MSI Wind Top AE1900-WT Desktop PC
It is no exaggeration if we say that MSI and ASUS have been monopolising the markets of netbooks and nettops and this includes the all in one touch screen desktop PCs of the MSI Wind and Asus Eee PC lines. And perhaps the days of clumsy CPU clad Desktop PCs are over and with the launch of new models like Epson Endeavour NP11V prove the fact well. Both these manufacturers manufacture computers that comprise just a monitor with the CPU built inside it. These are the variants of their nettop computers with touch screens. The following review is on the MSI ‘Wind Top’ AE1900 the latest model of MSI that is competing with Asus Eee Top PC ET1602.
Sizzling “Apple-Like” looks:
At the very first look at the MSI Wind Top AE1900 PC, you will find the style very familiar. Think no more, it looks like a product of Apple. MSI has never been shy of drawing inspiration for its products from elsewhere in the computer world. And the Wind Top has definitely taken the stylish roots of the Apple tree. In fact, if the mirror finished MSI logo is peeled off, you might even mistake the system to the acrylic trimmed displays of the old G4 and it is very hard for us to not make any comparison even after seeing the striking similarities. Of course, this is just not a display, it is a whole computer. Design wise, the AE1900 all-in-one touch panel PC is sure to turn heads with its looks and lovely 18-inch display encased in brushed aluminium and transparent plastic.
Comparatively a small footprint:
The whole package stands 14.7″ tall, 18.74 inches wide and is just shy of 2″ deep. Though the included USB keyboard and mouse add to the existing footprint, in real time, this All-in-One Desktop PC can be placed anywhere in bed room or family room without consuming an entire table or countertop. But if you prefer to have a set of wireless peripherals, then it would clean up the desk even more. The monitor has a very well built feel contributed by the solid feeling acrylic bezel and the sure footed rubber feet but same is not the case for the accessories that MSI has included which look and feel like toys. The mouse is very small and extremely light and the flimsy keyboard will draw the ire of your surroundings with it very clacky key presses. But as a partial redemption MSI has given some media controls on it.
Ports and controls placed cleverly in AE1900:
In order to compliment the minimalistic design ethos of the ‘Wind Top’ AE1900 monitor, none of the ports or controls are placed on the fascia of the monitor except for the 1.3 mega pixel web camera, a mic up on the top and a glowing power icon to indicate that the machine is running. The other controls that can be usually found on the monitor like, the volume, brightness and contrast controls have been placed on the right of the system but this does not mean that accessing of these controls are difficult. They can still be accessed easily by using the icons printed on the bezel in order to locate them blind.
The left hand side of the display sports all the controls that you will ever need. They include two USB ports for thumb drives and accessories, an SD/MMC/MS card reader and a DVD drive too. The CD/DVD playing capability comes as a surprise and makes this different from the other nettops. A slot loading version would have been more preferable. The load tray of the CD player is quite awkward to load and wobbles a lot that you would frequently snag on its surrounding bezel as you are trying to push it back in.
Frown giving omissions:
The rear of the monitor has two more USB ports for the Keyboard and mouse. The other ports available include the Ethernet jack, power jack for the external power supply and the headphone and microphone jacks. Though most of the all in one system buyers will not be looking for expandability, the absence of a display output port proves that the machine can never serve as a media center. And of course you will never be able to run dual displays. Since most of its competing netbooks would at least provide with a DVI port or a HDMI port, this omission will surely cost MSI dearly. The omission list also includes e-SATA, FireWire ports and even as Express Card slot.
Set up and use just in minutes:
Like most of the other all in one machines, the MSI Wind Top AE1900 Desktop Computer too will be ready for use just in minutes after unpacking. All that you have to do is, unpack the system, connect the mouse, keyboard, and the power adaptor. That is it, you are ready to go. We feel that the adjustable leg that props up the monitor from its behind can be improved. Being odd, it offers very little way of adjustment and by leaning all the way back, it disables both the mouse and touch-screen making the PC seem useless.
MSI AE1900 Features:
Intel never intended for the ultra low voltage atom processor to power anything but ultra portable PCs, but then, its widespread popularity in netbooks has earned the chip yet another new home in desktop computers also.
Once the AE1900 is switched on, it takes about 55 seconds to enter windows but you can expect a wait of another 20 seconds before the windows becomes completely usable. The delay is mainly caused by the MSI Wind Touch’s software that opens automatically on boot up. Despite the fact that the AE1900 all-in-one pc makes use of the same processor and graphics chip as most of the other netbooks, this model is more sluggish in the course of normal windows operations. We think that resolution has something to do with it. While most of the netbooks run at 1024 x 600 pixels resolution, the Wind Top has to handle the 1366 x 768 pixels resolution. This means the PC has to handle 70% more pixels. But frankly speaking, the difference is hardly noticeable and most of the users will be having no issues carrying out day to day work.
Despite the rather slow Intel Atom 230 processor, the rest of the specs are pretty impressive - 250GB of hard drive, 2GB of RAM, integrated Wi-Fi, DVD burner and an SD card slot all crammed cleverly into that big monitor. The Operating System installed is, Genuine Windows XP Home edition.
Unsatisfactory multimedia:
The multimedia capabilities of the Wind Top are not that satisfactory. Though MSI advises that the display’s 16:9 aspect ratio is adequate for movies, the hardware is not really up to the task. The movie clips played in both 720p and 1080p are bogged down when played in full screen mode. The DVD playback is just acceptable but then, the included CyberLink Power DVD Software has trouble filling up the display on some movies without improperly scaling them. One good solution for this is the VLC media player which is a great free alternative that handles these issues without any problem. The YouTube videos in standard and high quality are played fine, but the 720p footage always poses to be problematic.
