As we've been able to see throughout our tests, the GX720 is the kind of machine you can take along to a LAN party without fearing that your “foes'” desktops will prove superior. However, after the LAN party is over, you can also easily connect it to pretty much any type of display (HDTV, projector, PC monitor) in order to watch a movie in HD, and you won't even need a surround sound system, simply because the GX720 carries its own 4.1 high-definition audio system built right in its case (yes, the speakers AND the subwoofer).
Although office work is not exactly what the designers probably had in mind for the GX720, MSI's notebook has what it takes for such tasks as well. Plus, its entire configuration is extremely battery-friendly, while the Wireless-N module helps it get online very fast.
Anyway, I certainly hope that we've managed to raise some interest, because it's about time to get down to business.
Overall design features
From the first moment one lays their eyes on the GX720, the feeling is of utter beauty. I know, it's rather hard to look at a desktop replacement notebook and consider it “beautiful” and “elegant,” but that's exactly how the GX720 can be described. And we're not talking just about the overall look, but also about the little things, the details that have been paid a lot of attention to by the designers and engineers.
First of all, it's important to talk about the color choices. Hence, the GX720 comes in combo of black and red, which screams “gaming” from the top of its electronic lungs. However, despite the first impression, the GX720 manages to distance itself from the idea of “kitsch,” the main reason for this being the quality of the finishing.
Thus, the casing has been very carefully brushed, the piano black posing a very interesting contrast to the several stripes of red found on the sides of the notebook and underneath the keyboard. Some silver has also been thrown in for good measure, the whole aesthetic effect being a very nice one. The quality of the plastic is surprisingly good, and the same goes for the whole case.
Actually, one particular detail I'd like to point out here is the upper side of the case, which has a very interesting, striped pattern, something that most definitely brings an important contribution to the device's overall aspect. Another interesting detail is the touch-based multimedia control system, which, as you can easily see from the photos, has a very intricate design. However, we'll detail that a bit later.
Size and portability
Now, as mentioned above, the GX720 is in fact a desktop replacement, designed to cater for the user's gaming and multimedia needs, but also to allow them to do some office work on the side. For this reason, it's quite a big fellow, measuring 395x278x26.5-35mm (with the top lid close/open), while the weight (including the battery) is of 3.2 kilos.
Despite the figures already unveiled, the real-life experience is actually a very nice one, since the GX720 doesn't even feel that heavy. Although it's pretty large, it seems rather lightweight, and moving it around is quite an easy task.
Button and slot placement
This is indeed one difficult area of the review (due to the sheer number of elements), but not as difficult as the section related to the available connectivity options. However, it's also one of the most interesting.
Since, after all, we're talking about a portable computing system here, most of the buttons are quite obviously concentrated in the keyboard area. The keys of the GX720 have a pretty decent placement and they're large enough in order to allow you to write or play as you see fit. The keys are also quite responsive and they deliver a very good tactile feedback.
Furthermore, the W, A, S and D keys are underlined with a touch of red and a small white arrow, which indicate the specific functions they carry out within most games.
One of the most important features that make the GX720 really stand out from the crowd is represented by the area dedicated to multimedia and Bluetooth, plus Wi-Fi controls. Located immediately underneath the display (surrounded by the speakers), these controls are very aerodynamic and ergonomic, since they're touch sensitive. Hence, all the users have to do in order to control multimedia or activate/de-activate the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module is simply slide their finger across the control surface.
The central position in the control area mentioned above is represented by the Eco and Turbo buttons. These two control options actually manage the way in which the GX720 behaves (improved battery life versus higher performance).
Special attention should also be paid to the touchpad area. The touchpad is very responsive, with the scrolling surface located on the right-hand side working just fine. However, I simply can't refrain from saying that the buttons underneath the touchpad were absolutely magnificent, integrated into the surface of the case and, at the same time, very responsive. All in all, an elegant, yet very functional control solution.
Last, but certainly not least, I have to mention the power button, located on the left-hand side, in the close vicinity of the keyboard. What I didn't like about this particular button was that it was too well “hidden,” as it took me long enough to locate it.
As far as the device's slots are concerned, most of them will be addressed in the following section, dedicated to the connectivity options. However, we will mention the fact that the GX also incorporates a very useful 4-1 card reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS Pro), plus a PCI Express Card slot (although this could be included in the connectivity area).
