NbC: MSI Wind U115 Hybrid Review
July 27, 2009 at 9:23 am
Keyboard
We found the Wind U115 keyboard to be very comfortable in use over long periods. What you notice immediately is how solid the keyboard feels when in use. There is no flex whatsoever, even in the middle part of the keyboard. In many ways, the solidity reminded me of the Lenovo Thinkpad laptops.
MSI has used all the space of the chassis, with the keyboard running right to the edge. The width of the keyboard measured 254mm with the height at 95mm.
All of the buttons are in the right place. You get a good sized right shift key and large UK-style Enter key. MSI has also accommodated good sized arrow keys to the bottom –right of the keyboard. There are some sacrifices though, the comma, full-stop and forward slash keys are very small, which can lead to keys hit in error.
Some may find the placement of the ‘Fn’ key on the bottom left annoying. This was something I was used to, as the Lenovo Thinkpad that I own has the same placement. It certainly takes getting used to though. Apart from that, all of the other keys were well placed and of good size.
The spacebar was also of a reasonable size. The keyboard was comfortable to type on over a period of time. Whilst I still preferred the keyboard of the Samsung N120, I had no problems with the U115.
The keys measure 17mm in width and 15.5mm in height. This compares to the Samsung N120 which measured 18mm x 17mm. The spacing between the keys was 17.5mm, not as much as the 18.5mm seen in the Samsung N120.
The keyboard offers very good tactile feedback and reasonable amount of travel for each key. The keyboard was a joy to use.
The netbook uses normal keys that taper up rather than flat keys or chiclet keys, this means that the addressable area (which you can actually touch) for each key measures 12mm (W) x 13mm (H).
Touchpad
We found the touchpad to be a little small for our liking. It measured 50mm (W) x 38mm (H). To be honest, it wasn’t the height of the touchpad that was an issue, it just felt a little narrow. To give you an idea, the Samsung N120 measured 64mm in width and we even found that touchpad to be not big enough.
The touchpad featured no kind of gesture or scrolling control found in competitor’s netbooks. This felt like a missed opportunity, especially considering how much effort Asus and Samsung have put into their touchpad’s.
Despite this, the touchpad area was smooth to the touch and quite responsive, in fact a bit too responsive for our liking. Often when navigating, folders would be accessed inadvertently as it thought we were double tapping.
The mouse buttons are taken care of by a single rocker bar placed at the bottom of the touchpad. I found the buttons not too stiff to use, but it was slightly frustrating that the button wasn’t defined more clearly. I found that the left mouse button, in particular, seemed to blend too well with the palm rest that left me clicking the wrong area when in use.
August 22nd, 2009 3:58 PM
I will appreciate to know where i can shop this amazing netbook.
I am writing from Nigeria and the good battery life will make huge business sense here.
Best regards.
Chidi