MSI's 14-hour Wind U160 netbook now available in US

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Unveiled at CES, MSI's Wind U160 is finally shipping to US customers. The system is readily available online for under $400 shipped. Powered by Intel's Pine Trail platform, the system carries a 1.66GHz Atom N450 processor and GMA 3150 graphics, a 10-inch 1024 x 600 glossy display, 1GB of RAM, and a 250GB HDD.

Among the most noteworthy features is the U160's promised 14 to 15 hours of run time on a six-cell battery when in "ECO mode." It has the usual I/O connectivity, including 802.11b/g/n wireless, 10/100 LAN, Bluetooth, three USB ports, VGA-out, and headphone/mic jacks. The netbook also has a built-in 1.3-megapixel webcam, speakers, a chiclet-style keyboard, weighs 2.40lbs, and ships with Windows 7 Starter as well as a one-year warranty.

Newegg seems to offer one of the best prices at the moment at $379.99 with $4.99 for shipping.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/38148-msis-14-hour-wind-u160-netbook-now-available-in-us.html

 

[Recipe7]

This looks to be one of the best netbooks for the price at the moment. I would much rather pick this up over an Eee.

 

[Kibaruk]

I wonder what that eco mode means, although 14 hours is over-impressive. Too bad I'm migrating from a netbook to a notebook or I would definitely have this in mind. The pricing is amazing too.

 

[pyari]

another choice in the netbook market. But durability make the difference between among them.

 

[levar]

Kibaruk said:
I wonder what that eco mode means, although 14 hours is over-impressive. Too bad I'm migrating from a netbook to a notebook or I would definitely have this in mind. The pricing is amazing too.

eco could mean a lot of things but in this case it probably mean less harm to the environment and better for your netbook, don't know why netbooks are still this expensive but my guess is it's the battery which is quite impressive so eh I guess I can't complain there 14 - 15hrs that's pretty amazing hopefully they'll start having more netbooks like this.

 

[rufio]

14 hours?? Amazing. Looks very portable and sleek too.. *drool*. I really need to pick up a netbook... my laptop only lasts about 2 hours on a good day lol

 

[Technochicken]

Wow, and here I was thinking my netbbook's 5 hour or so battery life was pretty impressive. It is a good thing Intel has finally stopped tying the power hungry GMA950 chipset to their Atom CPU's.

 

[deathspeed]

I hate it when someone breaks one of these.

 

[pipopaz]

14 hours? I wonder with what features on you will get that battery life. Is a pretty standard netbook though for the price is a shame it doesn't have a HD display, or a broadcom to watch hi def content.

 

[supyo]

I have U100, great little netbook. This one looks pretty sweet too.

 

[Serag]

Great netbook, who picked Eee would be disappointed now I guess,
I reckon the impressive claimed 14 hour battery life is because Intel has finally stopped hooking up the GMA 950 chip to it's Atom processor,
Amazing pricing as well.

 

[rskapadia2294]

the best priced netbook!
i think it has the best value for money!
MSI is also slowly growing ahead n within 5 to 10 yrs it will b as gud as HP or DELL!
gr8 work by MSI!

 

[yorro]

This is a great notebook indeed, I am looking for something exactly like this. Hell of a battery life than can fit on my small bag.

 

[tripplejjj]

I purchased an Acer Aspire One netbook a year ago for $300. The battery life was only 2 hours at most with Win7UE. After a year of using it, I went back to a notebook. The only reason was the 1024 x 600 display. Many of the programs that I used weren't made for the 1024 x 600 display. I have to constantly use the scroll bar to see the content. This is the same for the web pages. I constantly have to use the scroll bar.

 

[rajmond]

Good looking netbook, and good price for its performances.

 

[AfricanTech]

Does anyone here know whether the RAM is upgradable, and if so, to how much. This netbook looks perfect as an additional "anywhere and everywhere" machine.

 

[flukeh]

Looks sleek and well worth the money. Would be a good replacement for my current EeePC 100HA if it was 12". as stated above by tripplejjj, the 1024x600 can get really annoying, it just isnt' enough space.

 

[CMH]

Given that its a netbook, most people should be using it on eco.

I know I would.

and a 14 hour battery time is very impressive, and if I can get 14 hours just using word + excel + light internets, I'd be pretty happy.

 

[fref]

14 hours, now we're talking! It remains to be seen what ECO mode is, though. If it means lowest brightness setting for the LCD, underclocked CPU and no WiFi, then it's not really useful, is it?

 

[alexandrionel]

I am going to buy one netbook for myself but I really want it to be able to play HD video
Does anyone know if the GMA 3150 is able to play hd content or I have remain to Nvidia ION?
At this moment the only candidate I have is Hp mini 311 with the 11.6" screen.
For me 10" seems a bit too small.

 

[Neojt]

We have a Acer one at work and i find it a little too small the 10 inch seem to me a better choice and its got a nice resolution to it. Also our Acer one dosent even come close to that 14hrs autonomy

Look real nice too

 

[Richy2k9]

hello ...

not bad, but i'm still at war with the limited possibilities with such systems. I may go a bit off topic, but i think some manufacturers may invest a bit more time in booster/addon hardware, i know we can upgrade easily, RAM or HDD, even the optical drives can be replaced, but like the voodoo did in it's time with PCI 3D accelerators, i think if some major companies like nVidia or AMD would work on PCI addons for Desktops or PCMCIA/USB addons for laptops would help alot in the gamers community.Well i think i have the right to dream LOL...

cheers!

 

[compdata]

yeah, i would like to see how close it comes to 14 hours in real life operation. Granted i probably wouldn't be doing any heavy processing on this thing, but i never seem to come close to battery life numbers unless i disable wi-fi, dim the screen, and underclock the processor

 

[megrawab]

My friend has an MSI laptop and he goes to school having it charged every time so I thought MSI is not that good. And i don't think its popular since he's the only one (I saw) with an MSI laptop. But this MSI Wind U160 looks promising because battery life is at 14hrs. And this is cheaper than other brands. What about if it's not in "eco mode" what time would the battery last?!...

 

[TuesdayExpress]

Wow, that's a nice piece of kit. I'll reserve judgment on the "14 hour battery life" until I see some proper reviews, though. I'm betting that precludes heavy wifi use. The question will be what real-world usage will drop that to. Even if it goes down to 8 hrs, that would still be pretty impressive for its price in my book.