MSI GS60 Ghost Pro 3K 2QE Review (Gold w/ GTX970m)

This has been a great year for MSI's mobile division, their recent high end laptop releases have all been stellar. The MSI GS60 Ghost Pro 3K 2QE continues this success story – incorporating Nvidia's GTX970m, the latest mobile Maxwell architecture.

The MSI GS60 Ghost Pro 3K 2QE really is a gaming tour de force. Even at the native 2,880 x 1,620 resolution of the 3K panel, the GTX970m is able to generate smooth frame rates. The only caveat will be games such as Tomb Raider will need the image quality settings dialed down a little, to a notch just below maximum.

On a 15.6 inch screen it is difficult to get the full value from a 3k panel. Without calling upon Windows 8.1 scaling options, desktop text is miniscule, and tricky to read. That said, a couple of scaling tweaks in the operating system can cure many legibility issues. I say many, because not all 3k/4k 15″ usability issues can be resolved via the OS.

The quality of the screen is incidentally, very impressive. Colours are nicely saturated, viewing angles are fantastic, and small text is tack sharp. This panel is a fantastic partner if you hate making compromises on the move.

The adoption of Dual 256GB Solid State Drives in Raid 0 ensures that system responsiveness is never a question. The MSI GS60 Ghost Pro 3K 2QE boots from cold within 10 seconds and the OS feels very snappy all the time. An extra 1TB HDD is a welcome extra for back up duties.

The eye catching gold finish is likely to heavily split opinion. We have noticed that our Western European and American audience are less likely to find gold appealing, yet on the other hand our Asian readers seem to find a gold and champagne schemes very attractive. This is a limited edition version of the laptop reviewed today, and MSI told us that a more modest black version will be available, with half the storage capacity.

Technically, there is little to fault. Build quality is high, as we would expect from MSI. The trackpad is extremely responsive, and feels very like the high grade units found on the Apple MacBook Pro machines. The keyboard is intuitive to use and even offers a little tactile feedback for typists. The single height return key is an issue for me, but perhaps my personal tastes are in the minority.

Onboard audio is decent, although to get the best experience we always recommend a good pair of external speakers, or headphones. Bass response from a 15 inch laptop is always horribly lacking in depth or presence.

Intel's Core i7 4710HQ Quad core processor is plenty powerful for any task we could throw at it, including 3D rendering. There may be an audience who may want a faster processor such as the 4810MQ, but this would cause quite a substantial price bump, and would barely register tangible performance gains in the latest Direct X 11 games.

The only real concern for me would be the slightly disappointing battery life. Under most conditions you would be fortunate to get 2.5 hours before a recharge was needed, and much less if you were playing games.

If you want to get hold of one these, you can pick it up from Overclockers UK, for £1,889.99 inc vat – which seems a little more than the expected £1,799.99 retail price MSI sent us before the review went live.

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Pros:

• eye catching.
• good keyboard and trackpad.
• excellent quality screen.
• Quad Core i7 is fast.
• Nvidia GTX970m is powerful and can power many games at 3k.
• Dual SSD's in RAID 0.
• less than 2kg in weight.

Cons:

• Battery life isn't wonderful.
• colour might not appeal to everyone.

Kitguru says: The eye catching limited edition MSI GS60 Ghost Pro 3K 2QE combines portability with immense gaming frame rates.

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