MSI's 8.9-inch Wind U90 in the flesh, Linux version shipping for 339 Euro

While MSI's 8.9-inch Wind U90 first made an appearance in June at Computex, it took MSI this long to flesh out all details -- which is actually a relief, given the ridiculous quantity of Eee PC SKUs ASUS has managed to pump out in the meantime. We just got to handle the new laptop, and we think MSI might have a winner here. The laptop is shipping with SUSE Linux exclusively to start, with an XP version in the works, and boots quite rapidly to the full OS. SUSE has never looked better, and we think these two might be quite the pair. MSI has kept the full keyboard of the 10-inch Wind, and merely bumped up the bezel while cutting the price; all the other specs are the same. MSI is planning on shipping this at the end of September or beginning of October for 339 Euro (no word on a US release), and is also working on a six cell battery to fix the paltry 2 hours of battery the Wind currently gets from the three cell.

Gallery: MSI's 8.9-inch Wind U90 in the flesh, Linux version shipping for 339 Euro

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[Bubba @ Aug 31st 2008 7:42AM]

First Loser, thank you thank you.

[rita hainsworth @ Aug 31st 2008 7:55AM]

thankyou....i'll take that

[Phil @ Aug 31st 2008 8:08AM]

Why bother with a smaller screen in a 10" chasis? Waste of time if you ask me.....

[RD. @ Aug 31st 2008 10:06AM]

Looks like it came from the '82.


The AAO is still number one in the categorie until Lenovo and Dell decide to show up to the party.

[Dopefish @ Aug 31st 2008 1:06PM]

Yet when HP did it, everyone was raving about it...

The advantages are presumably its going to cost less and the keyboard is bigger and therefore easier to type with..

[nasserb @ Aug 31st 2008 1:39PM]

Thats Right..............Useless...!!!

[Silvio @ Aug 31st 2008 1:57PM]

@Phil: agree

[hazard @ Aug 31st 2008 11:46PM]

In Oz the U90 is around 15% cheaper ~$100 .. also marginally lighter and better battery life for the same resolution. Identical to the U100 apart from the screen size.

[sockatume @ Sep 2nd 2008 3:15PM]

It means they don't have to make much extra investment to produce a smaller, cheaper model. Shrinking the whole machine (which may come down the line) would've required a whole new case, motherboard, keyboard etc. etc. and dramatically increased costs compared to the derivative product.

[Pumping_Iron @ Aug 31st 2008 8:08AM]

c'mon msi...why not just drop the price on the 10 inch one ????
Suse sounds sweet on it !

[Koolshen @ Aug 31st 2008 8:14AM]

At Germany's biggest warehouse company the Wind U90 is already available for immediate delivery ("sofort lieferbar"):
http://www.karstadt.de/produktAnzeigen.do?pfad=2974+880505+873827&pid=3274798

[MattyG @ Aug 31st 2008 8:17AM]

sorry but why SUSE? haven't they pretty much done a deal with Microsoft?

good way to get away from Microsoft, move to a linux distro which is endorsed by them

[ben @ Aug 31st 2008 8:30AM]

I hear good things about the MSI Wind...this seems like the model to beat though.

I'm glad they're putting linux on these...that said, if I buy one of these netbooks Ubuntu's going on it faster than you can list all of the different EeePC models

[Mikey66 @ Aug 31st 2008 8:34AM]

If theres one thing I hate it's when people refer to prices in € as 'Euro'. 339 Euro, no..try 339 Euros

[aard @ Aug 31st 2008 8:55AM]

Well, no. In europe Euro is used as the plural form.
see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_issues_concerning_the_euro

[Brian @ Aug 31st 2008 11:39AM]

@ aard Well actually; if you read the entry "The European Commission Directorate-General for Translation's English Style Guide (A handbook for authors and translators in the European Commission) states: "Like ‘pound’, ‘dollar’ or any other currency name in English, the word ‘euro’ is written in lower case with no initial capital and, where appropriate, takes the plural ‘s’ (as does ‘cent’): This book costs ten euros and fifty cents."[10]"

[Mikey66 @ Aug 31st 2008 11:55AM]

Thats really well done aard...all you did is back up exactly what I wrote in the first place. Top draw fella.

[David @ Sep 1st 2008 11:33PM]

Mikey:

You're so ignorant. First, "Euro" is plural already; second, many European languages don't work like English does, and saying in a manner to YOUR liking is not compatible with the local language's grammatical rules.

Suck it up!

[bolomkxxviii @ Aug 31st 2008 8:36AM]

The nine inch screen is fine with me. It is plenty big and should save some power (backlight) and money while keeping the larger keyboard. I would be quite happy with Suse linux. If they would only sell this model in the US.

