MSI Wind U100

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The MSI Wind is a decent enough sub-notebook and when compared to the rest of the market the MSI Wind is an attractive enough product. It’s got a decent keyboard, a good screen, adequate battery life and all the usual mod cons in terms of connectivity.

There are a few issues, such as the fact that it’s running on Windows and that the mechanical hard drive can occasionally be heard whirring away like a stuttering grandfather clock or a tap dancer on a caffeine overdose.

Still, as far as we can tell the biggest problem for the MSI Wind is MSI's own OEM machines - the Advent 4211 is identical, yet cheaper! MSI also has to crack Eee-mania too. It seems Asus can slap the three vowels onto anything and people go nuts for it these days, such is the fanbase. Making a dent in this will be a long uphill struggle for MSI, especially since there are now more EeePC notebooks than you can shake a tree's worth of sticks at.

Obviously, that seems a little unfair. The Wind itself is a useful little laptop and is well suited to internet roaming and general office tasks on the train. Despite the flaws, it remains a thoroughly appealing and attractive product to those who are tired of the Eee PC’s tiny keyboard and constant, pointless remakes. In that regard, it’s just like the Advent.


What you’re spending that extra bit of money on then compared to the Advent, is branding – that intangible and most shallow of evils.

The whole story reminds me very much of an experience I had once when shopping with my girlfriend. She wanted a pair of slippers – booty slippers with furry insides to be exact, not the old-man slipper type which I tend to prefer – and we ended up spending most of the day shopping around for them. We tried a few places and found a few pairs she liked.

As we went along, I actually started examining the slippers closely. Shoe shopping is a hugely boring task after all. What amazed me was that a number of the slippers we saw were actually identical. Same manufacturer imprint on the sole, same label – the same. Costs however varied wildly from around £5.99 to £17.99. That’s some mark-up.

Really, when you think about it, that’s what’s going on here too – except there are two prices within the same store. MSI is offering you a pair of slippers (or a laptop, whatever) for a certain price, then offering you the same laptop for a slightly inflated price. All that has happened is that the name has changed and there’s a different logo on the bezel.

Considering the roughly £40 price difference, whether that logo is worth it or not is up to you. Personally, we bought the cheap slippers and I used the spare change to buy myself a comic. I love it when a plan comes together.

That said, if you don't care about Windows and prefer your OS in the flavour of Linux, you can almost get both brand and great value. Just treat it like a pair of slippers and shop around because prices are currently all over the place.

Conclusions

The MSI Wind is a good sub-notebook– nay, a great subnotebook. The build quality is solid and convincing, the design is basic but all you need and the choice of hardware is perfectly balanced with the exception of the HDD – which still does give you a few advantages in terms of cost, capacity and modability.

The Wind looks nice, feels nice and performs well even with the slightly bulkier XP option. It’s got all the connectivity you’ll really need, though the wireless card only supports slower connections, and it’s easy to use. To the point, nice and simple – it lives up to its name and flows.

Still, MSI has shot itself in the foot a bit by essentially making the Wind a rebadged version of the Advent 4211. If there had been some sort of upgrade in terms of the wireless connectivity and storage capacity, or if a swanky new add-on like a touch-screen had been wired in then we’d be all over the Wind as the first real Eee-killer.

Failing sheerly on the front of the poor battery life and other factors, the Wind is an attractive option in the Sub-notebook market, and should be on your short list, but should by no means be your first choice.

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• Performance
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• Value
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What do these scores mean?