More of AMD’s Brazos E-350 with the MSI X370 and Sony VAIO YB
by Jarred Walton & Dustin Sklavos on March 14, 2011 4:50 PM ESTMSI’s Ultra Slim X370: Bigger Isn’t Always Better
First up is the MSI X370, an ultra slim 13.3” portable. The base model we received for testing measures less than an inch thick, making it comparable to the MacBook Air in some ways. Where it doesn’t compare is in performance or industrial design, as MSI is still using glossy plastic just about everywhere, and the frame doesn’t have the feeling of solidity and durability that you’d get from a MacBook Air or Pro 13. Here are the basic specs for our test system.
| MSI X370 Specifications | |
| Processor |
AMD E-350 (2x1.6GHz, 40nm, 1MB L2, 18W) |
| Chipset | AMD Hudson FCH |
| Memory | 1x4GB DDR3-1333 @ DDR3-1066 CL7 |
| Graphics |
AMD Radeon HD 6310 IGP (80 Stream Processors, 500MHz core clock) |
| Display |
13.4" LED Glossy 16:9 1366x768 (Samsung 134AT01-G01 Panel) |
| Hard Drive(s) |
500GB 7200RPM (Seagate ST9500420AS) |
| Optical Drive | - |
| Networking |
Realtek RTL8168/8111 PCIe Gigabit Ethernet Realtek RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n Bluetooth 2.1 (Windigo BTM01C2AC) |
| Audio |
Realtek ALC269 HD Audio Stereo speakers Headphone and microphone jacks |
| Battery |
4-Cell, 14.8V, 2.15A, 32Wh battery 8-Cell, 14.8V, 4.3A, 64Wh battery |
| Front Side |
Speakers Indicator lights |
| Left Side |
Exhaust vent SD/MMC reader HDMI Gigabit Ethernet VGA |
| Right Side |
Exhaust vent 2x USB 2.0 Headphone and microphone jacks AC adapter |
| Back Side | N/A |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit |
| Dimensions |
4-cell: 12.99" x 8.94" x 0.82"-0.88" (WxDxH) 8-cell: 12.99" x 8.94" x 0.82"-1.78" (WxDxH) |
| Weight |
4-cell: 3.37 lbs. 8-cell: 3.81 lbs. |
| Extras |
1.3MP webcam Flash reader (MMC, SD/Mini SD) 87-key keyboard |
| Warranty | 1-year limited warranty (?) |
| Pricing | Unknown at present |
Other than the hard drive and the battery, a few differences in port selection and location, and coming with 1x4GB DDR3 memory, the X370 has the same basic specs as the HP dm1z. Keep in mind that despite having a single 4GB SO-DIMM, since the Brazos platform uses a single 64-bit memory channel there’s no advantage to two memory slots other than expansion. Total system memory bandwidth is just 8.5GB/s, which could be part of the reason some games struggle to reach playable frame rates. The other part of the reason is that, while the Bobcat core can easily beat up on Atom CPU in terms of performance, it’s no match for faster architectures like Core 2 or K10—in fact, even a 1.3GHz CULV is faster than the E-350. What you end up with is significantly better than Atom performance (particularly on the GPU side), with nearly Atom levels of battery life, and good (for a netbook/ultraportable) graphics. Or put another way, you get a much better IGP than Intel’s GMA 4500MHD that was commonly paired up with CULV processors, with similar power requirements but lower CPU performance.
One other area where MSI’s X370—along with most other Brazos laptops—beats Atom is in the networking options. Like the HP and Sony, we get Gigabit Ethernet along with the standard 802.11n networking. Considering there’s no internal optical drive and I like to install games and applications over my GbE network, I definitely appreciate the extra $0.25 MSI spent here. On the other hand, it comes with just two USB 2.0 ports, both on the right side; a third (or even fourth) on the left would have been nice to get.
Moving on to the design and construction, the very thin body is comparable to Apple’s MacBook Air on a superficial level. Of course, outside of the thinness, there’s very little that the two platforms share in common. The X370 is predominantly plastic in construction, which is similar to the basic MacBook, only you get black with a pattern instead of glossy white. The MacBook is also slightly thicker and weighs more, but it comes with an optical drive and larger 63.5Wh battery by default. As we mentioned up top, performance is also heavily in favor of the MacBook, even with an aging Core 2 P8600; the GeForce 320M IGP is quite a large step up as well, even if it lacks DX11 support.