Also, the power connector is located on the rear side, which makes it easily accessible when you install it on a docking station or cooling pad, for example. Plus, there's a Kensigton security slot installed on the left side, if you want to secure your laptop with a metal lanyard in order to prevent it from being stolen.
Connectivity options
As mentioned earlier, talking about the connectivity options provided by the GX720 will surely take a while, simply because there are so many of them. Practically, the notebook provides any interface (wired or wireless) one might need for gaming, multimedia playback or communications, so no matter what port or jack you might need, it's very likely that you'll be able to find it on MSI's machine.
In order for you to get a better idea of what to expect from this large MSI desktop replacement, we'll start going around its sides and see what we can find on each of them. Then, after we're done with the “physical” or “wired” interfaces, we'll move on to the wireless ones.
First of all, the front side. Well, there's nothing particularly interesting to see here from the point of view of connectivity. Perhaps the activity indicator LEDs, but that's about it, so we'll move on to the right side, where we can find plenty of connectors. Apart from the memory card reader and the PCMCIA slot, which we've already mentioned, we can find here one USB 2.0 interface, one eSATA connector, one IEEE 1394 slot (FireWire), plus several audio connectors, including a headphone jack and a speaker output.
Now, moving on to the rear side. Here, we'll find an HDMI interface (for hooking up the GX720 to an HDTV), plus a VGA output, which can be used either for connecting to a TV set or a widescreen computer monitor.
Finally, the left side. Here, we've got an Ethernet connector, a phone line jack for the built-in modem, plus two USB ports. The rest of the space on the left side is occupied by the optical drive.
OK, we're done with the wired; let's move on to the wireless connectivity options. So, as expected from most modern notebooks, the GX720 includes a Bluetooth module (V2.0+EDR), accompanied by a built-in 802.11b/g/n WLAN Card, which provides very good signal and high data transfer rates (especially when paired with a Wireless-N router).
Webcam
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Since the GX720 is also used for online communications, it comes packed with a 2-megapixel webcam, able to produce good quality images either static or dynamic (still photos or video clips, in other words). Not particularly suited for dark environments, but it will do.
Speakers
One of the coolest things about the GX720 is the fact that it comes packed with its own, built-in “surround” sound system. Well, it's not actually that surround, but it does feature four speakers installed on the top side (two underneath the display, two on the front side), plus a small subwoofer installed on the bottom side.
However, I won't go into any further details regarding just how these things “sound.” For that, you'll have to check the “Real-life performance” chapter of the review.
To this moment, we have been talking about MSI’s GX720 gaming laptop, taking into consideration the overall aspects that make this portable computer system a really nice alternative to other systems in its class. When you get right down to it, the GX720 is part of MSI’s gaming series, which basically means that it has been designed to successfully cope with some of the latest gaming applications available. That translates into a high-performance system that gathers some of the latest hardware components in a 17-inch notebook.
MSI's GX720 is just that, being built on Intel’s latest mobile platform, the now famous Centrino 2, featuring NVIDIA’s GeForce 9600M GT graphics card, with 512MB of DDR3 memory. The configuration we put through its paces also boasted 3GB of DDR2 memory and a 320GB Toshiba hard disk drive, but for a complete perspective on the notebook’s technical features, be sure to check the specifications presented below.
System Specifications
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo P8400
Chipset: Intel PM45 and ICH9M
System Memory: 3GB DDR2
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT 512MB DDR3
Audio: HD Audio with four speakers and one subwoofer
Storage: Toshiba 2.5-inch 320GB, 8MB Buffer, 5400RPM
Optical Drive: DVD Super Multi
LCD Display: 17-inch WXGA
Webcam: 2.0MP
Card reader: 4-in-1, SD/MMC/MS/MS Pro
Wireless: Built-in 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth V2.0+EDR
I/O: 1 x 15-pin,
D-Sub
3 x USB 2.0
1 x Mic
1 x Headphone
1 x Ethernet LAN
1 x PCI Express Card
1 x eSATA
1 x HDMI
Battery: 6-cell
Operating system: Windows Vista.
Hardware Performance
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Given what we had at our disposal, we were aching to see what this gaming rig was capable of, especially when it was subjected to our benchmarks. First off was Futuremark’s 3DMark Vantage, which is primarily used to test a computer system’s CPU and GPU performance. We were expecting a rather impressive score, especially since the notebook was featured with a Centrino 2 processor and one of NVIDIA’s gaming-ready mobile graphics processors. Also, we decided to test the laptop using its turbo mode, which basically overclocks the CPU, with a single touch of the button. The system was capable or running 3DMark with both High-Performance and Performance settings.
