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MSI Wind U150 touchscreen netbook with Pine Trail chipset announced
MSI has officially announced the MSI Wind U150 touchscreen netbook. The netbook will also differentiate itself from the current crowd by offering the Pine Trail chipset which consists of a CPU and GPU on a single chip. MSI hopes to be the first to market with Pine Trail based netbooks, but needless to say I'm [...]
Meh. I am not adverse to having a touch screen on a netbook but I think they go better with devices whose screens can be rotated and locked. It looks decent but they haven't released a price. My guess is that these Pine Trail and Nvidia ION netbooks are going to cost around $500 when they first come out. I am surprised that MSI added a touch screen though as I know Microsoft doesn't like them when it comes to netbooks.
The funny thing about this netbook is that the use of the Pine Trail chipset made more ripples than the touch screen did. I still don't see the big deal behind Pine Trail. Intel says that it will help reduce power consumption and increase efficiency but we all know how these companies like to play with numbers. It is essentially a next generation single-core Atom processor and GMA 4500MHD sitting happily next to each other. Intel is basically taking older technology (except for the Atom processor but I doubt that a next generation 1.66-1.8GHz Atom is going to run circles around the N270 or N280 already out) and packing it together. At least that will allow for full 1080p video playback, that is the main benefit.
Still, with Broadcom and Nvidia 1080p video solutions coming out, Intel really isn't doing anything to differentiate themselves from the others. If they were smart, Intel would come out with their own netbook platform just like they did with Centrino for netbooks. In other words, manufacturers can get Intel's stamp of approval if they use a certain chipset, processor, GPU, and wi-fi antenna. The Centrino stamp actually helped push a bunch of notebooks out of manufacturers' doors. I remember spending an extra $30 on my notebook just to make it Centrino certified back in the day. Intel could push their Pine Trail platform more if they came out with their own wi-fi antennas for netbooks (most manufacturers rely on other manufacturers such as Broadcom) and a special label for using Pine Trail and that antenna.
I know that the ION label is going to push more netbooks out the door so Intel should do something similar.
Given all the things that people do while they are driving, I don't think we need to add "using a computer" to that list. I think that many people are now driving cars that already have GPS system built-in or they are using add-on systems. This might help law enforcement but I still don't see why anyone would want to lift their hands off the keyboard, touch the screen, put them back down on the keyboard, touch the screen again, etc. That is why touch pads are located right below the keyboard and mice are always directly to the left or right of keyboards.
MSI Wind U150 touchscreen netbook with Pine Trail chipset announced
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