| Brand: | MSI | ||
| Average Rating |
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Enjoy ultimate computing mobility with the lightweight yet power-packed MSI Wind U100 Mini Laptop, which features a 10-inch LCD screen for excellent web browsing, Intel’s newest low-power processor, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, and familiar Windows XP Home operating system. The crisply and colorfully designed Wind U100 also includes an integrated webcam for video chats and an ergonomically designed keyboard that’s makes typing easy. Designed especially for mobile devices, the 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor uses a brand new design structure new hafnium-infused circuitry–which reduces electrical current leakage in transistors–to conserve energy, giving you more time away from the wall outlet–up to 6 hours with the included 6-cell battery. This model also features an 160 GB hard drive, 1 GB of installed RAM (2 GB max), internal stereo speakers, multi-format memory card reader, three USB ports, and a VGA monitor port. It comes in black, but is also available in pink and white, and it includes a carry bag that matches its color. more info
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Would not buy another USI Wind product
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
I purchased this product for Christmas for my son. After approximately two months, he began having problems with it. The computer has locked up twice to the extent that we have had to reload the operating system. We have had numerous email exchanges with the manufacturer and Microsoft trying to resolve problems. We are still having problems with the product. Given the good reviews the product had from other reviewers, we have been very disappointed with the product. We will not be purchasing another MSI procut.
Best bet!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I am not a computer Maven but have just loved this little computer. My daughter is very computer savy and I have to fight her off to get my MSI wind from her. Her laptop is loaded and very heavy so she loves to grab mine to catch up on e-mails, facebook and shopping. This is perfect for the casual computer person. The extra ram is really nice, it is a tad slow with just 1GM of Ram but nothing you can’t live with.
I have chubby fingers and don’t really have a problem with the keyboard, very user friendly. I also have bifocals and like the smaller screen. 8 inches would be too small but 10 is great.
I chose this one because it was upgradeable. It does have the sticker over the screw you need to use to add the RAM so it cancels the warrantee. But worth it to me . Not a minutes problem with this computer at all. LOVE IT!!
Smashed my MSI Wind, and Repairs were a Breeze!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
We bought our MSI WIND for traveling and checking email, and have been pleased with it.
While on vacation, my husband dropped the netbook on tile floor. He smashed it!
The Sturdy MSI WIND was still operable, but needed a repair. The case and hinges were all destroyed.
My husband emailed the company, and arranged to have it mailed in, and an estimate given for a fee of 50 dollars. I thought that was a little steep. But then we got the estimate for repair, 35 bucks! I got it back within one week! And it looks like new, everything is running smoothly. My baby is back!
Save the Wind, Dump the XP
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
An impressively well built device. Being a fan of the Panasonic ToughBook approach to notebooks I was surprised and favorably taken by the QC claimed to have gone into the manufacturing process. Time will tell.
LED backlit LCD screen is marvelously sharp, even for astigmatic eyes like mine.
Keyboard is solid, well thought out. Only problem I have is the Home and End keys seem to need something extra to get them to work, haven’t figured that out yet. Otherwise, you will not fatfinger too much once you get the hang. F and J key guides could have been a bit more pronounced, however. Which reminds me, most of the detailed instruction guides are not included in the box. Gotta go online and beyond the PDF file to really get the whole story.
Basic info: If you have to run XP Home in this then it will initially go online and start updating to sp3 and forward. Once that’s done with, most of the spiffy quickness you noticed out of the box summarily be lost. XP will suck up the resources of only 1 gig’s worth of RAM. Even after I inserted another gig the Intel Atom strains a bit. And that’s after optimizing XP to some degree.
So, gotta add another gig of RAM, or switch to Ubuntu. Or both. Otherwise, be content with a convenient and pretty damn good little unit hobbled with a piggy OS.
MSI NETBOOK RETURNED
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
I RETURNED THE MSI NETBOOK BECAUSE I COULD NOT LINK IT TO MY DSL WIRELESS MODEM. I FOUND THAT THE DOCUMENTATION SUPPLIED WITH THE MSI NETBOOK WERE SO GENERAL THAT THEY WAS NO HELP. WEB SUPPORT FOR THE MSI NETBOOK WAS UNRESPONSIVE. I THEREFOR, RETURNED THE MACHINE. AMAZON MADE THE RETURN VERY EASY.
MSI Wind is the best “netbook”
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I have tried a few netbooks already; the “Wind” or U100 (the model number for the entire Wind series) falls almost out of the netbook category; it’s bigger than most netbooks. There’s no contest in my mind between anything with an 8.9″ screen and anything with a 10-incher. The 8.9s are cute for sure, but the extra screen size of a 10″ makes a huge difference. Typical web pages can be viewed without a lot of scrolling with the 10″.
