MSI Wind U160 review
MSI has been churning out netbooks ever since netbook shave been around so no surprises that they’ve got most things right. The 10-inch MSI Wind U160 has long battery life, better-than-average performance, and cool operation. It’s on the design front that it falls short. Smudges include a slightly cramped keyboard, narrow touch button, and protruding battery that might compel shoppers to get a sleeker model instead, but none of these imperfections are serious enough to ignore the benefits that the U160 offers.
Laptop Mag put the Wind U160 to the test where it scored a respectable 3.5 stars. At 2.6 pounds, the U160 is lighter than other 10-inch netbook and has a glossy black lid with matching interior, both of which pick up fingerprints easily. One area where it really excelled was battery life, lasting for 8 hours and 37 minutes, way ahead of the usual six hour average.
The U160’s ports, which line the sides of the netbook, include three USB ports, VGA output, headphone and mic ports, an Ethernet jack, and a 4-in-1 memory card reader. The U160 also comes with EasyFace facial recognition software built in. The software works quickly and easily: just stare into the camera as it takes 16 successive photos of you; unlike with other face detection programs, you don’t have to rotate your head.
Depsite being armed with typical netbook specs—a 1.66-GHz Intel Atom N450 CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, and Windows 7 Starter Edition—the U160 delivered relatively strong performance.
Verdict:
The MSI Wind U160 isn’t perfect—its battery juts out of the back and its keys are smallish—but on the whole it’s a strong choice in the 10-inch category. What it lacks on the design racks, it more than makes u for with especially long battery life. At the end of the day, it really matters where your priorities lie.
Price: $299 Amazon price $288
Click here to place an order.
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Filed under: MSI Wind