MSI Winds said to be shipping without Synaptic touchpads

If the increasing number of posts on the MSIWind.net forums are any indication, it looks like at least some MSI Winds are now shipping out with Sentilic touchpads in place of the more-functional Synaptic ones that have been standard issue until now. Among other things, the Sentilic touchpads don't allow for horizontal and vertical side scrolling (instead offering just corner clicking), and they apparently don't let you turn off the tap-to-click feature, which seems to have caused plenty of frustration among those that have received a Wind from this latest batch. For its part, MSI only seems to be offering an updated driver to anyone that contacts them complaining of problems which, not surprisingly, apparently doesn't do much to improve things.

[Thanks, Stephen P]

[Daniel @ Aug 15th 2008 3:57PM]

Oh crap. I was holding out to get one of these babies when the price came down to more 'Eee' levels. It seems that MSI are *really* cutting corners lately with these machines.

..Real shame

[Mile @ Aug 15th 2008 4:57PM]

I was just about to pull the trigger myself but admit I'm waiting to see the Dell offering. However, if Dell is going to make me wait until Christmas for a disk larger than 8GB (yes, I'll take a HDD) then I was going to get the Wind, but now it's a wait and see.

[d00b @ Aug 15th 2008 5:46PM]

This (subbing for cheaper components) is done all the time in consumer electronics. Most go unnoticed as rarely do they get dissected and scrutinized, let alone have user communities devoted to them. Yeah, it's bad press for MSI, but this is a tempest in a tea pot. Nobody would've noticed had they used the cheaper part in the first place. To wit: have you actually seen any netbook review where a reviewer even mention anything about touchpad scrolling or tap-to-click? If MSI has a sin, it's not making enough of the damn things, then jacking the price up $50 due to the shortage.

[sklingonsmith @ Aug 15th 2008 6:55PM]

Have had my crippled MSI Wind (6 cell) since August 8th. Go ahead and get one. I guarantee you'll think it is a big deal.

It took me a week of researching why my touchpad does not work properly to discover that MSI pulled a "bait and switch." These new Winds are not the same products reviewed or originally shipped to others. In fact, MSI Germany are the only ones to owe up and post the real drivers, otherwise they ship with the Synaptec ones installed but non-functional.

Most mobile internet browsing AKA "netbooking" relies on point and click navigation. This makes the touchpad vital for ease of use on the fly. The Sentelic "finger-sensing pad" is absolutly sub-standard and agrivates me to no end whenever I try to use it. Remember, the screen is only 600px tall so you will be doing a lot of scrolling when you view web pages.

So I am using a bluetooth mouse now. But, who wants to carry around a bluetooth mouse just to jump on the internet to check mail and do a little browsing? Carrying around a mouse and needing a desk/tabletop negates the portability of the form factor.

I DO NOT RECOMMEND THE WIND. Send MSI the message that this deceit is not acceptable.

Thanks engadget for getting the word out.

[Homeboy @ Aug 15th 2008 4:43PM]

What a blow! I hate when manufacturers deceive you like that. You buy something assuming it's like any ordinary product but when you notice that some tiny but highly important details aren't like you expected.

[sockatume @ Aug 15th 2008 4:03PM]

A touchpad without scrolling is a waste of time, surely.

[bartoron @ Aug 15th 2008 4:25PM]

I disabled scrolling on my touchpad, because I accidentally scroll when I don't want to.

Tap-to-click can go to hell.

[HyperHacker @ Aug 15th 2008 10:18PM]

Agreed, tap-to-click is so annoying. I don't want to be clicking at random every time I move the cursor/exhale too hard, thanks.

[Hung @ Aug 16th 2008 5:29PM]

Don't call me shirley, guy.

[Dan Halen @ Aug 15th 2008 4:18PM]

All that good press, and they found a way to fuck it up for what's probably a 50 cent reduction in parts.

Way to go, MSI.

Although I can't say I have had faith in this thing. I have an MSI video card and have dealt with their tech support. It's a damn mess.

[totoro @ Aug 15th 2008 4:19PM]

Can't turn off the tap to click? That can't be right.

[Mike Cerm @ Aug 15th 2008 4:36PM]

Sure, it would be nice for the drivers to give you the option, but I really don't know why anyone would turn it off. The first thing I do whenever I get my hands on a Mac laptop is turn that feature on.

[Marxman @ Aug 15th 2008 4:56PM]

I like this feature, too but it's just too sensitive. You accidently perform a mouse click even when you don't intend to which can be pretty annoying, especially if you're using the Windows Explorer and move something you didn't want to move. I would rather have an option to adjust the sensibility.

