While a ton of news has come out over the last few weeks about the MSI Wind laptop, now that Intel has officially introduced the new Atom CPU used by the device, all the non-disclosure agreements have been lifted, which means we’re starting to see complete reviews of the device that actually look at things like performance. Shocking, no?
More importantly, the system boots up in a relatively zippy 34 seconds and handles multitasking well.
Laptop Mag also clarifies exactly how that mysterious Turbo button works. While I had originally reported that it underclocks the computer rather than overclocking it, the truth is it does both. When you’re running on AC power, hitting Fn+F10 will boost your CPU speed by 20%, letting you run at 1.9GHz. When on battery power, the same button combo drops your clock speed to about 1.1GHz to let you save some battery life. Overall, with a 6 cell battery, Laptop reports that they got about 4 hours with the WiFi turned on, and 5.5 with the WiFi off.
Now for the bad news. MSI says that upgrading the RAM violates the warranty. Never mind the fact that MSI includes an empty slot for easily upgrading the RAM without removing your current stick. Of course, Asus made the same assertion when it first launched the Eee PC 701, but later retracted that policy.
Update: You can also find more photos than you can shake a stick at, plus benchmarks, at VR-Zone.
s/Acer/MSI
at least for the last paragraph. 🙂
ciao!
Whoops! Thanks for catching that. Can you tell I’ve had a lot on my mind
this morning?