MSI GT735

Disappointingly, this month's Labs only holds one laptop based around AMD's latest Puma platform: MSI's GT735.

And it's clear from the off whom this laptop is aimed at. A chunky, padded laptop rucksack is thrown in, and there's even a USB laser gaming mouse. The laptop itself, with its combination of black-brushed aluminium and bold red highlights, clearly aims to appeal to the gaming market.

Looks aside, the GT735 is a somewhat perplexing beast. The AMD Puma platform simply can't hold a candle to Intel's Centrino 2, especially when it comes to performance or power efficiency. The AMD Turion Ultra ZM-82 boasts an impressive name, but with a 2.2GHz clockspeed and meagre 2MB of Level 2 cache it managed only 0.88 in our application-based benchmarks. Under mains power, a Turbo button above the keyboard's top edge pushes the ZM-82 up to 2.6GHz, but that offersonly a marginal improvement.

Battery life is poor. Light usage saw the GT735 last for just short of two hours, and pushing the MSI harder saw that drop to 1hr 12mins.

Gaming performance strengthens the GT735's appeal, however. It's the first laptop we've seen with ATI's Mobility Radeon HD3850 chipset. Crysis is enough to bring most laptops to a juddering halt, but the GT735 powered through even our Medium settings benchmark with an impressive 28fps.

The only disappointment in terms of gaming clout is the display. A slight graininess is clearly evident, and dull colour reproduction leaves Crysis' lush jungles looking decidedly grey.

But the MSI does little else to disappoint. A fine keyboard is matched with a precise trackpad, and build quality is impressive. The surprisingly capable integrated speakers are even matched with a dedicated 7.1 output for hooking up external sets.

Despite this, the GT735 is a missed opportunity. A gaming laptop demands high-powered components and AMD's ZM-82 processor doesn't make the most of the ATI HD3850 graphics chipset.

Author: Sasha Muller