The build quality of the MSI is very good. It is kind of a plain Jane once you remove the stickers (especially if you buy a black one), but I like that quality.
Possibly the best thing about the MSI Wind is that the RAM can be upgraded in under 10 minutes, or 5 if you know what you are doing. If you buy a Wind, spring 13-15 bucks for a 1gig memory chip, you’d be nuts not to. Installing the extra RAM will not void your warranty (even though you have to remove a screw under a sticker which says “warranty void if tampered”). I called MSI tech support and they assured me that they have changed their policy in this regard. Also, the network card and the hard drive are very easy swaps as well.
Which brings us to the network card. On 802.11g, the reception on this one is the weakest of any notebook computer I have owned. This model does however support draft-N so if you have the router for it, you may have better luck.
This model has bluetooth! Some of the Winds don’t. I love it; I purchased a bluetooth mouse and it works great without taking up a USB port.
This one has a 6 cell battery; it does add weight, but it will get you through the day (unlike a 3 cell) and it’s cheaper to get a Wind with the 6 cell rather than having to buy one.
If you want cute, get an Acer Aspire 8.9 inch. If you want a compact notebook that will do just about anything a full-size budget laptop will do, get the MSI Wind.
I REALLY love my netbook
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
So far, I do love this new toy of mine. It’s small enough that I carry it everywhere I want to. Now I know all the places in town that have free wifi, lol. I did get a skin from acp or something like that. It’s really pretty and I think it makes my black wind look much nicer. The wind is really fast and really light. It also lasts a long time if you just get it out for lunch. I think I didn’t have to charge it all last week and I brought it out for lunch and because I didn’t feel like being sociable, lol. One more excuse not to talk to people. I did load a couple of games onto it and Sims 2 plays okay, but Neverwinter Nights (the original one) was really choppy. I just need to put some more RAM in and I’ll try it again.
Great Netbook
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Hadn’t thought about something this small until a friend bought one. Decided this was what we needed to save our marriage (wife was always on my laptop). So, she now has this “cute laptop” (her words, not mine).
Haven’t really found any negatives to it. Added a Logitech TrackMan Wheel for her to use. Plan to add Office 2003 to it so it can be more versatile. And the best part is it doesn’t run on Vista!!
We recently took an 8 hour trip and it kept her and another friend occupied playing Spider Solitaire on it (significantly reducing the number of driver corrections need). Plan on loading a GPS program on it eliminating the need for a separate system in the car.
Works as expected
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I really enjoy this machine! Have had it for a month.
1. Bright Screen.
2. Fast boot up.
3. Comfortable keyboard size.
4. I have had no issues with wifi connections at home or on a trip.
5. Battery lasts a reasonable amount of time. Longer time = more weight.
I did read all the Amazon reviews and yes it has these issues:
1. Screen is after all a netbook size. I use F11 a lot web browsing.
2. Touchpad is sensitive and not a control panel option. But, control panel, mouse, hardware, properties, advanced, dropped the sample rate to 60. That seemed to help.
3. Period and / keys take getting use to.
4. Fn key is before Ctrl key. A layout decision. Is because of using the arrow keys also for home and end. I can live with this.
5. I use excel a lot and do run out of fingers. Highlight to the end is Shift+Ctrl+Fn+End.
6. It is back heavy, if you put it in your lap it will tilt. I work on the couch with my feet up. But honey, I’m working. I do like the power connection on the side. I messed up my thinkpad power connection working horizontal. Try to explain that to your boss.
7. Poor speakers. Use headphones.
8. Have no info using video chat thingie which I understand is weak.
Hope this helps your decision.
Bill
GREAT NETBOOK
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
PURCHASED THE MSI-WIND NETBOOK U100-432US ON THE ADVICE FROM MY SON WHO DOES A LOT OF RESEARCH BEFORE HE BUYS ANYTHING ONLINE. NICE SIZE KEYBOARD,BLUETOOTH,WIRELESS, LOTS OF HARD DRIVE SPACE, LONG LIFE ON THE 6 CELL BATTTERY AND LIGHTWEIGHT, WHICH IS A PLUS BECAUSE MY 15 IN GATEWAY LAPTOP IS VERY HEAVY. THE TOUCHPAD TAKES A LITTLE GETTING USE TO, HAD TO EXCHANGE THE FIRST NETBOOK BECAUSE OF THE TOUCHY PAD. FOUND IT IS BETTER TURNING THE TOUCHPAD OFF BY USING THE FN-F3 FUNCTION KEY WHEN USING A WIRELESS MOUSE.
Good value, excellent functionality….some nitpicks
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I’ve had high regard for MSI’s motherboards in home-built PC builds for many years. With many options in the current netbook market, quality of the motherboard is an obvious key ingredient in the longterm overall quality of a netbook.
