MSI X340 218US - Core 2 Solo SU3500 / 1.4 GHz CULV - RAM 2 GB - HDD 320 GB - GMA 4500MHD - Gigabit Ethernet - WLAN : Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, 802.11b/g/n (draft) - Windows 7 Home Premium - 13.4" Widescreen TFT 1366 x 768 ( WXGA ) - camera - black

Comment: Got this laptop a week ago today (as of this review). When I first got it, I was psyched. I was blown away by how sexy, sleek, and light this thing was. Unfortunately, looks don't always account for everything, so alas, here's my honest review, weighing out the pros and cons of a light notebook that had the potential to be (and nearly is) perfect. Before I start though, I want to mention why I chose this particular notebook: I bought this as a second laptop, mainly for my wife, but also as an uber portable option for taking quickly on the go. I currently carry my HP dv3510 (with a dedicated graphics card and upgraded features) in a heavy briefcase, so I needed something that would go in a small skin/laptop bag and stow away under my arm. And so I needed portability, a low price, long battery life, and something (with me being a tech geek) that wasn't a pawn-off laptop that any house mom would buy...or in other words--it had to have a decent engine under the hood. Now for the review. And forgive me in advance....I can get a little long-winded...but at least it'll be thorough.

***PROS:
1. PORTABILITY. Sooo thin and light. Obviously, this is the selling point that MSI is pushing, and they definitely aren't lying. I still almost smile every time I pick this thing up, cause it's just so light and feels like nothing between your fingers as you hold it in one hand to move it around, and isn't uncomfortable at all when sitting on my lap...cause I can hardly tell it's there.

2. BATTERY-LIFE. I haven't exactly put a stop watch or anything on it, but I'm getting at least 6 hours out of it with the brightness around 50-60%. I'm sure with even lower settings (lower brightness, and the dim, "turn off screen", and sleep functions set to less time) you could easily get 7-9 hours out of it. I've been VERY impressed with the battery life on this. This is what I think a laptop should be and really defines the purpose of having a portable computer. Beats the crap out of my HP getting about 2-3 hours on a 6-cell.

3. DISPLAY. No complaints here. Bright, crisp, and clear.

4. SPEED. Once again, I'm not using this for anything intensive, but I've had no lags whatsoever regarding the functionality based on the hardware running it. Web-browsing, video, document-editing, etc has been seamless. Windows 7 Home Premium runs beautifully on it, with the exception of one hang-up, which I think was just more of a glitch in the OS when installed--I'll explain that further down and how I fixed it. I have yet to test Adobe CS4 on it, and probably won't...which I'll explain why later as well. Some might be concerned about only getting 2GB of RAM too, as I kind of was, but don't underestimate how much better Win7 is. It runs like a champ and the lack of extra memory hasn't bugged me at all thus far.

5. PRICE. Duh. It's a given, but I had to mention it. All those specs and features for a buck under $500?? Hard to resist, and made it easy to pay straight off of my debit card, rather than having to save up for months upon months, or put it on a credit card.

6. BLUETOOTH/HARDWARE SPECS. For an ultra-portable at this price point, getting a Core 2 processor (over an Atom) and Bluetooth is almost impossible. Most computers you find around $500 are running Celeron or low-end AMD processors (most might be fine with AMDs, but I like my Intels).

***CONS:
1. KEYBOARD. While it's sleek, the fact that they conserved space by putting the keys so close together with hardly a tactile way at all to feel your way around really kills it. You can't really tell you've hit the wrong key until you look up and see "yjr" instead of "the". It makes it particularly hard when trying to type longer than one sentence, like a paper for class or something. My wife hasn't used it yet for her online courses, but I already see this as a HUGE problem once she gets into typing a 1000 word essay and is losing her cool cause she's having to "backspace" so much. But I think MSI was going for the "cool" factor for this, which it definitely looks good...it's just not as functional as I'd like it to be. I think they could've easily made the keys smaller, with bigger divots between them (like my HP), cause that seems to be the problem--they just made the keys bigger and they end up running too close together.

