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A Video Tour of the MSI Wind and Other Netbooks
Posted by
kdawson
on Wed Jul 02, 2008 02:38 AM
from the more-than-hot-air dept.
from the more-than-hot-air dept.
Ken E. writes "UK mobile tech site Mobile Computer has posted a nice 10-minute video that gives a tour of the MSI Wind, and shows it alongside the two other Intel Atom-powered netbooks, the Acer Aspire One and Asus Eee PC 901. The site also has photos that show the three netbooks together to give a good idea of the differences in size. The MSI Wind goes on sale today in the UK (a week ahead of the US) for £350 (around $700). Not cheap for a supposedly low-cost laptop, but the MSI Wind looks like the best of the bunch so far."
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Submission: A video tour of the MSI Wind and other netbooks by Anonymous Coward
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about the eeepc (Score:3, Informative)
I just bought one, and after some initial trouble to get the 'expert mode' enabled (it doesn't do that out of the box) and some more issues with the wifi I'm now perfectly happy.
Quite an amazing little machine, long long ago I had a compaq 'aero', and the eeepc is very much a modern version of that vintage machine.
Re: (Score:2)
real vintage would be the KIM-I I guess :)
Re:about the eeepc (Score:5, Insightful)
May I ask, and I stress this is not a troll (I was considering buying one):
Why do you think it's good value? I was literally hand on wallet, about to buy an eeePC 901, when I realized that, at $600, it was actually *more* expensive than the smallest Acer laptop next to it, which was about 50% larger, but was a fully fledged laptop.
I think that this trend of making low cost laptops expensive has gotten out of hand. Low cost is low cost. If the eeePC costs more than a second hand ThinkPad X40 but has half the power, is nowhere NEAR as durable, has a vastly inferior keyboard, then what's the point of the eeePC other than being just the next gadget to have?
Comparing my old (circa 2004) X40 to an eeePC was an eye opener. It's not hugely larger, but is a fully fledged laptop. And a damn good one at that. Personally, the best choice for ultra portables is to buy up X40s from eBay, put Xubuntu on them, and be done with it. 1/3 the price of an eeePC and I can actually do proper work on it.
Parent
Re:about the eeepc (Score:4, Informative)
Having written this post I'm now aware that it sounds a little fanboyish - I really have no direct bias towards netbooks here, and I fully admit they've made some very annoying decisions when designing some of them, but I still disagree with your point. Anyway...
Firstly I'd say to ignore the price quoted here - it's just a particularly glaring example of 'rip off Britain'. In the US it's a $400 machine, MSI just decided to add a significant amount over and above the extra tax we have to pay.
There's also the fact that 50% extra size you mentioned is somewhat significant for something that you might want to always have available in your bag - it's almost like carrying a paperback novel compared to a bulky textbook.
The X40 comparison is interesting - the only advantage I can see to it is the larger keyboard. Larger screen makes almost no difference because it's almost exactly the same resolution as the normal 8.9 and 10" LCDs (actually lower res than the 8.9" ones used in the Gigabyte M912 and HP 2133). The 1.2GHz Pentium M is probably a bit faster than a 1.6 Atom, but really is it enough to make a difference? Unless I'm much mistaken they're both fast enough to browse the web, use OpenOffice, listen to music and so on but both too slow for realistically doing things like video or photo editing. The RAM and hard drive are comparable in both machines. Durability I will give you, although a ThinkPad that's been kicking around in someone's bag for 4 years probably doesn't have that much left against a brand new, less well built Asus.
If there's something the X40 can do that these machines can't then I'm not really seeing it, which is why it puzzles me a little that you consider them not to be 'full fledged laptops'. Really I think it comes down to how much you care about the keyboard.
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But then you're getting into the conversation about how much money small size and light weight is worth to the buyer, and that's a personal matter. A 15" (or even a 13") machine compared to an 8.9" one is an apples to oranges comparison.
The reason I found the post interesting is because it was (more or less) taking the value of portability into account and comparing to a machine with relatively similar (although obviously not the same) size and weight.
