The MSI Wind netbook is currently available in four colors and two hardware configurations. The colors are Black, Pink, White and the Love Edition, which is White with heart line graphics. The hardware config choices are just between an 80GB or a 120GB . The 120GB version of this netbook is only available right now in the Black and Love Edition colors. At the time I placed my order last week, I didn’t even know there was an 120GB version. I was having a heck of a time trying to find any online stores that had any models in stock. I lucked out though and found the store and they had some 120GB Black models in stock, so I snapped one up. I originally wanted a 6 cell battery model, but since I couldn’t find any in stock, I decided to go for the higher capacity hard drive model instead. I figure I can always get a 6 cell battery later.
Since I’ve already had the opportunity to try out two other popular netbooks, I was hoping that the MSI would fall somewhere in between the slightly toyish looking ASUS Eee PC and the really cool looking HP Mini-Note. Thankfully, it does. I like the design because it isn’t flashy. It has rounded sides and corners, with no sharp edges. The lid is shiny slick Black that has a tiny bit of sparkle to it. If you look really close, you can see multi-colored specs in the surface. The MSI logo is silk-screened in White in the center… perfect for slapping a sticker over it at some point ;o)
According to the product page on MSI’s site, the lid has “Special Insert Mold Roller Technology (IMR). The special IMR technology protects the notebook from fading and also reducing the fingerprints which makes the Wind always look glare and outstanding.” Ummm… do what? Trust me, the lid still shows fingerprints, smudges and smears.
The bottom half of the Wind is not shiny; it has various heat ventilation slits and five Grey rubber feet. There is also a speaker in the front corners.
On the left side, you’ll find a security lock slot, power connector, heat vents and two USB ports.
The opposite side has another USB port, a 4-in-1 card reader that supports SD, MMC, Memory Stick and MSPro formats, a Video out port and an Ethernet jack.
The lid / screen is held closed with friction. There isn’t a clasp or any other mechanism to keep it closed. The hinge feels sturdy enough that when you open the lid, it will lift the whole computer along with it. So opening it, is a two-handed operation.
This little guy should fit easily on an airplane tray table…
Here you see the screen open to the maximum angle.
Sizing it up
I purchased the MSI Wind netbook to serve as my travel companion for an upcoming vacation to Florida. I usually take my 15″ MacBook Pro with me whenever a travel, but I get tired of lugging it around the airport with me. I love it dearly, but it’s big and bulky. I decided against a MacBook Air a long time ago because I think they are overpriced and under powered.
The Wind is significantly smaller than the MacBook Pro as you can see here…
It is small and light enough to fit in almost any gear bag.
All by itself, it weights in at 2 lbs 8 oz on my scale. Great right?
Well, when you add the necessary AC adapter, the weight jumps up considerably. Actually, the AC adapter brick isn’t all that cumbersome by itself, but when you pair it with the bulky power cord that plugs into it, that’s when we see the issue. Why is it that the littlest gadgets seem to have the most massive power adapters / cords? Grrrrr. I knew I wouldn’t be happy till I could find something to help me lessen the weight and bulk problem…
It didn’t take me too long to find a cool little solution thanks to the fantastic MSI Wind forums at. This little $3 adapter can be found at and totally replaces the included power cord.
It plugs directly into the AC adapter. Nifty huh? It reduces the overall weight of the netbook and AC adapter from 3 lbs 3 oz to 2 lbs 15 oz. I know that’s only a 4 oz savings, but every little bit helps and it definitely saves some space in your gear bag too.
Using the keyboard and touch pad
Following an initial charge of the battery, I was ready to start putting this little netbook through all the same types of things I use my Macbook Pro for when I travel. I may be The Gadgeteer, but I’m really not an over the top power user when it comes to what I want out of a netbook. Basically, I want to be able to touch type on it, surf all my favorite websites on it, read and respond to emails with it, offload digital camera images to its hard drive and maybe do a bit of photo editing if the mood strikes me. Let’s start with the keyboard…
The size of the Wind’s keyboard is not an issue for me as far as hindering my ability to touch type on it. My hands fit comfortably on the ‘home’ row, without having to adjust the spacing of my fingers. The keys themselves are flat, but have good travel and tactile feedback.
The keyboard would be perfectly fine for me, but due to the layout, I do have consistent problems correctly typing the following characters: . ? /
The location of the . key under the L key is almost directly under it as you can see above. On regular full-size keyboards, the location of the . key is usually where the ? key is. So, when I want to end a sentence with a period, I almost always get a slash. When I want to type a question mark, I end up pressing the Right shift key instead. Same goes for typing a /. I also almost always accidently press the Right up arrow when I mean to press the Right Shift key. So, it ends up that I have to slow my typing down in order to keep from making mistakes. I’ve only had the Wind for a week now, so maybe with more time with it, I’ll automatically start adjusting to the layout. Maybe. I have to say that I really long for the HP Mini-Note keyboard. It was perfect for me.
The built in touch pad on the Wind is small (2 x 1.5 inches) and only has one button that can be pressed on either end, instead of two separate buttons that map to the Left and Right mouse buttons. Unfortunately, MSI stopped using Synaptics touch pads and started using Sentelic finger sensing pads for their Wind netbooks. The touch pad is quite sensitive, so I have had no problems using it like a mouse. Even the one button doesn’t bother me. I do miss not having the ability to do two finger scrolling like I can on my Macbook Pro though. The Sentelic driver does have a corner tapping scroll feature, but it doesn’t work very well at all. I ended up just disabling it. I’ll probably end up using a small Bluetooth mouse…
The power button is located in the upper Right corner of the keyboard. It has a Blue star LED built into. It’s small, but easy to press.
A row of status LEDs is located along the bottom Right edge of the keyboard. These LEDs show the battery charging status, Bluetooth and Wifi status, and hard drive activity.
The display
A 10 inch display was an important selling point for me as I didn’t like the Eee PC’s tiny 7″ screen at all. The HP’s display was the bigger at 8.9 inch and with a resolution of 1280 x 786, it was significantly better. The Wind’s display maximum resolution is 1024 x 600 and features an LED backlight that gives it really good color and brightness. Even with the brightness set back to 50%, the display is easy to read.
Here we have the Wind next to my Macbook Pro. Both machines are set to maximum brightness and are pointed at http://the-gadgeteer.com. Although I wish the maximum resolution was higher, I have had no problems using the Wind to surf all my favorite sites. Up and down scrolling isn’t that bad, and horizontal scrolling isn’t necessary thank goodness.
I haven’t tested the display outside in direct sunlight - I never use my laptops outside anyway… Today is gloomy, so I can’t do a valid test. Hopefully someone else will chime in and comment about that aspect of the display. So far, I can’t find any real faults with the screen. The colors are vibrant, text is crisp and the size is just fine.
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