2. TOUCHPAD. This is more in regards to the touchpad, as it comes, with the factory driver installed (though technically, there's not even really a driver at all). It drove me and my wife up the wall at first, cause neither of us really care for the "touch-to-click" function most the time. I can stand it in intervals, but my wife hates it, and understandably so, as it's very easy to accidentally click on stuff when just moving the cursor or bumping it when typing. HOWEVER, after many hours spent I finally found a fix. On MSI's website, download the driver for the x350 Sentelic Multi Touchpad (not the x340, there's not one for it). It works perfectly and gives you many functions that don't come with the laptop as is. It allows you to turn off the "touch-to-click", gives you a scroll function (though a little different method than most laptops), some sensitivity adjustment options, and the option to turn off the touchpad while typing, which is VERY useful, as it temporarily disables the touchpad and resumes about 1 second after you stop typing and begin using the touchpad. With the install of this driver, it has fixed the biggest issues I had with it. The one button with two different sides to click is still a little jiggy though and feels kinda cheap, and the touchpad still isn't wonderful, but mostly minor annoyances at worst now.

3. POINTED FRONT EDGES. Now for me, I wasn't really bothered by this at all, but I just thought I should mention it cause my wife has. She says the front where it comes to a point scratches her wrists. I don't know...probably cause she bruises like a peach and uses so much moisturizer (keeps her silky smooth though!) that makes it so uncomfortable to her. She said she hated the same thing on a Macbook she used that did that, so I guess if you've had or used one of those with a pointed edge and it doesn't bother you, don't worry about this. Me personally, I don't think it was much of an annoyance, though a smoother rounded edge wouldn't have hurt anything (once again, they were just going for the "cool" factor on this area).

4. OVERHEATING. Sigh...this is where the major drawback comes and the reason I will probably be returning the laptop (though the keyboard contributes to that significantly). When I first got the laptop, I was amazed at how cool it stayed. Then I realized it was only cause I had it on my desk at work. Later on, after having it sit on my lap for a while, the screen went black. I felt the bottom left side (probably where the hard drive is) and noticed it had become quite hot, especially compared to how cool it had been running before. I had to hard reset it. My wife had this same issue one time while using it as well. I now realize that the vents are in a HORRIBLE place. The gentle slope on the bottom front of the laptop that gives it such a sleek style is where MSI decided to put the vents (on the left and right bottom corners). This makes it to where when you set this on your lap, the chances of you blocking the fans are about pretty good. Now if you're like me, if you're using the laptop for a while, you need to shift positions once in a while and you always have to do it in a way to make sure you're not blocking the vents, which is actually a lot harder than it sounds, cause when you type or use the touchpad (which is pretty much ANY time you use it), you're resting your hands/palms on the front side of the laptop, which pushes it down a little and kind of forces the vents to be covered for the most part. I know this may sound trivial to some that think they can avoid it, but believe me, if you intend to use this on your lap, the chances of it overheating are pretty dang good. I'm always having to check the bottom left side now to make sure it's staying cool, and a lot of times it's heating up a bit. So basically, if you're consciously being away of the vent position and making sure it's not covered up, it stay very cool, but if you get lost in what you're doing on the laptop for a little bit and forget about the vent situation, you may find it overheating on you and shutting down.

So with all that said, the overheating and keyboard are probably going to result in me sending it back. I've already got an RMA from the place I bought this online, and told my wife it's up to her whether we keep it or not, as I finally got all the OS, drivers, and software stuff working prime, so now it's just a matter of the design flaws making or breaking it. I did have an issue where on my wife's user profile, we couldn't copy and paste anything anywhere (tried copying a number of different music files and documents to other folders and Windows Explorer/File Browser would crash every time). That appeared to be more of an OS glitch, apparently with something I installed, so after a system recovery, I got that solved and running clean. And I probably won't install Adobe CS4, just cause there's no reason to waste my time if we're going to send it back.

