MSI Megabook S270 - Lightweight, Slim, Elegant, and Stylish

[Steve]

You've got to be a bit skeptical when yet another notebook is marketed as stylish, elegant, etc. However, this one is actually pretty sexy. In glossy white or black and with a 12.1" screen it's sure to attract attention from friends and colleagues. Performance and functionality should be good too, with an Athlon 64 under the hood and a DVD combo drive.

The basic requirement of an MSI product is a combination of beauty and functionality. The MEGA BOOK S270 aims to provide the best cooling system while retaining its delicate exterior. It comes with a dazzling ebony black flat screen that yields enhanced contrast, brightness performance and richness of color for outstanding image detail.

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Click for bigger picture

Read more about this new notebook over at the MSI website. Of course, do let us know what you think of it.

[Jonny M]

Another generic laptop I'm afraid. Nothing to see here, move along.

[Steve]

Oh come on, the white one looks nice, I'd go with my 7260:

[Steve]

If you want an example of a properly gorgeous 12-inch widescreen notebook check out the Samsung Q30, it's about half the thickness and a quarter the weight of that thing.

Silver and red though?

[Steve]

I googled for it [Samsung Q30] and saw those colours in all the images...

[Jonny M]

Dell Latitude X1 then (Samsung Q30 by a different name)

[Dr. X]

Where the Dell and Samsung notebooks mentioned have 1.1Gig Centrino's and this MSI chap has an A64...?

[Jonny M]

I'd rather have a Centrino

[Stoo]

I'd rather have an iBook

[Jonny M]

And I'd rather have a Powerbook, but out of the choice of Athlon64 or Pentium-M, I'd go with the Intel every time.

[Platinum]

I'd rather have an iBook

Overpriced tat, Sony T2XP for me

[Zak33]

So how much were you guys paid to big up this unremarkable cloned brick?

caboosemoose.....hiya dude...

Welcome to Hexus fella. If I'm not muuuuch mistaken you are the Laird of Jeremy Land....a kind of Format of PC type things.

Now listen to me you big chunk of godly-ness...there is nowt wrong with this particular notepad stylee machine. Its not quite as small as some others, as you rightly point out, but for a lot of people its ideal. Besides...as Kez points out, it looks rather lovely.

However.....while I take on board your comparisons I do feel like I have to give you a small SLAPPETTE with a rather large wet lettuce leaf.

Because I think you just accused us of taking money for reviews and if THAT'S your accusation, we might have to have a small word in your shell-like.

Nahh.....I want a big word dude. A hoooj one.

Your little, rather naughty "outburst" caused some of our regular Hexus readers to email/pm me and mention the fact that you were talking "loads of hogwash" becuase the fact is they trust us to do what we do best. Say it like it is. Hexus styleeeee

I very rarely get punters PM me about trolling, and I thought it would be some 11 year old with no brain. But it's not. It's a well respected Journo type fella. I was GUTTED Thought you'd be a good guy.

We get advertisers to pay for adverts, and then our Hexus peeps go buy stuff from them.But for reviews: If its bad, it gets reviewed properly to death, and no bugger buys it. Hell, we've offended enough people in the past. If you frequented Hexus more (which I hope you do now) you'd see it. And the REASON we review in such a hard assed way is because we are splendidly good at telling people what's good, whats bad and whats cack. I have never worked ANYWHERE so impartial. If its a crap heap, we take great pains to find whats crap and point it out. But lots of things have good points too. And that lap top is not a bad product. It's pretty smart actually. I'd like one.

You do strike a fair comparison in your next post. So I know at least you can be informed and smart. Hel, you must be, becuase I've heard of you!!! And I'm just Zak.

Sadly....frankly....you've made me a tad miffed by even thinking that Hexus aint impartial. It is. We are.

You gonna say sorry now? Please

Thanks.

Zak....Mod and Admin and Defender of the Faith.
(Stood in a long black robe, with a funny looking evil metal stick badly hidden behind his back, with rusty barbed wire wrapped round the end and forum-troll skin dangling from it)

[nichomach]

Personally, having looked it over, I like the specs, if not the cosmetics (not that they're objectionable, just bland - I had the same problem with the SavRow Razor reviewed a while back). Under 2kg, an A64 up to 3000, 3.5 hours battery life? That's a fair amount of power, in a very luggable form factor. Now the Latitude X1/Samsung Q30 is a lovely bit of kit, but a quarter the weight? Give over - it weighs in at about 1.14 kg. Significantly lighter, sure, but a 1.1GHz ULV Pentium M is no way going to give similar performance to an A64 3000. Add in the ubiquitous 802.11g and a 1280x800 screen AND a DVD burner, and I actually think it's pretty competitive.

edit: The thought also occurs that the X1/Q30 have their optical drives in an external module, which you'd have to lug around if you wanted to use it, and that does fairly nasty things to size/weight/portability considerations.

[Stoo]

Overpriced tat, Sony T2XP for me

Huh?

£700 for the 12" one, it's a teeny tiny white miracle (okay, you need a bit more ram in it but that's next to nothing at crucial anyway..)

[Zak33]

shame he's not returned. He might have been a valuable blokey to have around

[nichomach]

Actually, I think the point is that you were way off base in your assessment of the machine and in the comparisons you elected to draw. You also DID elect to call into question the integrity of Hexus' review process, and on the basis of a flawed assessment. BTW, I have NO official involvement with Hexus, MSI, Majestic 12 or any other grand conspiracy . Shame really, I could do with a hobby... If I were working for Hexus, and someone accused me of being "paid to big up" a product in a review, I might be a tad tetchy in my response as well.