With MSI working hard to be a thorn in the side of Asus and Acer, it’s worth taking a look at the U135 from Asus.  It is very similar to other N450 based netbook in that it comes with a 6 cell battery, Windows 7 and 1GB of RAM.  After all was said and done here is what the final word is on the U135.

We don’t like the fact that MSI still doesn’t trust its consumers to swap out the RAM module or hard drive without voiding the warranty. Most other manufacturers provide access panels to make this easy, yet MSI still don’t want you meddling inside the system. This means you’re stuck with 1GB RAM and a HDD unless you’re not bothered about the warranty. Since many consumers like to upgrade RAM or install a SDD into their netbooks I really hope this is a stance that MSI changes soon.

Despite the inclusion of a power-efficient Pine Trail processor, we were a bit disappointed not to see battery life perform better than those tested previously. This is likely down to the lower capacity 6-cell (4400mAh) battery along with the installation of Windows 7 Starter that drains the battery faster than XP. Whilst it may not be an ‘all-day’ battery it is still likely to be perfectly sufficient for most people though. Another niggle was no multitouch gestures supported on the touchpad.

However, even taking these points into account, we really enjoyed using the Wind U135 netbook. It feels rugged and has a nicer design than its predecessors. The 10-inch glossy display was one of the best we’ve seen and didn’t suffer from reflections as much as other netbooks we’ve tested.

We really liked the chiclet keyboard that was a pleasure to type on over long periods and the same can be said of the touchpad that was silky smooth when scrolling. Combine this with the fact that the netbook has pretty much every feature you would expect in a 10-inch netbook including the latest Bluetooth 2.1 and Wi-Fi (draft-N) standards and it seems that MSI really has a compelling package on its hands.

You can read the rest of the review at Netbookchoice.com.

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2. U130 MSI N450 Netbook Now Available For Under $300

3. MSI U135: The Ultimate Low End N450 Netbook?

4. MSI Doesn’t Want You Upgrading Your Netbook

5. U135 MSI Wind Netbook Now Available