Want an MSI Wind but can't afford the £320 asking price? You have two options: start selling the Big Issue or run down to PC World and cop yourself an Advent 4211 -- a virtually identical, but far cheaper alternative to the Wind.
It uses the same chassis, has the same specification, but it costs just £279.99 -- at least £40 less than some online vendors are selling the Wind for. How? It's quite simple: MSI is an ODM (original design manufacturer), which means it makes barebones chassis for its own use and to sell to other companies, known as SIs (system integrators).
Advent, the SI responsible for the 4211, has bought a bunch of Wind chassis in black and silver, installed its own software bundle and is flogging them on the cheap. Inside, you get a 1.6GHz N270 Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 1.3-megapixel webcam, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Windows XP -- no Linux option is available.
On the whole, there aren't any obvious drawbacks to buying the Advent 4211 versus waiting for a Wind. They're both made by MSI, they both have identical bits inside, so unless you want a more colourful laptop, you could save yourself a few bob.
Check out pics over the following pages, then go read the review of the Wind. -Rory Reid
Update: Read our full Advent 4211 review.
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