Battle of the breeze: MSI Wind versus MacBook Air

Specification
The entry-level Air is fitted with a 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo CPU and 2GB of RAM, so you'd think it would win this one hands down. But hang about -- in order to make it super-flat, Apple has had to remove literally everything that makes a decent laptop. There's only one USB port, no Ethernet port, no removable battery, a lame 80GB hard drive, and mono speakers. Mono. That's an awful lot of nothing for £1,300.

The Wind gets a 1.6GHz CPU, too, but it uses the new Intel Atom N270. It's not as quick as the Core 2 Duo in the Air, but you'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the two devices in basic day-to-day use -- even with just 1GB of RAM. Plus, you get the luxury of three USB ports, an Ethernet port, a battery you can replace without visiting a 'genius', and stereo speakers. That's not bad for £320.

Verdict
We think the Wind takes this round. Yeah, the Air has more RAM and a faster CPU, but the the performance delta isn't so great that we can ignore how rubbish it is in other areas.

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