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Written by Sasa Pantelic
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Wednesday, 17 December 2008 |
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Page 1 of 4  MSI offered to all gamers with limited budget G-Series of notebooks (G is for gaming). While most of other manufacturers classified gaming notebooks as higher range notebooks emphasizing more than just performances, MSI was led by a different logic. Driven by desire to cover as much as possible of the market, MSI turned the page and offered models that definitely move boundaries in quality sense comparing to previous notebook models from the same manufacturer.
Models GX720 and GT735 have almost identical chassis and we will first tell something about mutual elements and then we’ll look at their distinctiveness.
Tougher than ever
Difference from older models is noticeable at first sight. Black brushed-aluminum cover looks very nice. In similar manner is polished also area around touch-pad. Even though MSI abandoned the idea of piano finish on these models, GX720 and GT735 are not quite resistant on fingerprints. Design is a bit discrete than design of older models from G-Series, but still can be found some detail that is not perfectly matched with design. Still MSI GX720 looks attractive and pleasing, if is up to opinion of majority in our office.
Good impressions got for exterior transfers also on quality and notebook firmness. Aluminum case gives a hint of steadiness, bringing impression of reliability for these notebooks. Regarding on screen sizes, two models belong to lighter ones in their class.
Next important item is keyboard and we didn’t like just one detail about it. If we consider that these are 17-inch models we expected that numerical pad doesn’t affect too much size of basic keys. Still, Enter and right Shift keys are very small. Fortunately all the rest characteristics of keyboard are very good. Keyboard bending, not so rare phenomenon on MSI notebooks once, is almost unnoticeable on these models. Cursor and WASD keys are colored with striking red, which all gamers will appreciate.
Keys below touch-pad have very unusual shape. Contours that remind on horizontal letter S didn’t affect negatively on functionality, what’s even more, keys respond very well on commands. Power key is placed just few millimeters from ESC key, which is not too convenient solution if you are in a hurry and miss one of them.
Above keyboard dominates big touch sensor. It is made from shiny black plastics with red lines as decoration details. All sensor keys light blue when they are active. That part looks nice, but we think that mesh around these sensors doesn’t fit in whole concept. Area with sensor keys is divided in two parts. On the left are positioned multimedia keys and on the right are keys for camera, Bluetooth and wireless adapter. The last in a row is programmable button, marked with P1. In central area of sensor bar are two most important keys – Eco and Turbo. Eco sensor provides easy switch to one of five predefined modes: Gaming, Movie, Presentation, Office and Turbo Battery mode.
Turbo key has function of activating Turbo Drive Engine technology that offers easy and fast overclock of processor. Just one touch on Turbo key is enough to speed up processor on GX720 and GT735 from 2.26 (2.2) GHz to 2.62 (2.6) GHz, respectively.
Both models have surprisingly good screen in every sense – colors, viewing angles, resolution… We don’t remember that we saw on some MSI notebook better panels. The only thing that could bother some of you is fact that those are glare type displays. The sound is excellent which especially can be applied on bass quality. MSI this time used 4.1 speaker system which is not that common on notebooks. Two speakers in front and two above keyboard and subwoofer is of course on bottom side. Camera is very good and has 2MP resolution.
Notebooks are well equipped with all sorts of connectors and in this occasion we will underline eSATA as good and simple way to overcome limitations of internal HDD.
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