MSI Wind U100 641US 10 Inch Black Netbook 3 Cell Battery
At less than 3 pounds, this notebook is perfect for any lifestyle – indoors or out. The Wind, an acronym for “Wi-Fi Network Device,” features a speedy and energy-efficient Intel Atom 1.6GHz Processor to provide longer operation hours and better mobile lifestyle. This notebook, or Netbook is lightweight and ultra-portable, measuring about 7 inches wide by 10.23 inches long, and weighing just 2.6 pounds. Being small doesn’t mean ultra-small keyboard, the Wind features an ergonomically designed keyboard that is only 20% smaller than a full sized notebook keyboard, with keys spaced a comfortable 0.68 inches apart. The Wind comes equipped with a 10″ backlit LED screen that provides superior color quality and brightness giving you better comfort while reading reports, watching online videos and viewing photos. In addition, the 1024 x 600 screen resolution can fully display web pages, which makes it ideal for Internet browsing. With the 802.11b/g/n wireless built-in, you can enjoy the convenience of accessing the Internet anywhere and video chat with family and friends with the built-in 1.3 Megapixel Webcamera and microphone. With the Wind notebook weighting less than 3 pounds, makes it a great second computer to use at school, work and to take on vacations. 10 WSVGA (1024 x 600) LED Backlit Display Two internal Speakers Built-in 1.3 Megapixel Webcamera and Microphone Built-in 802.11b/g Wireless 10/100 Ethernet LAN 4-in-1 Card Reader – SD, MultiMedia Card, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro 3 x USB 2.0, Headphone out; Microphone-in, VGA, RJ-45 Approximate Unit Dimensions – 10.23 (L) x 7.08 (D) x 1.24 (H) Approximate Unit Weight – 2.3 Pounds
User Ratings and Reviews
2 Stars Had to return it, Wifi didnt connect to my router
I updated all the drivers to the latest ones on MSI’s website. I upgraded the firmware of my router, which isnt some obscure router its a Linksys WRT54G. Still the Wind despite being one room away from the router and having 4 bars wouldnt hold a connection to the router. It would work for a few minutes then the connection would freeze. This wasnt some minor annoyance all laptops will drop a connection once in a blue moon. This was chronic and rendered the netbook unuseable. So I returned it to Amazon. If you look on the web it seems this isnt an uncommon phenomena. Many people seem to give up on the internal wifi card and buy an external card to maintain a solid connection.
The most impressive thing about the unit was the keyboard which I liked and the low weight of the unit. The speakers were also acceptable, and could reach a decent volume. Some netbooks at full volume are almost inaudible. Also the overclocking functions are useful if you want to play some basic 3d games on the unit. A 25% overclock is quite significant.
Compared to other netbooks I thought the polish of the unit was lacking. The plastics on the unit are pretty cheap feeling compared to plastics on Asus netbooks. When you look at the rather large vents on the bottom you can see exposed circuit boards. Seems like a weak design as dust, crumbs, etc can easily get in there and I would imagine could cause potential hardware failures.
The screen was fairly weak, similar to most netbooks. Theres a speckled look to the screens which prevents them approaching the quality level of full size notebooks. I think this comes from the fact netbooks use screens intended for portable DVD players not for computer text. I would expect future netbooks to improve screen quality.
The instructions that came with the unit were lacking and incredibly sparse. One not very well written poster page and thats about it.
Overall if you just want a basic netbook that isnt by anyones estimation the best netbook out there but is the cheapest then this could fit the bill. That is if the wifi connects for you, for me it didnt.
However there is some merit to the saying ‘you get what you pay for’. Though the Wind is acceptable overall I think there are better options out there even if they cost a little more money.
4 Stars Nice Bang for the Buck
Pros: I decided to wait a little while before I wrote a review so that I could provide some insight that went beyond just my initial impressions. My OBE (Out of Box Experience) was fantastic. I had looked at a number of different models before I chose this one. I was leaning very heavily towards getting an Acer until a friend of mine lent me his MSI for an overnight test drive. The display was very impressive and I found being able to fit the full width of a web page very helpful. I’m a rather clumsy typist and I found the keyboard to be sufficient enough to accommodate my paw and hope technique.
My main purpose in getting a netbook was to get something that was as portable as possible and still be able to surf the web with relative ease. I recently purchased a notebook for my wife, she is an accountant and insisted that the keyboard be full sized and have a 10 key pad on it as well. I got her a very nice machine with an incredible display with all of the bells and whistles. The problem was that at about 9 pounds, it was not anything that I would care to lug around.
