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October 13th, 2008 Hardware | comments_icon5 Comments

Cheap or not? MSI Wind U100 Vs HP Compaq 2510p

I like to follow mobile devices. Not that I am buying them but it’s great show unlike established desktop market. They can be very different in functions and prices. Both functions and prices change fast as well.

I had recently played with two ultra-mobile notebooks in a row. They were so alike and different in same time that just asked for comparison.

MSI Wind U100

Wind is one of the emerging netbooks class. It is relatively cheap, uses hardware designed especially for this segment and is extremely small and light. Comes in two models with different screen sizes. U100 has 10" screen.

msi_wind_u100

See it at MSI.com.tw

HP Compaq 2510p

This one is traditional notebook tweaked for reducing size and dimensions. Comes in numerous variations based on the same chassis. See below for specs of model I played with.

hp_compaq_2510p

See it at HP.com

Specs time

MSI Wind U100 HP Compaq 2510p
CPU Atom N270 1.6GHz Core2Duo U7700 1.33GHz
Chipset 945GSE GM965
RAM 1Gb 2Gb
HDD 80Gb 120Gb
ODD None DVD+/-RW Double Layer
Video 945 IGP X3100 IGP
Display 10” 1024×600 12” 1280×800
Webcam 1.3M None
Ports 3xUSB, 1xLAN, 1xVGA 2xUSB, 1xFireWire, 1xLAN, 1xVGA, 1xDock, 1xModem
Wireless WiFi, Bluetooth WiFi, Bluetooth
Dimensions 260×180x19-31 mm 282×212x24 mm
Weight 1 Kg 1.29 Kg
OS Windows XP Home Windows Vista Business, Windows XP Pro downgrade
Price ~$600 ~$1800

Translation for non-number-geeks

Wind is three times cheaper for comparable size and slightly smaller screen. But in performance Compaq eats it alive and comes with optical drive on top.

I had forgot to note which battery Compaq had but it had worked almost twice longer than Wind (in power-hungry mode).

Personal opinion

If you draw a line where notebook is small enough but still usable Wind is going to be below and Compaq above.

10 inch screen (biggest netbooks can get) is still tiny. Compaq with screen adding only 2 inches and 200 pixel to width and height in the end provides way better experience.

Wind keyboard is considered one of the better among netbooks. Still not comfortable enough to instantly adjust like Compaq’s was for me.

I totally expected Wind to be excellent deal. Surprisingly it isn’t. Wind is second computer at best (third at worst). It simply doesn’t provide more than some browsing on the go. I can’t imagine using it as main PC. Strangely it’s not an cheap impulse purchase either – there are cheaper netbooks (or decent budget notebooks with same price tag).

Compaq is clearly far from fastest notebook. You can get ones packing more hardware for same money (more bulky thou). But it gets work done and is simply awesome for its dimensions and weight. Even Vista was bearable after some performance tweaks. If it was mine I’d just downgrade to XP from the start and get even better performance.

So what do you think?

Are you looking for cheapest possible as long as it runs browser? Or won’t approve any that can’t provide desktop-like experience? Tell me in the comments.

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5 Responses to “Cheap or not? MSI Wind U100 Vs HP Compaq 2510p”

  1. rejetto says:
    March 19, 2009 at 03:06

    i own a 2510p, and often wondered if a netbook would be enough.
    always came to a “no” by intuition, but your review was helpful.
    2510p is just too expensive, so i bought it 2nd hand for half the price.

  2. Rarst says:
    March 19, 2009 at 04:11

    @rejetto

    Yeah, I have an impression that second hand market for 2510p is quite common which is sign of good model. :)

    Netbooks are good concept but they ended up couple hundred bucks higher than initial expectations (Asus started all the hype with $200 expected price) and have performance issues on top – small screen and bad chipset in first generation mostly.

    Doesn’t look like prices coming down so they will brobably get better in performance and phase out part of budget notebook market, instead of being below them.

    Myself I had recently bought Dell Vostro 1310. Will review later after more usage time.

    Glad to see you at my blog btw, hope you find it worthwhile. :)

  3. nando says:
    March 28, 2009 at 18:08

    I’ve used a ASUS 1000H and a HP 2510P. I jumped on the netbook bandwagon, briefly, to discover the 1000H was a cramped experience.. the screen resolution, keyboard and trackpad buttons were hard and overall feel was quite plasticy. Was this a toy? I had high expectations and unfortunately was overall disappointed. The “up to 7 hours battery life” ended up being more like 4.5, 5 at best and less with Linux, which was great because I had reason to return it and get my money back on grounds of false advertising.

    The 2510P is a much better user experience and in my location sells for not much more than a netbook. Seems the reviews of the slow harddisk taken a big bite out of it’s resale. I discovered this to be true. Slow harddisk was a pain. So, together with other 2510P users we figured multiple ways around it and documented it for other 2510P users to benefit from here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=352887 .

    With a low buy in price for a 2510P it becomes quite a user configurable unit. A bargain in my opinion.

  4. Rarst says:
    March 28, 2009 at 21:45

    @nando

    Thanks for extensive comment! I tend to hear a lot about failed expectations about netbooks. They are nice but slightly overhyped as “small but can do anything”.

    At first I estimated that 2nd generation of notebook will be much more refined but it seems it will take even longer than that to move to new chipsets and bigger screen sizes.

  5. Dell Vostro 1310 – great small business notebook | www.Rarst.net says:
    April 9, 2009 at 17:13

    [...] so it would be no effort to take it to work and programming courses, since I still drool about HP 2510p I estimated 1,5-2kg range and dimensions that don’t require separate bag – sub 15” [...]

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