Impressively loaded but falls short

The WindPad 100 W is MSI's new 10.1-inch Windows 7 tablet. Sporting a multi-touch capacitive screen with 1024x600 display, it's got an Intel Atom Z530 1.6 GHZ processor, 2GB of DDR2 RAM and a 32GB SSD. It is unfortunate then that it's all contained in a rather unattractive tablet chassis. At 800g it's not really a featherweight and a good 40 per cent heavier than the iPad 2. And rather plasticky too. Thankfully, MSI has compensated for its somewhat underpowered CPU choice with a 2GB memory and a generous 32GB SSD and 3G. Just keep in mind that Windows will use a lot more of it than Android would, leaving you with less usable space. The CPU is quite simply not up to providing a smooth Windows experience for any but the lightest workloads. As soon as you have a few windows open you'll start to notice lag. It takes a few seconds for applications to launch, and the Wind Touch UI was incredibly sluggish. On the left side are the USB port (just below the power socket) and a HDMI port sits on the right above the SD card slot and below the headphone jack. On the bottom is room for a standard size SIM card, plus a port for docking station. There's also a full-size SD card reader, which offers cheaper expandable memory than the Micro-SD slots on many tablets, and will let you plug your camera's cards directly into the device. The docking connector, which is hidden by a huge rubber cover, protrudes significantly from the chassis. Once powered on, the landscape to portrait re-orientation is smooth and quick. The WindPad is near silent and barely heats up — a nice change from some of the others we've seen. Other nice touches include a dedicated ‘OK' key on the left that functions as an enter key, making navigation much easier. Sadly, you're constantly reminded that Windows 7 has yet to be really optimised for tablet PCs. The video experience was, however, impressively smooth and quick to open. Unfortunately with great power comes a fairly weak battery life. MSI claims up to six hours, but during the tests, the battery life stood for five-and-a-half hours. That's not a great deal of tablet playtime to be had. There is also the "Easy Face" logon system. After setting your face database in EasyFace2.0 software, just show it up in front of your webcam. The WindPad automatically help you to log in. In a nice touch, MSI has included physical Wi-Fi and Bluetooth buttons, which join the slightly recessed power button at the device's top. Its main problem are the abysmal viewing angles, resulting in massive colour and contrast shift when viewed from anything but the exact right angle. Multi-touch gestures like pinch-to-zoom are supported, and for browsing photos MSI provides EasyViewer, a rather attractively presented touch interface that works very well. It all comes with a price tag of Dh 2,199. From / Gulf News