Now, as you can see in the pictures, the system rendered a score of H1009 and P1732. In both tests, the CPU delivered a considerably better score than the GPU, which was basically the main drawback of this gaming rig. Before you go ahead and tag the system of not being worthy of your attention, we should remind you that at High-performance preset, the system ran at a resolution of 1680 by 1050 pixels, and even then, it was pretty decent.
We might say that running a DirectX 10 gaming application at 1280 by 1024 could provide you with a performance level able to rival that of some desktop systems out there.
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As for gaming, a system’s memory plays a critical role. It’s important that you take advantage of a significant memory capacity, but the performance level of the memory is equally important. The GX720 can support up to 4GB of memory, but our configuration only provided 3GB of DDR2 (5-5-5-15) SDRAM. We used Lavalys EVEREST Cache and Memory benchmark to determine the system’s memory performance. As you can see in the picture, the results were pretty impressive, allowing the GX720 to deliver an excellent overall performance. With 3GB of memory, MSI’s gaming notebook had no issues in dealing with Microsoft’s Windows Vista.
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A system’s hard drive also plays an important role, as it’s not only meant to provide the user with a decent storage capacity, but also boost the system’s overall performance. What is interesting about this hard drive is that it is the same model used in that small Sony Vaio Z series we tested back in 2008. However, it appears that MSI’s GX720 takes better advantage of the hard drive’s performance capabilities.
Gaming Experience
Benchmarks, like the ones presented above, can provide you with numbers and figures, but when you really get down to it, a gaming rig is meant for, well, gaming. The end-users’ hands-on experience is what really counts, which is why we decided to go at our colleagues at Softpedia’s gaming section and grabbed a copy of F.E.A.R., just to see how MSI’s GX720 would handle it. When it comes to gaming rigs, one of the most frequently asked questions is “Will it play Crysis?” Thus, we decided to test the rig using EA's successful title.
As gamers already know, F.E.A.R is one of those applications that provide a built-in benchmark, a feature that we also took advantage of, using both the notebook’s Eco and Turbo characteristics. The results speak for themselves, as using the Turbo mode offered a slight improvement.
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We used the well-known Crysis benchmark utility to get details on the average frame rate rendered by MSI's GX720, in both Eco mode and Turbo mode. The result was pretty much the same as with F.E.A.R., as there was only a small difference between the two. Running at 1680 by 1050 pixels, with AA at 8x and Vsynce disabled, the GX720 offered an average FPS of 3.21 in Turbo Mode, while in Eco Mode, the result was 3.20 FPS.
Finally, we used Futuremark’s other famous product, namely PCMark, to get a general perspective on the notebook’s overall performance. As you can see, the GX720 received a rather decent score of 4233 PCMarks, with the highest points being set by the Music Suite and Communication Suite.
Battery and Temperatures
One of the main strong points of MSI's GX720 is that it provides the level of performance we detailed earlier, without delivering a high temperature level. Basically, you will be able to use this portable gaming rig in your lap, without having to worry about the heat emitted, even when the system is in full load. The highest temperature coming from the laptop we could register was about 40 degrees Celsius, when it was running 3DMarkVantage and only on a small part of the device’s ventilation exhaust.
The 6-cell battery is also something to talk about, as it deliver about three hours of battery life, which is rather decent, given that this rig is a real power horse due to its high-performance hardware specifications. The notebook could probably deliver about four hours of battery life when used for basic computing tasks, such as Internet browsing or some Office editing.
Since the GX720 from MSI is a desktop replacement notebook with a serious appetite for gaming, we've taken it through pretty much every type of activity one might use it for in real life. The results are pretty impressive, but not necessarily as far as the gaming issue is concerned.
Gaming
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As mentioned time and time again throughout our review, the GX720 is the kind of notebook you take along in your backpack (actually, MSI's providing even that, but we'll talk about the accessories towards the end of the review) when going to a LAN party. While some of its components are not exactly latest-gen gaming grade (after all, the GX727, an upgrade to the original GX720, was released only a few days ago), the overall feeling is that of a system that can easily run the latest games in more than OK conditions.
