MSI Wind U210 Review

The 12-inch MSI Wind U210 is the netbook for people who don't want a small screen, small keyboard, or slow Intel Atom processor. Powered by the AMD NV-40 Athlon Neo processor and ATI X1270 integrated graphics, it is very similar to the HP Pavilion dv2 ... just smaller and lighter. With only 4 hours of estimate battery life, is this oversized netbook worth it? Read our full review to find out.

MSI Wind U210 Specifications:

• 1.6GHz AMD Athlon Neo Processor NV-40
• 2GB 800MHz DDR2 (1 Dimm)
• Windows Vista Home Premium 32bit with SP1
• 12.1" WXGA LED-Backlit Widescreen Display (1366x768)
• 250GB 5400RPM Toshiba SATA Hard Drive
• ATI Mobility Radeon X1270 Graphics
• 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless, 1Gb LAN
• 4-in-1 card reader
• 6-Cell Li-ion 58WH battery (51Wh reported)
• Dimensions: (W x L x H) 11.71" x 7.49" x 0.55-1.22"
• Weight: 3lbs 1oz (with 6-cell battery)
• Price as configured: $429

Build and Design
The MSI Wind U210 looks just like a bigger brother of the original 10" MSI Wind. It offers a softly rounded chassis that is easy to grip, comfortable to hold, and small enough to fit into small backpack or purse. The two-tone color scheme looks great, with a glossy black exterior and sleek grey interior. The touchpad is integrated into the palmrest, sharing the same color, albeit a more textured surface. While the keyboard isn't a matching grey, it still flows well being matte black with white letters. The only nagging complaint I can come up is the battery sticking out like a foot from the bottom of the netbook instead of fitting flush.

Build quality seems very nice, with no signs of weakness or build quality issues. The paint looked great with no signs of overspray or other defects. Right out of the box this particular netbook felt different from any other we have reviewed, solely for its super strong screen hinges. It needed a firm grasp with both hands to open the screen and once it was open showed zero signs of wiggle or sag. The body felt very sturdy with no signs of twisting when being carried. Inside the palmrest and keyboard offered good support, with very little give under strong pressure. The bottom of the netbook had some areas where the plastic was thin, but only showed minimal flex when the access panel was removed.

Users looking to upgrade the U210 will find it easy with a single panel giving you access to the hard drive, RAM, and open mini-PCIe slot. We did find one "warranty void if removed" sticker partially covering the main cover, but it was unclear as to what it was protecting. It was covering a screw to the chassis cover, and only partially overlapping the service panel. Regardless of what area it was covering, it was still sad to see this sticker as so many other companies don't use such methods and put more faith in their customers.

Screen and Speakers
The 12.1" screen on the MSI Wind U210 is a 16:9 panel with a resolution of 1366x768. Colors appeared to be saturated and contrast levels were above average compared to other screens we've seen. Atl normal viewing brightness the backlight bleed was minimal, with only a hint showing if you cranked the screen brightness up to 100%. Being a glossy display, we did notice some issues with reflections, but this problem will surface on most glossy panels without anti-reflective coatings. Vertical viewing angles were average, with colors starting to invert as soon as 15 degrees when tilted forward or back. Horizontal viewing angles were much better, staying accurate to about 60 degrees, before reflections overpowered the screen brightness. Backlight levels were above average, working well in bright office conditions, but probably not powerful enough for outdoor viewing.

The speakers sounded average compared to most netbooks, providing adequate volume for streaming music, handling VOIP calls, and watching the occasional movie. Sound quality wasn't the best, providing tinny audio with no bass or midrange. Headphones are a must with this model for really enjoying music or movies. Another alternative is using the HDMI out, and routing the digital audio signal to a stereo that supports HDMI-audio.

Keyboard and Touchpad
People who find smaller netbook keyboards cramped will love the U210's keyboard, as it makes full use of the spacious 12.1" form-factor. It could be considered basically full-size, sharing the same key size as bigger notebooks. I found it very comfortable to type, with great feedback from each key and decent support. The right side of the keyboard had some minor flex centered on the "L" key, but it was only noticed under very strong pressure. Individual key action was smooth with a mild click when pressed. Each key looked flat, but had a very mild cup to the surface to help with centering your finger while typing.

The MSI Wind U210 includes a decent sized touchpad given its small palmrest, but is really limited out of the box. Just like the MSI X-Slim X340, it does not come with any driver support to enable basic features like scrolling or sensitivity adjustment. With a little trial and error, we did manage to get off-the-shelf Synaptics drivers working with full compatibility from everything from scroll zones to sensitivity adjustments. While all signs point to this being a Synaptics touchpad, or at least a very good generic copy, we can't say it for sure without driver support from MSI. The drivers in this case turn it from a mediocre touchpad with no advanced featured to a snappy and precise fully functional touchpad. With the correct drivers in place we experienced no lag in our tests, and the sensitivity range was great. The touchpad buttons were on the stiffer end of the spectrum, but were still responsive. When pressed they were also on the loud side, giving off a very solid click.

