Product Reviews

The latest model in MSI's GX600 range, this laptop has an AMD processor rather than the more common Intel chips. What's also interesting is that it's aimed at gamers, even though it costs less than most laptops with any serious gaming ability. The AMD chip looks like one compromise that's been made to fit a 3D graphics card into the budget; unfortunately, there are quite a few more.

The AMD Turion 64 X2 has two processing cores and is more than powerful enough for everyday work, but it can't keep up with similarly priced laptops with an Intel Core 2 Duo chip, so it's not ideally suited to more ambitious tasks. The MSI does come with 2GB of RAM, enough to ensure applications such as photo editors don't run short of space and to run several programs simultaneously. It also has a roomy 250GB hard disk.

Most laptops with 15.4 inch widescreen displays tend to weigh at least 2.8kg. The GX610 is reasonably svelte at 2.66kg, but in other respects it's not an ideal travelling companion: the battery only lasted just over two hours in our light use test. Playing a DVD, it still achieved a similar time, which is long enough for most films. Recharging took a relatively long two hours and 42 minutes.

The dedicated graphics chip, the Mobility Radeon HD2600, comes from ATI, also part of AMD. It's nowhere near powerful enough for cutting edge games such as Crysis, but it did manage 21 frames per second in our Call of Duty 2 test, and reached a very playable 29fps when we lowered the graphical detail settings. So the GX610 won't satisfy dedicated gamers who

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want to play the latest games at the highest settings, but it's much more capable than most portables in this respect. The fan can get loud during gameplay.

The built-in trackpad was accurate, but not the most responsive, and the buttons didn't provide enough feedback. Like any trackpad, it's all but useless for games, so MSI also supplies a comfortable four-button USB laser gaming mouse. Its sensitivity can be adjusted with a dedicated button, which is handy. The keyboard's W, A, S and D keys, often used in first person shooter games, are highlighted in red, making them easier to spot during frantic gaming sessions. But the keyboard can be tiring to use, whether gaming or typing, due to its soft and springy keys. The numeric keypad makes life easier in spreadsheets, but fitting it in has meant squashing some of the other keys, such as the cursor arrows, making them difficult to hit reliably.

Shiny black shows

The lid and the wrist rests have a glossy black finish that initially looks attractive, but the plastic picks up fingerprints and smudges too easily. Although it doesn't seem fragile, the creaking plastic chassis felt cheaply made.

Like a lot of other 15.4in widescreen displays, the GX610's screen also has a glossy finish. This inevitably reflects light from overhead sources, such as fluorescent lighting, which can be distracting, especially when trying to keep up with games. The upside is that it helps the image look bright and sharp, but on closer inspection we noticed a slight grainy sheen. Viewing angles were constricted, so colour accuracy will suffer unless you're sitting directly in front of the display. The screen is good enough for everyday use, but not for demanding photo and video editing work.

The GX610-049UK wasn't quite as good as we'd hoped. It's not ideal for working on the road due to its spongy keyboard and poor battery life; nor is it well suited to demanding Windows tasks. It's just about powerful enough to play most 3D games, but will struggle badly with tomorrow's titles. Unless you really must have a compact gaming PC on a tight budget, there are better choices.