MSI has joined the pre-CES festivities, showing off some hardware at a press gathering in Taipei. Netbooknews attended the event and recorded a hands-on session with the company's upcoming Wind U270 netbook. The 11.6-inch system carries a 1366x768 display and is powered by a 1.6GHz Zacate processor, which is part of AMD's upcoming Fusion lineup.

Besides the new silicon from AMD, MSI's Wind U270 seems to follow a slightly upgraded netbook formula: 320 or 500GB of storage, up to 4GB of RAM, one USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports, VGA and HDMI-out, a 4-in-1 SD card reader, as well as audio jacks, an Ethernet port, and a Kensington lock slot.

Netbooknews says that the Wind U270 improves on the U160's keyboard and it has a split trackpad button, but MSI's updated netbook isn't without flaws -- unless you're into greasy smudges, that is. The site notes that the U270 has an excessive amount of gloss covering the lid, palm rest and display.