There’s another catch with the size and dimensions: the ultra slim form factor is only there if you use the 4-cell battery, which checks in at just 32Wh; MSI shipped us an 8-cell 64Wh battery wedge as well, which as expected doubles (slightly more) the battery life but bumps the thickness up to nearly 2” at the rear. Ideally, we’d like to get the higher 64Wh battery capacity while maintaining the slim form factor, but as far as protruding batteries go this 8-cell unit isn’t bad. It’s flat and wide, so you can still comfortably use the X370 on your lap or other surfaces. Still, there’s no sense in shipping a laptop with a 32Wh battery these days; it may last “long enough” for most users initially, but you know that a year or so down the road it will only hold half of its charge and suddenly you’re dealing with a 1-2 hour battery life at best. Spending $100 extra for the larger 8-cell doesn’t sit well either, considering the target market. Sony also goes with a smallish 38Wh battery, but HP packs in a 55Wh battery. Notice a pattern yet?
The keyboard works reasonably well, and while MSI doesn’t use the entire width of the chassis for the keyboard, it’s comfortable enough to use for hours at a time. There’s a small amount of flex if you type really hard, but nothing that causes me any concern. The touchpad also works well, with the standard multi-touch features. What doesn’t work well are the mouse buttons; MSI uses a rocker-style chrome (plastic) button, which may or may not please your sense of aesthetics. My issue with the buttons is that they don’t register very well, particularly the right button, where you have to put some thought into pushing it hard enough and in the correct spot. However, in disassembling the X370 we discovered the real problem with the right button: the button fails to register unless you put some flex on the PCB beneath the touchpad. Remember that this is an engineering sample; we’ll assume any final models will have functioning hardware, but we’d still prefer discrete left and right buttons.
It practically goes without saying that the LCD panel is mediocre, with limited vertical viewing angles, mediocre colors, and a poor contrast ratio. If you need to get at the internals—for example, if you want to upgrade to an SSD or access the memory slot, though the 4GB unit we received will likely never need the latter—you run into another problem: there’s no quick access to the internal components. Instead, you have to get through the keyboard (secured by three clips), and then remove the top plastic panel (including the palm rest, but strangely enough not the chrome plastic border). It’s not particularly difficult, and you can safely ignore the “Warranty Sticker – Void if Tampered” label on one of the screws in the battery compartment, as you don’t need to remove those screws. All of the important screws (seven of them) are under the keyboard.
Somewhat perplexing is that after disassembling the laptop, I had some real difficulties getting the front plastic clips (near the touchpad) to snap back together properly. Ultimately, I had to remove the touchpad rocker button so that I could get the two clips underneath it to snap into place. It was an annoying process and the numerous plastic clips would very likely break if you were to access the internals more than a few times, but this should only be necessary if you want to replace the HDD. Of course, we want to do exactly that as an SSD will definitely improve the overall experience, but that’s another story.
Assuming the MSI X370 is priced similarly to the X350, we have some serious concerns with the product line as a whole. The X370 doesn’t have the greatest build quality as the whole laptop feels a little cheap, and the difficulty of upgrading the components doesn’t help, but it comes reasonably equipped. Unfortunately, the X350 had an MSRP of $800 for a CULV design, which is about $200 more than we’d be willing to pay for the overall build quality and package. If the MSRP of the X370 is indeed $750, that’s once more at least $200 more than we can recommend. Dustin feels the Sony VAIO’s MSRP of $600 is too much (and it is!), but anything north of $650 for a plastic-shelled E-350 laptop is ludicrous. At $700+, the MSI X370 will be DOA.
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arthur449 - Tuesday, March 15, 2011 - link
One of the biggest issues I see with Anandtech.com isn't the lack of information in the bar graphs; it's the time it takes to look at the graphs and determine what you're looking at. The color coding for this review is extremely helpful in this regard.Green: Models being reviewed
Black: Models in direct competition
Blue: Other/Older models with similar performance in the database
In the future, it would be great to add the ability for users to choose from a list of pre-tested systems in their Anandtech.com account preferences. Those systems chosen would fill in the models typically listed in Blue, while the Black (chosen by author / editor) and Green would appear regardless. So, for example, users could choose a notebook, smartphone, GPU, CPU, SSD, and monitor that directly compares to what they consider a benchmark in that particular market.
Anyhow, that's just my 2 cents.
TLDR: I like what you did with the graphs.
7Enigma - Tuesday, March 15, 2011 - link
Agreed, it was a very easy read. Keep up the good work guys, this review (and more importantly the text discussions regarding the data) were excellent.yudhi717 - Tuesday, March 15, 2011 - link
the X370 already on sale in Indonesia at $489, there is also the U270 Light at $399, I don't know the configuration / spec.Samus - Tuesday, March 15, 2011 - link
I've had mine for two months and already noticed two design flaws. The right speaker grill is peeling off, and the screen bezel interfers with the keyboard and the keys are slowly chipping away at the bezels' plastic.A Thinkpad it is not, but flaws aside, I enjoy the laptop, but have reservations in recommending something with such build quality.
JGabriel - Tuesday, March 15, 2011 - link
I applaud the addition of a section on older, less intensive, games. While I doubt anyone is planning to play the latest DX11 shooters on this type of platform, it's good to know what kind of performance can be expected from slightly older eye candy like Oblivion, HL2, and Quake 4.