Audio:
The maximum volume of the PC was very quiet and is entirely unusable and the headphone jack line out is hardly exceptional either. Said that, you will definitely need external speakers and even then, you cannot expect miracles to happen.
Webcam:
We were not amused by the webcam on offer for two main reasons. One of them being the very hard look of the contours and another is the extremely bright colours. The sound quality did no good too. And even when the cam is backed in to the corner, neither the mic nor the speaker was good enough.
The touchscreen and its corresponding features:
Though the touchscreen works flawlessly from the word Go, it is worth noting that the Touch Calibration included in Wind Touch refuses even to load. Moreover, the utility had to be opened manually which the less tech savvy users might be having trouble with.
Since the MSI Wind Top AE1900 has a touch screen and Windows XP lacks touch oriented features, MSI has equipped the system with a customized suite of software and launch bar for the system to be used without the help of keyboard and mouse. The MSI Wind Touch opens with Windows and offers the user with four tabs that includes fun, tool, work and web and there are finger sized icons under each one. These categories have many of the Window’s standard applications and MSI has also offered a handful of its own applications too. And these include some familiar names like GIMP 2 and Adobe Reader, along with some smaller titles like FreeMind for making tree charts and Dia for Diagrams. The first time users will be overjoyed by this raft of free software but we are left wondering why some of the other more popular and mandatory titles like Firefox have been omitted. It has just preinstalled IE version 6 which was released in 2006, that has no support for even tabs is a major oversight. Yet another frustrating facts is that, you will not be able to add shortcuts to the list, which means, after you add any browser of your choice, install games or office software, none of those will be available for you via Wind Touch.
Apart from the actual launcher that we have discussed above, MSI has not included much in the way of the tailored applications. The EasyViewer gives you a slideshow experience that is especially set up for the touch interface, but this is a little buggy, weak in features and less than intuitive despite a slick scrolling effect. SoftStylus is Motorola program that is meant to facilitate finger writing, but this application too is dead slow to produce and characters with it and do not even imagine it to replace it in place of a real keyboard.
Disaster in name of “Fun” in the webcam:
Unexpectedly, MSI has included more programs that cater to the webcams built-in in the Wind Top which is a far exotic feature than the touchscreen. You will be able to take goofy photos with the q-face and you can even use your face as a password with EasyLogin. There are also games like, chicken game and star game included that you can play by just moving your head back and forth. The downside is that the games are far too imprecise and frustrating and the q face will not amuse anybody older than thirteen.
Noisy at start:
The Wind Top makes terrifying amount of noise at first and as soon as the system is switched on, the fan starts turning at full speed. Fortunately, the noise drops back itself soon even when you intend to perform demanding tasks. Though it does not become completely quite, the DVD player seems to be reasonably discreet.
Warranty:
MSI offers ‘Wind Top’ AE1900 one year standard warranty for parts and labour.
Verdict:
For the bargain basement price, the MSI ‘Wind Top’ AE1900-WT All-in-One Touch Panel PC makes a fine living room machine or an email station. Though it costs a notch more than a normal netbook, the Wind Top offers you with touch capabilities, an optical drive and full sized peripherals, making it a better choice to be used as a sole computer. All of its rivals offer same performance from same hardware but the AE1900-WT’s cheap peripherals and small collection of programs to make use of its touchscreeen, makes us think twice before investing in this all in one desktop.
If you had been looking for a good quality desktop PC that has everything that you ever needed in a stylish and single convenient package, then the MSI ‘Wind Top’ AE1900 might just be the PC to place your hands on.
MSI Wind Top AE1900 Desktop PC - Specifications, Features
| Manufacturer | MSI |
| Model Name | MSI ‘Wind Top’ AE1900-WT |
| Series | Wind Top |
| Desktop type | All in one |
| Dimensions (H x W x D) | 14.37” x 18.74” x 1.93” |
| Colour | White |
| Display type | Touch Screen |
| Display size | 18.5-inch |
| Display features | Anti glare WXGA (1366 X 768) pixels |
| Brightness | >250cd/m2 |
| Contrast Ratio | 1000 : 1 |
| Viewing Angle | 170° Horizontal, 160° Vertical |
| Response time | 5 ms |
| Pixel Pitch | 0.3mm (H) x 0.3mm (V) |
| Operating system | Genuine Windows XP Home |
| Processor | Intel® Atom™ 230 Processor |
| Graphics processor | Integrated Intel® GMA950 Graphics Core Share memory up to 228MB |
| Memory | 1GB DDRII 533MHz SDRAM on board |
| HD Capacity | 160GB |
| Hard Disk Drive | SATA Hard Disk Drive |
| Memory card device | 4-in-1(Support SD,MMC,MS,XD) |
| Network interface | 802.11b/g/n (Wireless) 10/100/1000 Gigabit LAN |
| Video capture interface | 1.3MP Webcam with Microphone |
| Wireless technologies | 802.11 b/g/n Wireless LAN |
| VGA Controller | Intel® GMA950 |
| Video RAM | Share Memory up to 228MB |
| TV tuner | No |
| Audio | Audio, 2.0 Speakers with SRS Premium Sound |
| Peripherals | MSI Corded USB mouse and keyboard Colour-matched multimedia keyboard and mouse Hot keys for screen brightness adjustment Function buttons for Internet Browser, Email, Volume, Rewind, Stop, Play/Pause and Fast Forward |
| External I/O ports | Side panel: 4-in-1 Card Reader (support SD/MMC/MS/XD) 2 x USB 2.0 Rear panel: 1 x DC-in jack 2 x USB 2.0 1 x LAN jack (RJ45) 1 x Microphone-in 1 x Headphone-out |
| Power | External 65W Power Adapter with Active PFC |
| Warranty | 1 year, pick-up and return, parts and labour |
Leave a Reply