MSI U100 Mini Laptop Review

MSI just announced 3 brand new netbook models with more options. The new models will be the CX700, CX600 and CR400.

The monitors on these babies will feature Hi-Res graphics and amazing 3D effects.
The CX700 and CX600 are equipped with advanced ATI Mobility Radeon HD4330 video cards with 512 MB DDR2 VRam on board. The CR400 features the NVIDIA Geforce 8200MG.

Bottom line is they are small making them extremely portable yet very powerful. Those two key features make these little guys very appealing to business users as well as your everyday user.

Something to consider if you are looking at mini laptops. Most of them do not have a cd or dvd drive in them so you might want to buy yourself a USB Portable CD/DVD Burner. These are fairly cheap now a days. This will allow you to install software as well as burn CD's and DVD's.

Here are some of the Facts!

The computer is only about 10.23 inches long
and 7.08 inches wide.
its 19-31.5 mm thick
which is acutally extremely thin.
Its total weight with the battery is 2.3 pounds, making it ideal for the on the go person.

• Intel® Atom N270 Processor
• Genuine Windows XP Home
• 10" Wide Screen Display
Convenient Magnifying Capability
• Ergonomic Big-Size Keyboard and Touch Pad
• Hard Drive with Massive Capacity
  
• Built-in High Resolution Mega Pixels Webcam
• Built-in High-Performance 2 Channel Stereo Speakers, and Microphone
• 802.11b / g / n Wireless Lan with Bluetooth
• Comprehensive Multi-Media Application Interface

More information and selection available at the MSI Mini Notebook and MSI MINI LAPTOP Store.

The Wind features an ergonomically designed keyboard that is only 20% smaller than of a full sized keyboard, with keys spaced a comfortable 0.68 inches apart.

The Wind features an ergonomically designed keyboard. Not only does it have great texture, it also increased the space between the keys to 17.5mm, allowing you to be as comfortable as you can. Plus, ingeniously designed spacebar and touchpad, so your fingers can move smoothly while avoiding strain.

Make a MSI 100 Into A Portable Mac

Did you know that you can covert the MSI U100 into a portable that runs the Mac OSX?
Take a look around on google and look for "MSI U100 Hackintosh" or "MSI U100 OSX86". There are several very informal guides on how to install this OS. You will have to search around for a couple of drivers and you will need a copy of OSX Leopard.

I have personally seen and used the white MSI Wind U100 model with Mac OSX 10.5.4 installed and it looks and functions amazingly !!

If you are a Mac person or just thinking of getting a Mac, here is an excellent alternative for around 400 bucks. Now I would recommend installing and upgrading the ram as well at the battery. There are currently some 9-cell batteries available that will give you 6 hours of run time using the Mac OS.

Processor & Cache

Intel® Atom u2122 N270 1.6GHz Processor

Operating System

Windows XP Home

Chipsets

Intel® 945GSE+ICH7M

System Memory

DDR2 512MB/1GB (Chipset supports up to 2GB)

LCD Display

10" 1024x600 LCD Panel

Graphics & Video Module

UMA

Audio

HD Audio, Stereo speakers

HDD

120GB / 160GB SATA

Webcam

1.3M / 0.3M

Card Reader

4-in-1 Card Reader, SD/MMC/MS/MS Pro

Communication Port

Built-in 10/100 LAN
Built-in 802.11b/g or 802.11b/g/n WLAN Card / Bluetooth Supported (Bluetooth is optional)

I/O Port

Graphics Card Output (15-pin, D-Sub) X 1
USB2.0 Port X 3
Mic-in Port X 1/Line-in Port x 1
Headphone Output X 1
LAN Port X 1

AC Adaptor

Output: 20V DC, 40W / Input: 100~ 240V AC, 50/60Hz universal

Battery Pack & Life

3/6 cells

Dimension & Weight

260(L) X 180(D) X 19-31.5(H)mm
~1.0KG with 3 cell battery

MSI Wind U100-420US 10-Inch Netbook (1.6 GHz Intel Atom Processor, 1 GB RAM, 120 GB Hard Drive, XP Home, 3 Cell Battery) Black

    Amazon Price: $329.99      
    List Price: $349.99
    Avg. Customer Rating:    
    Usually Ships in 1-2 business days




MSI Wind U100-432US 10-Inch Netbook (1.6 GHz Intel Atom Processor, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, XP Home, 6 Cell Battery) Black

    Amazon Price: $429.99      
    List Price: $449.99
    Avg. Customer Rating:    
    Usually Ships in 1-2 business days




MSI Wind U100-439US 10-Inch Netbook (1.6 GHz Intel Atom Processor, 1 GB RAM, 120 GB Hard Drive, XP Home, 3 Cell Battery) White

    Amazon Price: $349.99      
    List Price: $369.99
    Avg. Customer Rating:    
    Usually Ships in 1-2 business days




MSI Wind U100-279US 10-Inch Netbook (1.6 GHz Intel Atom Processor, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, XP Home, 6 Cell Battery) White    Amazon Price: $426.54      
    List Price: $449.99
    Avg. Customer Rating:    
    Usually Ships in 1-2 business days




MSI Wind U100-280US 10-Inch Netbook (1.6 GHz Intel Atom Processor, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, 6 Cell Battery, XP Home) Pink    Amazon Price: $439.99      
    List Price: $459.99
    Avg. Customer Rating:    
    Usually Ships in 1-2 business days

Considering these units do not have a CD or DVD Rom drive you might want to pick up an external USB CD / DVD Burner. For the difference in money get the burner, you might as well be able to burn some music CD's or even use it for backup.

Below are some drives that I found on Amazon

Joseph - Ordered another msi wind netbook on behalf of my brother in law, to replace his old iBook... Will be putting Os x on it, of course...

Dan57 - I love me my MSI Wind U100. Got it last year after MaximumPC rated it higher than comparable Asus...

Peter - I just bought my first netbook, the MSI Wind. I love it.

vladml - Playing with my MSI running a fully working OS 10.5.6

the tate way - I got a msi wind notebook. It's tiny and should be easy to travel with.

*** I did not cut and paste the exact user names from my twitter account ***