MSI Wind U210-006US

Processor: 1.6GHz AMD Athlon Neo MV-40
Memory: 2GB RAM
Storage: 250GB hard drive
Optical Drive: None
Screen: 12.1 inches (1,366x768 native resolution)
Graphics: Integrated ATI Radeon X1250
Weight: 3.2 pounds
Dimensions (HWD): 1.2x11.7x7.5 inches
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit)


MSI’s Wind U210, the latest generation of Wind-series netbooks, is a bone-crushing competitor in the netbook arena. MSI claims that the U210 performs like a notebook. We tested the Wind's U210-006US configuration (available through MSI for $479 and through Newegg or Amazon for $429.99), and we were blown away by the results. The 3.2-pound U210-006US offers up a stylish design and spectacular performance. The battery life isn’t the best, but we’ve seen much worse in much weaker units that are more expensive. The MSI Wind U210-006US will delight those who bought into the netbook craze early, suffered through frustratingly low performance, and are now ready for an upgrade. Even first-time netbook users, who are often surprised when a netbook doesn’t perform like a full-size notebook, should appreciate the Wind U210-006US’s performance.

Both the U210-006 and the U210-008 feature a plethora of LED indicators.

The U210-006US is built around AMD’s much-hyped 64-bit Athlon Neo MV-40 processor (running at 1.6GHz) and accompanied by ATI Radeon X1250 integrated graphics. We’ve seen this processor only once before (albeit paired with different graphics hardware), in the 12.1-inch HP Pavilion dv2-103us ultraportable laptop. Athlon Neo CPUs are built on the new Yukon platform and are AMD’s response to the Intel Atom, which currently dominates the netbook market. Before the introduction of the Neo, the only AMD CPU we saw in a netbook was the 1.2GHz Athlon 64 L110. On the whole, Athlon processors are less energy efficient than Intel Atoms, and that puts more stress on the battery. The Wind U210-006US’s closest competitor, the $400 Gateway LT3103u, is built around the Athlon 64 L110. During our benchmark tests, the Gateway easily outperformed most netbooks and even broke a few records, but its scores didn’t quite hold up once we got hold of the MSI Wind U210-006US. For a price that's lower than average, the Wind packs quite a wallop.
The chassis is a glossy, pearlescent white and looks professional from afar, gorgeous up-close. MSI's other U210 configuration (the U210-008US) comes in black; we looked at both, but we like the white more. A nonglossy, textured border surrounds the 12.1-inch LCD, which features a 16-to-9 aspect ratio, a native resolution of 1,366x768, and power-saving LED backlighting. The screen is large for a netbook, and we definitely appreciate the extra space, though you’ll pay for it with about half a pound extra in weight over a 10-inch netbook.
Typing on the Wind U210-006US is a joy. The keyboard is thoughtfully designed and, because of smart placement of the six-cell battery, comfortably angled. Each keyface is slightly curved, and the letter keys are extra wide. MSI calls this design “Ergonomic De-Stress”; indeed, we found it very comfortable, and we made fewer typing errors than we typically do with a new portable. The U210-006US is 11.7 inches across, giving the keyboard a roomy feel. Still, because the letter keys are so large, other keys have been reduced considerably. The right Shift key and the Backspace key are both considerably smaller than those on full-size keyboards, but neither one is so small or so misplaced that its size affects typing. The arrow keys are a tad cramped, however. The Up arrow occupies half the space that would normally be allotted for the Shift key. It didn't make for many errors, but some typists might find it a bother. The keys are springy but feel hollow, which makes for some noisy typing.

The letter keys are wide and comfortable, though the right-Shift and Backspace keys are reduced. (The arrow keys are a bit horizontally cramped, too.)

The palm rests are glossy, comfortable, and cool. The touch pad is recessed and has a similar texture to the border around the screen. Although it’s on the small side, as you would expect with a netbook, it's responsive and mercifully quirk-free, and we're fans of its dedicated right-click/left-click buttons, rather than the single "seesaw"-style mouse button that's becoming increasingly common. The touch pad sits close to the spacebar, but the chassis has been angled ingeniously to avoid a slip of the thumb and an accidental click. And even when we relaxed our hands on purpose, we found that the touch pad is recessed just enough to block any stray-finger slack coming off the spacebar. The U210 has no multitouch features on its touch pad, however—not even horizontal scroll. Perhaps this is the smart choice, for tiny touch pads sometimes have trouble with multitouch, but we still missed the convenience.
The Wind U210-006US stays very cool during use. Its fan runs a bit loud, but all things considered, that’s hardly a deal-breaker. Nestled among the left-side ports, the fan-vent area is the only part of the U210-006US that heats up after prolonged use. It blasts out warm air that can be felt up to 6 inches away. The power cord becomes very hot very quickly, as do many power cords; at least this one is tiny and won't add much weight or space if you decide to travel with it.

The right edge is crowded with ports: headphone and microphone jacks, two USB ports, a memory-card slot, an Ethernet jack, and a cable-lock slot.

In addition to the fan vent, the left side is home to a power port, a VGA-out port, an HDMI-out port, and a USB port. The right side sports headphone and microphone jacks, two more USB ports, a memory-card slot (supporting xD-PictureCard, SD, MultimediaCard, and Memory Stick), a LAN jack, and a Kensington lock slot. Like the Gateway LT3103u, this MSI Wind has no Bluetooth wireless connectivity—but our configuration had a Bluetooth function key, anyway. (Pressing it over and over did us no good.)

