Filed under: Laptops

Laptop Mag would evidently like to make two things quite clear: if you pick up MSI’s Wind U90, you better love SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 and be totally cool with the sub-2 hour battery life. For those of you still with us, you can probably guess that the 10-inch Wind didn’t do so hot during its review, with those two rubs really overshadowing the solid design, great keyboard and delicious price tag ($350). For whatever reason, MSI figured it’d be peachy to toss a 3-cell battery in there and let mobile users just deal with the 1 hour, 39 minute lifespan; obviously, that’s an issue serious road warriors can’t ignore. If you’re willing to pony up for an extra battery and install your own OS (if SUSE isn’t your cup of tea), the Wind U90 might not make for a bad companion, but as-is, you better do some serious soul searching before pulling the trigger.

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Filed under: Laptops

You’ve seen the Wind U90 MSI has wanted you to see — you know, that version it brings to trade shows, possibly showered and cleaned up by professionals beforehand. But the U90 you’re about to see in the video past the break is the real deal. Ordered from Canada and shipped to the US of A, this 8.9-inch Wind looks pretty much exactly like its larger-screened sibling save for a bigger bezel and a few French symbols on the keyboard. But why listen to us spell it out when you can just click through and mash play?

Continue reading MSI’s Wind U90 gets unboxed on video

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Filed under: Laptops

While MSI’s 8.9-inch Wind U90 first made an appearance in June at Computex, it took MSI this long to flesh out all details — which is actually a relief, given the ridiculous quantity of Eee PC SKUs ASUS has managed to pump out in the meantime. We just got to handle the new laptop, and we think MSI might have a winner here. The laptop is shipping with SUSE Linux exclusively to start, with an XP version in the works, and boots quite rapidly to the full OS. SUSE has never looked better, and we think these two might be quite the pair. MSI has kept the full keyboard of the 10-inch Wind, and merely bumped up the bezel while cutting the price; all the other specs are the same. MSI is planning on shipping this at the end of September or beginning of October for 339 Euro (no word on a US release), and is also working on a six cell battery to fix the paltry 2 hours of battery the Wind currently gets from the three cell.

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Filed under: Laptops

Well, that took long enough, now didn’t it? We’ve been hearing about an 8.9-inch MSI Wind for months now, but it has just now popped up on the outfit’s website. The Wind U90 will pack an Atom N270 processor, built-in 1.3-megapixel webcam, stereo speakers, microphone, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth, 512MB or 1GB of DDR2 RAM, a 1,024 x 600 resolution panel, 80GB hard drive and a 4-in-1 card reader. Additionally, you’ll find an Ethernet port, three USB 2.0 sockets, VGA out, a 3-cell battery (optional 6-cell available upon request) and a weight of 2.2-pounds. Your guess is as good as ours when it pricing / availability, but hey, we’re just thrilled to know this thing is destined to be more than a trade show crasher.

[Thanks, Peter]

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