Review: Micro-Star's Wind U100 Netbook

This year has seen a rapid progression of netbooks being released with almost every manufacturer at some point turning out their own version. The miniaturized notebooks have been gaining in popularity, partially because of their compact size. Additionally, these computers typically have extended battery life and, on some models, an extremely low selling price. The latest iteration in the succession to pass through the Test Center is Micro-Star International's (MSI) Wind U100.

The U100 has a 10 inch, 1024 x 600 widescreen display, utilizing an LED backlight. As with most of the newest netbook generations, the U100 uses Intel's Atom processor to increase performance while reducing battery usage and heat.

Also available in black, red, and pink, our evaluation unit was white, with a tint of pearl (officially, Angel White). It was loaded with Windows XP Home and the optional 6-cell battery (3-cell is standard). When it comes to battery life, our unit lasted 4 hours and 39 minutes when playing a WMV file repeated continuously, while all power saving features were turned off. This is almost exactly the same as other devices with similar battery and CPU specs. Charging the battery from completely drained to 100 percent took approximately 3 hours and 25 minutes, while the device was in use.

Using Primate Labs' benchmarking software, Geekbench2, the U100 scored an 875 which was pretty much expected, given the processor and memory (1GB DDR2) installed.

Relative to similar units, the keyboard on the Wind has largely spaced keys, which we found much easier to use than those on some of the smaller devices. It still takes a bit of getting used to, but reviewers quickly adapted to typing on it with very few mistakes. This was a nice change from the "two-finger" approach that is usually the case.

Additionally, although the touchpad is a small square centered beneath the keyboard, we had no trouble maneuvering the cursor across the rectangular screen. It is surprisingly comfortable to use, including the very thin, single rocker-style, left/right mouse buttons.

Other features include a 1.3mp Web cam, 802.11 b/g wireless, and Bluetooth. There is also a 4-in-1 memory card reader, and three USB 2.0 ports. Storage is done on an 80GB, 2.5 inch hard drive.

At 2.6 pounds with the 6-cell battery, the U100 weighs about the same as Asus' Eee PC 901, which is a comparable device, except for a smaller screen and solid state drives. The larger screen also accounts for its slightly bigger size of 10.23 x 7.08 x 0.748-1.24 inches.

With a street price in the vicinity of $650, the Wind U100 is priced a little on the steep side when you consider that a full-size, full-power laptop can be purchased for not much more. On the other hand, there is something nice about being able to do everything you need to; on a computer that is literally almost the size of a notebook. Taking into account that MSI and its competitors are having difficulty keeping up with the demand, the trade off in size appears to be worth it to many people.