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The netbook phenomenon has exploded in recent years with almost every major manufacturer entering into this lucrative market. MSI were one of the pioneers with the 2008 Wind U100 selling en masse to a cost conscious audience. I had one of these units for 9 months and I have to say it was a reliable netbook, even if it was slow as molasses.
The Wind U160, their latest netbook was released months ago and has taken the clunky original design and turned it into a svelte unit which exudes class and will appeal to an audience also concerned with appearance.
How so? Well the Wind U160 only measures 19mm at its thickest diameter and is MSI's thinnest ever netbook weighing only 1.2 kg. The asking price is around £330, so clearly the end product is inexpensive, attractive and ultra portable which in theory should open up sales to a massively wide and dynamic market.
MSI sent us both colour schemes of this netbook – with ‘Fancy Gold' for those who want to catch the eye, and ‘Jet Black' offering a more traditional viewpoint.
The MSI Wind U160 is a rather familar internal design by now. It is based around a 1.66ghz Atom N450 processor with onboard GMA 3150 graphics. This is paired up with 1GB of DDR2 memory, a 250GB SATA hard drive and a 10 inch screen offering 1024×600 resolution. Windows 7 Home Basic 32bit is the chosen operating system.
| CPU | Intel Atom N450 (1.66GHz, 512KB L2 cache, single-core) |
| Memory | 1GB DDR2 667MHz |
| Display | 10.0in – 1,024×600 |
| Graphics | Intel GMA 3150 |
| Graphics driver | Intel 8.14.10.2117 |
| Battery | 6 cell, 65Whr |
| Wireless | Ralink 1T1R (802.11bgn) and Bluetooth 2.0 |
| Storage | Seagate Momentus 250GB, 5,400RPM, 8MB cache |
| Weight | 1,237g (including battery) |
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows 7 Home Basic, 32-bit |
Ohhhh, that gold one is quite attractive for a netbook isnt it ? even the keyboard looks well.
Very purty indeed. I prefer the black one though, gold one screams too much ‘bling’ for my liking.
I was looking at one of these last month, never got around to it. only thing that puts me off is the ATOM CPU which is painful. as ive used one with my friends machine.
Nice machine for the price, at least they put some effort into the design, most of these machines are just churned out to the lowest price point with no attention at all.
Good review, at least the battery life rocks, over 10 hours is wicked for business use. would only need to recharge every evening in a hotel room.
Good review, I like the gold version, ive only seen the black one in stores however, maybe you need to order online for the gold version.
These are ideal machines for a lot of travelling as they dont weight much or take up a lot of space.
Really tempted to order the gold version after reading this.
I owned a few atom laptops before and I have had a hard time adapting to the speed. they are fine for email and checking the net, but I need a bit more power than this, even on the move. still, these are well designed from MSI, very good looking.
I think this range has sold well for MSI and rightly so, its a much better looking design than most of them out there today.