My Quick MSI Wind Review

So we’ve given my aunt her MSI Wind laptop (netbook, as some kids like to call these kinds of laptops), but I was able to use it enough to think of a few pros and cons of the Wind.

PROS

The size is wonderful. The Wind is meant to be used to quickly access the internet wherever you need to (and wherever there is a useable wifi network). They’re meant for the masses, and Intel thinks millions of these ‘netbooks’ will be sold a year, or so my dad says. Anyways, the size makes it easy to carry without making it hard to type or read what’s on the screen.

It basically comes with everything one would need for this kind of laptop: windows xp(which most normal users will be most comfortable with compared to vista and linux), a fair sized hard drive (80GB), and internet ready right out of the box. After the initial XP Setup we were able to get right on internet explorer and start surfing the internet

CONS

The wireless adaptor isn’t amazingly strong, and is prone to disconnects. However, after using it for a few sessions the frequency of disconnects has lowered, which is a good sign.

The stupid mouse bar! It supports right and left click, but there is no divider at all. So you click the left of the bar for left-click, and the right of the bar for right-clicks. It’s a small con, but it does seem a bit awkward.

The Wind comes with a webcam, but it’d be nice if some software that uses the webcam like an iPhoto-equivalent program came with it. To test if the webcam worked, we had to download yahoo! messenger and test it on a friend.

CONCLUSION

The cons are few, and the pros are pretty good for what it’s worth. At 500$, it’s a pretty good bargain for those trying to get a quick internet fix without lugging a bigger laptop around. So if you’re looking for a netbook of your own, you can’t go wrong with an MSI Wind.

Shopping at Gilmore, and MSI Wind!

Today we shopped at one of the popular IT centers, Gilmore. It’s an area in Green Hills where there are lots of IT stores, and is the place Intel uses whenever it releases new products in the Philippines. Our goal: buy a notebook for my aunt.

The first notebook we looked at was the 29,999 Pesos (a bit more than 600 dollars) Neo Empriva. Intel Core Duo, 2GB RAM, 160GB HD, Vista, DVDRW Drive. Sounds pretty good right? TOO GOOD. We had the employee test it, and he went into the BIOS to prove the specs were legit. Upon first glance, all of the spec listings were all screwed up. The employee pressed a few buttons, and tada! The “specs” showed up. Hmm….upon closer inspection we checked the Genuine Vista Sticker at the bottom only to find out it had holes in it where the screws are. Tsk tsk, not buying from you!

The next laptop (at a different store called foxcom) we looked at was the MSI Wind. At about 500$, it’s a fairly basic laptop, runs the new Intel Atom processor, 1GB RAM, 80GB HD, and Windows XP. No optical drive. All my aunt really needs is some basic word processing and internet access, so we went for this. Upon testing it at the shop, it didn’t boot.  So he went into the setup menu, and changed some options, and tada! It worked. Pleased, we bought it and went home. However, we couldn’t get the damn thing to turn on! Suspicious, my dad and I went back into the setup menu and put everything to its default setting. Tada! It once again worked. Looking back, it did seem that the employee was tampering with a bit more options than it seemed like he had to. He was probably hoping to sabotage our hopes of using the laptop so that we’d have to return it and lose some money in some warranty loophole. TAKE THAT SUCKA! Anyways, the MSI Wind is working fine so far, and we’ll be passing it on to my aunt tomorrow.

Moral of the Story: Don’t shop at Gilmore unless you know what the hell you’re doing!