I decided to write this in English just to give it a try. This is about my experience when I had to accompany one of my boss to buy a nettop. I title this ‘second luck’ because during the past fasting month I got two surprises, one of which I have written prior to this entry, and the second one is the one that you are reading now. This story can also be taken as a laying out of my personal view on the presently popular device: nettop.
It started when I was asked by one of my bosses for the best laptop in the market that fits for him. He said that he heard laptop price has become affordable. “There are ones around three million rupiah”, he said. I explained that ‘the three million ones’ were those that were different with what I called ‘normal laptop’. It is called UMPC (Ultra Mobile Personal Computer), or people call it ‘nettop’. I didn’t give him long speech about it but giving him a CHIP magazine that has review on some nettops in it. I said, just believe in the review because the magazine has a good reputation (at the same time I kinda set my self free from the responsibility 
The review put three brands / types as the most recommended ones: Acer Aspire One D-150, MSI Win U-100 plus, and Advan A1N70T. I think the latter would not be available globally as it’s a local product (said to be so, but I don’t really believe it’s 100% made in Indonesia).
As there are still 3 choices, he asked me to recommend one that is most worth buying. I am personally more into MSI Wind. Acer and MSI use the same type of processor (Atom N-280) and with almost the same specs. However, it is not the case with the keyboard. MSI has larger keyboard size, and that is sure going to enhance typing. (I forgot the exact number of the size). While in case with Advan, it has the same keyboard size with the Wind but Advan uses a lower speed processor (N-270), although the difference with N-280 doesn’t seem to be that much. I also showed him some reviews from Internet on MSI Wind U100 Plus. Having all that, he came to be sure that the Wind was the one that he would buy.
My search result has leaded me to PT. Alfa Artha Andaya, a distributing company for MSI products. The good news was, it has a branch office in Bandung. It was in BE Mall, and I made the call right away to ask the price. It turns out that the price is higher than 3 Millions Rupiah. With the standard spec, and free bonus of an optical mouse and carrying case, the Wind is tagged for exactly 4 million. When I told him the price, he seemed to have a second thought about it, but I convinced him that the Wind is the best among the rest (at least from the lines of nettops reviewed in CHIP). In addition, CHIP is a magazine has long been known for its reputation for product review. It was only by chance that I still had an old edition of CHIP that has review on early version of nettops. That was at the time when nettop was about to be popular. Even that old review put MSI Wind U100 (without plus) as the all round best product, and at that time the price was 5,8 million. I left him with the decision and at the same time I recommend him some other reviews about nettop from Internet.
Few days later, he called me, saying that he had his mind set for that MSI Wind U-100 plus, also asking me when I could accompany him to BE Mall. It just so happened that I had nothing else to do that afternoon, so I said yes, and off to BE Mall right away. Thanks to Internet, to make a purchase I don’t have to go from one store to another. Once we get to BE Mall we just ask people for a few directions and within minutes we could locate the store. The Alfa Artha Andaya is located at one of the corners at the first floor. Then we ask for the Wind, but once my boss saw it, I got this unexpected response from him. He complained for the small size of the screen. I replied that it was meant to be so and that also goes for the all three-million-range-of-price nettops. It has such size because it is designed to be easy-to-carry / portable. I cought him thinking with a little dissapointment in his face, then he tried to type something on the keyboard, as if he wanted to try how the keyboard felt. He didn’t want to stay longer and then rushed me to go outside while telling me that he wanted to look for some others as comparison.
