MSI X340 doesn't 'match' the MacBook Air

MSI X340 is a thin and light 13-inch ultra-portable laptop with a nice design but the keyboard should be better.

MSI X340 doesn't 'match' the MacBook Air Picture 1
MSI X340 is reported to be 899 USD. Photo: Yugatech .

Ever since Apple launched the MacBook Air, none of the laptops with that "slender" body have been priced to match the "average" customer class. With the announced price of 899 USD, MSI X340 also owns the "body" that is not inferior to the Apple MacBook Air for $ 1,799 but also fits in an envelope.

However, the MSI X340 cannot match the MacBook Air in terms of "internal organs" because MacBook Air is powered by a powerful Intel Core 2 Duo Nvidia graphics chip while the X340 uses ULV power-saving processors and Intel integrated graphics card. However, the highlight of the X340 is a good battery life and a cheap enough price suitable for a machine configuration just enough to implement basic needs of users. The downside of MSI X340 is that the keyboard and plastic case are not sure, if not "rickety".

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The thinnest place on the body is 6 mm, the thickest is 20 mm. Photo: Flickr .

When looking at the side, the X340 is extremely "slim". At 330 x 271 mm, the X340 and MacBook Air occupy the same space, but the X340 is thicker than the Air. The thinnest place on the X340 body is 6 mm and the thickest place is 20 mm. Meanwhile, the corresponding thickness on the Air is 4 mm and 19 mm. The weight of the device is about 1.3 kg compared to 1.6 kg including the charger - slightly lighter than the MacBook Air. The design of the X340 also demonstrates the high aesthetics with sexy curved edges that cover all four corners.

The X340 is sold with two classic black and white colors. Glossy high quality plastic case with MSI logo in the middle, glowing when running. However, the body and shell do not look as solid as the high-class aluminum aluminum frame of the MacBook Air as well as the alloy body of other ultraportables like the Lenovo ThinkPad X200. Besides, the glossy plastic lid makes it easy to leave fingerprints that are not aesthetically pleasing.

A few millimeters thicker than the MacBook Air, the X340 has enough space for both VGA, Ethernet, and HDMI connections, and a 2-in-1 card reader, on the left, and 2 USB ports with a headphone / microphone jack on the right. .

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Machine has a wide keyboard. Photo: Electronicpulp .

MSI X340 has a large keyboard, but when used, you will have an unstable "rickety" feeling, and especially when you type hard. In addition, the Shift key must be smaller than normal. In general, MSI should have equipped this product with a better keyboard. The keyboard of the MacBook Air, ThinkPad X200 or even the Samsung NC20 netbook are all appreciated and better than MSI's.

Large touchpad (size 86 x 53 mm), comfortable for users to control the cursor across the screen. But as many users expect, MSI should use 2 left mouse buttons - instead of a shared key, and this key is a bit "loose" when stressed. In addition, MSI also offers a separate mouse with a neatly wrapped USB cable in the mouse body.

X340 uses a 13.4-inch LED backlight mirror with a resolution of 1,366 x 768 pixels, which is bright and clear. When watching movies, the screen provides vivid color images with wide viewing angles from the sides. Its contrast and brightness are also good, which can be clearly seen when used outdoors or even cloudy.

The dual speaker set is placed under the front edge of a moderate quality, suitable for the "slender" body. Even when watching movies and listening to music, the sound is clear and loud enough.

The 1.3 Megapixel webcam is located just above the screen for clear images when playing videos. The chat buddy on the other side of the camera can see your hair style well and hear your words thanks to an integrated microphone on the left side of the Webcam.

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The machine uses a power-saving microprocessor. Photo: Slashgear .

MSI X340 is the first laptop to use Intel's new ULV power-saving processor line. The processor is specifically built for ultraportables and is better able to implement Intel Atom being equipped with netbooks, as well as the ability to use less power than Intel Centrino 2 models. The X340 runs Windows Vista operating system on the 1.4 GHz Intel Penryn Core 2 Solo SU3500 ULV processor, 2 GB RAM with a score of 1.658 when testing PCMark Vantage - evaluating system performance. This is 228 points higher than the HP Pavilion dv2 ultraportable - the first laptop to use a dedicated AMD Neo processor for ultra-thin and light machines. Also higher than netbooks using 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 processor. But the 1,658 is lower than the 2,751 average of the ultraportable, while the MacBook Air uses the Intel Centrino 2 processor with a score of 3,684, and is only half that compared to the ThinkPad X200.

With 4.97 GB of mixed data copy testing, the X340's 320 GB HDD requires 3 minutes 49 seconds with an average transfer rate of 22.2 MB per second, higher than the average of 14.4 netbooks. MB / second and ultraportable laptop are 19.4 MB per second. X340 only takes 1 minute 5 seconds to boot into Windows. This is an average with ultraportable models.

X340 performs well on everyday tasks, such as creating documents with Microsoft Word 2007, surfing the web at the same time, opening a multi-page tab using Firefox or watching 720p (high definition) videos with Windows Media Player. But with multi-tasking processing is a bit "sluggish".

Testing to convert an MPEG-4 video file with a duration of 5 minutes 5 seconds, 114 MB capacity to .AVI format with Handbrake, the X340 needs 18 minutes and 12 seconds, nearly 4 minutes faster than the HP Pavilion dv2. However, when compressing data files with a total capacity of 4.97 GB using WinZip, the X340 took 33 minutes and 24 seconds while the HP Pavilion dv2 only needed 30 minutes and 45 seconds.

Another 13-inch model, the Gateway UC7807u, uses an Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 2.0 GHz processor, which takes 7 minutes 53 seconds and 15 minutes and 11 seconds respectively for the tests.

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The X340 uses a 4-cell battery but lasts longer than the MacBook Air. Photo: Bloggdn .

The X340 also comes equipped with integrated graphics card, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500 MHD, which runs well when watching .WMV 720p video files downloaded from Microsoft's digital content WMV HD Content Showcase. At the same time, the test also found no difficulty when exporting to HDTV via the HDMI connector on the computer with standard audio and video.

The X340 uses a 4-cell battery with the duration of Web surfing over Wi-Fi continuously for 3 hours 38 minutes, much longer than the 2 hours and 8 minutes of the MacBook Air and 2 hours and 31 minutes of the HP Pavilion dv2. While the average of ultraportables is about 5 hours of continuous operation with a 6-cell battery. MSI also offers a choice of 8-cell battery that lasts twice as much as the 4-cell battery.