Eee (Score:5, Informative)
I love my Eee 900. And I think the MSI Wind is taking things in the wrong direction. For me, the Eee is perfect because its light (1kg), small and has a solid state disk. I don't have to think about whether I'll need it, I'll just throw it in my backpack. I don't worry about it too much, it's not like I can cause any head crashes. Also, it's worth "only" 400$, so I'll happily bring it along to some bar or something while going out. It's the same risk as bringing your Ipod or fancy cell phone.
The MSI Wind OTOH: a little heavier, a little bigger (too much for taking notes & browsing at my desks!), and fitted with a conventional hard drive. C'mon, what do you need that kind of space for? I barely use the 20GB the Eee gives me. And my photos and videos and music and whatnot are stored somewhere else, safe and sound. Last but not least, the Wind is quite pricey, which would make me worry about and take of it more.
Re:Eee (Score:5, Informative)
Also, it's worth "only" 400$, so I'll happily bring it along to some bar or something while going out.
Where did you find an EEE 901 for $400? I thought it was $550, at least. From what I can tell the MSI Wind is slightly less expensive ($400 start price), slightly heavier (1.2kg instead of 1.0kg), slightly larger screen size (10" vs 9"), and the 80gb HDD vs 20gb SSD trade-off. It's almost directly comparable to the EEE 1000H which was announced, which is expected to be ~$630,
Parent
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Eee 901 for 399? (Score:2)
Jesus!
I'll wait until my holiday in the US to get a 901 then. In the UK they went on sale yesterday at £329
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Just got done watching the financial news where they said yesterday was the worst single day fo
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Try to take the financial news with a grain of salt. The performance of the stock markets isn't very good right now, but all that means is that they are trading at ~2006 levels:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s= [yahoo.com]^GSPC&t=5y&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=
It isn't great for people who were over-invested in stocks relative to their risk sensitivity, but for anybody under about 45, it should be irrelevant.
And while the dollar has slid a considerable amount, the general behavior of a chart like this one:
http:// [yahoo.com]
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The performance of the stock markets isn't very good right now, but all that means is that they are trading at ~2006 levels:
Which means it's trading at 1999 levels. We still haven't made much headway in the market since 2000 when the thing started to collapse.
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If you read my post carefully you'll note that I wrote about an Eee 900 ;) Anyhow, I don't think the price premium for the 901 makes too much sense. Apparently, the Atom is not considerably faster, the only real improvement is graphics performance (which I don't care about) and a little longer battery life (but not as impressive as originally anticipated).
Slightly off topic: Asus been going crazy [eee-pc.de] (sorry, German only) with the Eee! 700, 900, 901, 902, 903, 904, 904HD, 1000H, idontevenknow... Here in Germany
Re:Eee (Score:4, Insightful)
I guess the price/weight/performance sweet spot is different for different users and applications. Something like the Wind would be light enough for me to take on a trip without cursing the weight, but with enough storage to dump the contents of a few of my camera's 4-8Gb CF cards, and with enough power to do a bit of image editing before I come home. Before the eeepc, sub-notebooks tended to have mid-range specs and a 50-100% price premium over a comparable 'luggable' laptop. There were simply no budget alternatives except picking up an ageing Sony or Toshiba on ebay. Now we've got a range of options from the tiny but limited 701 to a respectably-specified MSI that's at the low end of the budget price range, but still perhaps a third of the weight of a cheap 'desktop replacement' laptop. Choice is good!
Parent
"Best of the bunch" (Score:5, Insightful)
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*As far as my eee is concerned, infantry combat is a good description of what it has wen through already, be it a combat in the urban jungle ;)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
It's very low cost if you buy one in the US, they're just choosing to rip off UK buyers by a significant amount.
Incidentally, I do applaud Asus for selling in the UK without any significant markup beyond that of VAT, which is obviously not their fault.
In terms of 'superior', however, it pains me to see even supposedly technical publications fail to mention things like the fact that the 10" screen on the Wind is the same resolution as the 8.9s on the other companies' offerings and thus provides no actual ext
HDD vs flash (Score:5, Interesting)
I was really excited when I first heard about the eeepc - I was hoping it'd pull the market more or less in the direction it did. Relatively inexpensive, small, light, but still a fully-functioning computer. My single favorite feature of the eeepc was the flash drive - I don't have to worry about kicking it around nearly as much. *All* of my past laptops have had harddrive trouble, presumably because I don't treat them correctly, yet my eeepc is still running strong after getting more of a beatting than I usually dish out. I don't mind the slightly larger size of the next generation of sub notebooks that are now coming out, and I guess I can understand the increased price, but why the mechanical HDDs? Windows? The 4GB is more than enough for a Linux or BSD (minus ports) install, with some extra room in the SD slot for any music/movies/whatever you'd like to bring along. Asus was nice enough to offer a 20GB version with flash - more than enough for what I'd want a sub notebook for. I don't see myself needing a replacement for my eeepc anytime soon, but I'm disappointed to see the direction things are going in. Am I the only one who's bummed about this? Am I missing something?
