MSI Megabook S250 - Mini Review

[coalfield]

At the moment I think morgan computers have one on display in their Tottenham court road store in london:

http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/

I believe they are also planning to have them on display in some of their other stores.

As for other stores we do not currently sell in PC World or similar big retail outlets. Other retailers for MSI notebook are currently growing, but as they are a new product for the company retailers stocking are grrowing all the time.

[ikonia]

thanks for the reply, I noticed them on sale in morgan at your first mentioned. I only used PC world as an example of a store thats in every city or at least close.

I'm very tempted by one of the 260's with a little more ram. I like the idea of the light and small size, but at a resonable resolution on the small screen makes it usable.

I'd be dubious about buying one on the web without seeing one working to see how usable the screen is, and just try the keyboard etc.

I'm not really going to warrent a trip up to london to try one out as that will increase the price of the laptop.

I'll have to hope I have a client visit in london soon and check it out that way.

[ikonia]

more searching.

An alternate view - the first negative one I've found, but boy is it negative
http://www.computerbuyer.co.uk/buyer...book-s260.html

[Nick]

lol, yeah, that's right, moose... We love MSI so much that we critique the loan equipment they very kindly lend us.

I think Rys' mini-review is fair, the battery life on the four-cell ones we have is pretty short, the keyboards have a weird soft area and kez size/position takes a little getting used to. Other than that though, they seem to be pretty good, small, lightweight and fairly powerful laptops... Oh, and they look good too.

[ikonia]

I thought the hexus review was quite balanced and pretty much echoed most of the other reviews I've read.

I'm keen to try one myself

[Rys]

Hmmm, Hexus really loves those MSI notebooks eh

Had a play with one yourself yet? As I wrote, they're not perfect, but for Taipei, it's just about spot on. Grab one for yourself for a bit and see if you think my eval was wrong. I'll bow to your superior journalistic skills.

Nice to see I got some extra goodies in my sample. PD is really not enjoying the 256MiB in his version. Cheers John!

[Nick]

You got there alright then, Rys?

Whats the weather like? Decent connection at the hotel? Room service on the HEXUS tab? What's the press area like?

And..

What goodies did you get?? All I got was a voucher giving me a year of free body massages and an access code to a Swiss bank account...

[walibe]

Does anyone know if the processor can up upgraded on this? I have some far faster mobile CPUs just sitting here that'd I'd love to put in one.

[kyrie]

Hi!
Here you can assemble any kind of MSI S series notebook.
I think the prices are good; only I can't select the chassis color.
http://www.pcw.fr/
Bye

[walibe]

I'm presuming the processor can be changed easily then and can be sold similar to the AOpen laptop barebones range one of which this systems remarkably like.

[kyrie]

on http://www.pcw.fr/ there are tw types of battery, 4 and 8 celles; the forma fatctor of the 8 cells is the same of the standard 4 cells or is bigger? Anyone knows this?
Is sensate a configuration like this (€ 1.381,15):

AMD TURION 64 ML-37 2Ghz 1Mo cache 25W
HDD 60Go 7200rpm
DVD+-RW 8x DL & CDR/W & DVD reader 16/24x
512Mb Sodimm DDR PC3200 400MHz/FSB800
Wifi + Bluetooth 802.11b+g 54Mb
Battery 8 Celles

Or is more expansive in terms of battery life (7200 rpm, Turion ML37)?
What is better, 1 module DDR 512 or two 256?
Thanks all.

[walibe]

Does anywhere in the UK sell those AMD Turion models? The 270 or whatever?

[walibe]

Whens the s270 gonna be available guys before I run my pennies off for a Sony 13.3 model?

[ikonia]

the french link is quite good and has a pretty good price tag on them.

However I guess they would come with a french keyboard layout which would just drive me nuts.

Still looking for a place to try one of these babies, anyone local to me got one of these laptops (any model really)

[John - MSI]

Does anywhere in the UK sell those AMD Turion models? The 270 or whatever?

Whens the s270 gonna be available guys before I run my pennies off for a Sony 13.3 model?

At the moment the S270 is not yet available in the UK. We are expecting the model to be available in approx 1 month time. I will put a post in when we have it available. Both the S250 and S260 models (intel) are the only MSI 12.1" widescreen notebooks currently for sale in the UK

[directhex]

okay, i've gotta ask it

how linux-happy are they? one thing that has me rather pleased with this dell is it's 100% linuxable - a base ubuntu 5.04 install covered everything from suspend to 3d acceleration