The MSI Wind is basically an improved version of the original ASUS EeePC 900 - but at a extremely attractive price. Forget the multi-configuration HP 2133 Mini-Note PC - the MSI Wind is simply hands down, the best UMPC deal on the market right now. It's only $480 street for crying out loud.

The MSI Wind - an incredible UMPC deal

Let's first look at the design. I think the designers of the MSI Wind pretty much had a huge design challenge because at a price below $500, it is quite tough to come up with a winning design that can beat out the competition. However, the MSI Wind does all that and more. It is encased in beautiful white plastic and weighs less than 3 pounds - very much like its competitors the ASUS EeePC 900 and the Acer Aspire One.

Now the MSI Wind screen size is bigger than the competition, at 10-inches. This screen size (I think) is ideal for web surfing and word processing. Any bigger would reach 'laptop' proportions, so I think the MSI designers did a good job of researching the optimum size for the UMPC screen. The colors on the MSI Wind display are brilliant and were comfortable to view in an outdoor setting.
 

The MSI Wind has a bigger screen than the competition

The MSI Wind has a 92 percent keyboard to go with that 10-inch screen. Now a 92 percent keyboard is bigger than the ASUS 900's 84 percent keyboard. However, if you're used to full-sized keyboard typing, then you'll need to take some time to get used to the 92 percent keyboard.

On the whole, the typing experience is extremely pleasant and I think there'll be no problems for you if you purchase a unit. Be warned the mouse buttons are very, very small and they are difficult to press. That's not an issue if you use an USB mouse or a Bluetooth mouse, however.

The MSI Wind has a 80GB spinning drive which is nice and large. Do remember, however, that the competition (e.g. the HP Mini-Note) tend to offer solid-state drives (SSD drives) with no moving parts. The MSI Wind also has three USB ports, a four-in-one media card reader, an Ethernet port, VGA-out, and a 1.3-megapixel webcam are standard UMPC features. You also get Bluetooth and 802.11g Wi-Fi. I think that's an impressive feature list to pack into such a small unit, at such a small price.

Now, the Intel Atom processor is known to be power-efficient. Overall, the MSI Wind battery life is about 2.5 hours in duration, given its 24-Wh battery. This is shorter than the HP Mini-Note (which can give you a 55-Wh battery option for 4 hours of battery life). However, I feel that 2.5 hours is decent enough, given the fact that we have a spinning disk drive.

I can't think of many shortcomings in the MSI Wind. Although the battery life is a tad short, and the disk drive is not solid-state, I think the price is so attractive that it really is a hard deal to beat.

On the whole, I'd say that the MSI Wind is a fantastic UMPC package. If you're looking to enter the UMPC world, this unit is one of the best entry points into the game. At below $500, it's simply crazy. Seriously, I'd quite happily go snap up two units of this baby for myself and my wife. So do check out the MSI Wind and and a 'wind' of what UMPC computing really is.