The gradual shift towards the manufacturing of tablet PCs has engulfed a lot of leaders in the industry.

Be it the need to break away from the monopoly created by Apple or just to give yet another option to the users, the manufacturers such as Motorola, Dell and many others have entered the field.

One of them is MSI that is ready with its latest WindPad 100, which comes built-in with a 10.1-inch touchscreen display (like Dell Streak), 1.3-mp webcam and connectors such as HDMI, USB2.0 and SDHC card reader so that the tablet PC could be easily connected to any other device.

The MSI WindPad 100 is powered by Windows 7 (Home Premium edition) that for an entry-level user won’t matter much. But a user who has had the taste of iPad would definitely complain of the need for an OS specially designed for WindPad 100.

The WindPad 100 has the power of 1.66GHz Atom Z350 CPU by Intel and 2GB RAM, while the storage space could be substantially extended via HDD/SSD. The WindPad 100 also boasts of 32GB SSD. The tablet encompasses b/g/n WiFi, 3G HSDPA and USB3.0 to proffer seamless connectivity with other devices.

With the optional dock, the WindPad 100 starts behaving like desktop PC. The optional dock renders the facilities of Gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0, D-Sub, LAN, VGA, HDMI outputs and audio expansion. The dock is also efficient enough to double up as a battery-charging cradle. To sum up, we can expect numerous connectivity options with the dock. Besides, the tablet features 3.5-mm audio jack.

Moreover, the navigation buttons placed on the tablet’s edge are dedicated to increase or decrease or mute the volume and lead to the camera.

Weighing just 800g, the WindPad 100 is much heavier than iPad and is considered to be surpassing the desirable weight of a tablet PC. Though, the tablet PC comes with a glass touchscreen, its body is largely made of plastic and not aluminum. However, its prototype feels good on being held in hand.

Another noteworthy feature in WindPad 100 is the user interface that is characteristically named as WindTouch. It can be said that it is a way to make Windows OS compatible to the tablet. The fact remains that the OS in WindPad 100 does not complement the slower processor nor does it improve the responsiveness or performance of the tablet.