The interfaces
I was honestly taken aback by the display MSI included in the Wind. This 10" 1024x600 screen has outstanding viewing angles in virtually every direction, and its legibility in indirect sunlight makes a strong case for moving away from recently popularized glossies and back to screens with a matte finish. I took several photos trying to properly display the viewing angles of the Wind, but the shifts were just too minimal for my camera to capture. The viewing angles aren't perfect in person, but they are remarkably good.
Another point difficult to articulate in a photo is the sheer brightness of the screen. Without exaggeration, the screen on the Wind is the brightest notebook screen I have ever seen. At 100% brightness, it rivals desktop LCD panels. Dialing the screen back to 50% brings its brightness within the realm of most modern laptop screens at their maximum. Impressively, the brightness can also be dropped so low that the screen becomes unreadably dim. While the screen is the chief power draw of most notebooks, the one on the Wind is a gross overachiever that should probably never be set at 100% unless you're trying to blind someone.
I am very fond on the screen overall. The contrast is excellent, the colors feel neither too warm nor too cold, the viewing angles are wide, and the backlighting is nice and even.
From left to right: the original Eee PC, the HP Mini-Note, and the MSI Wind
The keyboard, however, is a trickier beast. I'm a small man with small, spidery fingers, and even through the Wind's keyboard is 92% of full size, I still found typing to be difficult. MSI has certainly maximized the real estate the keyboard can reasonably use, and it's much bigger than what you got with the original Eee PC, but the keys nonetheless feel cramped and too easy to fat-finger. I found myself making typos fairly frequently and having a devil of a time entering my wireless key properly. Again, the keyboard isn't as silly small as that of the first Eee PC, but it's going to cause users at least a little bit of grief. Fortunately, the Wind's keyboard follows a more conventional layout than that of the Eee PC 1000, and it's devoid of quirks like misplaced right shift keys.
In my experience reviewing notebooks, I've found touchpads to be tricky to evaluate, as what one person finds comfortable another may find incredibly difficult to use, and vice versa. The recessed touchpad on the Wind coupled with its smooth texture makes mousing fairly breezy, at least for me. However, the MSI design trips up on a single mouse button. While not as awkward as the side-mounted touchpad buttons found on the HP Mini-Note, the Wind's single button operates as a sort of rocker switch. You can left and right click just find by pressing down either end of the button, but the feel isn't as comfortable as having separate buttons. The single button favors aesthetics over practicality, and though it's a small gripe, it's a gripe all the same.
The Swiss Army netbook
The MSI Wind boasts an impressive suite of peripherals and connectivity options that in some cases exceeds what's found in standard notebooks. This ample connectivity is perhaps best expressed in the substantial array of lights at the bottom right of the front bezel.
In order from left to right, the Wind features Bluetooth and Wi-Fi lights indicating whether the respective wireless modules are enabled, a sleep mode indicator, a light to indicate whether or not the 3-cell battery is charging, a series of three lights for the Caps Lock, Num Lock, and Scroll Lock toggles, and a hard disk activity LED.
Zoe models for the MSI Wind's webcam
The top of the screen bezel includes a webcam that produces images at 640x480 resolution, down from the 1.3 megapixels claimed in MSI's specifications. Though the example above is slightly scaled down, it still illustrates that while the webcam is serviceable, its image quality is a bit below par. This image was taken with the cat illuminated in direct sunlight—ideal conditions for producing a clear and crisp picture. The pixelated coloring, banding, and generally dull saturation is disappointing. Under the best possible circumstances, the MSI Wind's webcam produces a very underwhelming picture compared to the webcams featured in most modern notebooks.
The Wind from the left, right, and below
The remainder of the ports included with the U100 are respectable. On the left side is a Kensington lock connector, the A/C adaptor jack, the unit's primary fan vent, and two USB 2.0 ports. Over on the right side we find the third USB 2.0 port, a flash memory reader, microphone and headphone minijacks, a VGA port, and an Ethernet port. Despite this wealth of connectivity, MSI elected to forego the inclusion of an RJ11 modem jack. This is a reasonable omission given the system's robust wireless networking capabilities.
The bottom of the unit features the battery bay in the back and the smattering of ventilation slats typical of modern notebooks. The two grills on the bottom corners are for the remarkably respectable speakers. Laptop speakers are generally of poor quality, and oftentimes in the pursuit of reducing the size of a notebook, they can be one of the first corners cut in the design. This isn't the case with the MSI Wind. While the speakers won't blow you away with their quality, they nonetheless produce crisp, clear sound at a healthy volume level. Compared to the pitiful speakers of the Eee PC and Apple MacBook Air, the U100 is a welcome change of pace.
On the bottom you can also see a series of screw holes, one of which is covered by the warranty sticker. The Wind's memory is meant to be use-upgradeable, and MSI will send you a replacement warranty sticker should you need to breach the original to open the unit. Upgrading the hard drive will void your warranty, however.
Inside the Wind
The MSI Wind is designed to be very simple to open while still feeling sturdy. That said, in the process of trying to remove the bottom panel to reveal insides of the unit, I ran into a snag I have found uncommon with notebooks: removing the battery. Basic computing safety requires the removal of all power sources from a system before opening it. In a desktop, this means disconnecting the power supply, turning it off, and waiting for the power in the motherboard to dissipate. In a notebook, you disconnect the A/C adapter and remove the battery.
While disconnecting the U100's A/C adapter was as easy as it ought to be, the battery proved incredibly stubborn. It was so difficult to remove that I actually visited MSI's website to examine the user manual, checking to see if I was even going about things in the right way. But even after following instructions in the manual and those printed on the bottom of the Wind, the battery wouldn't budge. In the end, I wound up using a small flathead screwdriver as a lever to wedge the battery out. I can't tell you if this is typical of all retail units or if our review sample was particularly snug, but it's a issue that bears mentioning.
Once I was able to remove the battery, disassembling the rest of the Wind proved to be a breeze. After removing the screws, the left side of the back panel (the side with the vent) comes loose. If you tilt it up, you can pop the rest of the panel off fairly easily, taking care not to damage the bezel around the VGA port and headphone jacks.
The Wind's internals are neatly and cleanly assembled, with the wireless card visible along with the 2.5" notebook SATA hard drive, chipset, speakers, and fan. Take note of the open DDR2 SO-DIMM slot, which allows for easy memory upgrades. 1GB of DDR2 already comes soldered onto the motherboard (visible behind the memory slot), with the spare bay allowing users to add a module of their own.
