Slower boot time
Tends to get hot soon
The MSI U210 packs in a punch as far as the looks go. The black glossy front panel opens up to show a glossy grey body with flat-topped buttons on the keypad. This netbook is for multimedia freaks. Boasting a 12.1-inch screen with a 16:9 aspect ratio and a HD display with a maximum resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels, the MSI U210 takes movie watching experience on the netbooks to another level.
This is one of the few non-Intel based nebooks that we received. It runs on an AMD Athlon Neo X2 processor at 1.66 GHz. The netbook has 1 GB of RAM and an ATI Radeon HD3200 graphics solution. As a result of this, it gives a great performance as compared to other netbooks when dealing with high-end graphical requirements. It comes pre-loaded with Windows 7 Premium edition. It also has a SIM card slot beneath the battery slot for integrated 3G. The battery is a 4400mAh which gives round about four hours of battery life.
The key-pad has large keys which are well spaced. The mouse trackpad has a matt finish unlike the glossy surrounding body. Two mouse click buttons are slightly raised thus making clicking easier as compared to the single flat-topped button on the Champion Champ Slim netbook. There are eight status LEDs for power, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth among other things while a single power button is located on the upper right hand corner of the body. It has an air vent on the left hand side alongwith a USB port, an HDMI, VGA port and power input. On the right hand side there are two USB ports, two audio ports alongwith an SD card slot and a LAN port.
The MSI U210 has a turbo battery mode which reduces the brightness and allows you to use the battery for a longer period of time. There are preset brightness modes for gaming, movie viewing, presentation and turbo mode which is an interesting value addition.
During the real world tests we found that this netbook has decent data transfer speeds. The VOB to DivX conversion took under two minutes, thus reiterating the fact that this netbook is meant for enhanced multimedia experience.
At Rs. 26,999 the MSI U210 is decently priced considering its rich multimedia experience and the turbo battery mode. The SIM card slot also adds to its versatility. It wins our Best Performer award on account of its great overall performance; and especially its graphical prowess.