It’s perhaps a fact of life that with age comes a paunch, but who would’ve thought the MSI X-Slim X340 would go from toned ultraportable to tubby laptop so quickly? The company have been showing off their updated model, which gets a girth increase thanks to a new, extended 8-cell battery intended to address complaints about poor runtimes.
With official photos, full specifications, an unboxing and demo video behind us, all that’s left for MSI’s X-Slim X600 – before a post eventually saying it’s been retired, of course – is a full review. Happily LaptopMag are on hand to deliver just that, putting the 15.6-inch CULV ultraportable through its paces to see if it’s more than just good looks or falls flat like its smaller X340 sibling.
Of all of MSI’s X-Slim series of ultraportables, the X600 has been perhaps the most mysterious. All that looks set to change, however, as the first review units start to slip out: NewGadgets.de have acquired one, and recorded a full hands-on of the 24.5mm thick notebook together with a comparison to the X340.
Video hands-on after the cut
Acer’s Timeline range of notebooks spans the gamut from 13.3-inch ULV ultraportable to 15.6-inch mainstream laptop, promising prolonged battery life with an affordable price tag. The company sent over their Aspire Timeline 3810T, a 13.3-inch 1.4GHz ULV machine with heady runtime estimates and an $899 sticker, for SlashGear to try out; check out the full review after the cut.
After the MSI X-Slim X340’s recent frankly awful review, we’ve been waiting for a third-opinion and hopefully some indication that the ultraportable’s poor showing was a one-off aberration. Unfortunately, many of the critique points from that review – poor build quality, “cheap and nasty” trackpad and “tacky” keyboard – also crop up in NotebookReview’s piece.
Looks like we spoke too soon when we declared the ASUS Eee PC 1008HA Seashell a mostly tape-free zone. Netbook Italia have dismantled the skinny ultraportable, and their photos show there to be plenty of masking tape of the sort that so disappointed in the MSI X-Slim M340.
HP are planning a range of ultra-thin notebooks based on Intel’s CULV platform, for release in Q4 2009. The ultraportables will eventually take on Acer’s Timeline range, but before the new models arrive HP is expected to recycle existing notebook chassis designs with new CULV hardware, possibly including the HP dv2.
Back when the ASUS Eee PC 1008HA cleared the FCC in early April, what we didn’t know was that the company’s confidentiality agreement had hidden away the usual array of external and internal photos. That agreement is obviously up, however, as a flock of breakdown shots together with the “Seashell” netbook’s user manual have appeared on the FCC site.
If MSI thought they could rest easy on the back of a good review for their X-Slim X340 ultraportable, they’ve a disappointment coming today. ZDNet Australia have been playing with the first Intel CULV notebook to the market, and they’re really not impressed. Ranking the MacBook Air-a-like a mere 5 out of 10, reviewer Craig Simms is most disappointed by the “cheap, nasty and tacky” keyboard.
MSI has officially announced their X-Slim X400 and X600 CULV ultraportables, together with confirming that the 14-inch and 15-inch notebooks will land before the end of June. The MSI X-Slim X400 weighs just 1.5kg while the larger X600 is 2.1kg; each notebook is less than 1-inch thick and have a 16:9 aspect LED-backlit display.
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