MSI x340: The Netbook We Deserve

If you can find the MSI x340 for under $500 you should buy it. The machine is light, slim, and has a good user interface. The 13" screen is the right size for a portable work or entertainment computer. The x340 is what netbooks should have been; the keyboard/trackpad is optimal for real work, the battery will last long enough to watch two movies, and the screen size isn't a joke.

Netbooks aren't the portable work devices we were promised, I know this because I have a netbook that I hackintoshed. It is a toy that I rarely use because the form factor is geared so heavily towards portability that it has drifted far away from usability. The x340 fulfills the needs of someone who must use a computer in many places and it does this with a happy human interface.

Reviewers have called it the "average joe's macbook air" but I disagree - it doesn't belong in that class. Both devices have a similar form factor and 13" screen, but the air has superior performance compared to many standard laptops and the x340 is inferior to many of them. Your expectations of what you can get out of this machine should match this reality.

I recently sat on my 17" Macbook pro and squished the hard drive. I was unsure whether a simple drive replacement would work, so I used the accident as an excuse to buy the MSI x340. It was on sale and I managed to purchase it for a little over $400 from newegg. I opened the box and lifted the laptop out of the enclosure. It was light. Lighter than expected. The 13" size gave me the impression it would be heavier than the listed weight of 2.86lbs. The weight distribution was even - I couldn't really convince myself that my netbook weighed less!

Physically, the machine confounded my expectations. The casing felt solid, and the glossy black was stylish. Although the 8-cell battery protruded, it was tapered to fit the machine. The machine has two fans that face frontward and they became blocked when I rested the laptop on my legs. The ports on either side were hid nicely from view, the earphone port was not close, but my earphones made the reach with enough give. The x340 also has a card reader, hidden nicely under the left side of the casing, it is flush against the curve of the computer. very cool.

I lifted the screen, and I was grateful to find resistance, rather than a plastic clasp. I think clasps look cheap, and they break easily. The screen was glossy, the keyboard was matte, and the trackpad was molded into the chassis. Keyboard keys were wider than I expected, but still nice to press. The trackpad buttons made noticeably loud "clicks" when pressed and required some extra force than your standard mouse/trackpad. Online reviews have noted flimsy keyboards, cheap casing and a hard-to-press mouse keys. They were either for early versions of the computer or mine was the exception. I'm glad that I didn't have the casing or keyboard issues. The trackpad was laid out a little left of center, a nice ergonomic touch. My only qualm is that the trackpad does not have multitouch. This was a disappointment considering the other human-friendly aspects of the design.

I turned the machine on, went through start-up and spent about 30 minutes uninstalling a lot of bloatware. After it was uninstalled, my start-up time reduced by about 10-15 seconds, but it was still slow. I have noticed that the machine will take some time to load up a program, but once running doesn't give me speed issues. The screen size is great. I really enjoy having two browser windows open simultaneously, or any combination of two windows available for dual wielding.

The X340 will play HD video and it will do it for a while before running out of juice. While testing on a 480p video, the battery percentage dropped 18% every hour, giving me a little over 5hrs of video time. Probably more if I was just writing or browsing. I was really satisfied with the battery life from the 8-cell. I'm fed up with claims of battery times that aren't based on actual usage! it will play Starcraft, Diablo 2, Baldur's Gate 2, and (if you tweak the settings) Morrowind. That should give you a range to try some of your own games.