MSI: MSI Wind U160 gets Atom N550 upgrade

The MSI netbook doesn’t get any major changes except for the chip upgrade, which is a letdown

MSI is all set to revamp its Wind U160 netbook by upgrading its processing capabilities with the all new, intelligent Intel Atom N550 dual core chip. The original model of the Wind U160 netbook was launched by MSI in the earlier half of this year and was bundled with the outdated 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, which proved to be not much different from what other competitors in the same segment had to offer. The N550 on the other hand, has four threads accompanying the two cores, with relatively less power consumption than most of the other dual-core notebook processors. This also means there is a compromise in performance, but more than the single-core atoms. It also supports DDR3 memory module which is significantly faster than the older DDR2 version.  

Thus this change will be the new USP for the Wind U160 netbook whose earlier version failed to impress. Apart from superior processing capabilities owing to the Intel Atom N550 dual core chip, sadly enough nothing else has been changed by the developers while there is still a major scope for improvement. This stands true for the design and finish of the device which could be improved upon, like the irregular texture of the touchpad, the weird layout of the keyboard, and the placement of the 6 cell battery that stands to be pretty dismal in terms of appearance by the way it protrudes from the rear and bottom portions of the laptop.

In all, although the internalities have been taken care of, MSI needs to open its eyes to design if it really wants to carve a niche for itself in the market.