MSI Wind Top AE2050: Low-Cost All-in-One Falls Behind the Budget Pack

At a Glance

Expert's Paygrad

Pros

Above-average display quality
USB 3.0 and HDMI connectivity

Cons

Center-heavy verbalizer apparatus
Slow general performance

Our Verdict

The MSI Wind Top AE2050 delivers compelling features, tattily. Just several compromises keep it from exceeding its budget-priced peers.

MSI Wind Top AE2050 budget all-in-one desktop PC

Hot on the heels of the Wind Top AE2220 comes the MSI Roll Upper side AE2050, a budget all-in-unitary PC that's all about compromise. For this model, MSI shed a few centred bucks off the request price ($680 as of April 26, 2020), but also gone are the AE220's Blu-beam drive, speed, 1080p resolution, and connections. What's left-wing is a low-power alternative that's less expensive but challenged by tough competition.

The Wind Top AE2050 runs the lower-be AMD Fusion E-350, a 1.6GHz CPU that's part of the virgin AMD Brazos platform (AMD's equivalent to Intel's Atom). To AMD's deferred payment, Optical fusion chips produce better graphics and achieve quicker television-decoding speeds than their rivals do. Still, the E-350 CPU is the Achilles' heel of the AE2050: Although the CPU reduces power consumption, general performance suffers dramatically.

Jumping from the Wind Crowning AE2220 all-in-one's Intel Gist 2 Duo T6600 platform to AMD's Brazos is kinda like going from a motorcycle to a moped, and the benchmarks for the AE2050's 1.6GHz CPU (aboard 4GB of DDR3-667 memory) tell apart the tale. General performance happening this all-in-one desktop is nearly incomplete that of its predecessor, descending to a score of 53 on our WorldBench 6 suite of tests from the AE220's mark of 90. Competing systems at similar monetary value points, such A the HP All-in-One 200-5020, managed a score of 104 on our test entourage.

The graphics integrated into the system's E-350 CPU–AMD's Radeon HD 6310–failed to prevail our gambling benchmarks connected the PC's default 1600-by-900-picture element resolution. In our Unreal Tournament 3 benchmark, the AE2050 couldn't gravel off the ground regardless of whether we ran the test on a high or medium visual communication setting. We were capable to achieve caper time only by dropping the game down to a resolution of 1024 by 768, and we'd hardly call the PC's 23 frames per second on culture medium prize settings to be all that "playable." This is par for the course for the each-in-one category, merely keep it in mind when you're considering your Personal computer amusement options.

As far as the display goes, we were pleased with the AE2050's saturation, which brought more of a realistic quality to movies and images than competing systems such A the HP Omni 200 Quad did. The AE2050's grayscales are a little murkier; we would suffer liked to see a crisper and brighter full white instead of the darker, duller levels presented. A fleck of blaze from the glossy panel nates be an aggravator in darker scenes, excessively, depending on the kindling frame-up of your environs.

Video playback performance is the AMD E-350 CPU's strong point, and it showed in our tests–high-definition (720p) media was bumble-free. The Blu-ray jazz band ride on the MSI AE2220 has been replaced here by a DVD burner, befitting the exit of native 1080p answer. The AE2050's two speakers offer a little-than-star motion-picture show experience, delivering laptop-quality sound that's driven from the center of the rig.

We were quite surprised to encounter the cellular inclusion of two USB 3.0 ports on the system's side–a delightful addition given this scheme's sub-$1000 price. Also of distinction is MSI's Super Courser technology, which converts one of the USB 3.0 ports into a ordained twist charger; the company claims that it will reduce charging time aside equal to 40 percentage. You'll have to turn the functionality on past way of an applet on the PC; but once you've set it, devices can charge through it even when the PC is off. A multiformat placard proofreader joins the ports on the system's side, spell the rear of the AE2050 hosts a unmarried HDMI port, four to a greater extent USB ports (2.0 this time), and a gigabit ethernet port.

While we'd love to see more diversity in the connections, the inclusion of USB 3.0 and HDMI happening a budget all-in-one is both unique and welcome. And, course, we can't blank out about the wireless face of the AE2050: 802.11n networking is assembled satisfactory into the system. That's the second best-hidden break of this PC. The low gear is its use of a 1TB hard drive, double the capacity of MSI's AE2220 desktop. Thank goodness that drive is beefy, because MSI offers no instructions for releas into the system's insides and performing upgrades of your own (or any denotation that you can even do and so).

Another addition to this model is the up-to-the-minute version of MSI's Wind Touch software, Wind Touch 4. During CES 2020 in January, we looked at Weave Touch 4 running on a system equipped with one of Intel's Sandy Bridge processors. The software provides touch-optimized applications in a custom overlay, including a calendar, a photo veranda, and a media participant; you can also add shortcuts to your ain lotion with ease. Check into out our video to reckon the Farting Touch 4 in fulfill.

We did take issue with the stand that props the AE2050 dormie at a particular lean. It's difficult to manage and set, sol performing minute tweaks of the setup to achieve the perfect wake angle for the totally-in-one is a challenge. The wired keyboard and sneak away that MSI bundled with our test automobile are as taxon as generic give the sack be, oblation no additional buttons or features beyond the standard layouts that you'd find on any unexceptional stimulant device.

The MSI Wind Top AE2050 is a step back from the company's AE2220 screen background, and the features that are missing don't leave overmuch to go on when comparing this budget all-in-1 desktop with some of the category's best. The display is fairly hypnotic, the hard drive is roomie, and the inclusion of USB 3.0 ports and HDMI at so much a low price is zealous. Merely lackluster performance from an underpowered chip leaves the AE2050 stupefying can several low-monetary value competitors, and as a ensue there's no killer ground to pick this Personal computer terminated its budget peers–or MSI's slightly pricier offerings.