MSI GT780DXR: Pretty Keyboard, but Everything Else Is Just Average

At a Glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

Gorgeous colorful, programmable keyboard
Big, bright screen

Cons

Ugly shell
Crappy touchpad

Our Verdict

Assuming you're no figure-fiend, the GT780DXR is an all-more or less solid machine, and the keyboard is so beautiful.

The MSI GT780DXR (let's just call it the GT780) is a giant of a machine, loaded with nearly everything you'll need to play games like a title-holder. This roomy laptop has a large amount of memory, whole lot of disk drive space, and numerous extra features.

The GT780 doesn't skimp on the crackle glasses that gamers and multimedia fans love. The 17.3-inch screen supports full HD (at 1920 by 1080 resolution), and MSI includes a built-in 720p webcam, USB 3.0 ports, HDMI end product, and a beautiful (though not especially serviceable) LED-backlit keyboard with full color-changing capability.

Our review modelling, priced at $1750, carried a second-multiplication Intel Core i7 2630M processor, a banging 12GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 570M graphics card with 1.5GB of RAM. It besides came with 1TB of catchy driving force space, stacked-in Badger State-Fi and Bluetooth, and the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home base Superior.

The GT780 performed well along our WorldBench 6 test suite, earning a mark of 146. Though this is a much higher score than almost laptops achieve, it is only average for a organisation in the desktop replacement category. If you'Ra thinking of acquiring the GT780DXR instead of MSI's lower-end GT683R, don't expect to see a performance further: The two laptops have virtually the aforementioned specs, and they congregate the same benchmark hit. What you bear extra for in the GT780 is the pretty, lit-up keyboard and the larger screen.

The GT780 likewise scored well in our games tests, thanks to its GTX 570M graphics card. On our Off the beaten track Cry out 2 bench mark, the GT780 managed a frame pace of 55 frames per second gear (at high quality settings and 1920 by 1080 resoluteness); the last few desktop replacements we've reliable averaged about 42 fps on the same test. Distillery, the GT780 fell short of the little captivating, but more powerful Digital Surprise x17, which delivered a frame rate of 78 fps on the same test, putt it in the vicinity of some lower-end carrying into action desktop PCs we've recently tested.

The GT780's design could use approximately work. Mayhap MSI didn't think that users would plan connected toting an 8.6-pound desktop surrogate approximately for all to see. But that hasn't stopped other other makers from stepping high the appearing of background replacements much as the HP Pavilion dv7 Quadriceps femoris Edition.

The GT780 is housed in a wedge-shaped black aluminum flesh that has some unusual angles. The cover has a brushed black aluminum panel emblazoned with the MSI logo and surrounded by easy black aluminum borders and sawed-off corners.

The inside of the laptop presents you with more than smelly angles and contrasting textures. The keyboard deck is composed of brushed atomic number 13, piece the touchpad is matte formative; the keyboard is surrounded by a icy plastic adjoin, and the screen has a double border: an inner shiny fictile one and an outer matte aluminum one. Two silver speakers sit supra the keyboard, and a plethora of touch-activated buttons surround the power button.

The touch keys include a programmable key (set to turn Turbo on/soured), a Film Pro button, a fan boost push button, and a keyboard light button, as well as toggles for Wisconsin-Fi, Bluetooth, and the reveal. The Movie theater Pro button is obligated to set you in Cinema Pro mode (for finer video and audio playback), but I didn't detect a significant conflict betwixt the Cinema Pro mode and the non-Cinema Pro mode except that the heavy was a little louder and the laptop's battery dead quicker. You also beget a touch-eject push button for the GT780's expansion slot-lading Videodisk drive, and a small touchpad on/off key below the keyboard.

The touchpad is small, unresponsive, and catchy to use. The two discrete buttons (some of which have angled, sawed-murder corners, mimicking the laptop's general design) are easy plenty to press, simply the touchpad itself is just bad. Because it's so small, you'll reach the edge and have to reposition your thumb every couple of seconds. And because it's insusceptible, you'll apt get frustrated and get ambitious harder and harder in an effort to make the input device register your gestures. As luck would have it, you can turn the touchpad off and use an outside mouse.

The colorfully backlit, programmable play keyboard intentional by SteelSeries, then again, is beautiful and comfortable to type on, though the keys are a little stiffer than I consider ideal. The large keyboard has Chiclet-style keys and a 10-digit numberpad.

MSI's KLM keyboard-scene software lets you change the colors endlessly. You can choose 28 distinctly different LED colors over such settings as dual-color, tri-color, rhythmical, waving, and fading. KLM's Gaming mode lights up only the section containing your main ascendance keys (W, A, S, and D).

The GT7280's ports are located all around the machine. On the sides you sire two USB 3.0 ports, three USB 2.0 ports, a seven-in-one memory card reader, and phone and microphone jacks–also as a binaural line-in jack and a center surround speaker knave. On the rearward are the connection ports–VGA, HDMI-out, gigabit ethernet, and eSATA–plus a Kensington lock away slot and the power out.

The 17.3-inch screen features an extremely bright, engorged-HD, nonglossy display that suffered from the "soft" look away typical of nonglossy screens: Images were non as wrinkle and edges were not as defined. HD streaming video looked rattling better on the screen, as did Videodisk video–but our system lacked a Blu-light beam disk player. Sound quality was first-class, thanks to the THX TruStudio In favour of technology and the integral subwoofer.

MSI's GT780DXR isn't the most influential or the most attractive desktop successor we've tested, but it's an all-around solid machine. And the keyboard is so pretty.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/477873/msi_gt780dxr_pretty_keyboard_but_everything_else_is_just_average.html

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