[totoro @ Aug 15th 2008 5:01PM]

You have it enabled on yours, I have it disabled on my MacBook. That sounds like a pretty important selectable user choice to me :p

[Marxman @ Aug 15th 2008 4:25PM]

Thanks for putting this up, Engadget. It's a really serious matter for a lot of Wind users so hopefully, MSI will react now. This seems to affect all Winds (got mine from the first batch, July 31rd here in Germany) sold so far, including some clones like the Advent 4211 in UK. However, it doesn't affect the Medion-branded Akoya Mini which was sold a month before the Wind launched here in Germany and has Synaptics touch pads. They're still selling them through their online shop but I dunno if Medion/MSI also changed those pads to Sentelics.

There is a big, 22 pages long discussion thread going on in the biggest German MSI Wind community here: http://forum.msi-wind.de/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=961 The German site of MSI is also the only one which got the driver up on their site to download thanks to a lot of messages from the German MSI Wind community. You can grab it here if you want but like Engadget already stated it doesn't offer you a lot more than the Synaptics did: http://www.msi-technology.de/index.php?func=downloaddetail&type=driver&maincat_no=135&prod_no=1474

MSI Germany told some who got in contact with them that they're in talks with Taiwan now to offer a solution. Whatever this means. ;) Technically I think, the Sentelic touchpads are able to offer the possibilities a Synaptics does but the drivers are some 4 months old, a lot of the driver files are also going back to late 2007. I'm not happy with this crippled touchpad and if MSI is not able to correct the issue with releasing either a new, proper driver or replace my Wind with a new one with a Synaptic touchpad I have to give this otherwise great, little machine back. MSI is not the only one these days which offers up a decent netbook. The Lenovo seems to be interesting for example.

[JR @ Aug 15th 2008 4:24PM]

According to the people on the forums it sounds like the touchpads have an oversensitive tap-to-scroll function instead of sliding... That's a pretty serious change in functionality to do without warning, I think. Apparently MSI told one customer the switch is permanent- no more Winds with Synaptic pads.

[thetimeof12 @ Aug 15th 2008 4:42PM]

Im on my wind now

I got a first batch one though so I have a good touchpad

[Marxman @ Aug 15th 2008 4:52PM]

So, you have a Synaptics touchpad? I doubt it. Don't get me wrong, a lot of people think they have a Synaptics one because the Synaptics driver is installed when a Sentelic is built in. MSI apparently included the Synaptics drivers in their XP OS and didn't change it, even now when Sentelic pads are built in. Please check this thread (http://forums.msiwind.net/post27889.html#p27889) and report back, would be appreciated.

[PIRATE @ Aug 15th 2008 5:23PM]

http://i34.tinypic.com/2ihsbrt.png

White 3cell wind, bought in Poland a month ago.

[chaosrain @ Aug 15th 2008 4:43PM]

Nuts. It was starting to look like MSI was going to set the bar for Netbooks. Now it looks like Sony's fears may come true. The netbook craze will turn from a high-function, portability race, to a race to the bottom. This is much like the issue recently discussed with regard to the iPhone's use of relatively untested chipsets just to slightly increase margins on the product.

When will companies learn that cost cutting is an understandable goal, but there are limits? I suppose we have to wait for "market forces" to kick in (i.e. people stop adopting iPhone 3G phones until the chipset issue is resolved, sales of the MSI Wind fade until a real touchpad is incorporated into the product).

The sad thing is that these days many consumer electronics purchasers (not all, Engadget readers) do not know the difference between chipset A and chipset B or touchpad A and touchpad B. The net result is that they do not curttail their purchases of crippled or "weakened" devices and the manufacturer never gets the messages and the shenanigans continue.

For a while Apple seemed to be in the "they'll pay more so we can charge more so we don't have to go with generic, inferior components" mindset. That's seeming to change. Now they're cashing in on the cachet of their goods and racing with everyone to the bottom.

[BOGRASH @ Aug 15th 2008 4:48PM]

msi are a giant bowl of shit

[Samo @ Aug 15th 2008 5:17PM]

I'm writing this on my Advent 4211 now, got it when it first came to the UK.

It appears I've been lucky because I've got scrolling and also tap to click... how can we tell?

It does seem like it is a sucky thing to do, MSI

[Marxman @ Aug 15th 2008 5:43PM]

Have a look at this thread and report back, please: http://forums.msiwind.net/post27889.html#p27889

[Catdaemon @ Aug 15th 2008 6:49PM]

My advent 4211 100% has the good trackpad.
Looks like early adoption was a good idea.. for a change.