That's an exhaust vent between the AC-power and VGA-out ports (left) and the HDMI-out and USB ports (right).

Media playback on the U210 was excellent. Streaming video on Hulu looks great; we saw fewer skips and less lag than we typically do on a netbook. As for the audio, we played some Louis Armstrong and enjoyed the sound quality. On occasion, we were startled by how loud single, piercing trumpet notes could get on this unit's speakers. They're angled down to amplify sound when the unit is resting on a hard, flat surface.
We wish, however, that we were as pleased with the performance of the 1.3-megapixel Webcam as we were with movies and music. Photo and video captures were sharp and clear, but color tones are a bit on the cool side.
While MSI says this netbook performs like a notebook, we feel that the Wind U210-006US doesn’t quite hit that target. Nevertheless, it does outperform just about everything else in its class—by a huge margin, too. On our PCMark Vantage test, which measures overall system performance, the Wind U210-006US scored 1,437 marks, which beat the Gateway LT3103u by more than 300 points. To add a little more perspective (since so few netbooks can actually run this test), this score encroaches on the budget ultraportables we’ve been seeing of late, such as the Toshiba Satellite T135 (1,513), Eurocom T3 Contessa (1,461), and Lenovo IdeaPad U350 (1,512).
On our 3DMark06 test, most netbooks return scores less than 100. Recently, the Gateway LT3103u impressed us when its scores broke 200. Enter the Wind: At its native resolution (1,366x768), it scored 283 marks, and at a resolution of 1,024x768, it scored 314 marks. That’s still not high enough to play high-action 3D games, but it’s the first time we’ve seen a netbook reach this high without a special Nvidia GPU for enhanced graphics performance (as seen with the Asus N10Jc).
Our Cinebench 10 test measures cooperative graphics and CPU functions. The average netbook hasn't scored much higher than 800 on this test, except for the Gateway LT3103u (951). Not to be outdone, the Wind U210-006US just set the bar sky-high with a score of 1,274.
Our Windows Media Encoder (WME) test, in which the test computer converts a video file between formats, typically takes netbooks about 27 minutes. The Wind U210-006US, however, clocked in at 22 minutes and 49 seconds. Only the Asus Eee 1000HE (22 minutes and 11 seconds) beat that time—and not by much. It’s been months since we’ve seen a netbook that even came close to breaking the WME record. (Even the Gateway LT3103u needed 32 minutes to complete this trial.) And on our iTunes test, the Wind U210-006US converted 11 MP3 files to AAC in a never-before-seen time (for a netbook) of 8 minutes and 29 seconds. Most netbooks need over 21 minutes to complete the iTunes test. The Gateway LT3103u recently (and impressively) broke our iTunes record, and even that time was more than two minutes longer than the Wind's. Most full-featured ultraportables finish this test in about 6.5 minutes.
Because of its powerful processor, we knew that the Wind U210-006US was going to have a hard time with our strenuous battery-rundown test, in which the laptop streams video wirelessly. We also knew that the same processor maxed out the larger HP Pavilion dv2’s battery in 2 hours, so we were curious to see what an Athlon Neo could do in a smaller, more portable notebook like this one. While battery life among netbooks can range from 90 minutes to more than 8 hours, the average time is 4 hours and 25 minutes. Streaming a live feed from CNN.com, the Wind’s battery lasted 3 hours. That’s not a dismal battery life, but it’s far lower than previous MSI Wind entries: 7 hours and 52 minutes for the MSI Wind U115 Hybrid, and 7 hours and 18 minutes for the MSI Wind U123.
While this is a serious drawback for an otherwise superior netbook, MSI has included an Eco "button" that sets the unit into various energy-conserving modes to extend battery life and draw power efficiently. (The Eco button is a little tough to find; with no dedicated button of its own, it shares a key with F5.) There are five power-saver settings that the Eco button controls: Gaming mode, Movie mode, Presentation mode, Office mode, and Turbo Battery mode. We tried our battery-rundown test on the Wind in Turbo Battery mode, and the result was only a few minutes longer than the normal battery test we’d performed earlier—not much of a difference. While performing lighter tasks with the Turbo Battery engaged, the Wind U210-006US should last over four hours, though performance will suffer slightly to conserve power. (Note: Just out of the box, we found our test model ran sluggishly, so we suggest conditioning the battery right away. This isn’t abnormal for notebooks, but it could be alarming if you’re not expecting it. Charge the battery fully, run it down to zero, and reboot. That will get it working like normal.)
The Wind U210-006US runs on a 32-bit version of Windows Vista, and MSI offers a free upgrade to Windows 7. The unit also comes with a one-year limited warranty that includes a one-year global warranty. It would have been nice if the company included accidental damage protection, too, but no such luck. The unit does come with a preloaded trial of Norton Internet Security 2009.
The Gateway LT3103u was our reigning benchmark-test king among netbooks, but it didn’t hold that title for long. The MSI Wind U210-006US has effectively dethroned the Gateway in all categories except price, and MSI has kept the price below $500, to boot. Though we’ve never before seen a netbook perform like this, we must warn consumers not to purchase the Wind U210-006US expecting it to replace a full-sized laptop. But if you need the ultimate in portability and can't make do with typical netbook performance, the Wind U210-006US is a winner. This truly marks a new era in netbooks.
Price (at time of review): $429.99 (list)