It might be a nice touch to add Prey and/or Portal to the list. Portal, in particular, seems like the kind of lighter weight game that might be popular on this type of platform.
duploxxx - Tuesday, March 15, 2011 - link
I found this a very strange review, for the first brazos review you compare the HP all the time against the atom, which is the target to start with.Now you drag along any culv - SNB - macbook or wathever against it most of them in a way higher price range and start complaining about performance against others?
Its OEM who define how they will build the systems, with a small margin of AMD defining the upper limit, not like Intel who hard limits all bits and pieces on there platform.
So now you have it, OEM create some designs which to my opinion are not meant to be for brazos, those are netbook cpu's.
Anything higher can soon be equiped with E2 and A4 LInao which will knock down any CULV performance wise but AMD should do some platform research and speedbinning for lower TDP bins to compete on all aspects.
JarredWalton - Tuesday, March 15, 2011 - link
How many Atom systems do you need to see? I put in three netbook Atoms, plus the Mini 311 (Atom) where I had results, plus the nettop D525 in the 1215N. Then I added to that CULV, ULV, SNB, MBP13, and a several others for good measure. It's called perspective, and never once did I say that Brazos should be faster than Sandy Bridge. The problem for some of these systems is that we're going to start seeing dual-core Sandy Bridge priced around $700 for a decent setup (4GB RAM, 500GB HDD) and that's useful to put into the charts.My thinking here is that I wanted to include every reasonable contender in the IGP space. So that's why the MBP13 comes along (both versions), and why CULV is in there, and why Arrandale and SNB are in there. CULV and the MBP13 also compete pretty directly against Brazos in battery life, which is another good reason to bring them along. It's one thing to get two or three times the performance but 1/3 the battery life for twice the cost; it's quite another to get double the performance, similar battery life, and pay only 50% more, don't you think? But of course, I should only show Brazos against systems where it can come out ahead, because that's what it's "meant to compete against."
What's funny is that you state that the "first Brazos review compared HP to Atom". Um... did you look at the graphs? http://www.anandtech.com/show/4187/ I have over twice the number of Atom systems in this time; I just added some other points of reference. The result? In my 15-item application charts Brazos sits around the middle, compared to third from last in Dustin's HP review. In games, we already know Brazos is going to get clobbered, but it's still important to show how modern titles run on the platform. However, I added a whole page of 23 additional, older/less demanding titles (several days of work there!) just to give a clearer picture.
sebanab - Tuesday, March 15, 2011 - link
I'm very happy to hear you will also be covering the Ontario.I own one (Ao522) and there is one issue I would like to bring to your attention:
With Brazos, AMD has also introduced what they call "Dynamic contrast and brightness adjust". Problem is that the features are on all the time and can't be turned off. And they can get really annoying while surfing the web.
I think it's a bug while there are some options regarding this in CCC but they don't have any effect.
I'm also very curious for the X120e , while I have heard that the LCD is actually acceptable.
(also please check the fan speed settings)
L. - Tuesday, March 15, 2011 - link
I've personally come to hate HP for their lack of decent products, and their very efficient modern capitalist view (read : designing computers to break right after the 1-year warranty), and my guess is that should heavily influence someone's choice in a new computer/toy.On my side, every HP laptop I have seen has had issues (except one that is 12 years old), several from an outsourcing deal at a client's had their mini-fans die twice in a year, my father's hp laptop had to go in RMA even before the first year, my little sister's HP just the same, my godfather's laptop ... again.
So seriously, I don't know what everyone's perception of HP is, but from my side those people are unable to provide reliable laptops (and I would never not build a desktop).
In that sense, if anyone comes to me asking for a reference for laptops, I always start with : "Take a decent brand, like Dell, or Asus, or ..."
Also, my personal experience again, but I had two MSI motherboards and both of them lived only one year, another reason for me not to go there either.
As a summary : my point of view is surely of little interest, but a track record of actual reliability of manufacturers could be an interesting input to your reviews (as in how HP fails at delivering stuff that holds for 5 years, or how that HDD company's failure rates are unacceptable etc.) as that has some influence on customer's perception of service (like if my HP laptop is in RMA every 6 months for 2 weeks, I need a second laptop).
Also, thanks for the reviews.
olbrannon - Tuesday, March 15, 2011 - link
It too runs the 350 brazos w/ Windows 7 @64 bitI love the size if the screen and the keyboard is -huge- paid $399 + tax. One of the game's I am not seeing here that I play is Dragon Age. It seems quite playable with only some occasional lags on loading areas and some minor frame dropping on occasion. No hdmi out thought only vga. I also have Neverwinter Nights 1 & 2 haven't tried to play them yet.
I did get a chilpad for it though. thing can get kind of warm running these games.
It's my first purchase ever of an off the shelf system of any kind quite happy with it so far.
Speakers aren't bad for such a small laptop either