As you've been able to see from the hardware performance section, we've run several games (3D shooters, mostly) in order to see just how far the GX720 could be pushed. And while we won't go into any numbers here, we can honestly tell you that the notebook can cope with almost anything one might throw at it, as long as you don't run the game at the highest possible settings (however, if we're talking about an older title, you can easily do so). The results are quite OK and gameplay is relatively fluid, with good quality graphics. Of course, it's also a great idea to run the games in Turbo mode, which will give you extra boost in terms of performance.
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Plus, there's the issue of the speakers, which will really help you create a “personal gaming area” around yourself, the sound being directed in such a way as to give a feeling of “immersion” within the game. The games' audio and various sounds are played at a very good level of quality (and clarity), which is certainly a major thumbs up.
If you prefer a more private environment, you can always connect your headset to the GX720, either via the provided audio interface or via Bluetooth, in case you've got a pair of wireless headphones.
Multimedia playback
While it's not actually marketed as a multimedia notebook, the truth of the matter is that the MSI GX720 can easily become one, since it's got pretty much everything it takes in order to do so. Unfortunately, the model we've tested was equipped with a DVD Super Multi unit, not a Blu-ray one, so we weren't able to run an HD movie, only the demo HD clips available on Microsoft's website.
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Even so, the results were quite impressive, despite the fact that the display supports a maximum 1680 x 1050 pixel resolution. Actually, this is one of the system's major drawbacks, because a full HD panel would have been absolutely grand. Nevertheless, this panel ain't that bad, since the contrast, brightness and color depth are quite OK, whether you're watching a movie during the night or in sunlight.
Furthermore, as mentioned above, using the device's own multimedia control system is an absolute pleasure, meaning the “buttons” are so smooth and sleek that one can't help but start, stop, fast forward, pause and start some more. Plus, since it packs an HDMI connector, as well as a VGA one, you can easily hook it up to an HDTV and output the content onto the wider display (the same goes for gaming).
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Besides gaming, the speakers can also be used for listening to music, and I can honestly tell you that you can throw a small party using nothing but this thing. Plus, who needs a home theater surround sound system when you've got this little baby just waiting for you?
Office work and Internet browsing
Once again, the desktop replacement issue. So, since the MSI GX720 is a 17-inch notebook, it can be very easily used for working (after all, only a couple of years ago, 17 inches were the norm in the field of desktop PC monitors), writing documents and even doing some graphics editing, as the device does have the CPU, GPU and RAM to do it.
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And even if the keyboard is designed mostly for gaming, writing on it for long periods of time will not have any adverse effects on your hands, given the fact that it's got such a good tactile response.
Moreover, considering the huge amount of connectivity options it can provide, the GX720 will find at least one way of connecting to the Internet, either via the Wi-Fi module, the Ethernet interface or the phone modem. And once connected to the Internet, it can be used for making VoIP calls or even video-conferences, via the 2-MP webcam.
The Good
The design of the GX720 is certainly a plus, and the same goes for the numerous connectivity options it provides. The device generates a very low amount of heat, which is indeed quite noteworthy for a portable computing system, while the battery life is pretty OK. Quality of the display is also good, but we would have preferred it to support full HD resolutions.
The fact that the device comes packed with its own 4.1 audio system (which sounds good, by the way) is a major plus, and the same goes for the multimedia and communication control system (yeah, the touch-sensitive thingies), which make it stand out from the crowd.
And last, but certainly not least, the sales package is also “rich,” users getting a lot more than they usually do with other products of this type.
The Bad
Probably the worst thing that can be said about the GX720 is the fact that it's not that much of a gaming machine as its manufacturers tout it to be. Since it's a part of MSI's line of gaming notebooks, it should have been able to provide a higher level of in-game performance. Nevertheless, the price/performance ratio is a very good one, despite this drawback.
Overall impressions
The MSI GX720 can easily be used as a desktop replacement, since it performs quite well whether you're using it for gaming, office work, multimedia playback or communications. However, it's not exactly what we might call a “gaming notebook,” as its overall level of performance in this particular field is rather mid-range/high-end than completely high-end.
All in all, if you're looking for a portable computing system to replace your old desktop PC, and you want something that will go well for non-professional gaming, office work and multimedia, the MSI GX720 can be a very good choice.
Sales package
As mentioned time and time again throughout this review, the sales package is very generous. So, here it goes:
MSI backpack – sturdy, good quality
MSI GS-02 dedicated gaming mouse (3200 dpi, gaming-grade laser engine)
Power adapter
Instruction manual
Driver CD.
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