All in all, a great ultra-portable laptop at an unbelievable price, but a few oversights by MSI in compromising functionality to look sleeker has led this to be one of those notebooks that may not be worth the hassle, especially when they probably could have easily put the vents on the side and made smaller keys with bigger spaces...which would have made this the PERFECT ultra-portable laptop. It's just really one of those things you'll have to evaluate if the price is worth the flaws I've mentioned above. Feel free to ask me any questions you have and I'll do my best to answer them (while I still have the laptop).

Comment: I have the 021 model which is identical to this one except it has the 4-cell battery, Vista vs Win 7, and more flex in the keyboard. This model was updated to fix the flex and add additional battery life and Win 7. Virtually the same, otherwise.

Summary: This is an excellent value in an "ultra-thin" notebook and performs well for the "super-netbook" category.

I was looking for something light and handy for everyday use (email, web, etc.). I already have a gaming laptop so I was OK with no gfx card for this unit. I have a netbook which is nice, but the small screen was becoming an issue for me. I felt this 13.4 inch screen, still fairly compact design would hit the sweet spot for me for web surfing and such. And it does.

The build quality seems fine for the price. Plastic surfaces yes, but nice appearance even so. Everything seems sturdy enough -- not "rugged" by any means, but fine for its intended use. The unit looks very nice and is well designed. I like having the vents on the angular wall of the case, as this means they won't easily get blocked when you set it down. It seems to run cool. It gets warm, but not hot anywhere.

Performance is definitely good enough for something in the near-netbook/ultra-portable category. I open lots of tabs in Firefox, often multiple windows with lots of tabs, and it does fine. I would not do video editing on it, but for general use, no problems.

It has a good complement of ports and they are well located. The display is bright, sharp, colors fine. Viewing angles typical for this class (i.e. OK, but not great). There was very little bloatware on mine (thankfully).

All in all, it seems very well suited for my intended purpose which is basically a "better netbook" -- I wouldn't be so happy at the original price (not enough processor) but at current prices, I think this is a very good deal. The ultra-thin design and the nice 1366x768 13.4" display are the high points. Its ultra-thin, sleek, sexy design is without peer at this price point.

Comment: This is the updated X340-218 with the improved keyboard and standard 8 cell battery.

I bought this knowing that an(other) update is imminent in the X350 (core 2 duo vs core 2 solo processor), as I needed an update to my netbook ASAP. I have the eee pc 1005ha and, while a great little netbook, it just couldn't handle video as well as I had hoped and the 10" screen was really starting to feel cramped.

The X340 is quite the specimen. With the 8 cell battery, it really has some heft (feels like a solid machine), but it is still amazingly thin and very light. Holding it in your hand, it feels like no other computer except for possibly the Macbook Air. It handles 720p HD video with minor stutter (only at the beginning), and it can multitask enough for my purposes. I installed a fresh copy of Windows 7 Ultimate on it immediately, and it runs exceedingly well. Battery life so far seems excellent; I got approximately 6-7 hours on a full charge of mixed use (using wifi/browsing, screen at 75% brightness, listening to music/itunes, and syncing my iPhone). The 13" screen is razor sharp and the perfect size (I had considered buying the 15", but now I'm really glad I didn't).

Negatives? I kinda wish they would've thrown in the 4 cell battery as well (when you want as little weight as possible), and the duo processor would've been nice for snappier multitasking. Also, the trackpad, while not a deal breaker, could be improved (downloading the driver from the manufacturer really helped a lot, though). Silver color in this configuration would've been nice, too.

All in all, for a computer this eye-catching at this price, I am thrilled with this purchase, and I would completely recommend it to anyone who wants style without sacrificing performance (too much) at a really affordable price.