With portability, ease of surfing and price my key factors I happily made the purchase (300 bucks). This computer quickly exceeded my expectations. I found that not only could I easily surf the web, but this computer was more than I hoped for. It easily runs office and most any other application you care to throw at it with relative ease (heavy gaming excluded). I suspect that this is due in part to the fact that it comes with XP Home Edition instead of Vista. This machine will never be a good choice as a primary computer but it does what it is meant to do extremely well and then some.
In an effort to keep the weight and cost down I opted for the 3 cell battery. I knew that this would limit my time that I could spend away from an outlet and I am getting about 1:45 worth of actual time on a full charge. Keeping the brightness on the monitor down as low as practical and turning off unnecessary features definitely helps. I have an adaptor in my vehicle that I bought at Sam’s club which allows me to plug any small to medium sized AC powered device into my cigarette lighter. I would highly recommend getting one as this really helps! I think I paid something like 30 bucks for a two pack a couple of years ago. I have one in my truck and one in my wife’s SUV.
The WIFI on this is excellent. I am able to pick up signals very easily and the dropouts are at a very acceptable level. The Webcam although not great, gets the job done. I am not sure if this thing has Bluetooth or not. The Bluetooth software is there but the box that the computer comes in indicates that there is no Bluetooth. Since I do not have any Bluetooth devices I can’t determine if Bluetooth is there or not.
The processor is better than I expected and runs programs faster than I thought it would. Even with just 1 GB of RAM this thing runs very well. Here is where I am very confused with respect to the processor. It was my understanding that the Atom 270 was a single core, however when I bring up task manager, there are two cores present. When I monitor the task manager CPU usage window it behaves exactly like a dual core would. Each core is displayed separately and is acting independently from the other. I either received a dual core processor or I am missing something here.
Cons: As I indicated, my OBE was exceptional and had I written this review the day after I received the computer I would have easily given it 5 stars.
After about three weeks my computer stopped being able to run on battery power. I have no idea what happened but one day it simply stopped working. It still worked fine on AC but I didn’t buy a desktop. I treat my computers with great care and I typically get 6 or more years out of a computer. I suspect there was simply a loose wire inside.
Amazon made it very easy to return the item and I received the replacement in short order. If I remember correctly I filled out the RMA on a Sunday and I received the replacement the following Thursday. I sent the defective unit back via parcel post and I paid for a receipt notification. I received notification back both from Amazon and the USPS that the return had be received.
Although the replacement came in very short order, the OBE fell way short of the first computer. The first annoyance was that the processor was not as fast as the first one. I cannot gripe too much on this point because the Atom is clearly marketed as a 1.6 GHz processor and I got that both times. The cool thing about the MSI bios is that it allows you to overclock the processor. You can select an 8, 15 or 24% increase in the rated processor speed. The basic process is to start low and work your way up until you hit 24% or your computer locks up whichever comes first. Not to worry though, if your computer locks up you can simply re-boot and then lower the speed.
The first computer that I received allowed me to ramp it up an additional 15%, the second computer only allowed me to bump it up 8%. I treat this as a disappointment but nothing that can really be held against MSI since Intel clearly has rated the processor at 1.6 GHz and nothing more. Anything above that is gravy and is due to minor defects in the silicon that determine the amount of over clocking that can be obtained.
My second issue however is something that I feel I can hold against MSI. There must have been a difference in the image that shipped on the two computers. The first one was flawless and everything worked perfectly the first time. The second computer suffered from a MAJOR memory leak when using Internet Explorer 6. I had heard about this before but I had never actually seen a computer that had it. Basically when I got on the web, each page was taking up about 50-75 MB of memory that was never released. It took me quite some to figure out that this was happening. I would go online and after about 15 minutes of surfing I would get a memory full error. If I closed IE and then re-opened it I could continue for about another 15 minutes.
Clearly there was something very wrong. Even though I had installed all of the patches I still got the memory leak. I could monitor the memory leak by having the task manager open while I surfed; I even upgraded to IE 8 and although the memory leak was not as bad it was still unacceptable.
I finally bombed the computer by hitting F3 during the boot process when F3 appears in the upper left hand corner of the screen. This did a complete re-install of the image including formatting the drives. After I re-imaged the computer and installed all of the necessary updates I took IE6 for another spin and things were much improved although there was still a noticeable memory leak. The leak was small enough that I could have a decent surfing session and not run out of memory. It was something that I could live with if I had to but I wanted a better fix.
Finally I decided that the best course of action was to give Mozilla’s Firefox a try. I installed Firefox and “poof” the memory leak disappeared! Although I have just started using Firefox I have to say that it is sooooo much faster than IE! It may not have all of the bells and whistles that IE has especially in terms of interoperability with other Microsoft applications, but in terms just browsing, this thing has IE beat hands down!
