MSI Wind U115 Hybrid

MSI Wind U115 Hybrid Review

The MSI Wind U115 Hybrid is one of the newer netbooks to come out from MSI. Most netbooks at the moment come with either a SSD or an HDD. The main difference being that the SSD drive is smaller, but substantially more stable and resiliant, while the HDD is very spacious, but very fragile. Now MSI have come along and given us both, hence the ‘Hybrid’ in the name of the MSI U115. We get both an 8GB SSD and a 160GB HDD.
The ‘trick’ here is to load the OS (which is Microsoft Home XP) onto the faster (reading) SSD and then have more frequently written files on the HDD as it has a faster recording speed. Overall the system should operate a lot faster and be more fluid as a result of this. Very clever MSI!

Despite fitting in two storage units, the U115’s dimensions are pretty good at 260 (W) x 180mm (D) x 36mm – 46mm (H)) and it weighs just 1.3 kg’s. The screen is a good 10 inches and is surrounded by a thick bezel. We always wonder why manufacturers do this, when they could just as well make the screen larger without changing overall dimensions.
The keyboard has decent sized keys, although the touchpad is a little small.

Internet connectivity is good with wifi and pretty quick. Bluetooth is also very easy to get going.
Now, another key point of the MSI U115 Wind is the battery. If you are conservative and not watching movies etc., it is reasonable to expect the battery to last atleast 9 hours. That’s rediculously long. If you are trying to make the battery last a little longer then you can turn off the HDD, which should squeeze some more time.

Overall the MSI Wind U115 has some great points. It has the hybrid storage system, it has the super long battery life, but, and there had to be a but, it is quite expensive. It will be going for between £450 and £500, which is rather extreme.