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?