Ports and Features
Port selection is above average for a netbook, with HDMI-out, VGA, three USB ports, LAN, and audio in/out jacks. The U210 also offered a 4-in-1 SDHC-card reader as well as a Kensington lock slot. Inside the computer was a spare mini-PCIe slot, which would probably work with a WWAN card or other accessory. These tend to be rare in most computers, as unused slots generally don't have the connector soldered in place.

Front: Indicator lights

Rear: Battery

Left: AC power, VGA, HDMI, one USB

Right: Audio jacks, two USB, 4-in-1 card slot, LAN, Kensington lock slot

<!--nextpage--><!--pagetitle:MSI Wind U210 Performance, Benchmarks, and Conclusion-->

Performance and Benchmarks
System performance of the U210 was great with the AMD NV-40 processor and ATI Radeon X1270 integrated graphics. In raw CPU performance the AMD Neo outperformed both the Intel Atom and Intel CULV systems. The only area that didn't perform as well was graphics, with the X4500 performing better. Overall the system felt very snappy, in all areas from boot times to web page rendering. HD video playback was great with 720P video, but the system wasn't able to handle 1080P content without stuttering. Flash video support was fine for standard definition content, but if you went to 480P or above on sites such as Hulu, the system started to lag behind.

wPrime Processor Performance Benchmark (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 Overall Performance Benchmark (higher scores mean better performance):

Synthetic Gaming Performance using 3DMark06 (higher scores mean better performance):

HDTune Hard Drive Performance Benchmark:

Heat and Noise
System temperatures stayed within reasonable levels under moderate stress. Two areas stuck out as being warmer than other areas, which included the left side of the palmrest and bottom right corner on the underside of the U210. These areas were closest to the processor, but only seemed to really warm up when the system was under stress. Under normal conditions they were closer in temperature to the surrounding surfaces. Fan noise was minimal, staying at low levels even as the system was being benchmarked. At its fastest speed the fan sounded like a low whisper, only noticeable when you were right at the computer.

Battery Life
Battery life of the MSI Wind U210 was good, although not in the same league as other newer netbooks. We have seen many new netbooks reach "all day" battery time, some even reaching as high as 10 hours. The last AMD Neo powered notebook we reviewed, being the HP Pavilion dv2, only managed 4 hours and 12 minutes at 50% brightness in Power Save mode. Testing the U210 at 70% brightness, with the wireless active and Vista set to the Balanced profile, it ran for 4 hours and 19 minutes before going into sleep mode. Given the performance edge this has over some of the longer lasting netbooks, the drop in battery life might be worth it for some.

Conclusion
As one of the largest netbooks, the MSI Wind U210 proved to be a worthy option for people wanting something larger than your average 9-11" netbook. It offered slightly better CPU performance than Intel Atom systems and Intel CULV systems we have tested. The only area that it lagged behind was in graphics, where the X1270 chipset fell behind when compared to the Intel X4500. Battery life was decent at 4 hours and 19 minutes, but if you are looking for all-day battery life one of the smaller netbooks might be a better option. Overall, for the price and features, the MSI Wind U210 is a worthy competitor to some of the newer Intel CULV based 11.6" netbooks.

Pros:

• Full-size keyboard is very comfortable and easy to type on
• Mini-PCIe slot for future expansion

Cons:

• Warranty Void If Removed sticker
• Battery life not as good as Intel Atom systems

Related Articles:

• HP Pavilion dv2 Review

 

The only thing that I see it has over the netbook is the HDMI and I dont think that is much of a gain for many people who are looking for a netbook in the first place.

 

It's nice to see that AMD is coming up with something. However, should this be called a netbook or is it a budget ultraportable?

John

 

Honestly its hard to say, but I am still leaning towards netbook with its price-point. These days I still hate the term netbook, but its what everyone uses.

 

This computer gets its trackpads from two different suppliers, and you never know which you will get. One is Synaptics. Don't know who the other is.

 

As long as they are decent it doesn't matter much... but it's good to know.

 

Wait, is it No MV 40 or NV 40?

Might wanna correct that.
And how can the x1270 ATI IGP Xpress Chipset be lower than an Intel? I have an X1250 and I can run games at viewable FPS...hmm interesting to know.

Nice review BTW.

 

m and n need to be farther apart on the keyboard

Was surprising about the gaming chipset being lower. It still beats GMA950 by a good margin, but doesn't come close to the X4500.

 

WOW...so the X4500 aint that bad after all...lol
And nice work with the correction, does not even show at the end of the post. lol

 

I find it amusing how the author immediately uses the first sentence to bash netbooks. "For those who want a mobile computer that doesn't suck..."

 

It is a bit more subtle than that, but yes, there is a dislike from the author to netbooks.

Kevin, perhaps you could erase or edit the "just smaller and lighter" it is diminishing the HP DV2...