The placement of Pg Up/Down and Home/End sucks (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The placement of Pg Up/Down and Home/End sucks (Score:4, Insightful)
There is no way you can do some serious work without those keys
Yes, you can. At last, emacs and vi users can agree on something.
Parent
Re:The placement of Pg Up/Down and Home/End sucks (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
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Why not remap keys with xmodmap? (Score:2)
I haven't typed on any these small keyboards, but based on photographs, I would think xmodmap/xkeycaps would be your friend. On every keyboard I use, I set the control key to be whatever is left of the A, and I put Alt in the lower left corner. xkeycaps, which is the program I use to generate the key remapping file, is showing its age, but it works, and you only need to use it once per computer.
If you're using windows, KeyTweak [charter.net] is great.
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you know, as much as id *like* an eee or wind, i came to the same conclusion, due to my personal budget limits.
if i had the money to afford a good destkop at home AND get a netbook, i love to, but ill be pushing it to upgrade from my T40, which is really showing its age, so if i have just one machine, itll be a core 2 duo 14" lappy for sure
Re:The placement of Pg Up/Down and Home/End sucks (Score:4, Insightful)
Man, I don't know when a 1.6 GHz Intel and a gig of RAM became "lacking", but you must have had trouble using computers before about two years ago.
Parent
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Man, I don't know when a 1.6 GHz Intel and a gig of RAM became "lacking", but you must have had trouble using computers before about two years ago.
Ca. 2000 - nearly a decade ago - my desktop PC was a dual 1Ghz P3, which would be 1.5x - 2x as fast as a 1.6Ghz Atom. My machines haven't gotten any slower since then.
The Atom is quick for what it is, but it is by no means "fast".
Today, I typically keep open half a dozen Firefox windows with 10-15 tabs each, a few dozen putty windows, some Excel spreadsheets
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There is no way you can do some serious work without those keys.
There's no way you can do "serious work" on these machines at all. Tiny keyboards, tiny, low-res screens, slow CPUs, etc, etc.
A docking station might bring them close to be useful for "serious work", but even then they're lacking in things like CPU power, RAM and disk space.
This is complete rubbish.
My best laptop ever was a Toshiba Libretto - a little smaller than a standard paperback book. Yes, you can type perfectly well on a keyboard that size. Yes, Emacs runs just fine - and if you don't like the keymappings, remap them for heaven's sake!
My Libretto struggled with KDE3, but ran perfectly well with lighter window managers. It had a full Oracle installation and a full Apache installation and I used it when going into clients to do product demos. 'Where's the server,' they'd
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This is complete rubbish.
No, it's not. I've tried doing "serious work" on laptops with a bit higher specs than these "UMPCs" (eg: Dell D410) and was noticably less productive.
My best laptop ever was a Toshiba Libretto - a little smaller than a standard paperback book. Yes, you can type perfectly well on a keyboard that size. Yes, Emacs runs just fine - and if you don't like the keymappings, remap them for heaven's sake!
No number pad, alone, is a showstopper for a "serious work" keyboard as far as I'm
Top-end netbook or low-end laptop? (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm in the market for a netbook, but it won't be the Wind that I buy. I want a netbook in addition to a laptop, so the supposed benefits that the Wind offers over the competition - larger screen, bigger storage, larger keyboard - are actually disadvantages.
I'm not sure who this product is aimed at. It seems to be a poor-man's substitute for a downmarket laptop, rather than a cool gadget that can take computing to places where it wasn't previously practical to go.
inside view of MSI and Acer netbooks (Score:2, Informative)
Exchange rate error (Score:2, Insightful)
with computer hardware kit one dollar equals one pound so it will probably cost $350 or there about.
