MSI GT780DXR 17.3″ Laptop review

The MSI GT780DXR is nicely finished, with circular edges giving it a very attractive appearance. The panel is a semi glossy design which we are seeing more often lately. This hybrid design helps improve contrast and colour saturation while lowering reflectivity.

The two silver speaker grills are linked into the DynAudio system and they certainly stand out against the primary black colour scheme. The onboard sound quality is fantastic, and easily ranks in the top ten percent we have tested in the last couple of years. There is even a modest level of bass output, which surprised us. It is at the same level as the Alienware M18X in regards to quality, but doesn't reach the same output level when pushed hard.

The keyboard is a chiclet design … designed by Steelseries, who get their name branded into the chassis, bottom left of the keyboard area as shown above.

This keyboard is extremely impressive and one of the more tactile designs we have tested in recent months. Typing at fast speeds is possible, due to the quality feedback system and comfortable spacing. The addition of a full num pad is a bonus too.

Sadly the keyboard isn't quite perfect. Firstly, The return key is single height, which always causes a problem for me. Secondly, it doesn't have any backlighting options in the United Kingdom, which is a strange omission on a luxury gaming machine at this price point. Even the Asus G74SX from last year has a backlit keyboard with various levels of lighting control.

We still feel that the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 has the best laptop keyboard, by a clear margin.

The touchpad is textured, and offers plenty of feedback. It is almost as good as the keyboard, and we like the chrome accenting at the bottom edge to ‘lift' it from the main chassis. There are several stickers on the right side for the Intel Core i7 processor, Nvidia discrete graphics and THX sound system.

Our prototype shipped with two Western Digital Scorpio Black 500GB hard drives, configured in Raid 0. The retail version of the machine has dual 750GB drives, for 1.5TB of total storage.

There is no doubt MSI have spent some time in developing the shape and design of the GT780DXR. The chrome power button in the middle of the machine is complimented by a red stripe along both sides of a series of action keys.

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