 

Well lets be honest here. The average older consumer (say my dad for example) looks at a netbook and sees a small keyboard, small screen, and wonders if they need to break out the reading glasses to use it. You move up slightly in size and not only is it easier to type on but the screen is easier to read. Now include a slightly faster processor and it feels more like a fullsize computer.

I think the new trend for "netbooks" is moving up in size to the 11-12" range, and and using the more powerful processors and chipsets. Less compromises, but still in the same battery life range as older netbooks. Win win in almost every sense.

In regards to the DV2, I feel what I said was correct. The body is much smaller and it weighs 25% less. When you compare the base model DV2 to the U210, they really are very comparable notebook/netbooks. Same processor, same graphics, but the U210 is much smaller.

 

Oh, I see your point on the netbook thing, I myself dislike them a lot, and mostly anything single-cored. It is a pain nowadays to use a single core for normal tasks, and Atom are even less powerful than mine, so me+netbook=not-gonna-happen lol

Oh, ok that large is the DV2?

 

When I saw the DV2 in store, it really disappointed me as it was pretty much the same size as the 13in laptop next to it, but with a smaller screen. It felt like HP could have easily put a 12.6in screen on there. It reminded me too much of my old 12in iBook G4 a bit.

 

Yes, let's be honest. I don't like netbooks very much either. I personally can't stand using them, even if for a short time. For my hands, everything: the keyboard, touchpad, and buttons are too small.

 

I hear you. My hands are large and typing on a cramped KB is awful!

 

Don't know why they didn't use the congo platform. The x1270 is very old. This would have been a great netbook with a hd 3200 with the uvd decoder in it and of course dual channel ram capable of 8 gigs.

Would most likely be the fastest netbook out this year. For me I want small size but i want it powerful. I don't need 8 hours of battery life. i don't know at what point in time I would be away from a charger for 8 hours at a time. Even at night with class I have acess to tons of outlets and I have an outlet in my car and one at work and one at home.

4 hours is more than enough for me. imo.

 

Thanks for the good review. I'm wondering how the MSI u210 would compare to an Acer 4810tz with a su2700 processor?
thanks

 

I feel the same way. It's pointless to have great battery life if you can't do what you want to do with your laptop - in my case, that would be play the occasional game. I'm anxiously awaiting the coming of Congo-based systems.

I'm really shocked that the graphics performance was so bad, though. Is it possibly a driver issue?

 

ah i wish review was dual core version of that cpu. Trying to pick dualcore version or dv2.

 

na its the x1270 mobile. its basicly the x700 gpu shrunk down for an igp. It has 4 rops (rendering pipelines) but no vertex shaders so that is done on the cpu.

The advantage that the ion has it that it has 8 or 12 shader units built into it so it doesn't have to bother the cpu.

The 3200 has 4 rops also , but it also has 40 unified shaders (capable of both vertex and pixel shaders) its running at 500mhz just like the x1270 . Buti t uses dx 10 vs dx 9 and has both pixel and vertex shaders which helps alot on more modern games.


The ion is at 450mhz has 4 rops 16 processers (unified shaders ) at 1100mhz . I have no idea what the le has which is in the mini 311. Although i'm suspecting it has less unified shaders and I know it lacks dx 10

The older geforce 945 is 400mhz with 4 rops , 1 shader unit !

What oyu might notice is that the general fillrate hasn't really changed with any of these . You get the fillrate by taking the number of rops and multiplying it by the clock speed.

So you go like this

geforce 945 1600mpixel fillrate
ion 1800 mpixel
x1270 2000mpixel
hd 3200 2000mpixel
Radeon hd 5870 27200mpixel


I threw the radeon hd 5870 in there because its the fastest single gpu desktop out there.

Another thing. The hd 3200 is the fastest netbook igp avalible in terms of shaders. It has 40. The radeon hd 5870 ? 1600.....

So the fillrate tells you have fast it can fill in the pixel , the shader units tells how fast and how many it can shade the pxiel with advance shaders. I can't find any info on the tmus but i'm sure they are in line with the rops on the mobile unit. 4 on each of them.


I'm suspecting that on older titles like dx 8 titles the rops are the most important . But when you go into the dx 9 era of gaming its going to be both of them playing a role . When you run out of fillrate you can't advance the resolution or framerate anymore. But without enough shader units you wont be able to advance the resolution either or have to lower quality settings.

 

Wait, how about the 9400M G , the G102M from NVIDIA and the 4200HD from ATI?
Those are IGPs too.

 

Thanks for a concise explanation. I'm thinking since the ones I have my eye on run at a max res of 1366x768 resolution will only become a problem with new, sophisticated titles with the 3200. Ion seems to be holding it's own, but the Atom holds it back somewhat. In any case, I'm looking forward to seeing how the Congo platform performs before making a decision.

When you were talking about the Geforce 945, were you actually referring to the Intel GMA 945? I don't think there was an NVidia Geforce 945

Ion has the 9400M G. I haven't heard of any netbook sized machines coming out with 4200HD, it's for Tigris. It also hasn't made significant strides over the 3200HD, it still has 40 unified shaders. I've heard nothing about a G102M netbook, either, unfortunately. We need something small, affordable and with a decent GPU of some sort. I'd take any of those provided it was paired with a decent CPU, too. Ion almost makes it except for the single core Atom dragging it down, but it's not totally out of consideration though.

