MSI Wind U135 Netbook Review

Tablet PCs garnered the majority of headlines in 2010, and Micro Star International (MSI) decided to start the year by launching the U130, U135 and U160, its first models based on Intel’s Pine Trail platform. However, the end of the decade saw people fall out of love with the netbook form factor that had revitalised sales for a number of OEMs and brought others into the public consciousness.

Netbooks were introduced to serve a simple purpose, but were being edged towards machines that could do it all, both in terms of physical characteristics and price. MSI seems to have gone back to basics with the Wind U135, using a redesigned chassis to accommodate the new silicon from Intel.

The Pine Trail platform was Intel’s Centrino-like solution for netbooks, moving the memory controller and graphics into the processor package. One of the well-documented problems with the Diamondville platform was the use of the power-hungry 945GC/GSE chipset.

The lower power consumption could have been used in two ways: clocking the processor higher or for better battery life. Thankfully, Intel chose the latter and it shows. MSI chose this year’s CES to unveil its first major update to the hugely popular Wind netbook series with the U130, U135 and “high-end” U160.

The new chassis not only brought the Pine Trail platform, but added other key features like 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, a quality webcam and a new Chiclet-style keyboard. Effort has been taken to make the U135 a little less bargain basement with an exterior available in dark colours and even a pinstripe.

The attention to detail is quite admirable, with stylish, not garish, touches found when the device is opened up. The trackpad has a sandblasted look, the single mouse button isn’t from Apple’s reject bin – it actually has two buttons underneath – and there’s even a fancy asterisk light on the power button should you forget that your Wind is running.

Overall, the build quality is good and, while it’s undoubtedly plastic, it feels a whole lot tighter than a Macbook, which is not bad for a machine which costs almost 75 per cent less. Specifications These Wind models are based on the Atom N450 processor running at 1.66GHz with HyperThreading enabled.

This is coupled to 1GB of DDR2 memory and a 250GB WD Blue Sata disk which showed an average 57MB/s read rate in tests. The specification is very similar to Asus’ Eee PC 1005PE except for the higher quality webcam. Intel’s N450 does have DirectX 9 support, but drawing the frames by hand would provide a better gaming experience. The 10in 1,024×600 screen first championed by MSI is now pretty much standard across the board, but this particular unit is more acceptable than most.

Brightness and contrast in the U135 are above average for netbook screens, thanks to the LED backlighting. There’s also good connectivity with three USB 2 sockets, Ethernet, headphone and microphone jacks, and VGA output. Removable storage comes in the form of an SD Card slot.

The Pine Trail platform enticed us with the ability to go all day without charging, and MSI has tried to push this home by including a bulging six-cell battery causing the U135 to tip the scales at 1.3Kg. The upshot of this is good stamina and a gentle tilt helping typing posture.

Using the CPU at 100 per cent and running a graphics and disk intensive test we managed just two minutes shy of four hours. Obviously this is far from typical use, and we managed closer to seven hours in a work-like setting with web browsing, email, viewing videos and occasionally getting in some real work.

The cooling of the U135 held up well during our intensive tests, and the fan, although audible, still produced a less annoying noise than many an X-Factor contestant. It also helped keep the underbelly merely lukewarm rather than skin searing hot.

Video playback
Watching videos is one area where MSI’s faith in Intel is misplaced. Thanks to Adobe’s announcement that GPU-accelerated Flash will be available, albeit in the second quarter of this year, the Pine Trail platform will be left for dead by nvidia’s ion graphics processor in this important netbook task.

Those looking to upgrade the RAM or hard drive will be disappointed to learn that there are no one-screw hatches that open up the innards of the U135. Access can be had only by completely removing the base plate held with nine screws, one of which is covered by a warranty sticker.

MSI decided to stick Windows 7 Starter Edition on all its new Wind units and, even with the perceived benefits of Windows 7 over the previous Windows XP incarnation, it’s hard not to believe that more could be done with Linux installed.

Thankfully MSI didn’t load the U135 with a load of useless software, and Norton Internet Security is the only real blemish on an otherwise clean preload. However, software to enable multi-touch or even screen scrolling on the touchpad is absent until you pull them off MSI’s web site. With such a large hard disk, there’s nothing to prevent dual booting Windows 7 and one of the many specialist netbook Linux distributions.

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