MSI Wind12 U210

 If you like the idea of a netbook but want something with a bigger screen and a little more oomph, consider the MSI Wind12 U210. This 12-inch ultraportable ($479, but available for $429 online) contains AMD’s Athlon Neo processor, twice as much RAM as a netbook, and a larger hard drive. You have to sacrifice some endurance for this extra pep, and notebooks equipped with Intel’s CULV processor tend to offer better performance, but overall the Wind U120 offers a decent combination of power and portability for a reasonable price.

Design

Although the U210 isn’t MSI’s first notebook to rock an ultra low voltage processor, its design is a departure from the comapny’s X Series laptops. While these systems have modern-looking island keyboards, with contrasting glossy black or white palm rests, the U210 has a more understated look: a glossy gray lid and deck with black matte, traditionally laid-out keyboard.

Aside from the glossy finish, one thing that keeps the U210 looking current, nevertheless, is that although the keys are close together, they have a flat surface and a shallow pitch, a far cry from more dated, pillow-shaped keys. Another subtle detail: the 12-inch screen’s bezel is thin—just under half an inch on either side—leaving plenty of screen real estate.

At 11.7 x 7.5 x 1.2 inches the U210 is easy to hold in one hand. While we like that the six-cell battery is flush with the system (that is to say, it isn’t jut out of the back) it does create a bump in the flat bottom surface, which makes it feel a tad bulky; still, this machine is easy to carry.

Keyboard and Touchpad

Whether island or close together, flat or pillowy, all that matters is that this keyboard is comfortable to type on. Although the keys aren’t as sturdy as the metal ones on the Toshiba mini NB205, the keyboard on the U120 still didn’t show much flex as we pounded out e-mails and Word documents, a complaint we often have with plastic keyboards. We only wish it were slightly quieter.

MSI made good use of the 11.3-inch wide keyboard deck, leaving almost no blank space at either end of the chassis. Although the right Shift key is slightly undersized compared to the left one, it’s to the left of 3 out of the four arrow keys, at least, and the rest of the keys are so large that we hardly made any typos. In the Ten Thumbs Typing Test, which we regularly use to gauge our typing accuracy on notebooks, we scored 86 words per minute, which isn’t bad at all, but not as good as the 88 words per minute we managed on our desktop keyboard.

The touchpad has a slightly textured feel, which makes it easy to use. It’s on the small side, at 2.5 x 1.8 inches, but since there are no touch features, such as a scroll strip, that’s not a tragedy. The twin touch buttons are much too narrow, but they are easy to press and don’t make much noise.