 

Are any of those avalible in a netbook ? Thats what i'm talking about right now. The g102m and 4200 are both bigger and only in notebooks. the 4200 only adds dx 10.1 really.

 

Oh, you were talking about netbooks. My mistake.

 

No problem.

Pasta and I seem to have the same machine specs in mind. It's hell waiting for a release date. Oct. 22 seems to be the do or die date for a lot of machines.

EDIT: I wish you had a different name, though, Pasta - I have hit the fridge three times tonight to eat leftovers because the name reminds me of alfredo, chicken and onions, and then alfredo with chicken, onions and cheese. Doesn't help that I'm trying to put on weight and still not annoy everyone by eating everything in the house.

 

i find it surprising that the AMD Neo MV-40 beats intel CULV processor. is this really true? i always thought MV-40 was between the atom family and the CUVL's.

in terms of power consumption though, the MV-40 sucks a lot more juice than the CULV i believe

 

Ok, just wait a minute...let me jump in here and supply some information.
First, I actually own one of the U210's and have spent 3 complete days messing with it. Second, I don't have a bias against "netbooks" "ultra portables" "toy laptops" full size laptops, gaming laptops, business laptops, etc. etc. etc., or whatever else you want to call them, no axe to grind here, I own one or more of all the different categories. Lastly, there are some VERY important aspects of this MSI box that people aren't covering. I often think of writing to reviewers requesting that before they read the manufacturers press release propaganda, or take a quick survey to see what all the other reviewers are saying, that they simply get a quiet space with a good internet connection, and sit down, open the box and examine a new laptop like its the first one they've ever seen. No preconceptions, no prejudices, no axe to grind.

Having said that, Let's cut to the chase. Bottom line, the $800 plus or minus HP DV2z with the dual core neo and ati3410 gpu is a marvelous machine, its based on an elegantly engineered magnesium and some other metal chassis, has a luxury automobile finish, runs noticeably hot, and clocks about 3400 in 3dmark03. Now, my vanilla U210 runs amazingly quiet and cool, all externals are plastic, it has neither the dual neo, nor the 3410gpu, yet pumps out around 1150 3dmark03 marks with the included Vista. A simple (once you discover the mystery that is MPUAA) "downgrade" (that's a laugh) to XP pro netted a base of 1280. Some simple tweaking, and a bit of overclocking gets me right at 1700, i.e. half of the score of a DUAL core neo DV2z WITH the vastly superior 3410, for about half the money. I havn't yet found a 3dmark 03 for the single neo DV2 but I suspect it will be very near the score of this MSI.

In any event, the overclock is simple, it results in a cpu temp rise of 2 to 4 C, and is distinctly noticeable in effect. In fact, it brings an ear to ear grin to your face and you wonder.."is this really a NETBOOK?". I'll tell you right now, This wind U210 is a completely competent WOW machine for those 'stolen' moments tho to be sure, it wouldn't be my first choice for a raid in Northrend.

The 2gig mem chip is ddr800 HOWEVER, at least THIS one will run at 1066 speeds, with ddr 800 timings rather sweet right? ....yet I still find one reviewer pooh poohing the "cheap" memory included on the U210...duh. Furthermore , the msi motherboard will take a base clock increase from a starting 200 to at least 260..with aplomb. Considering this is multiplied by 4 and THAT my friends, is pretty decent design overhead...

Open up the box and you will be impressed with the engineering of the chassis. The hinges are hell for stout and hold the screen wherever you put it.
Examine the stress riser reinforcement grids on the plastic body panels and again, you'll be inpressed with how this thing was built. This is not to say there is not metal in the U210 because there is, a very substantial base plate for lack of a better word, and with the single exception of a power wire running under the harddrive that looks like a last minute afterthought, everything is laid out inside nice and tidy. Remove the two screws in the back cover, (carefully for it is apparently purposefully designed with lateral flexibility so that its snap hooks hold securely, and you'll find ready access to most of the things you want to get at- a HUGE improvement over the U100.
The keyboard is not only essentially full sized, it 'feels' even larger than that because of the way the keys are flattened and extended towards each other as opposed to the 'doming' you usually find. A few hours with "TOD" (Typing of the Dead to all of those who havn't yet discovered this nuts zombie killing typing tutor proggie) will let budding touch typing students start to kick out some serious wpm's ("words per minute"). Having spent a year with the U100, I find the U210 superior in EVERYway except one, which might in fact be a plus for most sub note users. Whereas the U100 has a Turbo button which kicked in a built in overclock, when on battery, the U210 has a 'de-turbo' "ECCO" button which will with a single keystroke combo SELECTIVELY: cut the mghz down, dim the display, kill the wifi, wan, and the webcam, all in the name of squeeezing every last ounce of battery life out of the puter. Not too shabby.

