MSI X-Slim X350

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MSI X-Slim X350

Rohan Naravane, Feb 22, 2010 1636 hrs IST

MSI gets everything right with this thin and light notebook. Well, almost.

Ultra-thin design, fairly light-weight, sturdier build than predecessor, chiclet-style keyboard, HDMI port, good battery life, two-year warranty

Average touch-pad response, horrendous touch-pad scrolling, the only two USB ports on it are placed quite close, slightly overpriced

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Design and Build

The MSI X350 has a distinct appearance, thanks to its ultra-thin form factor. People will instantly get attracted to its slimness and lightweight. The X350 is easy to carry around and won't weigh your backpack down. It comes in black and silver color options, while most of its body has a diamond cluster design pattern. This texture feels nice, especially the palm rest area. However, the top half is covered by a glossy material that attracts fingerprints. Earlier, we'd complained about the X340's flimsy build quality, but we're happy to report that things have improved in the X350. Although it isn't built like a tank (in other words, like the Macbook Air), the build quality's quite decent. A feeling of sturdiness is delivered due to the metallic lining covering the bottom half. The screen hinge offers fair resistance as well.

On the inside, we have a 13-inch display bearing an ideal 1366 x 768 pixel resolution. The display portrays good clarity for text and visuals. The brightness was upto the mark as well, and it was a good experience to watch HD movies on it. The webcam is pretty decent too.

The keyboard design has been upgraded to a chiclet style. All the keys have proportional sizing and good tactility, which make typing on it pleasant. Below the keyboard is the touch-pad, which is the problem area on this laptop. Although the touch-pad is fairly sized, the material of the surface isn't the best for smooth finger motion. But the worst is the malfunctioning scrolling. You can either select side-strip scrolling or multi-touch. When we selected side-scrolling, it simply did not work. When we decided to go the multi-touch way, scrolling through pages was horrendous. One flick and it will take you directly to the end of the page. We're not robots to be able to read through THAT fast!

It was simply unusable and made us resort to using the keyboard arrow keys, or worse - the scroll bar. Scrolling is something that every computer user performs day-in and day-out. We're not sure whether this is a fault of the touch-pad or the driver but something needs to be fixed, and fast.