Derrick
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Aesthetically, the unit won’t win any design awards, but it is easy on the eye, despite its thicker-than-usual profile. Overall, the U100 is everything one would want from a netbook – and a little more.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that netbook popularity has skyrocketed over the last 14 months. One of the more popular units is the MSI Wind U100, and it’s easy to see why. Not only is it one of the most affordable netbooks on the market, but it also offers better bang for buck than most others. The unit we received for review features the brilliant Intel Atom N270 processor (Diamondville). The Atom N270 is very power efficient, consuming a modest 2.5W at most. It features Hyper-Threading technology, so in most cases it will function much as a dual-core processor would. This is particularly useful for multithreaded programs, but more so for multitasking on the netbook.
Graphics on the U100 come courtesy of Intel’s Graphics Media Accelerator 945, which is more than enough for basic functionality and video playback. However, it is less than adequate for playing back bit-stream video content such as HD video. For any other media, however, including MPEG-4 standard-definition video, the U100 is more than capable. The 10-inch LCD is also impressive. The native 1,024 x 600 display is crisp, easy to read and can be viewed for hours on end with no strain on the eyes.
The U100 features a 1.3MP Webcam, AC’97-compliant audio, a compact flash/SD card reader, several USB ports and Wi-Fi connectivity. The most impressive aspect of the unit is how everything comes together to make this netbook as capable as many notebooks that cost up to twice as much. With a 120GB hard drive, there’s more than enough storage space for music collections, documents, presentations and videos.
The lack of an optical drive may be a major issue for a number of people, but keep in mind that netbooks at this level do not ship with an optical drive. In terms of performance, the U100 is a pleasure to work with. The model we reviewed came pre-installed with Windows XP Home SP3 and a 60-day trial of Microsoft Office 2007. All applications loaded quickly, and general system responsiveness was nothing short of impressive. When playing back video and browsing the Internet simultaneously, the U100 never seemed to struggle, and despite the 1GB of RAM (upgradable to 2GB), the unit was able to handle the workload.
Aesthetically, the unit won’t win any design awards, but it is easy on the eye, despite its thicker-than-usual profile. Overall, the U100 is everything one would want from a netbook – and a little more.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that netbook popularity has skyrocketed over the last 14 months. One of the more popular units is the MSI Wind U100, and it’s easy to see why. Not only is it one of the most affordable netbooks on the market, but it also offers better bang for buck than most others. The unit we received for review features the brilliant Intel Atom N270 processor (Diamondville). The Atom N270 is very power efficient, consuming a modest 2.5W at most. It features Hyper-Threading technology, so in most cases it will function much as a dual-core processor would. This is particularly useful for multithreaded programs, but more so for multitasking on the netbook.
Graphics on the U100 come courtesy of Intel’s Graphics Media Accelerator 945, which is more than enough for basic functionality and video playback. However, it is less than adequate for playing back bit-stream video content such as HD video. For any other media, however, including MPEG-4 standard-definition video, the U100 is more than capable. The 10-inch LCD is also impressive. The native 1,024 x 600 display is crisp, easy to read and can be viewed for hours on end with no strain on the eyes.
The U100 features a 1.3MP Webcam, AC’97-compliant audio, a compact flash/SD card reader, several USB ports and Wi-Fi connectivity. The most impressive aspect of the unit is how everything comes together to make this netbook as capable as many notebooks that cost up to twice as much. With a 120GB hard drive, there’s more than enough storage space for music collections, documents, presentations and videos.
The lack of an optical drive may be a major issue for a number of people, but keep in mind that netbooks at this level do not ship with an optical drive. In terms of performance, the U100 is a pleasure to work with. The model we reviewed came pre-installed with Windows XP Home SP3 and a 60-day trial of Microsoft Office 2007. All applications loaded quickly, and general system responsiveness was nothing short of impressive. When playing back video and browsing the Internet simultaneously, the U100 never seemed to struggle, and despite the 1GB of RAM (upgradable to 2GB), the unit was able to handle the workload.
Aesthetically, the unit won’t win any design awards, but it is easy on the eye, despite its thicker-than-usual profile. Overall, the U100 is everything one would want from a netbook – and a little more.