The most highly awaited subnotebook (that is not from Asus or Dell) just arrived on our doorstep. That’s right, MSI’s Wind is here, complete with its 80GB 2.5-inch hard drive, 10-inch display, and Intel Atom 1.6GHz processor. Our test model runs Windows XP and uses the 3-cell battery.
The Wind U100 has only been in-house for about two hours so there has not been much time to play with it, but so far it’s been a pleasure to use. The keyboard is generously sized, the display looks quite nice, and everything works out of the box. The Atom processor has been moving along nicely, though it’s going to take some time to see how it compares to the competition.
One note I would make so far–when the Wind arrived it appeared that wireless networking did not work. This was the case even though the drivers were installed properly. There is no hardware switch so it was not immediately clear why no wireless signals were being recognized (there are at least 40 in the area), but after a few minutes I figured it out. In retrospect it seems obvious, but this might confuse some people: you have to hit Fn+F11 to enable/disable WiFi and Bluetooth. This is the function command that toggles your radio and it may or may not be turned off when your notebook arrives.
And now, what you came for, the pictures:
Wind next to Asus Eee PC 701
The included carrying case
Accessories kit
That’s it for the preview! Be on the look out for the full review which we will be getting up as soon as possible. There will be a close look at the Wind, new pictures, and some decisions about how it stacks up against the other devices in the field.
