Hands-On with the MSI X400 and X600

Last month we reviewed MSI’s ultra thin and almost Macbook Air-like X340. The first notebook powered by Intel’s ULV platform, the $899 system was impressive in design and its performance was better than a netbook, but not quite as powerful as a Centrino 2 system. MSI is building out the X-Series family and giving the X340 two larger siblings – the X400 and the X600.

Today we visited MSI’s headquarters and got a nice look at the entire family together.

The x400 is by far the most premium out of the family. With a 14-inch display, as compared to the x340’s 13-inch, the notebook is only slightly larger in comparison. Jazzing up the design a bit, MSI added a silver trim to the edges and around the touchpad and the palm rest has a textured, leather-like covering. As for its insides, the X400 will have the same configuration as the X340 including Intel’s ULV processor, 2GB of RAM, a 250GB The storage device that holds your OS, programs, and data.
Learn Morehard drive and Vista Home Premium. Similar to the X340, the X400 should get around 4 hours of battery life with its standard battery.

The X600 is the largest of the group, with a 16-inch display. It has the same chassis as the X340, but its larger display allows for a full size keyboard with a numeric keypad. Unlike the 13 and 14 inch models, the 16 inch version will have ATI 430 Graphics chips are responsible for processing all images sent to your computer?s display.
Learn Morediscrete graphics with 512MB of video memory. It will have the Intel Core 2 Solo 3500 processor, 2GB of RAM, 250GB hard drive and pack Windows Vista Home Premium. However, the demo unit we saw was running Windows 7 ($77.49).

MSI plans to launch both the X400 and X600 in the U.S. in the next month or so. Pricing has not been firmed up yet but all SKUs are likely to be under a grand.