Just like how Acer is sticking to the “One” moniker for their netbooks, it looks like MSI is going to keep holding on to their Wind line of 10-inch screen-equipped mobile computing machines. The Taiwanese outfit has just launched what it calls the MSI Wind U100 PLUS, a new version of the old MSI Wind that comes with an Intel Atom N280 processor.
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One of the most highly-awaited netbooks from MSI’s stable of 10-inch Winds is the MSI Wind U115 Hybrid. The word Hybrid in its name comes from the fact that it will have both an SSD and a hard drive for storage (though the SSD will be used primarily for the netbook’s OS). And besides which, the MSI Wind U115 also boasts remarkable battery life. A recent test even showed us that it can run up to 14 hours — on a single charge. That’s something you don’t see on netbooks everyday. UMPCFever just got their hands on one, and as expected they’ve done a first round of unboxing shots before the real review begins. See the full set of photos via the link to their site below.

Via UMPCFever

Heard of the MSI Wind CS120? It’s a desktop counterpart to MSI’s Wind U120 netbook. As such, it sports about the same inner components, including a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N230 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB HDD, Intel GMA950 graphics, and built-in Wi-Fi. Since it’s a nettop, and it’s not necessary that it become portable, MSI included a slot-loading DVD burner, 7.1 channel audio, and a total of six USB ports instead of just the usual three. The MSI Wind CS120 nettop is now available from Amazon for less than $320 USD, and you can buy one now.

Amazon via Liliputing

Looking for free applications for your Windows-powered MSI Wind? Well, then you’ll be happy to hear about two such things courtesy of MSI itself, and they are the MSI Q-Face and Windy Zone classic game pack. According to MSI, the MSI Q-Face (currently v.1.0.0.8) lets users easily “transform your icon on instant messaging software, by putting a hat on your picture, changing into a cute puppy, or adding a frame of bubbles around the image. Q-Face brings fun and excitement to the never-changing world of instant messaging!” Meanwhile, the Windy Zone game pack is a collection of six classic games that include Star Mission, Chicken Shake, Chicken Invader and Island War. Both programs are provided for free, but MSI doesn’t say where these are available for download. I’m guessing these will be bundled with new MSI Wind netbooks at retail. If you’re a fan of simple entertainment, I’m sure you’ll find these very useful.

Via MSI

Anyone who’s owned a netbook long enough will figure out that its stock 1GB of RAM won’t go too far when it comes to performance, especially when one is forced to make friends with Vista instead of the more lightweight Windows XP. It’s a good thing that manufacturers have provisioned for extra memory slots so that upgrades can easily be done, bringing the memory up to a nice 2GB spot which makes for a very healthy computing setup.

But what’s this? Looking at the recently exposed photos of the MSI Wind U120 innards, JKOnTheRun has found that an extra RAM slot is nowhere to be found. That means no matter how delicately a user manages to open its casing, the MSI Wind U120 will be stuck with 1GB of RAM, forever.

Perhaps MSI has done this on purpose in order to put a kind of gap between its netbooks and full-blown notebooks, but don’t you think that’s a bad idea? Limiting a product’s performance when it comes out of the box is one thing, but taking away a user’s options completely is just cruel. We’ll see how well consumers receive this when they get their hands on the MSI Wind U120. Which they can, now that it’s already available for order online.

Via Portable Monkey

Thanks to Brad at Liliputing for the heads up on the new BIOS update from MSI for the Wind U100 netbook.

The update reportedly works fine if you are running Windows XP or a hackintosh Wind running OS X and fixes a few small problems such as an issue affecting the S4 sleep mode. The update is also reported to work on the Advent 4211, which is a Wind clone so it figures that it would, too.

Full changelog for version 1.0A of the BIOS:

1. Fixed auto into S4 issue.
2. DOC percentage item add warning message in setup menu.
3. Update EC file.

Only minor changes but, for owners of  an MSI Wind (or perhaps, a clone of), the BIOS update can be found and downloaded here on the official MSI website.

The Asus Eee PC has already had the Windows 7 treatment and it ran pretty well on the new Microsoft operating system, the pre-beta version anyway. Next netbook up to take the Windows 7 test was the MSI Wind and sure enough, it ran the OS well and passed the test with flying stars. Of course, feeling a little left out and sure that it could compete with it’s Atom based netbook cousins, the HP 2133 Mini-Note came along shortly after and has also been tested running Windows 7. Unfortunately the results aren’t quite so impressive for the HP netbook.

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Due to the ‘rebrandability’ of the MSI Wind netbook, DigiTimes have reported that sales have been boosted hugely and the Wind (and all of it’s rebranded brothers and sisters) is expected to have shipped around 700,000 units by the end of 2008 – more than MSI expected to sell, pushing them closer to the top ten hardware vendor list.

There are many rebranded versions of the MSI Wind in Asia and Europe, which are simply the MSI netbook with a different name attached to them. It seems that customers are clambering to buy these ‘clones’ of the Wind and with a solid build and decent specs for a netbook, it’s easy to see why.

Ironically, 700,000 sales would equal the amount of Asus Eee PC’s sold in September 08 which clearly shows that MSI still have a long way to go if they are going to compete with Asus in this market.

A member over at the msiwind.net forums named tankboyben has posted up pictures of their home designed netbook, a rebranded MSI Wind, the Advent 4211. The budding netbook designer has used wood effect sticky vinyl to cover the lid of the 4211 and to cover the trackpad too:

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Medion and Sainsbury’s have reduced the price of the Medion Akoya Mini netbook to £279 in the UK. That works out at around $480 for the MSI Wind U100 clone.

The medion netbook is only available across Europe and comes complete with a 10.2 inch screen, an Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of memory and a 80GB hard drive. It comes in at the same price as the Advent 4211 (£279 at PC World – UK) netbook and with similar specs they are both decent value netbooks however, the 4211 does come with Bluetooth built in for extra connectivity.

It’s good to see another UK retailer selling netbooks and becoming competitive in doing so, it can only be positive for UK netbook buyers and EeePC.net have also discovered that Medion have reduced the price of their Akoya Mini on their own website here in line with the reduction by Sainsbury’s which is great news all round.