We hit some other stores and found a few brands that were not reviewed by CHIP. They were Lenovo, Elevo, and Toshiba, but since they belong to the same class, the size of the screen were not much different. Elevo and Toshiba was more exprensive than MSI Wind, but Lenovo is exactly at 4 million. Once again he complained for the screen size. How could one be able to see anything properly thru such a small screen ? To be honest, that was actually the first time I ever examined nettop. I knew already that the screen in average was around 10,1’ at best, but I never knew that it was actually THAT small (I didn’t have any idea of how small 10,1’ is before !!). I was quite stunned my self and kind of changing my secret wish so far that I also want to have one. This is not meant to be offensive but honestly, just what kind of productivity you could bring out from such a computer ? It’s more like a toy to me, although the design distracts you for some rather serious device. I took the chance to try out Lenovo and Elevo at two different stores. I felt like I had to type carefully or I hit the wrong letters. I know that for any kind of quirks and bizarrenes in the world, all we have to do is to afford some time to get used to them, but if I don’t feel comfortable with nettop, it sure would matter worst for my boss who are older and have started having problem with his eyesight.
I thought that was not his lucky day because I foresaw he would go home empty handed. But the running of the day has turned out to a different path when we accidentally saw a normal size laptop but at the same price with MSI Wind. At first I didn’t believe what I saw but when I found the type of processor in it, I could understand the tag price, but with a sheer doubt in mind. The processor was Celeron, but it’s a dual core Celeron! The brand name is Axioo, the type is MNC 815C. I examined the specs and concluded that it’s far more superior than any nettop in the market. In comparison with MSI Wind U-100 plus, the specs of the two are as follows :
MSI Wind : AXIOO MNC 815C :
Processor Intel Atom N-280 Intel Celeron 2 Core T-3000
Memory 1 Gigabyte 1 Gigabyte
Max Memory 2 Gigabye 4 Gigabyte
Harddisk 160 Gigabye 250 Gigabye
Chipset Intel 945GSE SiS M672 + SiS 968
VGA Intel® GMA 950 Sis Mirage 3+
Screen 10,1’ WSVGA TFT 14,1’ WXGA TFT
Opt Drive - DVD Writer
For other additional peripherals, such as camera, wifi, usb, audio, and so forth, they come as standard as what others offer, but eight points above should already make clear of which one is superior. The most interesting point here is that both are offered with the same price: 4 million. Ok, anything with SiS in it, based on my experience, belongs to low end line of computers, but I think it should not always be the case, minding that my experience were mostly on desktop computers. If I were faced with this choice, it is definitely not a dilemma. I would not have a second thought on choosing.
In regard with processor, it is crystal clear that Axioo’s is more powerful. Yes, it is true that Celeron has smaller L1 cache, but the clock is at 1,80 Ghz, while the Atom is at 1,66 Ghz. Not to mention, it’s a dual core, meaning that the processing can be run in parallel (the workload is allocated to two cores) resulting faster execution. The amount of standard physical memory is the same (1 Gig), but the expansion potential is different. Wind can only be at max 2 Gig, while Axioo can be as much as 4 Gig. This can be crucial when it’s decided that the computer is to use the latest OS, like Windows 7 or to run 64 bit OS. As with harddisk, it is also clear that Axioo’s wins. The same goes with the screen, as this is a ‘normal size’ laptop. Last but not least, it’s the existence of optical drive in Axioo, while one could only wish that to exist at the Wind. Both are offered at the same price. Having seen and compared the two, my boss changed his mind, making all of the reviews that he had read before came to be good for nothing.
Then he decided to buy Axioo, but what surprised me was that he asked for 2. I thought he stuck on 4 million for the reason of budget constraint. Supposedly he had at least 8 million, then I should have been able to show him a much better / powerful laptop. I pointed that out to him and he understood, but he didn’t change his mind on buying 2. And this was what took me by surprise: he said that I could have one of the laptop. I was like, ‘WHAT ?’ He knew that the laptop that I had been using was the one that owned by the office. I myself could only wish that I could have one. He tells me that he buys me the laptop so that when he has trouble with his one, he could just call me because we have the same laptop. He, he … whatever you say, I said by heart. Who could resist such an offer ? And when I write this, I have used the laptop for almost 2 weeks now. So far so good.
I plan to write a more in depth review on Axioo Neon MNC 815C later.
BTW: so far my search has not found any more brand with the same price for ‘normal size’ laptop. The 815C is really a much better choice than the tiny, minuscule so-called nettop.
(Hey, I could write all this in English!)