[Si @ Aug 31st 2008 8:35AM]

You must be quite new here....Tool.

[bidur @ Aug 31st 2008 8:49AM]

ubuntu is better i guess.. .

[aeth @ Aug 31st 2008 9:00AM]

Careful with the Linux console. If you sudo something that you don't understand you might break your Wind. ehehehe

[Ian @ Aug 31st 2008 10:13AM]

OMG! YOU ARE SO ORIGINAL! THIS IS NEW AN REFRESHING! NO ONE HAS EVER MADE A "BREAK WIND" JOKE ABOUT THIS MACHINE BEFORE!


But seriously...

[Jash Sayani @ Aug 31st 2008 9:11AM]

Any ideas on ASUS N10. Config ? Processor/RAM.
When is it shipping ?

[wazd @ Aug 31st 2008 9:20AM]

I don't get it. We have here in Russia u90 right in stores, go and buy. What's the trick?)

[bebop @ Aug 31st 2008 9:43AM]

Oh ...*those* u90s? They were the prototype batch. They"ll be just fine ... honest!

[ty.cornwall @ Aug 31st 2008 10:04AM]

in Russia, MSI Wind buys you!

Damn.. that one didn't make since... I'll be waiting wazd...

[clintdb @ Aug 31st 2008 10:09AM]

Hey wazd, Australia has them too.
I bought one 2 weeks ago in Sydney. It is an XP Home flavour.
Had a choice of white or black. Only has the 3-cell battery option though.

[babbaganush @ Aug 31st 2008 10:14AM]

"Might have a winner here." Yeah, for you engadget, but what about the rest of us.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/08/15/msi-winds-said-to-be-shipping-without-synaptic-touchpads/

[Ian @ Aug 31st 2008 10:14AM]

I love my U100 Wind. Its the perfect compromise between size, weight, and usability.

[David @ Sep 1st 2008 11:33PM]

Me too, but the hinge still scares me. I hope it doesn't break. I wish it wasn't so flimsy-seeming.

I don't like how it shakes. I wish it were more like the Eee's.

Otherwise, yes, it's a great netbook (perhaps the best one yet).

I love how quiet it is and how cool it stays.

[Scott @ Aug 31st 2008 11:51AM]

What Linux Operating system Is It Running ?

[Eli @ Aug 31st 2008 12:36PM]

I Don't Know Why Don't You Read The Article???

[pretzelb @ Aug 31st 2008 1:43PM]

Was this the best picture you can get? I'm not sure anything is in focus.

[mangoed @ Aug 31st 2008 3:23PM]

I can add that in Russia U90 with SUSE and 512 RAM is being sold for 9990 Rubles (retail price) which is equal to 282 Euro - way less than 339. I bought one a few days ago and I'm quite happy, although I was disappointed with SUSE and very easily replaced it with Win XP SP3.

[clintdb @ Aug 31st 2008 6:02PM]

@ babbaganush. Yes, my U90 Wind has the Sentilic touchpad.
Well, I'm assuming it's not the Synaptic one seeing as the Synaptic icon in the system tray just provides error messages when you right-click.
Having said that, without a Synaptic one to compare to, I don't have any real issues with the one I ended up with. The mouse moves, it taps just fine etc and if I had not have read the previous Engadget articles on the matter I wouldn't have given it a second thought (except for wondering about the system tray icon that doesn't "work").

With regards to price, the retailer I bought it from is charging AUD$500 (about USD$430 or EU$290). This is from a bricks and mortar store (albeit one of the cheapest I know).
Internal specs on my unit are; 1GB RAM, 80GB HDD, Atom N270 (1.6Ghz), XP Home.

[Vincent @ Aug 31st 2008 7:31PM]

Does it has Bluetooth?How about U100?

[Saurabh Singhvi @ Sep 1st 2008 12:45AM]

if the Wii pricing is any criterion, the US pricing would be $339......

[clintdb @ Sep 1st 2008 1:45AM]

@ Vincent.
It wasn't something I needed so didn't look at this aspect until now.
My U90 has a Bluetooth Manager with a whole bunch of different settings you can play with.
But....
it appears you need a "bluetooth device" to plug into the computer before you can use Bluetooth (that is, there is no onboard BT chip).
I guess it was nice of them to pre-install the software just in case your 3rd party hardware didn't come with any of it's own......

[David @ Sep 1st 2008 11:33PM]

U100 has bluetooth built-in.

[Msi-wind @ Sep 21st 2008 5:36PM]

MSI wind U90 in Canada. $26.00 for shipping to US.
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=111114857&vpn=U90X%2D005CA&manufacture=MSI