MSI Wind hands-on video and Aspire One/Eee PC 901 comparisons

With your appetite has been whetted by the Wind unboxing video, here comes the starter – a hands-on video of MSI’s new netbook. You can also see some side-by-side comparisons with the only other two Intel Atom-powered netbooks available at the moment – the Acer Aspire One and Asus Eee PC 901.

The MSI Wind is the netbook a lot of people have been holding on for, since it seems to combine all of the best features of other small, cheap ultraportables – a big screen, large keyboard, to name the two most notable. The MSI Wind is the biggest of the three Intel Atom-powered netbooks we’ve seen so far, but not by much – it’s just 10mm wider than the Acer Aspire One. That extra centimetre is there for good reason, though – unlike the other 8.9in screen netbooks, the MSI Wind has a 10in, 1024 x 600 display.

Build quality feels very good – the Wind seems solidly made and there are no creaks in the case or unsightly gaps. The lid has the same glossy finish and sloped edges as the Acer Aspire One (a design touch we like) and the curved front edge of the base helps make the laptop look a little slimmer than it actually is.

That extra case width also means that MSI has been able to fit what is perhaps the best netbook keyboard we’ve seen so far. It’s much larger than that on the Eee PC and a little bigger than the Aspire One’s, and pretty comfortable to use as a result. Two very welcome touches are the oversize Enter and Backspace keys – other laptops this size have shrunken keys.

The extra 1.1in of the screen doesn’t make a huge amount of difference compared to the 8.9in screens on the Aspire One and Eee PC 901, but nor does it add much to the laptop’s bulk either. It’s extremely bright at its highest setting, but not quite off at its lowest and you’ll still be able to use it comfortably with the brightness cranked right down. In terms of specification, the Wind is on a par with the competition – 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270, 1Gb RAM, Intel 945 graphics – but this model has an 80Gb hard disk. This makes Windows XP a much more viable proposition on a netbook – the Eee PC 901 really struggles to hold Windows XP and a handful of applications, even in its 20Gb (4Gb + 16Gb SSD) form. The drive on this review model was partitioned as a 39Gb C: drive and a 31.5Gb D: drive, though the second partition is empty.

Our review model has Microsoft Office 2007 installed, though I’m not certain whether this will be included with retail models – look for confirmation of that in the full review. Another uncertainty at this stage is the overclock/underclock button. As with the Eee PC 901, there’s a keyboard shortcut to underclock or overclock the Intel Atom processor, but it doesn’t appear to have any effect on our review MSI Wind. We’ll look into it and let you know what the deal is later.