Hey, hey. Look what the Fedex man dropped off! Why it’s the sexy MSi X-Slim X600. His big, white truck is like Santa’s sleigh to me. Anyway, I just unboxed the svelte notebook, shot some pics, and came away with these impressions. [PSGallery=aoijra108ex]

Things I like:

• The matte black finish
• The bright 15.6-inch screen
• The full size keyboard including number pad
• The 4.5 hour battery life according to Windows (untested)
• The multi-touch trackpad
• The MacBook Air inspired design
• The small-ish power adaptor
• The HD video capable ATI Radeon 4350 GPU
• The USB/eSATA port
• The flat 6-cell battery

Things I don’t like:

• Windows Vista
• It gets toasty
• The large, glossy black bezel around the screen
• Some keys have been shrunk in size to make room for the number pad
• Some of the included MSi apps that auto-start are corny
• The flat – physically and acoustically – down-firing speakers
• The small trackpad buttons
• 47sec Vista boot-up time

The first point is my biggest gripe so far. This notebook is screaming at me to install Windows 7 on it – or OS X if possible. I don’t know how long I can ignore its cries either. I’ll probably end up doing two reviews on the X-Slim X600: one would be just the way it ships and the other with Windows 7 or OS X installed. But even Vista can’t totally ruin the X600. I can’t wait to spend more time with this capable MacBook Air clone.

But while I have you, is there anything you wanna know about it?