MSI Announces WindPad 110W With New AMD Z-01
by Dustin Sklavos on July 7, 2011 4:26 PM ESTThe tablet market is expanding every bit as rapidly as netbooks did when they first arrived, and then some. MSI has announced their entry into the market today, and it's a very different breed of tablet compared to the largely Android-based units available. The new WindPad 110W has a heck of a lot going on under the hood, including some new kit from AMD.
Unlike the Android-based tablets that have been multiplying in the market, the WindPad 110W is running a full-on Windows 7 Home Premium installation, and a peek under the hood reveals a beastly amount of hardware for a tablet.
At the center of the 110W is the AMD Z-01 APU, a 1GHz dual-core processor with a TDP of just 5.9 watts. Essentially a lower-clocked, much lower-power version of the E-350 we're so fond of, the Z-01 brings with it Radeon HD 6250 graphics with 80 stream processors clocked at 276MHz. Strapped to the single-channel memory controller is 4GB of DDR3, which should be more than enough for what the WindPad is intended for.
The rest of the 110W is no slouch either, with a 32GB SSD integrated, 802.11b/g/n networking, and Bluetooth 3.0 support. The 10" screen is an IPS panel with a 1280x800 resolution. External connectivity is handled by a mini-HDMI port, an SD card reader, and a single USB 2.0 port. If there's one place where the WindPad falters compared to other tablets, though, it's the integrated cameras: both the front-facing and rear-facing cameras are only 1.3 megapixel, miles behind the rest of the pack.
MSI ships it with a two-cell, 4200mAh battery, a Trusted Platform Module, and personalized software for ease of use with touch control. That's important since Windows 7's touch-based controls still leave something to be desired. At 1.87 lbs. it's not too heavy but will definitely be noticeable.
Presales are starting now at Newegg and Amazon, for a reasonable MSRP of $599.
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duploxxx - Friday, July 8, 2011 - link
i might buy this i.s.o my ipad2 but only when the OS would be more tablet oriented, i am affraid that win7 just won't cut it with the features like other tablets have, but then again not sure since i dedn't test it yet.on the other hand its easier with all the windows apps that are out there and common used...
extide - Saturday, July 9, 2011 - link
good lord you guys need to friggin LEARN what the winsxs folder is. You windows folder is NOT as big as right click -> properties says. That method counts most of the files twice (or more).Also turn off hibernate and / or make your swap file smaller.
prime2515103 - Thursday, July 7, 2011 - link
Throw in Gorilla Glass and a pen and I'll take one.surt - Thursday, July 7, 2011 - link
I want a 1920x1080 tablet so I can play movies in native resolution and not get the horrible artifacting from the rescaling that you get on ipad2 etc.LGrill - Thursday, July 7, 2011 - link
Thinking the same, not so much for movies but just a higher resolution in general. Plus the fact NVIDIA Tegra 4 is around the corner.ppeterka - Friday, July 8, 2011 - link
<sarcasm>So let me summarize: you are playing HD movies on a tablet, and your biggest problem is that it has artifacts. Man, do I admire you....
Ok, I'm not a big movie fan, I rarely ever watch them, and that's in a proper cinema. There I'd be pissed off to see artifacts, but I usually don't...
Would I ever crave for watching movies on the go, I wouldn't give sh*t about the picture quality, given the resolution is at least 800x480...
But I have an idea: Get yourself a 22" HD LED display, and get a sizey UPS to power it, while you travel. Now you all have to do is to duct tape the tablet to the display, and connect them via HDMI. I bet image quality will be good enough. Oh, also be sure to get an IPS panel display...
</sarcasm>
jonup - Friday, July 8, 2011 - link
What is the obsession with high resolution on ~10" display. I've worked on 1080p 15.6" laptop before and it was god awful. I have a perfect eye sight but after a week of using it I probably needed some glasses. I work with a lot of spreadsheets and generally if one does not fit in 720p it won't fit in 1080p. If all you do on a tablet is watch movie, then be my guest. For everyone else 1080p on a 10" screen is a waste (burden).Wieland - Friday, July 8, 2011 - link
Making a screen high resolution doesn't mean that all text on it has to be small and hard to read. The best example is the difference between the iPhone 4 and it's predecessors; Apple quadrupled the resolution without changing the scale. You can adjust the scale of text globally in windows, and android scales everything. If the text on your device is too small, change the scale. If you can't change the scale, it's a software problem, not a hardware problem.Eyestrain doesn't cause bad eyesight. That's a myth that has lived on for far too long.
Justin Case - Friday, July 8, 2011 - link
Looking at a screen is no different from looking at a sheet of paper at a similar distance and under similar lighting, but eyestrain can cause problems, same as straining any other part of your body. It's usually temporary (same as any other part of your body), but as you get older things are more likely to "snap".I know a professional photographer (in his 50s) who went from normal eyesight to having to wear glasses (presbyopia, right eye only) after an intensive 2-day photoshoot. There was probably already something wrong with his eye, but clearly the extra effort caused some damage that his body just gave up on repairing.
Wieland - Friday, July 8, 2011 - link
Are you sure that isn't just a problem with the video player, video hardware? It shouldn't be showing any artifacts no matter how you scale the video.Moving to 16:10 will make scaling much less of an issue for this tablet. Sure, 1080p would be ideal, but it's pretty easy to turn 1080p video into 720p.