MSI CX623 Laptop Review – Core i5/Geforce 310M

The MSI CX623 is a great laptop and one which we can easily recommend if you are in the market for a high performance media or business laptop. Gamers will need to look elsewhere however as the nVidia G310M is a rather weak solution for HD gaming. Sure, you can game at lower settings, but the image quality won't be that impressive.

As a media system, the unit excels in all key areas, the screen quality is fantastic with only a slight blue cast showing any signs of weakness. Vibrancy is fantastic and text quality is up there with the best we have seen. The glossy screen can be slightly detracting, but for a media laptop it is a must. Vertical viewing angles can be slightly limited, but this is generally the case with a mid range laptop.

The keyboard and track pad offer a great experience, with the only negative being a certain amount of flex in the middle of the board, especially when pressed down hard. If you are rough with a keyboard we might have a few, long term concerns, but otherwise its responsive and looks great.

The pinstripe finish won't be to everyone's taste, but it certainly helps it stand out within such a crowded market and almost everyone we spoke with seems to think it is an attractive machine.

Internally, the combination of Intel Core i5 processor with Intel HD/nVidia G310M is a great choice, although we were disappointed to see that Cyberlink's Espresso software wouldn't allow the graphics to act in a hardware acceleration role (even with updated software and drivers).

Thankfully, MSI haven't skimped with the choice of harddrive, and the Western Digitial Scorpio Blue delivers excellent performance without generating a racket. You would be hard pressed to hear it, even when writing a lot of data to the platters. Personally, I would still exchange it for an SSD, because once you go to flash storage, it is extremely difficult to go back. Obviously this would add a cost to the overall system so it makes sense for MSI to opt for the 500GB mechanical unit. Sadly, if you upgrade the drive yourself and open the chassis, you invalidate the warranty – an unusual move from MSI and one we have never seen before.

Overall, this is a great media laptop which will please a wide portion of the audience. Just be sure not to purchase it as a dedicated gaming machine as graphics power is not one of the primary strengths.

KitGuru says: A high gloss system with a competitive asking price of £620 inc vat. Well worth a look.

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