MSI U100 Plus: Should It Be Called the U100 and a Bit More?
I’m not sure if MSI is trying to pull a fast one or not with the news of their U100 Plus netbook. They’ve taken the U100, which I own, and added the “Plus” moniker, but there’s not much that’s different. Complicating matters for consumers are the similarities between the the U100 Plus and the U123-series that they announced last week. There’s just very little difference aside from one or two options like integrated 3G or a television tuner.
Let’s see what “Plus” really means over the original U100. MSI swapped out the Intel Atom N270 at 1.6GHz for the N280 at 1.66GHz, which also has a faster bus speed. There’s also two new exciting colors: rose champagne and metallic blue. And unlike the 802.11b/g support I have, the new U100 Plus adds 802.11n. I guess less really is more. 
In fairness, there isn’t much that I don’t like about the original U100 hardware so I probably shouldn’t expect major changes. The original trackpad is a bit small and the mouse bar is a single unit even though it supports both left- and right-clicking. MSI says the new models have an “ingeniously designed spacebar and touchpad” so perhaps that’s a “plus.”
i think that this is their way of admitting that the Voltron-styling of the 2nd gen Wind was a mistake. many many people preferred the old Wind & just wanted updated components.
but the questions is, did they ever update to a ElanTech or Synaptics touchpad or are they still using thats generic Senetic?
I’m still very happy with my MSI Wind U100 that I got for Christmas, from my Daughter. I upgraded the RAM to max out at 2GB, and upgraded the hard drive to 500GB. I am daul booting with Windows 7 & Leopard.
I bought the 100plus about 4 months ago and its great! It can with 2gig ram as standard and the larger cell battery which lasts about 5.5hrs. Although through usage that has dropped a little already.
The mouse and trackpad are a little small, but hey this is a netbook! I’d give this 9/10
looking to upgrade to the new version u100 plus… cant find it online for purchase yet. as of 6/14
anybody find them yet?
Can the MSI U100plus run Adobe Photoshop CS3 or CS4???
Paolo
My MSi Wind U100 which I purchased last week is now up and running with:
Photoshop CS4
Phase 1 Capture One 4
Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro
It would have accepted the whole CS4 Suite but I don’t need Dreamweaver or Fireworks on this machine.
No problems running these applications.
Mine is the MSi U100 PLUS
I should have added that I installed another 1GB Ram and that will have made some difference, but its not essential.