MSI Wind U135 [Review]

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MSI Wind U135 [Review]

Rohan Naravane, Jan 07, 2010 1636 hrs IST

The first netbook we've received with Intel's Pineview architecture

Good battery life, comfortable isolated design keyboard, Windows 7 Starter Edition pre-installed, 250GB storage space

Build quality (especially the screen hinge), no scrolling mechanism on touch-pad, malfunctioning webcam on our model, slightly overpriced

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Netbooks have received an incremental update, thanks to Intel's recent release of the Pineview platform. The new line of Atom processors released under this platform do not promise big performance, but rather focus on lower power consumption (thus better battery life). The MSI Wind U135 is the first model with this platform that we've got for testing. Other than slight changes here and there, there does not seem to be a revolutionary change from the last iteration of netbooks. Let's see how much impact these improvements will make to the consumer.

Build and Design

The Wind U135's design isn't drastically different from the older generation U100 model. The U135 has passable looks at the most, while noticeable changes include a striped design top. Most of the body is glossy, thus attracting fingerprints like a moth to a flame. The build quality feels slightly plasticky and inferior to the build of the Eee PC. This was especially noticeable with respect to the screen hinge, which would fall back even if we yanked the device a little. But on the flip side, the device is fairly lightweight even with the 6-cell battery. The battery protrudes out of the body only a little, thus making it unobtrusive.

Nothing great to see here - just the usual array of USB, VGA, headphone/mic, LAN ports with a card reader

The screen has a standard 1024 x 600 pixel display. It is quite bright and offers decent clarity. A higher-resolution 1366 x 768 pixel display would have been much appreciated. The keyboard has been redesigned in the chiclet style. Their size isn't any larger than the previous generation, but since they are separated, they are quite evenly sized and offer good tactility. Typing for a long time is an easy affair.