Audio and Video Quality, Heat and Weight
Audio Quality
The speakers on the MSI U230 are not any special and typical of your small netbook speaker – the high frequencies were hard on the ears, and there wasn’t good definition in the mid and low frequencies. I did find the speakers adequate for general daily use for some video playback heavy in dialog and Skype calls, but preferred using headphones for most other content.
Video Quality
As stated in the earlier in this article, the screen only tilts back slightly thus making it harder to view or read the screen depending on your posture and position. Thus colours can look flat and features too pale because of the angle. At the optimal view angle, the quality of colours were nice, text was easy to read and HD movies looked sharp and had decent contrast. The shadows can be a bit light, but adjusting the gamma slightly improved this. Overall a decent 12.1″ panel for everyday usage.
Heat
*ambient temperature = 22.2 C / 72.0 F
*ambient temperature = 22.2 C / 72.0 F
*ambient temperature = 22.2 C / 72.0 F
23.8 C / 74.8 F reading measured 2″ from exhaust port.
Weight
Heat
The MSI U230 can get fairly warm especially the area near the
exhaust port. While not hot enough to hurt anyone, it does highlight the
fact that you should take care to put the U230 on a hard, flat surface
if doing anything computationally intensive.
*ambient temperature = 22.2 C / 72.0 F
*ambient temperature = 22.2 C / 72.0 F
*ambient temperature = 22.2 C / 72.0 F
23.8 C / 74.8 F reading measured 2″ from exhaust port.
Weight
The weight of the MSI U230 is on par for products of this size.
Weighing in at just 3.2 lbs with its battery, it is slightly lighter than the similarly
configured Acer Ferrari One 200.
can you upgrade the cpu?
can you upgrade the cpu?