adamia

Today we became the proud owners of a brand new MSI Wind ultra-portable notebook PC. Also known as the U100, the Wind is MSI's alternative to the pricier Asus EEE PC. The Wind has been delayed several times and is listed as unavailable on every online vendor that is supposed to carry it (as of 07/12/2008), and Fry's is the only retail vendor to carry it. Fry's is the ultimate electronics store here in California, and it turned out that only 2 Fry's had Winds in stock: they just happened to be the stores near us in San Diego. If you don't want to read my story yet and just want to see the video: MSI Wind (U100) Unboxing in HD from Adam Smith on Vimeo.

After calling the local Fry's and asking about the item, their rep swore that they had no such item. I had to call the other store, get bounced around several departments, and finally find someone who knew their stuff before confirming that it was in fact at their location. He then confirmed that the store closer to us also had it in stock whether they knew it or not. We took off for the Fry's near us and had quite an experience.

I've rarely seen so many nerds so excited about a computer before. None of the Fry's junior employees knew they had it, and half of them started practically bouncing up and down when I mentioned it. I had to describe the technical specs for it in some detail before he could find it in their system. It turns out they mis-categorized it as a "barebones" system. Sure, a barebones laptop. That makes sense. After inquiring about getting it in pink, he discovered that the whole lot was set to "release to vendor" -- they were about to be shipped back to MSI, with no guarantee that it would ever see Fry's again. At this point, the manager said they had to sell it to us if we wanted it, and the rarity of the machine in our hands was too much to pass up. Fortunately my wife was fine getting the black one.

To cut to the chase, we inspected it like mad, and my wife was sure she was fine with the 20% smaller keyboard and 10" screen. The Wind really does have a impressive keyboard for the size of the machine, and the screen is great to look at considering how light and portable this thing is. $500 is, in my opinion, a steal for how decked out it is. Our good luck streak wasn't quite finished either...

It turns out that because they had it mis-categorized in their computers as a barebones system, the full replacement 3-year warranty was only $69.99. I hadn't planned to get a warranty at all since I was expecting it to cost 60% of the price of the laptop. At $70 for a 3-year warranty on a laptop, I couldn't pass it up. All in all with warranty and taxes it was just over $600. Quite a bit cheaper than the Mac Pro I'm holding out for...