The interior of the MSI EX300 is simple. The keyboard is nice to type on, but we felt that the keys could be slightly wider for better comfort. (Perhaps the row of PgUp/PgDn/Home/End could be shifted elsewhere instead).
The primary operation buttons are located on the strip above the keyboard. We have (from right to left) the power button, wireless switch (which switches on WiFi only, Bluetooth
only, or both), a webcam button, and an Eco button which is an MSI technology for better power savings.
MSI has included a fingerprint sensor on the EX300. It is a good-to-have feature, even though it is not necessary for this laptop's target consumer.
The touchpad is smooth and the cursor is responsive. However we found the left and right buttons to be a bit too rigid. We ended up using the double-tapping method instead of click and dragging our finger across the touchpad to make selections.
Operation indicators are located on the front right edge of the laptop.
Audio in/out jacks and the infrared port are also located along the front.
The right side of the laptop houses an ExpressCard slot, a media card reader, USB, eSATA, HDMI ports and the power connector. The laptop vent is also located along this side.
The left side has a VGA out and Ethernet connectors and another USB port. The optical drive is located on this side.
Note the bulge from the battery pack. The battery pack is an 8-cell and hence it does not sit flush with the laptop. Instead, it elevates the laptop at an angle slightly, which is actually good as this allows air to flow freely underneath the laptop for better cooling.
There is also a 4-cell battery option which the battery will sit flush with the laptop shell.
Performance
Armed with an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450 discrete graphics solution, the MSI EX300 would be able to handle some light gaming.
Interestingly, the HD 3450 in the EX300 is clocked at 550MHz core, which is 50MHz more as compared to the reference spec of the same graphics at 500MHz core and 700MHz memory.
A quick Futuremark 3DMark06 run returned a score of 2077, which is about twice that of the Intel GMA 4500MHD integrated graphics solution. Then again, 3DMark is a synthetic benchmark - an NVIDIA GeForce 9400M G has about the same 3DMark score, yet gives more frames in your day-to-day 3D games.
We then threw Devil May Cry 4 at this laptop. The good news is that this graphics-intensive game is almost playable at the native resolution of 1280 x 800, but you have to set all details to "Low" and shadows to "Off". The benchmark results for Scene 1 to Scene 4 are 35.88fps, 28.52fps, 35.07fps and 30.94fps respectively.
To test overall system performance, we ran Futuremark's PCMark05 test suite and got a score of 5637, which is pretty decent for a laptop of this level. No issues here.
Cooling
To test the efficiency of this laptop's cooling, we loaded both the CPU and the GPU simultaneously for ten minutes to see how high temperatures would reach.
During this stress test, the base of the laptop where the graphics chip is located became too warm. You wouldn't want to put this on your lap while doing graphics-intensive jobs, watching movies or playing 3D games.
Battery Life
Included with our test EX300 unit is an 8-cell battery. Based on past experiences, an 8-cell battery with a similiarly configured laptop, but with Intel integrated graphics would be able to fetch slightly over 5 hours of usage with Wi-Fi on.
As the EX300 is running on discrete graphics, naturally we would expect battery life to be not as fantastic. We managed to run the laptop for about 3 hours and 45 minutes on typical usage - doing Web surfing and listening to some music occasionally - before it needed a charge.
The MSI EX300 is a no-frills lightweight entertainment laptop. It has sufficient processing power for various games, support for high-definition media through hardware-accelerated decoding and Dolby Surround support, and a good battery life of close to 4 hours to boot.
So what's the cost of this machine, you asked? It is retailing at a reasonable (under Rp 7.000.000,-), but you can be sure to get the latest Intel Centrino 2 technology on-board, discrete graphics, and other good-to-have items such as HDMI output, a 2-megapixel webcam, and a fingerprint reader.
Pros:
- Best graphics performance for laptop of its class
- Feature-loaded (HDMI, fingerprint reader)
- Small and lightweight
- Good pricing
Cons:
- Laptop expected to be toasty under heavy gaming
Views: 46163 