Ok, now, about Kevin's review....I think for the most part that he is fair, and the points he makes are valid..but I would look at the comparison's he makes in an entirely different light...lets think about this a moment.

How do you classify a laptop? by Name? that makes no sense..who cares if its a 'netbook', 'notebook' , 'laptop', 'subnotebook', 'ultra portable', or a damned bbq for chrissakes. The "name/classification" is irrelevant and I wish all the reviewers would get that in their heads. What counts is 1. what does it cost, 2. what size is it (both dimensions and weight) and 3. what can it do and not do..period, finito, end of story. Now if we examine the U210 in this light, what should we compare the MSI Wind 210 to? Well, with respect to its competitors that sell for around the same money, as to dimensions, we can say its 'slightly' bigger than some (which if you don't have a six year old's fingers is a GOOD thing), its 'slightly heavier' than some...it has a VASTLY superior infact BRILLIANT screen, hugely better resolution, processor and gpu.., comes with twice the memory, bigger and faster harddrive (this toshiba 250 is damned quick for a non 7200 drive) HDMI out (which works just fine once you sort out the drivers) a mem card slot (which is omitted on many) a super finicky touchpad that is waaaaay too sensitive out of the box, but that can be instantly transformed into a terrific one, vastly superior to most touchpads, by just adding a dose of Synaptics latest driver. a built in 1.3 webcam that works damned well, (I was really surprised just how well), a pleasing 'look', a well balanced form that doesn't tend to tip over backwards at some screen angles like the U100 and a few others, solid internal craftsmanship, and clearly superior cooling design with a VERY quiet but effective fan. Add the ECCO mode,(which WILL get you a solid 4 hour plus work time) a strong WIFI module but WITHOUT bluetooth (what's up with that btw MSI? ) Oh, and regarding the battery time, the U210 will accept the 9 CELL U100 bat with no muss, no fuss, and THAT will get you close to 7 hours...pushing 11 adding the two together AND..this thing.will overclock easily and safely on the order of 30 PERCENT!!! (which will net you a performance increase of greater than 50percent for many tasks) all for about the same or in many cases LESS MONEY!!! so.... WHAT AM I MISSING HERE?
In the 'NETBOOK WORLD', the MSI 210 is a NO BRAINER!!! someone name me something that comes close...then tell me what it costs...

Now, in the ULTRAPORTABLE world...can u buy a stronger machine, yes, can you buy one with a better screen or resolution? Well, not the HP Dv2..., can you buy one with a better graphics processor? Yes, but not with the same battery run time...

sooooo, if its better than the netbooks, and not as fancy or quite as powerful as the best of the ultra portables, nor anywhere NEAR as expensive as ANY of the Ultraportables...just where DO you put the MSI Wind U210?

I'll tell you where to stick it....

In your briefcase or your backpack, that's where.

Buy one of these things. You will NOT regret it.
Period, end of story, finito..done.

Seer

 

WOW! Thanks for the in-depth review.
ALthough 4 hours of a allegedly ultra-portable isnt that amazing, considering that larger ones, like the Acer Timeline and the Asus UL30A get 7+ and are 13 inches...
I cant remember how many the 11z Inspiron got, but I do remember of the terrible touchpad...

 

Serg, I think MSI was faced with a dilemma: they already have their U115 for those to whom bat life is everything. They have their 'allrounder' with the U100 and a bunch of the other "U"'s they've put out. AND they have their ultra portables with the thin and light or X series i believe they call them. I think what they were thinking with the U210 was, "what do we build that the original happy u100 buyers have, that would make them want to upgrade.." In that light, I think they hit the mark dead center. Sure, there are lots of tradeoffs, and the 9 cell vs. six cell battery issue is one of them. You can go either way. And, I didn't even mention that the laptop is already set up for sim card to be tossed in, and there is this very strange key labeld "Alt GR" for I don't know what But all in all, Personally, I think this 12" U210 format is right on the money for the best all around compromise for someone wanting an eminently portable all around laptop. With usb sticks of 8, 16, 32 and 64 gigs and larger becoming common place, the days of the fragile, scratch prone cd/dvds are numbered. When it comes right down to it, I tell myself yeah, i could pay a LOT more and get 'more'...but,..how much 'more' do i really need? What will the U210 NOT do that i'd like to do? As each hour goes by that I use it, the answer to that question increasingly looks like '"not a g*damned thing"

Seer

 

Alt GR? You dont know what that is?
I thought that was a standard...lol...I think I was wrong.
It is used for altern functions of the keys, like Alt, but a different set, for those keys that have more than 2 functions.

My old QWERTY used to have it, and to put the @ I had to Alt GR+2 and Id get the @...wow...I had not noticed my current laptop doe not have it...lol

But back on topic, so, the U210 is a good mobile performer in short?