What's up with price differences in US vs UK? (Score:4, Informative)
From what I can tell, in the US the MSI Wind has a starting price of $400 ($470 for the 3-cell Wind with XP instead of Linux), while the Eee 901 has an announced price of $600. In the UK however, the prices are flipped around, with the 3-cell Wind priced at £350 (~US$700) while the Eee 901 is £319 (~US$635). The overall increase in prices is of course due to things like the VAT, but does anybody know what the reason is for the reversal in relative prices?
You should know by now (Score:2)
That 1$ US = 1GBP in the electronics/computer world. Sometimes, it might even be worse than that. Ok, I know the current rate is closer to 2$US=1GBP but that does not stop the likes on M$, ADOBE (very bad IMHO) and many others from ripping us off.
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That 1$ US = 1GBP in the electronics/computer world.
Yes, I know, but I'm wondering why price-wise it's MSI > Eee in the UK, while it's Eee > MSI in the US. It's not like they're manufactured in either country.
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In short? Rip-off. The ones that have it listed here in Norway (none in stock though) are at 3500NOK with 25% VAT which is 2800 NOK = 280 GBP = 550 USD without VAT. My quick googling shows that VAT in UK is 17.5% so 350*100/117.5 = 300GB = 590 USD. I guess the reason they try to sell the Wind with a 200$ margin in the UK is "because we can".
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Because they can, I guess. Here is a page with some links: Rip-off Britain [wikipedia.org].
It's not so much that the UK is expensive, just that pretty much everything in the US is - comparitively - dirt cheap.
For example, an 8G iPod Nano costs less in the UK than it does here in Switzerland, and pretty much exactly the same as it does in Australia.
Expensive (Score:5, Insightful)
> The MSI Wind goes on sale today in the UK ... for £350 (around $700). Not cheap for a supposedly low-cost laptop
£350 doesn't make it "not cheap for a supposedly low-cost laptop", it makes a regularly priced laptop.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
£350 doesn't make it "not cheap for a supposedly low-cost laptop", it makes a regularly priced laptop.
As I mentioned elsewhere in the discussion though, in the US it's $400 ($470 for the 3-cell version with XP), which definitely makes it a low-cost laptop. It's pretty much cheaper than anything you'd be able to find without having to go to eBay.
upcoming developments in the netbook category (Score:5, Informative)
Keyboards? (Score:2)
Anybody got a chance to look at the keyboards on these things? I had thought about getting a small, flash powered notebook, but then we got some tiny little Panasonic Toughbook tablet's here at work. The keyboard on those things was non-standard and small enough that I couldn't type on it without pulling my hair out. Do any of these "netbooks" have a keyboard that is at least normal laptop sized?
News flash (Score:3, Interesting)
New Technology is better then old technology details at 11.
As computing equitment gets faster, smaller and cheaper we are able to make more faster small and cheaper computers. Now on the Ultra Portible or the Ultra Cheaps they are filling all the different voids in that range. Well it will cost a bit more however it performs better, or say with Apple, it is very thin and performs well, but costs more. or you can get one that is cheap and thin and doesn't perform well. or you get low perfomance and thick but for very cheap.
We all have different requirements for systems. I chose the 17" Macbook Pro. Good performance, big and expensive. As I needed the speed and it was the best performing laptop (at the time I bought it) I wanted the larger screen so I had to pay more for it.
Now other people don't need that and opt for smaller cheaper PCs and they may actually be a better value (performance/size/price) that is great. But my way is to buy top of the line and use it for 4-6 years when it no longer useful and go again.
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I thought it looked more like an older iBook than a MacBook.
What struck me was the name...MSI Wind...MacBook Air...hmm...
Re:Honey, I shrunk the MacBook! (Score:4, Funny)
So next would be the Compaq Fart?
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
HP Vacuum - since Vacuum is lighter than Wind or Air.
Re:Honey, I shrunk the MacBook! (Score:5, Funny)
**note to mods: I actually quite like Dell for price/performance and indeed I'm typing on one now... this post is purely for comedic value!
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I certainly hope their "Got Wind ?" campaign doesnt backfire...
Parent is funny! (Score:2)
If you aren't humming Dire Straits' Money for Nothing to yourself right now, you didn't get it.