailed instruction guides are not included in the box. And that's after optimizing XP to some degree. Otherwise, be content with a convenient and pretty damn good little unit hobbled with a piggy OS.
I am not a computer Maven but have just loved this little computer. Not a minutes problem with this computer at all. I also have bifocals and like the smaller screen.
Her laptop is loaded and very heavy so she loves to grab mine to catch up on e-mails, facebook and shopping. It does have the sticker over the screw you need to use to add the RAM so it cancels the warrantee. My daughter is very computer savy and I have to fight her off to get my MSI wind from her.
8 inches would be too small but 10 is great.I chose this one because it was upgradeable. This is perfect for the casual computer person. The extra ram is really nice, it is a tad slow with just 1GM of Ram but nothing you can't live with.I have chubby fingers and don't really have a problem with the keyboard, very user friendly.
But worth it to me. LOVE IT.
I confessed to to adding the RAM and removing the "do not tamper" screw cover sticker. With many options in the current netbook market, quality of the motherboard is an obvious key ingredient in the longterm overall quality of a netbook.While shopping, I considered the cheaper Linux/SSD netbook offerings. You can save.jpg files easily enough, but (as my machine shipped) the included Windows Movie Maker locked up each time I attempted to capture moving video. Very easy upgrade (loosen nine screws, snap off the bottom cover, insert the RAM). The shortcomings in the web site navigation above were mitigated by a rapid response (approximately 24 hours) to a web request I made. If you have big fingers or marginal touch typing skills.well, then prepare for some typos. It's about 80% the size of the one on most laptops.
This is not a negative; it's a simple fact of life with a small form factor such as this. My only two issues with the keyboard ergonomics are these:(1) the period , comma and question mark keys are half the size of the other keys, which takes some getting used to in an already crowded keyboard space.(2) the "Page Down" key requires use of the "Fn" key.also takes some getting used to if you use it a lot (and I do).The rest of the following are forgivable in view of the obvious bang for the buck on this machine, but worth being aware of (and the difference between 4 and 5 stars):-The MSI Wind U100has a built-in web cam, but the bundled software isn not very robust. I've had high regard for MSI's motherboards in home-built PC builds for many years. On the other hand, there is an active community of MSI Wind users in web forums hosted by MSI. Lots of hard core geeks running multiple operating systems and helping each other with warranty-voiding overclocking mods on their machines:-)I added additional 1 GB RAM chip to this machine on arrival. It was immediately recognized at the next start up).it's very snappy. The important hardware (processor, memory and hard drive) is robust. This machine is light, fast and very capable with long battery life.
In the end, a houseful of Windows machines drove me to the familiarity of XP and the generous 160 GB capacity of this machine's standard 2.5" magnetic hard drive.First: others have commented about the keyboard. They said: "Replacement of sticker is not necessary warranty will not be affected you can completely remove it if you do not like how it looks.". MSI should have included better software for webcam video capture.Others have commented on its balance issues; it will tip backwards if you don't pay attention to the cover and support the base firmly.The included.pdf user guide isn't very useful; it's mostly warnings and explanations of the LEDs and connectors.Not related to the machine itself is the difficult navigation on MSI's support sites. Bad English, complex navigation, and the requirement to both identify the machine serial number AND mail in a form to begin warranty coverage is simply uncalled for. Aren't they nice.When I bought this netbook, I also purchased an 8X DVDrw Ext USB Drive Red (mostly to be able to load software from CD or DVD sources). The minor issues above keep this from being a "5".but buy with confidence once you are aware of them.
WEB SUPPORT FOR THE MSI NETBOOK WAS UNRESPONSIVE. I RETURNED THE MSI NETBOOK BECAUSE I COULD NOT LINK IT TO MY DSL WIRELESS MODEM. I FOUND THAT THE DOCUMENTATION SUPPLIED WITH THE MSI NETBOOK WERE SO GENERAL THAT THEY WAS NO HELP. I THEREFOR, RETURNED THE MACHINE. AMAZON MADE THE RETURN VERY EASY.
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