Design and features
We've often frowned on netbooks 11 inches and larger, but the 12-inch MSI Wind12 U200 isn't a netbook. It's got an Intel ULV processor crammed into a small form factor, meaning that it's a good shot more powerful than your standard Atom-equipped netbook. This also means it runs a bit hotter, and as such a fan is permanently running. It's not disturbing, but those used to silent netbooks will need to expect a little more sound.
The extra size means a more comfortable keyboard, with only one concession — a shorter right shift key. The touchpad feels a little small considering the cursor now has to traverse a 1366x768 resolution, instead of the netbook staple of 1024x600. Don't get us wrong, the extra resolution is highly appreciated, as is the edge-to-edge style screen. A webcam and microphone is embedded at the top of the screen, and the only button on the laptop that's not part of the keyboard is the power button — there's not even a hardware switch to turn off the wireless, this being achieved through a function key on the keyboard instead.
Back to the touchpad. Once again we have to raise the fact that MSI has utterly failed to include touchpad drivers, nor does it include them on its website. This means by default, there's no swipe-scrolling enabled. Thankfully, unlike previous MSI models that use the horrifically bad Sentelic touchpad, the Wind12 U200 we received for review uses a Synaptics pad, and after downloading and installing the driver from Synaptics' site, all was well.
MSI bundles its "Eco" software, essentially a group of battery profiles for gaming, movies, presentations, office work and something called Turbo Battery Mode — although you'll notice that the main effect of all of these is to progressively dim the screen.
Other software includes Ulead's BurnNow, ArcSoft software for the webcam and printing photos, Microsoft Office 2007 trial, Microsoft Works, Norton Internet Security 2009 trial and MSI's "Easyface Manager", which uses the webcam to recognise your face and log you into the PC, rather than using a password. While WWAN connection software was included, there was no WWAN module in the machine.
The expandability is quite decent, if you're the type that likes to install your own components. You'll have to carefully remove the warranty voiding sticker though. (Credit: CBS Interactive)
Port-wise, it features three USB ports, VGA and HDMI, an SD card reader, microphone and headphone jacks and a gigabit Ethernet port. Internally, it has Bluetooth and 802.11n support, a 320GB hard drive, a single core Celeron ULV 723 processor at 1.2GHz and 2GB RAM. Our review sample was running on Windows Vista Home Premium, but by the time the U200 is released in October it may well be on Windows 7.
Performance
While we didn't expect full laptop performance out of the Wind, we did at least hope it would beat out a netbook, which it delivered (albeit marginally) giving us 1691 in PCMark05 and 540 in 3DMark06 — making it fine for a throw around travel laptop, but definitely not a gaming machine.
Its battery life of three hours, 35 minutes and 52 seconds was respectable considering the screen size and weight, although we'd have liked to have seen more. Take in mind this is our harsh test of turning off all power-saving features, turning screen brightness and volume to maximum and playing back an XviD file, so in less strenuous circumstances you'll get more battery life.
The MSI Wind12 U200 sits in that comfortable space between netbook and laptop — if you have modest needs, but still want a decent screen size and a bit more power than Intel's Atom offers, the U200 might be the laptop you're looking for.
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