MSI launches S30 notebook, not a full-size laptop, but not an Ultrabook either

By Meghan McDonough March 4, 2013

msi-s30_dt — Image used with permission by copyright holder

When is an Ultrabook not an Ultrabook? With a slim profile, a 13-inch display, and an Intel Core i3 Ivy Bridge processor, the just-launched MSI S30 looks a whole lot like an Ultrabook. Though pricing hasn’t been announced yet, its likely to be cheaper than many similarly-sized and equipped notebooks, specifically other Ultrabooks. Here’s the catch: though, according to Liliputing, it seems like the MSI S30 should be an Ultrabook based on its design and specs, it technically doesn’t fall under this category.

According to Intel, in order to be called an “Ultrabook,” the notebook must be no more than 0.7 inches thick and must use a solid-state drive for storage. The S30 measures 12.8 x 8.9 x 0.9 inches, making it 0.2 inches too thick to be an Ultrabook. Another strike against the S30 is that it comes standard with a 500GB hard drive, though a 64GB SSD is an option. The 500GB hard drive may be the right solution for users needing a combination of size and storage, plus it’s cheaper than an SSD. The S30 could be just the right solution for someone looking for a thin-and-light notebook who doesn’t want to pay the Ultrabook price premium.

Recommended Videos

In addition to the 500GB hard drive, the MSI S30 features a third-gen Intel Core i3 processor, Intel HD 4000 graphics, a 13.3-inch 1366 x 768 resolution display, Bluetooth 4.0, a 720p HD webcam, a card reader, one USB 3.0 port, one USB 2.0 port, and ports for HDMI, Ethernet, and VGA. All of this is packed into a 3.1-pound package running Windows 8.

Pricing hasn’t been announced yet, but that will likely be coming soon.

Topics

Laptops

Meghan McDonough

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Meghan J. McDonough is a Chicago-based purveyor of consumer technology and music. She previously wrote for LAPTOP Magazine…

Computing

We just got our first hint of the RTX 6090, but it’s not what you think

A hand grabbing MSI's RTX 4090 Suprim X.

As we're all counting down the days to a possible announcement of Nvidia's RTX 50-series, GPU brands are already looking ahead to what comes next. A new trademark filing with the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) reveals just how far ahead some manufacturers are thinking, because it mentions not just the Nvidia RTX 5090, but also an RTX 5090 Ti; there's even an RTX 6090 Ti. Still, it'll be a long while before we can count the RTX 60-series among the best graphics cards, so what is this all about?

The trademark registration filing, first spotted by harukaze5719 on X (formerly Twitter) and shared by VideoCardz, comes from a company called Sinotex International Industrial Ltd. This company is responsible for the GPU brand Ninja, which doesn't have much of a market presence in the U.S.

Computing

How the Blue Screen of Death became your PC’s grim reaper

The Blue Screen of Death seen on a laptop.

There's nothing more startling than your PC suddenly locking up and crashing to a Blue Screen of Death. Otherwise known as a Blue Screen, BSOD, or within the walls of Microsoft, a bug check screen, the Blue Screen of Death is as iconic as it is infamous. Blue Screen of Death is not a proper noun, but I'm going to treat it like one. It's what you were met with during crashes on Intel's 14th-gen CPUs, and it littered airport terminals during the recent CrowdStrike outage.

Everyone knows that a Blue Screen is bad news -- tack on "of Death" to that, and the point is only clearer. It's a sign that something catastrophic has happened, so much so that the operating system can't recover, and it needs to reboot your PC in order to save it. The Blue Screen of Death we know today, fit with its frowning emoticon, is a relatively new development in the history of Windows.

Computing

The performance downgrade made to the M4 Pro that no one is talking about

Someone using a MacBook Pro M4.

I've spent this whole week testing the new M4 chip, specifically the M4 Pro in both the Mac mini and 16-inch MacBook Pro. They are fantastic, impressive chips, but in my testing, I noticed something pretty surprising about the way they run that I haven't seen others talk much about. I'm talking about the pretty significant change Apple made in this generation to power modes.

First off, Apple has extended the different power modes to the "Pro" level chips for the first time, having kept it as an exclusive for Max in the past. The three power modes, found in System Settings, are the following: Low Power, Automatic, and High Power. The interesting thing, however, is that in my testing, the Low Power drops performance far more this time around.