 

seeratlas, that was one hell of a post. i would rep you if i could!

however, i think your review is slightly biased even though you state you're not, and i'm basing this on the tone and how you use words in absolutes. i've seen videos and read several reviews on the u200 series, but i don't think it's this machine is as godly as you make it sound.

comparing MSI's u210 to HP's mini311 since they are in the same price range, the HP netbook's advantage is that it uses ddr3 and has the nvidia ION graphics, but it still uses the slower atom.

one question i had for this u200 (like i mentioned before), why did they decide to use the AMD MV-40 in the u210? according to the review, AMD neo CPU is faster than the CULV, but MSI's X-slim series uses the CULV which is slower, but the X-slim series is much more expensive. this makes me question if AMD MV-40 is really faster than intel's CULV? does anyone have any benchmarks comparisons between these two chips?

 

In fact, the X series have their AMD models too.
Xx00 for Intel
Xx10 for AMD

 

Serg lol, i have to tell you, from my first homebuilt pre compaq luggable...remember those ? LOL, I built mine from parts from India LOL. and before that my TI and even my sinclair, and the first little game machine i can't even remember the name of, Fairchild i think, then the commodore all the way thru to the present, I don't recall EVER having an ALT GR labeled key. Is that a multilingual addition? If so, that would explain it as I'm still struglling to learn my first one neway, wonder how I missed that thanks, and yes, this wind with xppro is very zippy. Windows open instantly, online tv/video's/netflix movie streams, hulu, and youtube all run without hiccups. With Vista Home Premium it was 'smooth' a bit more languid without the 'snap' you see in XP. With Win7 RTM, it was VEEEERY pretty and entirely usable. but the silly menu structure hits me like the supermarkets. Every few times you go, you show up and they've moved everything all around in order to keep you in the store looking for what you came for longer, and hopefully having you run across something you didn't need, but might be seduced into buying on impulse.... as the man said, "include me out".

I suppose that if you are the kind of person that likes to have 3, 4 or five major programs all running at once with something downloading in the background at the same time, the lack of two cores, hyperthreading etc. would make themselves known, but I notice no noticeable deficiency in word or office type tasks compared to any of my other much stronger machines.


Now, White Fire Dragon (great name that I speak in terms and in a manner that do in fact reflect enthusiasm for the product, and it deserves all of it.

One thing I need to point out for those who rely solely upon equipment/specification lists.
There is a lot to be said for implementation, especially when it comes to massaging a mboard's timings to get the inter-relationships just right. I have set side by side laptops from different manufacturers with nearly identical equipment and demonstrated how one was demonstrably superior to the other, tho a strict perusal of the white sheet would suggest that performance would be identical. Take my original MSI U100 with the ubiquitous atom and 945 intel chipset. Most ALL other similarly equipped netbooks would post up anywhere between 550 to 700points in 3dmark03. The MSI with pushing a button would kick out around 900 depending on the installation, and mine would do just short of 1100. Another fellow I know got his to put out just a hair under 1200. BIG DIFFERENCE!!!, but they all had 1gig, intel atom, intel 945.......Sometime's its drivers, sometimes its the bios, and sometimes, its just better board timings. Whatever it is, this little U210 box is very nicely done, and for the money. it will be very difficult for anyone to beat it. As for the performance of the ULv's, well, there just *might* be something to b said for plain old clock cycles. With essentially one thread running, the more clocks, the faster it runs, and the other cores, well, they're just along for the ride. If on the other hand, multiple significant tasks are running simultaneously, then the dual core ulv's would begin to flex their muscles even at the lower clock rates.But what kind of things require that? Ahhhhhh. Eye Candy!!!!, swirling clouds of transluscent window's animations surrounding the smallest mouse movement, the pure euphoria of seeing a window change its shading as it slowly morphs out of view instead of just closing with a snap hehehe. This is what is being sold now...to justify the higher prices and *power* of the "latest and greatest", or worse..the dread.."Next Best Thing!!!!" To be sure there are millions who drool with envy over the impending release of Win7 which is NOTHING MORE THAN VISTA IN NEW CLOTHES!! LOL, but admitedly, very attractive clothes but I'm the kind who gets tired of paying again for the same old thing, just because it has a new look, and the menu's are all moved around..while getting LESS performance to boot. I happen to like xp pro sp3. It's smaller, leaner, faster, and meaner, especially when you actually try and do some WORK on the computer LOL. In short, I'm a 'bang for buck' kind of guy, and I'll promise you, this U210 has a hulluva lot of bang for very few bux. I think its a good buy.

The Hp is a beautiful piece of kit, as I mentioned before, and will (when equipped to the max, out perform the U210, but at twice the price? I DON"T THINK SO. Other's may think differently. Sometimes I wonder when looking at a guy drive up to the club in a 300k plus Mercedes, that is "almost" as good as several 175 to 225k other cars out there and wonder if he wouldn't be more happy if he'd bought the better car, and taken the money he saved and made it into a hat or something he could show off so everyone would be more impressed with his sense of 'value.' (Don't get me wrong, Mercedes builds some superlative automobiles, but as concerns 'bang for buck', the 300 k job isn't one of em
Go play with a U210. or a U200 if you're a diehard intel fan, and tell me they don't bring a smile to your face

Seer

 

The problem is the hp mini 311 . it offers similar or better performance and uses alot less power. in fact in gaming it will blow the u210 out of the water and costs less.

