MSI's GE72 costs just £999, which makes it the cheapest gaming laptop we’ve seen for some time. However, despite its price, it still has a beefy specs list, including a GPU from Nvidia's latest mobile range.
The GeForce GTX 960M sits right in the middle of the mobile 900-series, and it’s well placed to deliver decent performance on the MSI's 1080p screen: it has 640 stream processors, 2GB of 5GHz (effective) GDDR5 memory and a core clock speed of 1,096MHz. It's based on the GM107 architecture, which first appeared in the desktop GTX 750 Ti GPU.
The rest of the specification is solid too. The Core i7-4720HQ processor has four cores that can boost from 2.6GHz to 3.6GHz, and there's 8GB of DDR3 memory - a fine amount, which is fine for gaming. Meanwhile, storage comes from a 128GB Kingston SSDNow drive and 1TB hard disk, and there's a DVD writer too.
The GE72 looks the part too. The brushed metal lid has subtle ridges bordering the slick MSI Gaming Series logo, and the interior is made from the same material. The touchpad is made from lighter metal, with a narrow chrome-effect border, and another logo signifies the high-quality SteelSeries keyboard.
The keyboard’s base is solid, and the layout is reasonable - the single-height return key is the only negative on a typing unit that has a numeric keypad and plenty of large keys elsewhere. The typing action is consistent and fast, which are both key gaming attributes.
However, the keys don't have much travel, and they’re a little soft; mechanical fans will feel the tack of physical feedback. It's also backlit, with a multi-coloured glowing pattern, which can be customised. Meanwhile, the large touchpad has a smooth, responsive surface, but the two buttons don't have the firm rapidity of proper desktop peripherals. Gamers will be better off with a proper USB mouse.
Most of the chassis feels solidly built too, although there’s some give in the right-hand side of the wrist-rest, and the underside is a little spongy. Interior access isn’t easy either - we had to remove almost 20 screws and the optical drive before we could heave off the base panel. Once inside, at least, the MSI is generous: one memory slot and two M.2 slots are free, and the major components are all accessible.
Three USB 3 ports, a USB 2 port, Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs and an SDXC card slot line the edges, and it's decently specified on the inside too: Ethernet is provided by Killer, and there's dual-band 802.11ac wireless and Bluetooth 4.0 too.
Performance
The GE72 may sit at the affordable end of the gaming laptop scale, but its benchmark results aren't bad for the money, thanks to its quad-core CPU with Hyper-Threading support. The GE72's overall result of 81,712 isn’t record-breaking, and we've seen better results from other gaming laptops, but it shows the MSI's performance is ample for gaming and other Windows tasks.
Meanwhile, gaming performance is a mixed bag. Let’s start with the good, which is that the GE72 never dropped below 34fps when playing BioShock Infinite at top settings at the screen's native resolution. However, the rest of our game tests failed to hit our 25fps minimum target for playability, let alone 30fps.
To be fair, though, our games tests are very demanding, and the Battlefield 4 minimum of 24fps was very close -you'll only need to slightly tweak the graphics settings to make it playable. However, you'll need to do a fair bit of tweaking in Shadow of Mordor or Crysis 3 to make them playable on this machine at its native resolution. As a point of comparison, the Gigabyte P35X v3 achieved 30fps minimums in all our 1080p games benchmarks with its GTX 980M GPU, but that range of laptops starts at £1,499.
On the plus side, the comparatively modest specifications means the GE72's noise output isn't bad. When running undemanding tasks, the GE72 is tricky to hear at all; it’s louder when stress tested, but its modest fan is easier to ignore than the one in the aforementioned Gigabyte laptop. The temperatures weren't too toasty either; in stress testing, the CPU topped out at 87C, and the GPU at 74C -we've seen CPU temperatures go well above 90 C in other gaming laptops.
On the downside, the GE72's screen isn't great. The colour temperature of 7.549K is far too cool, and the delta E of 7.49 is way off the mark, meaning colours just won’t be accurate. Viewing angles aren't brilliant either, with big brightness deviations from even the slightest head movements, and the matt layer across the top of the PLS panel lends the screen a grainy finish. It's a shame, because the brightness measurement of 279cd/m2 and measured contrast of 1,073:1 are both reasonable, and mean a good colour gamut with bright lighter shades and suitably inky black tones.
The Dynaudio speakers have mixed quality too. They provide some of the best bass we’ve heard from a laptop - it thumps and chugs without overwhelming the sound, but it's hindered by a weak top end that means lighter tones are underwhelming. The booming bass makes games sound explosive, but the audio kit could do with a better balance.
Battery life isn't much cop either, although that's to be expected from a gaming laptop. In a full-pelt gaming test with the screen at 100 per cent brightness, the CE72 lasted for 43 minutes - a few minutes less than some of its rivals. In short, you'll need to stay near the mains if you want to play games for any length of time.
Conclusion
The GE72's sub-£1,000 price might look attractive, but MSI has had to cut a couple of corners to achieve it, most notably on the screen and gaming performance.
Of course, its gaming performance is much better than that of many laptops without a discrete CPU, but it's important to be aware of its limitations before forking out for a gaming laptop - you won't be able to run demanding current games at top settings at the screen's native resolution, but it will be fine if you’re prepared to drop your graphics settings.
There’s still plenty to like too. It looks great, the keyboard and touchpad are well built and you get solid state storage too. You can't get everything you want for this price, of course, but the CE72 makes sensible compromises rather than dramatic budget cuts, which makes it a genuinely viable alternative if you want a half-decent gaming laptop but can't afford the big bucks. MIKE JENNINGS
VERDICT
You'll need to tone down your graphics settings to run demanding games at 1080p, but the CE72 is otherwise a solid gaming laptop for a very tempting price.
SPECIFICATIONS
CPU 2.5GHz Intel Core i7-4720HQ
Memory 8GB DDR3
Graphics Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M2GB
Screen size 17.3in 1,920x1,080
Storage 128GB Kingston SSDNowSSD, 1TB hard disk, DVD writer
Weight 2.4kg
Ports 3 x USB 3, 1 x USB 2, Gigabit Ethernet,HDMI, mini-DisplayPort, SDXC card slot, 2 x audio
Dimensions (mm) 383 x 260x27 (WxDxH)
Warranty Two years (collect and return)