Cheap ! MSI U230-033US 12.1-Inch Netbook – 4 Hour Battery Life
MSI U230-033US 12.1-Inch Netbook – 4 Hour Battery Life Review
I’d never heard of MSi – before browsing online for a laptop a couple months ago, but must say I am very impressed with the quality of this little laptop! It’s nicer than the 00 Dell I use at the office.
At 12″, this computer was the perfect size for me. I was underwhelmed by the traditional 10″ netbooks when I tried them out at a local retailer – screen was too small for me, and I didn’t care for the cramped keyboard. Nor the Windows 7 starter edition or slow CPU.
Enter the MSi U230 – I’ve got the single core AMD Neo MV-40, but rarely ever notice any slow down. I would have spent the additional for the dual core version, but it wasn’t released yet when I bought my computer (it’s still hard to find from most online retailers!).
Pros:
-Faster CPU compared to traditional netbooks with Intel Atom chip
-Windows 7 Home Premium (runs fast)
-2 gb Ram, upgradeable to 4 gb (I did this on a whim, wasn’t really necessary as Ram doesn’t max out at 2 gb most of the time)
-Full sized keyboard makes typing easy with little frustration
-1366×768 resolution, lots of space for desktop icons, web browsing, watching videos
-SD card slot, webcam, 3 usb connectors
-ultraportable size and weight (but you don’t get a cd/dvd drive – I suggest picking up an external one)
Cons:
-4 hour battery life as advertised is a stretch
-Won’t perform as well as larger, dual core CPUs notebooks
In reference to battery life, it’s advertised as 4 hours but I’ve found around 3 hours is more realistic. However, you can undervolt the CPU by about 20%, without losing any performance. I get stable performance at 0.85v at 8x and 0.70v at 4x using RMClock. Doing so I’ve stretched the battery life to over 4 hours with light computer tasks (running spreadsheets, web browsing, etc.).
Overall I highly recommend this laptop, especially if you are just looking for a laptop to compliment a desktop system, and aren’t happy with traditional netbooks.
MSI U230-033US 12.1-Inch Netbook – 4 Hour Battery Life Feature
- 1.6GHz AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 Processor; Chipset AMD RS690 + SB600
- 2GB System Memory (4GB Max)
- 250GB SATA Hard Drive; Wireless 802.11b/g/n; 2 HD Audio Speakers
- 12.1? HD WXGA 16:9 LCD Display, Resolution 1366×768, ATI Radeon HD3200 Graphics; 1.3MP Webcam
- Windows 7 Home Premium; Battery 6 cells (5200mAh); 4 Hours of Battery Life
MSI U230-033US 12.1-Inch Netbook – 4 Hour Battery Life Overview
AMD MV-40 1.66 GHz, 2 GB RAM, Windows 7 Premium, 6 Cell (4 hour battery life),250GB Hard Drive, Wireless 802.11 b/g/n, ATI Radeon HD3200, 1.3 MP Webcam, 4-1 Card Read (XD/SD/MMC/ MS) 3 x USB 2.0, Headphone out; Microphone-in, VGA, RJ-45
Available at Amazon Click To See Best Price!
Customer Reviews
Better than Atom netbooks – FERNANDO CASSIA – Buenos Aires, Argentina
For the price, this netbook features a faster, and dual core CPU.
This one is much snappier than my Intel Atom N270 based netbook.
Two gigs of RAM expandable to 4 makes it run the latest Ubuntu Linux or Win7 with plenty of room (no swapping).
The screen resolution makes it able to display 720p HD content.
In short: a great deal.
Very Slow CPU on battery – Dmitry Dudkin –
Main problem that CPU speed locked to 800Mhz on battery.
According MSI “maximum clock of 800MHz @ Battery Mode”!!! You can’t watch video on battery because CPU so slow and AMD chipset don’t support acceleration for many video codecs (like WMV9, DIVX). First time, MSI told me that it is CPU+chipset limitation. But AMD respond that “the power state can be adjusted through the Windows properties. But If you are unable to get the processor to run at full speed while on the battery, even after adjusting the windows power management properties, than the issue is a hard code in the BIOS that the manufacturer set and is not a limitation of the chip or chipset and is something you will have to bring up with them.”
After that, MSI told me that I need to disable PowerNow to get full speed. But if you disable PowerNow then you will have 1600Mhz ALL TIME…even on idle. In this case the battery will spend so much faster (less 1 hour). PowerNow was made to dynamically switch frequency and voltage on the fly to save the battery in idle mode and receive full power when it necessary. And it must work as declared.
Now, MSI close the issue and don’t want to resolve it.
Dmitry
P.S. MSI U210 have same issue but still not resolved.
*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 21, 2010 19:00:09
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