MSI Wind User

So just how cool does the Wind blow? Is it a Khamsin or a Mistral? All lame jokes aside, Laptop Mag brought their thermometer back out to see how how hot the Wind runs.

The bottom of the Wind is where it was the coolest, and also beat out all the other laptops tested - a balmy 93F. The keyboard also came in at 93F getting beat out by a Dell and a Cloudbook. However the Wind’s trackpad was probed at 99F - only beating two generations of eeePC. The reason the trackpad is so warm is that the processor is right underneath or close by the it.

It won’t keep your tummy warm like the Mini-Note, but it’s still pretty cool

Electronista is reporting that the XP version of the Wind will start shipping June 16th for $499 and  the Linux version “later  this summer” for $399. They’ve also confirmed that black, pink, or white will be available.

msiwind.net forums user doody has been playing with a Singapore version of the Wind for the past four or five days. Here’s a couple of Doody’s benchmarks compared to the HP 2133 Mini-Note @ at 1.6Ghz,  ASUS eeePC at 600Mhz and another ASUS eeeCP at 990Mhz.

It’s pretty interesting to see that the 990Mhz Celeron in the eeePC #2 bests the 1.6Ghz Atom. These tests focus mainly on the CPU, so the eeePC’s SSD drive shouldn’t make much of a difference. Doody noted he got over two and a half hours of battery life on the 3-cell while testing the Wind out. That’s a pretty good start, and it doesn’t put it far off the claimed six hour mark with the 6-cell battery.

Benchmarks taken from http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=27048, http://www.forums.msiwind.net/viewtopic.php?p=320#p320 and http://www.hp2133guide.com/mini-note-performance-tests-with-windows-xp/

User doody over at forums.msiwind.net scored some good comparison pics of Asus’ eeePC and MSI’s Wind. It looks like the Wind’s keyboard is bigger than the eeePC’s. Hopefully it’s a big as I think it looks (that’s what she said ;)) in these pics - right inbetween the Mini-Note’s and the eeePC’s keyboard size.

Read the full post

Expansys no longer has any version of the MSI Wind listed on their site. They did have several UK models available for pre-order. I emailed them, along with some other vendors, a few days ago asking when they would have the US version in stock. They were the only company not to respond. I’m going to try calling and see if they’re still honoring the existing pre-orders or not.

*UPDATE* Just spoke with an Expansys rep and he said all pre-orders will be fulfilled. The reason Expansys took down the Wind according to the rep is they weren’t actually supposed to be selling them yet. Intel wants to officially announce the new Atom in June and doesn’t want to get “scooped”.

We have an official date for the Wind to show up in the US: June 3rd! Laptop Mag had an interview with Andy Tung, MSI’s Director of US Sales, and got all sorts of info on the Wind. Of note:

• Only the 10″ version will be coming at first
• Black, white, silver and pink will be the available colors in both sizes
• A Linux version running SuSE with 512MB RAM and an 80GB HD for $399
• A Windows version with XP Home, 1GB RAM, 80GB HD and Bluetooth for $549
• SIX HOURS battery life on the six-cell battery. (I’ll believe it when I see it!)

Make sure to check out the full interview!