MSI Wind12 U210 | Reviews | Techie.com.ph
5:55 PM | Friday | 30 July 2010

After six months of holding it in, MSI finally let us take a whiff of the sneaky and elusive Wind12 U210. Despite its name that warrants a Tito, Vic, and Joey joke, it's actually not as bad as it smells sounds like you might expect it to be.

The first and probably the most important thing to note about the U210 is that it is not a netbook. It's a full-fledged thin-and-light that has a large 12-inch screen and a 31mm slim body. It looks simple and solid from top to bottom and from left to right, we literally had no gripes with it physically. Even the weight is just right for a computer its size.

Like other laptops in this category, an HDMI port comes standard so you could literally use the U210 as a multimedia player for your LCD TV. Three USB 2.0 ports and a multi-card reader are also present for your data transfer needs although we wish a fourth one were available.

A long vent (with an active fan, no less) lines the left side of the unit. It constantly blows out warm air, assuring you that the U210 is "breathing" properly.

MSI went all out with the U210's keyboard. The keys are large and they have very little space in between, thus maximizing every centimeter available. It's every bit as easy to use as a regular desktop keyboard - a rare feat considering that this lappy is built primarily as an ultra-portable machine.

Like we've said, the U210 is not a netbook. It's powered by an AMD Athlon Neo X2 L335 dual-core processor that's clearly more capable of multi-tasking than an Intel Atom CPU. It also packs in 2GBs of DDR2 memory that greatly assists the proc when it comes to using media-rich applications.

We ran an HD video file of our favorite iron-clad superhero (guess who that is) and we have to admit that the system held up quite well. But if that's not enough, we should probably mention that along with the HD playback we were also engaged in some heavy-duty photo editing, P2P and torrent downloading (don't ask us what they were, seriously) and web browsing.

Despite having many windows open simultaneously, the 1366 x 768-pixel HD screen was able to handle all the images. Unfortunately prolonged use revealed that however capable the U210's engine is, you could still develop an eyestrain from doing too much on a 12-inch LCD. Squinting during multi-tasking is an inevitability.

Battery life is where the U210 falls below expectations, not because the module is inferior but because it only ships with a 3-cell pack. Most thin-and-lights come withe a 4-cell or even 6-cell battery that enables them to run for at least five hours. The U210 lasted for a "meh" 2.5 hours.

Novabench confirmed our thoughts about the U210: since it has two cores and has twice the amount of RAM as a regular netbook, it's safe to assume that it will score two times better.

With 175 points under its belt, the U210 is definitely twice the computer as a netbook, it's even faster than the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge. Even better news - the U210 sells for the same price as a regular 10-inch Atom-powered PC. The Windows XP version goes for a mere P23,995.

Given the tremendous value that the MSI Wind12 U210 offers, we are more than willing to give it perfect marks and the coveted Gold Award. It's cheap, it's (relatively) powerful, and it looks sexy. Heck, even our very own blogger Rico Mossesgeld got one.

Click here to see the MSI Wind12 U210 in the Buyer's Guide