Shiny, black, thin, and quick
A number of affordable new systems are hitting the market, a rung or two above traditional netbooks, that offer some potent mixes of computing power, price, and portability. Those choices are being made possible by new hardware, in some cases. Already, we've taken a look at the Via Nano-powered Samsung NC20 and the Athlon Neo-equipped HP Pavilion dv2. Both are bigger and better than a netbook, and we've liked them both for different reasons.
Now comes another novel entry from MSI, the X-Slim X340, that features a sleek but familiar design and, yes, another new type of mobile CPU. Inside of the X340's svelte enclosure beats an Intel Core 2 Solo SU3500, a 1.4GHz single-core processor that serves as a distinctive step up from the Atom CPU inside of darn near every netbook on the market. Yet the X340's underlying hardware remains cheap enough that you can pick up this painfully stylish MacBook Air clone for a penny under 800 bucks, well shy of the cost of the real McCoy.
MSI has concocted an awfully potent formula, then. Does it deserve to detonate your credit card balance? Let's have a look.
The X-Slim shady
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