Thats really what most of us are thinkin

 

I am sorry MSI.
Asus 12 inch EEEPC with Ion and Win7

 

hi i have a few questions of the U210 if someone can clarify:

1. Can i use a mini pci SSD as main drive for the OS?
2. Does it support 4gb of ram or just only 2gb??
3. Does it supports 1066mhz ram speed???

i hope someone could clarify to me those points and thanks.

 

1. the std hd uses a standard sata connector. If your mini ssd uses that same connector I don't see any reason you cannot use it.
2. mine has a single connector utilizing a 2gig module. Not having a 4gig single module available, I can't tell you.
3. bios is set for 800, i.e. 200 clock with 4x multiplier, however, my machine is quite happy running at 260 which would work out to 1040. spec sheet says 800 so with the current bios I would say that only the 800 is officially supported however, it appears the hardware is capable of much more.

seer

Serg, pasta, i'll try and get my hands on an HP 311 and Asus and see what i think.

 

Whelp, found a couple of articles on the hp. One of them goes on and on about how its the highest netbook pcmark05 score they've ever seen, "nothing else comes close etc. etc. etc." the score achieved? - "1917", and as they observed:
"which is almost 500 points above the current netbook average of 1,423."

well excuuuuuuusssse me, but i just downloaded it and ran it...not on a pristine newly formatted clean hdrive unit...but my daily working u210..and this box scored 2564, tho I suppose I could push higher by killing off unneeded threads and a quick cleanup and defrag of the HDrive.....soooo, my plebian MSI b*slapped their HP by what, almost 650 points? I don't think I'll be trading it in for a 311 any time soon.... Now pasta suggests that the hp *should* kick the MSI's keister on graphics, but let me see if I can find some matchup bench's there.
Oh, here's the url of the review:
http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptop/hp-mini-311.aspx?page=2

seer

 

Do us a favor and compare the u210 to the hp mini 311 in 3dmark 2006.

 

I'll dload that and run it this morning Pasta, but having looked at the specs of the nvidia gpu, I tend to agree that the 311 is likely to punch out the msi in that bench. I was hoping to find some actual game bench's that I could duplicate so I could see some real world results. In the meantime, Serg, that new asus pair is looking VERY strong, what with the uncrippled nvidia ion chip, and a dual core neon. Only issue is, what will that thing cost? Plus, still vaporware...so ..looks like holding out another few weeks for the win 7 release will be worth it. I "suspect" that MSI has a dual Neo with the ati 3410 in the wings waiting to compete.... looks alike a good fall for some serious netbook horsepower

seer

 

Indeed the uncrippled ION looks nice, now let us wait for this to come out

 

Ok, was too busy to post but i did manage to run 3dmark06 and got what I thought was a disappointing 495. UNTIL I got a glimpse of the review of the new toshiba which lists someone's u210 as getting i think 290 something on the same thing...excuse me?

Frankly, I think something is screwy here. For one, the 1270 cannot do shader 3.0 yet that is a large part of 3dmark06's bench scheme soooo, perhaps 3dmark06 is not the ideal bench to test the box against, it would clearly favor the dx10 capable lappies. I will note again, especially after seeing in that same Toshiba test, that the u210 does something like 1853 on pcmark05, the hp311 was said to do 1900plus, and MY u210 easily pushes mid 2500's..which puts it at the top of the second tier in the ultraportable lappie category, i.e 80 percent of the best in that group, a group in which its not even a member.......sooooo. Further, it appears from a SOFTWARE examination of my mboard (hehehe) that MSI has designed this U210 as the basis for models having dualcore neo's (and there are two types of those the 3400 or better, series gpu's much MUCH faster HT and mem speeds, 3.5g cell internet, and up to 8 gigs of ram...In fact, from what I see inside the U210, such a model could be released in this chassis with this mboard at pretty much any time....interesting eh?

In any event, looking for some practical use data, I nosed around looking for an opinion from someone who actually owns a 311 and found one thoughtfull and apparently sober soul specifically noting that tho the graphics are indeed better than the average NETbook, they were not sufficiently or meaningfully better in that the 311 STILL was unable to handle the latest games in any kind of satisfactory way, it was just 'better ' at the attempt than the netbooks which couldn't handle them at all...i.e. doesn't matter if you can jump up to within ten feet of the top of the pit or within 5 feet from the top if the GOAL is to get your azz out of the hole

