MSI Wind U100 review

We're still not quite sure what to call these new smaller, cheaper laptops.

'Ultraportable' describes them accurately, but is a term already associated with a quite different kind of high-end laptop, smaller than the average but not as small as these machines, and certainly not cheap. We've toyed with 'ultracheapable', but can't see it catching on. So for now we're going to use Intel's preferred terminology, 'netbook'. It's by no means perfect, not least because surfing the Internet is far from being the only function of such systems. But 'netbook' pleasingly echoes 'notebook' (a term we don't use for laptops because it doesn't make any sense) and is usefully distinct from anything else, so we'll stick with it until someone comes up with a better neologism.

The netbook trend had a few false starts, but arrived in earnest this year with the Asus Eee PC, which has already seen several versions. Now that the bandwagon is rolling, almost every manufac-turer seems to be leaping onto it. This month we've also tested the Advent 4211 and Carphone Warehouse's Elonex webbook. First, though, here's one of the most eagerly awaited ultraportables since the original Eee: the MSI Wind.

While the white chassis may seem reminiscent of Asus' now familiar machines (watch out for the 1000 series next month), there's plenty here to differentiate the MSI from its groundbreaking predecessor. For a start, the Celeron processor in the original Eee machines has been replaced by a more powerful and less energy-hungry Intel Atom chip that runs at 1.6GHz. It's a component that's been designed specifically for netbooks, and provides enough power to motor cheerfully through less taxing applications and web surfing. Scoring a modest 52% in our 2D (general) benchmark, it's not up to the full range of tasks a regular laptop could handle, but sufficient for everyday work.

Windows Vista would overload a system like this, so it comes with Windows XP, which runs at a decent enough trot in the single gigabyte of RAM that's fitted in the Wind's only memory slot. The 80GB hard disk, though small by today's standards, leaves you with a reasonable 65GB left for programs and documents after XP is installed.

As befits a highly portable device, the Wind has WiFi built in, supporting the common 802.11b and g standards but not the newer and faster Draft-n. Three USB ports provide for peripherals, and there's also a memory card reader, headphone and microphone jacks, Ethernet for wired networks, and a VGA output for an external monitor.

Blown away

Ergonomically, we found the MSI a delight to use, rivalling the Eee PC 901 and superior to the Elonex machine. The relatively large 10 inch screen has a resolution of 1024x600 pixels, which is enough to run applications comfortably and browse websites without having to scroll across. The Eee's 8.9 inch display has the same number of dots, begging the question why you'd want to bother carrying a bulkier machine. But the Wind still tips the scales at 1.1kg - hardly back-breaking.

The slightly increased dimensions also allow for a larger, more comfortable keyboard. It makes good use of all the space available, accommodating a full size Enter key, large spacebar and double width Backspace button. These may seem minor features, but any compromise on the keyboard can be a constant annoyance, and all too many mini-laptops get it wrong. Our only gripe is that the Function key is positioned at the bottom left, making it almost inevitable that you'll hit it when you're looking for the much more commonly used Ctrl, now placed just to its right. This takes quite a bit of getting used to. The other two netbooks on test this month have the same arrangement. We can only hope it doesn't become the norm.