Long promised but MIA, MSI’s 8.9 inch Wind finally made its debut at the Computex Expo, and it’s not exactly what I expected. Christened the Wind U90, it’s the same computer as MSI’s 10 inch offering, spec for spec. It even uses the same damn case. The only difference is the ample bezeling sloppily filling up the case on each side of the screen.
I’m disappointed. My own nagging doubt about the Wind was that 10 inches was just slightly too big to fall into my own interior definition of a subnotebook: a tiny computer about the same size as a large paperback that I don’t really have to think very much about when I’m carrying it around. The 8.9 inch is still slightly too big, because it’s really the 10 inch’s case with a shrunk screen.
That explains why MSI isn’t releasing the 8.9″ in the States: shrinking the screen but leaving everything else alone is an easy way of dropping the cost for foreign markets with weaker currency. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really meet my needs: a Wind in the form factor of an Eee 901. Too bad.
8.9-inch MSI Wind shows up at Computex [Engadget]
OK, and which important markets have a weaker currency than the States? ;-p
Wow, How dissapointing. Is it really that hard to get this subnotebook thing right? How blind and dumb can the descision makers be?