MSI Mega Book S250

Though the year 2004 was proclaimed as the year of the laptop and sub 30K laptops coming true, laptops didn't really take off. The sub 30K laptops were more portable desktops than laptops, as they are not only heavy, but also seem to have a battery life of less than one hour. Sure, there are good ultra portables in the market, but their price is out of reach for most people. This is where MSI Mega Book S250 comes in. Before I say anything about it, just consider these factors, an ultra portable laptop that weighs less than 2 Kg and looks almost as good as an Apple.

The Laptop core consists of an Intel Celeron M 1.4 GHz, 256 MB DDR RAM, Toshiba 40 GB HDD and SiS M661MX GPU. The display chip memory is shared with the main system memory and hence you will never get the full 256 MB for your system requirements. In our case, we kept the display chip shared memory at 64 MB and so we were able to utilize only 190 MB. It sports a 12.1" WXGA screen with on-the-fly adjustable brightness keys. Also don't mistake it for just a Celeron-based laptop and miss out the Wi-Fi specifications. It has Wireless LAN 802.11 b/g support and a 3-in-1 card reader.

The secondary storage has been taken care of by a CR-RW/DVD-ROM combo. There are three USB 2.0 ports and one mini USB port, which are adequate for an average user. Also, it has Audio In/Out, with an option of digital audio out. This laptop can be used for presentations on projectors or large screens as a VGA out port is also present. Other than that, it has four hot keys on the top of the keypad whose default functions are Internet browser, email client and search functions.






For communication purpose, there's a 56.6 Kbps modem and a 10/100 LAN built inside. So basically, the laptop has everything a person needs. There are also speakers built just below the screen, which has a decent output. The screen has a 16:10 ratio format and somehow, even though it seems odd, it was very comfortable to work on such as screen. In fact after getting used to the screen, I found it difficult to switch to my old monitor. One downside of this laptop is the effect of the CD spinning inside the CD-ROM drive. The whole laptop starts vibrating the moment a CD is placed inside. Perhaps it could be due to the lightweight nature of the laptop. Wait a minute; I still haven't mentioned the weight. It weighs around 1.8 Kg and has a dimension of just 303 (l) x 225 (d) x 28 (h) mm. It is practically possible to fit this laptop into any bag. Also, the silvery finish makes it a very cool looking laptop. 

Benchmark Results

Before we move on to the performance, let's get a few things straight. As this a lightweight laptop, we didn't expect great results from it, but it is capable enough for data processing, Internet, music and movies. If you are planning to play the latest games on it, please excuse this one, as this is capable of playing games only released before 2000.

Sisoft Sandra Benchmarks

PC Mark 2004

In terms of performance, it is near an AMD Athlon XP1600+. This is good enough for most of the work done on computer, be it Internet applications or Accounting software. If you see the CPU Arithmetic Benchmark, the laptop performs similar to an AMD Opteron 1.5 GHz. That alone should explain the overall performance of the laptop. In File System benchmarks, the data transfer touched 22 Mbps. 

So, is this a perfect laptop? Yes, to an extent. It is lightweight, looks sleek and performances well. The only disappointment is the low battery life. On full charge, it last only up to 90 minutes. But, this laptop is available with two battery packs, one four cell based 2200mAh and the other eight cell based 4400mAh. The one we received was a four cell based 2200mAh. So, practically an eight cell based 4400mAh battery will last for nearly three hours, which is good enough. Obviously getting such a cell pack will increase the cost.





Conclusion
If you are searching for a good laptop, which has a balance between features, performance and price, then look no further. The MSI Mega Book S250 is available for Rs. 65,000/- with one year of warranty. Though a bit expensive, it is hard to find a similar lightweight laptop for that price. Also, this laptop doesn't sacrifice on performance. The only downside of the laptop was the low battery life, which can be solved by getting an eight cell based 4400mAh battery pack. But as of now, there's no price information on the battery pack, but they will be available here soon. Other than that, your search for a perfect laptop has finally come to an end.

Test Unit Sourced From: Cyberstar Infocom Ltd., Mumbai.