MSI Megabook S250 - Mini Review

[Steve]

To sum up this peek at MSI's mini marvel, it's the absolute perfect size for my uses, outshining the horrible DTR models I've reviewed for HEXUS by a massive margin. Plenty of disk space and rock solid WiFi, along with great basic ergonomics have me putting the screen's reflective nature to one side while I enjoy the size and lack of weight of almost a perfect notebook for my needs. I'm a journo with no need for on-the-go 3D performance. I just write, so all I need is something tiny with plenty of pixels, good wireless and a keyboard I'm happy to tap on for hours on end.

http://www.hexus.net/content/reviews...lld19JRD0xMTkz

[Nick]

I must be special, mine's silver!

Rys is right about the keyboard though, there seems to be a soft area around the r,t,y keys in particular, meaning I'm often typing 'he' instead of 'the' and 'ou' instead of 'you'... the spell checker picks up the latter but not the former, meaning you have to proof read everything you've written to make sure the 't' keypress has registered.

[scottyman]

looks very cute - but i'd still prefer a decent graphics chip to play hl2 on the plane to NZ!
my concern is with the battery life - what's the comparison like between the turion (mobile 64) and the centrino chips? going down to a 12 inch screen should provide major optimisations in this area (my g/f's tiny little ibm managed just over 5 hours on the flight back from SA - and a 35 page business plan!) based on the same size screen, and the 1.7 centrino p4 m. that's what I'm talking about - but I'm simply not prepared to pay north of 2 grand for it.

[ikonia]

this looks a really nice bit of kit.

I've never heard of the turion before (out of touch). I'd be interested in knowing more about how the pentium m and the turion compare.

Back on the topic of the note book.

such a small screen with a respectable resolution seems a good use of space, the weight looks very impressive, it actually looks quite stylish if not a little to powerbook ish.

I'd be interested in seeing more on the costs on these, as this could be a really viable new notebook for me.

[Nick]

I have to admit, I was a tad uncertain on the size when I first saw mine, but having used it to lay up the Nintendo Revolution news on today's front page, its a doddle to use. The widescreen comes in handy too, especially with the amount of tabs I usually have open on Mozilla when I'm doing the news... and the number of progs I have running on the start bar means that a widescreen comes in very handy.

I'm deliberately running mine down on power now, constantly looping a DVD so the battery conditions up a bit. Out of the box it only seems to last just over an hour and that's with the usual power save options enabled in windows...

[ikonia]

that battery life is alarming, even unconditioned.

I hope I'm not to rude in asking how much you paid. I'm seriously tempted to replace my trusty thinkpad

[Rys]

Apparently our samples have 4-cell batteries that give the units about 1.5-2 hours of battery life, with the 8-cell battery giving the rough 4 hour life that you'd expect.

It appears that retail samples have the 8-cell battery, although I'll try and confirm that properly before I fly to Taiwan this evening.

[scottyman]

Tanks Rys - would be interested to see how it performs

[wasabi]

I hope this isn't the start of a 'Register' style endless succession of articles about being cool sitting in Starbucks with overpriced portable devices.

[Nick]

Well, funnny you should say that but I'm sitting here eating a cinnamon danish while supping my double mocha latte grande (with hazlenut syrup) whilst just about to spout forth on the coolness of ad-hoc wifi connectivity allowing me and Rys to swap data across a crowded 2 foot diameter table...

Well, I was going to write all that until Rys threw his swizzle stick at me cos I whooped his ass in Worms again, but that damp stick has shorted my lappy out...

Nevermind, I have my PDA handy, so I'm writing this on that instead and looking waaaaay cooler than Rys with his clunky laptop thingy...

I have to go now, here's the guy delivering my Ipod coloured light attachment... so everyone in SB can see...

[scottyman]

rofl... besides - we all know that it's overpriced! unless you put in 3 extra shots, then it just becomes fun!
it's gotta be cafe nero, where the one in wandsworth didn't have their passphrase system working!

[Rys]

The battery shipped is actually 4-cell, with the 8-cell an optional extra. With PD stitching me up by stealing the S270, his sample then arrived with only 256MiB of memory

Devine retribution. Not sure how much the 8-cell is to buy, but I'm hoping not too much. Sorely tempted to grab one of these things nearer Christmas, but I'll need the 8-cell. ~2 hours on the 4-cell is a real let-down.

[directhex]

looks fairly nice

i got my shiny new dell laptop from work on tuesday, which seems to have a similar spec (and weight) for a similar price, but the dvd drive is external. then again, i get 4 hours' life from it when in minimal cpufreqd speed (800mhz on this 1.6 chip)

[John - MSI]

To clear any confusion... The S250 notebook Rys has is a modified version of the S250 avaiable for sale from MSI in the UK. The specs of the product we are currently selling is:

Product Specifications

Processor - 1.3GHz Intel Celeron M 350
RAM - 256 MB
Hard Disk - 40 GB
Optical Drive - Combi CDRW & DVD-ROM
Graphics - UMA
Screen Size - 12.1 inches
Native Resolution - 1280 x 800
Ports - 1 x D-Sub, 3 x USB2.0, 1 x IEEE1394, 1 x Mic in, 1 x Headphone out, 1 x RJ45, 1 x RJ11
Battery - Li-ion
Operating System - Microsoft Windows XP Home
Width - 303 mm
Depth - 225 mm
Height - 28 mm
Weight - 1.8 kg
Features - 3 in 1 Card Reader (MMC, SD, MS)

The notebook is based on the SiS 661 chipset hence is at a very good value, but is obviously not "Centrino". The S260 (next model up) is Centrino and uses Intel® 915GM + ICH6-M chipset! Cost is higher, but with Centrino capability and Pentium-M the performance & battery life are better.

The exact spec Rys currently has is not avaiable in the UK currently, but the slight upgrades should be appriciated when working in Taipei

There are a number of places stocking the S250 currently. I know Scan have recently taken on the model and will have it on their website soon.... Morgan and CCL both currently have is for sale.

[Nick]

Sorry, the wifi in SBs dropped out, so I GPRSd on my PDA... did I miss anything?

[ikonia]

I think I'm going to go for the S260 looks pretty good and just what I'm looking for as the thinkpad is getting a little tired and hefty.

I wish there was a main street dealer selling these so I could go and test run the screen to see how usable it would be for me. I don't know if the MSI guys could reommend a shop (such as PC world) that I could see it in action.