14 DAY TRIAL // Micro-Star International's collection of entry-level mobile personal computers has just grown by one, though we cannot really say there is anything particularly revolutionary to see here.
The company has completed the preparations for the shipping of the MSI Wind U180 Cedar Trail netbook.
There was no loud announcement or any real effort to spread word far and wide about this consumer electronics device.
Of course, with how sharply the popularity of netbooks has declined recently, this is not unexpected.
There is also the matter of MSI not having put any effort into changing much of the Wind series of netbooks, design-wise that is.
Still, the performance benefits should be visible immediately, to those who know their way around product spec sheets anyway.
The new model is powered by an Intel Atom N2800 central processing unit, a dual-core chip with a clock speed of 1.86 GHz.
As expected, video capabilities are provided by an integrated graphics component, the GMA (graphics media accelerator) 3650 to be exact.
Moving on, storage space is provided by a hard disk drive with a capacity of 350 GB, while a built-in SD / MMC card reader allows for interfacing with cards from photo cameras, phones, etc.
Other specifications include an Ethernet port, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, a 0.3 megapixel webcam and, of course, the 10.1-inch LCD (liquid crystal display) whose native resolution is 1,024 x 600 pixels.
As for software, as some may have guessed, the MSI Wind W180 netbook is loaded with Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system, namely Windows 7 Starter.
Finally, the price is of 349 Euro, which more or less translates into $451. Whether or not this sum is worth it for something that soon enough won't have anything over Ultrabooks is for buyers to figure out. Everyone should just try and remember that even the first-generation Ultrabooks have gone down in price.