MSI Wind U160 review

While MSI’s original Wind netbooks were very successful, they were a little chunky and not the most desirable. With its 10.1in Wind U160, MSI is going all-out for style.

We have to say that it’s been pretty successful. The cylinder hinge makes the Wind U160 look more like something from Sony, which is no bad thing, and its silm case and neatly sculptured edges make it look more like a desirable ultra-portable than a standard netbook.

The laptop’s available in two colours. We looked at the gold version (part code U160-049UK). To us, it looks very similar to the shade of gold that seems to only be used on Mercedes estate cars available in the Middle East. That’s not to say it’s a bad thing, as we quite liked the subtle shade of gold. The more sedate netbook owner can always opt for the standard black version instead (part code U160-048UK).

If you look at MSI’s list of specifications, or indeed the rather prominent stickers, on the netbook, you’ll see that the U160 is proudly proclaimed as weighing just 1kg and it’s less than 1in thick. However, these figures have to be taken with a pinch of salt, as they refer to the model that ships with a three-cell battery, while the UK version will ship with a six-cell battery only.

This larger battery protrudes from the bottom of the netbook and adds an extra 200g in weight, making the laptop slightly more than an inch thick at the rear and weighing 1.2kg: very similar to most other 10.1in laptops. We’re not overly concerned by this, as the bigger battery helps stand the Wind U160 more comfortably on a desk for typing and improves battery life significantly.

In our tests we managed to get almost nine-and-a-half hours from a full charge. This is fantastic and easily enough for a day’s work. Longer battery life is possible by putting the laptop into Turbo Battery Mode (Fn-F10), one of the pre-set Eco modes. However, this reduced the screen brightness so far that it was practically unreadable, so we opted to set the screen to 50 per cent brightness, giving a realistic figure for the laptop in a usable mode.

There are several other Eco modes including Gaming (pointless really, considering the power of the netbook), Movie, Presentation and Office. We recommend setting the screen brightness and battery settings manually in all cases, in order to get a set up that you’re happy with.

As you’d probably expect from a modern netbook, the Wind U160 is pre-installed with Windows 7 Starter Edition, a 1.66GHz Atom N450 processor and 1GB of RAM. Scoring 16 overall, this netbook runs at a similar speed to all other 10.1in netbooks we’ve seen: it’s fast enough for internet and light office use, but you’ll want something more powerful for video editing or dealing with lots of photos. The processor has integrated Intel GMA 3150 graphics, which are incapable of playing games, but can handle Windows 7 smoothly.

We recommend that you upgrade a netbook to 2GB of RAM. Fortunately, MSI has made this simple with its Wind U160, providing an access hatch to the single memory slot. Once you’ve opened it you’ll need to replace the existing 1GB module with a 2GB one, which is both quick and easy.

An important aspect of any laptop is how comfortable it is to use. The Wind U160 does a good job. We found its chiclet keyboard very comfortable to use with responsive keys. The usual range of short-cut keys exist, such as for controlling volume. We like the fact that there’s a physical wireless switch, as it’s easier to reach and you can turn Wi-Fi off before Windows has started, which is what you need if you’re on a plane.

As you’d hope for a modern laptop there’s 802.11n built-in, so it should be fast on your home network. We were pleased to see Bluetooth built-in so that you can tether the laptop to a phone for 3G internet access.

The textured touchpad is responsive and its buttons are easy to reach with a thumb. The touchpad doesn’t support multi-touch gestures, although you may not find this a huge loss. You can disable the touchpad when typing so that you don’t accidentally move the cursor.

The 10.1in screen is mostly very good. Its glossy coating helps boost contrast and we found that it was very bright, producing rich and vibrant colours and pure bright whites. Viewing angles aren’t perfect, although the screen hinges back far enough that you can always sit straight-on to it for the best picture. As with the majority of netbooks, the screen has a resolution 1,024×600, which is enough for web browsing and some office work, but can feel a little cramped.

The only slight disappointment is that, as mentioned earlier, turning the brightness down can result in a picture that’s too dim to view properly. This is a minor complaint, as the screen’s perfectly viewable at normal brightness levels.

Otherwise it’s business as usual for this netbook, including a 250GB hard disk, three USB ports, an SDHC memory card slot and a VGA output for connecting to an external monitor (you can’t run two displays at once due to a restriction of Windows 7 Starter, though).

Overall the Wind U160 is a sleek and stylish laptop with decent battery life and a comfortable keyboard. Its only problem is that you can get better. The Toshiba NB305 (chiclet keyboard) or NB300 (normal keyboard, but no Bluetooth) both cost a similar amount, and lasted for almost an hour longer in our battery test. They’re slightly better buys.