While shopping, I considered the cheaper Linux/SSD netbook offerings. In the end, a houseful of Windows machines drove me to the familiarity of XP and the generous 160 GB capacity of this machine’s standard 2.5″ magnetic hard drive.
First: others have commented about the keyboard. It’s about 80% the size of the one on most laptops. If you have big fingers or marginal touch typing skills…well, then prepare for some typos. This is not a negative; it’s a simple fact of life with a small form factor such as this. My only two issues with the keyboard ergonomics are these:
(1) the period , comma and question mark keys are half the size of the other keys, which takes some getting used to in an already crowded keyboard space.
(2) the “Page Down” key requires use of the “Fn” key…also takes some getting used to if you use it a lot (and I do).
The rest of the following are forgivable in view of the obvious bang for the buck on this machine, but worth being aware of (and the difference between 4 and 5 stars):
-The MSI Wind U100has a built-in web cam, but the bundled software isn not very robust. You can save .jpg files easily enough, but (as my machine shipped) the included Windows Movie Maker locked up each time I attempted to capture moving video. MSI should have included better software for webcam video capture.
Others have commented on its balance issues; it will tip backwards if you don’t pay attention to the cover and support the base firmly.
The included .pdf user guide isn’t very useful; it’s mostly warnings and explanations of the LEDs and connectors.
Not related to the machine itself is the difficult navigation on MSI’s support sites. Bad English, complex navigation, and the requirement to both identify the machine serial number AND mail in a form to begin warranty coverage is simply uncalled for. On the other hand, there is an active community of MSI Wind users in web forums hosted by MSI. Lots of hard core geeks running multiple operating systems and helping each other with warranty-voiding overclocking mods on their machines:-)
I added additional 1 GB RAM chip to this machine on arrival. Very easy upgrade (loosen nine screws, snap off the bottom cover, insert the RAM). It was immediately recognized at the next start up)…it’s very snappy. The shortcomings in the web site navigation above were mitigated by a rapid response (approximately 24 hours) to a web request I made. I confessed to to adding the RAM and removing the “do not tamper” screw cover sticker. They said: “Replacement of sticker is not necessary warranty will not be affected you can completely remove it if you do not like how it looks.”. Aren’t they nice!
When I bought this netbook, I also purchased an 8X DVDrw Ext USB Drive Red (mostly to be able to load software from CD or DVD sources).
This machine is light, fast and very capable with long battery life. The important hardware (processor, memory and hard drive) is robust. The minor issues above keep this from being a “5″…but buy with confidence once you are aware of them.
Awesome buy, should be a five star after i add the Ram
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
So far i’ve had a great time with this computer. It’s pretty snappy, and picks up great signal in and around the house. Love this computer so much, can’t say anything bad about it, watches movies like a champ, very comfortable tho speakers are quiet, but if u have headphones on the go or speakers at home it’s not an issue at all. Especially for the price. Amazon did a great job shipping it, was packed very well. Have had no problems, battery life is great. Can’t wait to add an extra gig, and see what she can really do. Buy this if ur on the go a lot and need email and chat and movies only via usb tho, unless you want to buy a external. Downloaded everything i’ll ever need on this lil guy in just about 20 mins. Very satisfied customer!!!! PS the trackpad is easy to get used to, and the page up down arrow keys make up for the lack of 2 finger scrolling.
Best little netbook I could find
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I really like the MSI netbook that I purchased I have an older HP Laptop and out of the box the netbook out performed it. The six cell battery is awesome allowing me to get a little more than five hours of use with it. Weight of the item was also important to me. One of the things I did was weigh it on our postal scale and it came in at 2 lbs 12 1/4 oz. Mine also came with the Windows CD and a drivers CD. I would recommend purchasing an external DVD/CD writer if you want to add anymore software to it. Look for one that is powered by a USB port so you can stay portable. I found one for around $40.00.
I used virtual machine and added the Ubuntu 9.04 Operating System to it. All the drivers were there so everything on it works no matter what O/S I’m using.
One last thing to mention is that a lot of people say they feel the netbook is slower, however, I have not been able to detect this no matter what I use it for.
I love this netbook!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Actually, my husband loves it–it was his birthday present. It’s great for writing and filing stories from the road. Apparently, it’s great for surfing the net, receiving and sending email, and whatever else he’s been doing with it–he never puts it down! It’s fast, light and cute.
He’s my special litte guy.
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Four stars even though the charging system fried itself after 2 months. Turnaround on the repair was very fast. They told me this issue has been dealt with in newer models. Built-in overclocking is fun and puts a cool “turbo” icon on the screen. Good for everything except games.