[Rick @ Aug 15th 2008 5:25PM]

Doesn't matter anyway, you can't buy a 6-cell MSI Wind in the USA. No one has them in stock. They don't exist even as "out of stock" on the MSI order web page.

[mickeyMoo @ Aug 15th 2008 9:20PM]

I got mine from Amazon last week - I was on the "e-mail me when this is in stock" list - they never e-mailed, but when ZipZoomFly sent me the in stock notice, I happened to check Amazon and they were accepting pre-order. They ended up shipping it 5 days later. Seems like MSI is dropping pallets at various vendors in really irregular allotments. They're eventually supposed to be available through Costco as well. I just ordered the barebones box as well (no supply issues with that, hopefully it'll hackintosh just as easily)

[MrBoB @ Aug 15th 2008 5:29PM]

What a disappointment, I had planned to buy two of these, one for myself, and one for the wife. But tap to click drives me absolutely batshit crazy, If you can't turn off tap to click, then I can't buy a wind.

It's a shame really.

[username @ Aug 15th 2008 6:28PM]

Thanks Engadget! It's nice to have a little validation :-)

I've posted in the Wind forums a couple times, and it's been annoying trying to defend how much I hate "tap-to-click" to people who like the feature. Yes, it is a very big deal to me. I would instantly have written this machine off if I'd known there was no way to disable "tapping" and if I can't get a decent price for it on Ebay it's just going to gather dust.

I did some serious research before I bought this computer, and read all the hardware reviews I could find. That amounted to very little since I've wound up with a different product than MSI sent reviewers.

[Minilap @ Aug 15th 2008 6:30PM]

First they don't ship with SSD and now this.

[Tired_ @ Aug 15th 2008 6:31PM]

This is a step in the right direction...now can we just get rid of the touchpad altogether?

[sinai @ Aug 15th 2008 6:43PM]

just bit the bullet and bought the 1000H. With that price drop, and now THIS, seemed like a good idea.

[Ry @ Aug 15th 2008 10:07PM]

Same here. This just tipped my scales towards the Eee 1000h and I ordered it this afternoon...
Plus the wait for the Wind was getting ridiculous.

[chefgon_ign @ Aug 15th 2008 8:27PM]

I'm really hoping that Dell's netbook is solid. I don't generally like Dell stuff, but at least you know what you are getting when you order something from them. If their netbook has good specs and a comparible price, then Dell wins on reliability.

[James @ Aug 16th 2008 12:17AM]

My MSI Wind has been solid. I got mine around the week of July 15th and have had no real issues with the hardware.

--James

[Shane @ Aug 16th 2008 3:38AM]

This is disappointing. I was getting a little antsy waiting for the Dell netbooks to be released, but I surely won't buy a Wind with this craptastic touchpad. I guess I'll have to wait and see how the Dells compare to the Wind and what happens with this issue before I buy.

[John @ Aug 16th 2008 11:22PM]

I was a bit disappointed to discover my Wind has the Sentelic "finger-sensing pad" but it really has been pretty easy to get used to. Horizontal scrolling doesn't currently work under Windows or OS X.

By the way, the correct spelling for the manufacturer is Sentelic, not Sentilic.

For what it's worth, the Sentelic website is right where you'd expect it to be: http://www.sentelic.com/

[Philip @ Aug 17th 2008 6:17AM]

I bought the Advent 4211 (UK badged MSI Wind), but got so annoyed with the Sentelic touchpad that I returned it for a refund.

So now I've got money in my pocket which may go to Asus for a 1000h, or to Gigabyte for a M912, or Dell or Lenovo for their new offerings.

By cutting corners a bit too far, MSI has lost me as a customer. I could put up with the small battery (I went out and bought a "Universal Laptop Battery" from Maplin) and the lack of any form of carrying case (again, I went out and bought an aftermarket one), but when they downgrade the internal components to the point where functionality is impaired, that's going too far.

Philip (a former MSI customer)

[Daffyd K Jones @ Aug 17th 2008 11:39AM]

I also returned my MSI Wind due to the defective touchpad. A netbook like this is unusable without basic features like the ability to scroll, as the smaller height of the screen means that vertical scrolling is essential to view most web pages and documents. MSI customer service have been particularly unhelpful. It was a good laptop otherwise, but I'm afraid I won't be buying another MSI product in the future.

[34Ford @ Aug 18th 2008 6:19AM]

This is the reason I ordered a Eee PC 1000h Saturday from Zipzoomfly for $519