He also found that when viewing flash video he got considerable stutter etc. because the processor performance is very important in the mechanics of how flash works and the atom is simply not enough horse to power that buggy. His conclusion and decision was to turn the 311 back in and get something with BOTH a decent proc and dedicated graphics which I guess is the REAL threshold to be comparing against. The single core neo in the 210 clearly trounces the atom, and is similarly beaten up by a decent dual core once two threads start competing for resources. It is NOT clear to me that the ulv's are worth the premium they're getting as in most cases, 80 to 100 percent more clock cycles, even if less efficient, will tend to close a performance gap in a hurry .soooo, I'm coming to the conclusion that for the money I like the 'all around' of the 210. I like the dual neo / 3410 hp for the power, the metal chassis, the fine fit and finish, BUT, not for the bang for buck. The Ion tests I've seen so far suggest that it really wants is at LEAST the 330 (dual core atom) to show its stuff and we'll have to wait and see, but once you start getting satisfactory calc AND graphics performance out of a netbook, who the hell is going to pay the 1200 to 2000 bux they are currently charging for the ultraportables that would then just by the barest of margins, outperform the netties? and especially at what size and weight LOL. Maybe the upcoming Asus will trump em all, but you can bet it will be at a price that is going to be up there with the dual core hp...and frankly, for less money than that, you can get a number of nice full blown dualcore /dedicated graphics boxxes one helluva lot more powerful, in the only slightly larger 14" range.....

What I wanted was as close to the original ten inch netbook as I could get, with a couple more features, and abilities. I already have a couple of gamer lappies that so blow away all of the ultraportables, subnotebooks, netbooks whatever.sooo all i wanted was something that would be reasonably quick in day to day, with the ability to pitch hit on WOW during the 'inbetweens' and with my switch to XP sp3, and some tuning on the drivers I'm now looking at a pretty solid 28 to 45 and higher WOW fps depending on how many other players are in the vicinity. Youtube high def runs fine, hulu etc. all passing muster soooo, for what I wanted to do, this one works for me. Your mileage may vary..and I guess the best summation is...no matter WHAT you want to do short of carry around an 6 lb and up performance lappie, someone out there is making or about to release exactly what you want and THAT is a pretty pleasing commentary on the revolution Asus has brought about with their original eeepc And Serg I think you're right if that impending box is any indication, ASUS has no intention of relinquishing their crown anytime soon

seer

 

3dmark 06 is a dx 9 benchmark. Vantage is dx 10.

the x1270 doesn't have any vertex shader so the cpu has to do it. Thati s what the real problem is. pc mark is more about the cpu than anyhting else , we all know the neo is more powerfull than the atom.


Really this netbook doesn't fit in anywhere esp not with the ion platform hitting and amd's own congo platform. Why would people buy this ? The ion has a much better gpu that does 1080p decoding and will have hardware java support. The congo platform will hvae a dual core 1.2ghz to 1.6ghz neo and a radeon hd 3200. These are going be the same or cheaper than this laptop.

So like I said what was the point of this laptop ?

 

>looks high, looks low< as you say, "will have" ---these others you discuss....don't exist...yet

Existing single core atom netbooks get trounced in day to day, and don't provide sufficient additional graphics "ooomph" to cross a significant threshold.

Further, from what i've seen, they are more expensive. the 311 STARTS at 399 and ends up about 470 with : 1. 1gig less ram, 2. smaller MUCH slower HD, and i can't remember whether it has draft n or not. In any event, as is always the story, there is something sure to better coming "real soon now" but perhaps in this case, the horizon looks to be only a week or so, for the first big release, we'll just have to wait and see stay tuned

Seer

 

Whats the difference between draft n and n?

 

Hi Serg, sorry didn't see this until just now, been on the 210 thread under MSI in the Forums. Now, as I understand it, while the relevant committee was trying to garner concensus on the "n" standard, a number of different vendors jumped the gun and went to the market with their own versions based on the tentative "Draft n" spec. There were some small variations between vendors. Eventually, the n standard was finalized (i presume as I havn't actually looked it up ) so you have Pre-std 'Draft n" and post std "n" spec wifi out there in the wild. With very rare exceptions, they seem essentially identical tho the various vendors have come up with a few different configurable settings on different adapters. This is not one of my areas of expertise but that is my understanding.



seer

 

Thanks for the info seer! I will see and ask this on the wireless forums (hahahah that sounds odd)

 

Hi first of all, it is my pleasure to join the NotebookReview community =)

I own a MSI U210 (arrived yesterday) but my journey for research on this immature beast begun a month before. I read on this exact thread about overclocking the cpu and ram and would like to know more about this.

My first reading was here: http://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=130874.0
A user posted about adding a HP Mini110 BroadCom HD Decoder chipset to render HD videos @ higher FPS, with almost half the cpu usage.

Then I read elswhere if was possible to clock the CPU manually using SetFSB at a defined setting, risky though.

But ultimately, after reading a user on this forum post this:
I wondered, if anyone would be generous enough on shedding some light on how I can go about oc'ing my u210 and the potential drawbacks..

Your time is greatly appreciated,
Teryakii

 

Hey. Nice review. I'm really digging the U210. After reading all the reviews I'm seeing people really like the netbook. Makes sense it's features and the price. I heard that MSI is having a contest actually to promote the U210. I think the contest has something to do with designing the skin of the U210? And they're giving out like 5 units. Contest starts in November I believe...during the holiday season.