Other thoughts: Overall I am very happy with this computer. The price is fantastic and given its diminutive size this thing delivers better than expected performance. I can only give this item a rating of 4 stars because I should not have had to go though all of the hoops that I did in order to fix my memory leak. Given what I know now, I would not hesitate to buy this computer; however, I would save myself some hassle and install Firefox right away. I am very happy with Amazon’s return policy and they made it very easy to return the item.
As an additional piece of advice, make sure you keep EVERYTHING when you receive your package. Just set it aside in a nice safe location because you never know. This is an old habit of mine and I even keep the shipping materials. That way if the need to ship it back arises then you can ship it back exactly the way you received it. This can save you time money and hassles. You can be charged a restocking fee if you do not send it back properly. Also (and my wife had fun laughing at me for this one), I document the entire repackaging process with my digital camera so that I have additional proof that I sent everything back. Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean that someone isn’t out to get me 
4 Stars Inspiring, Fast, Efficient, and Easy-to-Use (mostly)
I would have given 4.5 stars if possible.
I waited to write the review until I’d had the tiny netbook for about a month, just so I could really give a comprehensive review. I have the Gig of RAM recommended by an earlier review here on my couch still in the box. The computer is so fast that I haven’t found I need it and I wanted to make 100% sure I was keeping the computer before I installed anything.
The MSI Wind U100 is nothing short of incredible. I wish they made these 10 years ago. It fits in my ordinary-sized purse and it’s light enough to carry around anywhere I go (and I do). I have the 3 cell battery, but I’m probably going to upgrade to the 6 cell, since the battery life is ok, but not fantastic. I tried many netbooks and the keyboard on the MSI U100 is the easiest to use (except for the trackpad, which I’ll explain below). The webcam quality is good enough to make me look like a celebrity, but not so good that it’s possible to see that I just woke up (I’d enclose a video, but I wanted to make sure it was read– I never watch video reviews). The wireless is so good that I was able to pick up a signal from two blocks away. The computer itself is fast and fun to use. I never sit around waiting for it to catch up (ok, once I did, but I restarted and everything was ok… I think I had some pretty heavy stuff processing in the background). Though the MSI website is really terrible, their support forum is really fantastic. People are there to help and are quite eager to do so (at least, in my experience). Apparently, it’s possible to do a lot of modifications on the MSI U100, but I’m not technically inclined enough to try it. The keyboard is just fine for me, and even the controversial “.” key is not too small for me now that I’ve gotten used to it (they made it about half the size it usually is, so some people complain that they can’t hit it).
Now for the drawback. There’s only one, but it’s REALLY annoying. The trackpad that came with mine has tap-to-click enabled and it’s not possible to disable it. I went to the forum with this issue, and it seems that it’s a crapshoot if you get the bad trackpad (mine) or the good one. When I’m typing, my thumb occasionally hits the trackpad and moves my cursor or clicks whatever it happens to be hovering over. This has lost emails and forms and has resulted in much frustration while typing. I’ve had to become really proactive about watching my thumbs, and even then, I am accidentally clicking around quite frequently. And my thumbs are not large… I have what people say are “piano player” hands. This would not be *such* a huge issue, but it’s not even possible to disable the trackpad in general. Even if I plug a mouse in, the only way to disable the trackpad is to uninstall the driver. The forum suggested a new driver that has click-to-tap as an option, but I installed that driver and still have no way to turn off click-to-tap.
However, even with the trackpad issue, I still would not hesitate to buy another. I recommend them to everyone I know and even started a website just for fun: [...]
I am planning on buying a bigger external hard drive, a big monitor, and a USB DVD drive. In my opinion, it’s better to have that stuff as components rather than lugging everything around in a single laptop that doesn’t even fit in my purse.
5 Stars BEST Notebook
$ for $ this is the best notebook u can buy. Its runs so smooth and the 3cell battery is not as bad as many people make it out to be. The keyboard is a lil smaller but it is very comfortable to type. I upgraded the ram to 2gb and installed vista. Its runs so much smoother than XP. I think MSI didnt want to add the extra ram and vista for their own cost savings. But this thing with Vista business runs smooooth and fast. Try it out for yourself
4 Stars Love this Laptop!
I love this little machine. It does everything I could possibly want and at a ridiculously low price. Only minor reservation is regarding battery life, which is only 2 hrs. Of course, 6 and 9 cell batteries are available, if you need more non-AC time.
A bonus is the ability to overclock very easily, pushing the processing speed to about 2 GHz. I HIGHLY recommend the MSI Wind U100!!!
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