PowerPro 7:15 (MSI 1656) Review

[Charles P. Jefferies]

Agreed - anything with more than 1000 pixels of vertical space is notable these days, considering there is only one 16:9 res on notebooks with that kind of space - 1920x1080.

My last two notebooks have been 1680x1050, it's nice to see it one last time on a review notebook.

[Angelic]

Aw Chaz, don't cry.

[Bog]

I fell asleep halfway through reading this review.

[Sphinx]

Chaz as always you bring up good points. I can and have developed on my thinkpad, but I find the dell to be ALOT more enjoyable due to the 300 extra vertical pixels. While this notebook only has a WSXGA screen I still find it plenty usable for this size point and matching with a numpad makes it just that much better. The only issue other then the screen that I kinda worry about is the crunched keys and how that would effect feel typing.

[Charles P. Jefferies]

I fell asleep halfway through reading this review.

Do you have any suggestions for me?

The only issue other then the screen that I kinda worry about is the crunched keys and how that would effect feel typing.

Yeah - when I started typing on this machine it felt cramped (I type on a full-size desktop keyboard 99% of the time) however I got used to it after an hour or so. I don't like how MSI integrates the home and end buttons as secondary keys, I use those keys all the time. Most of my work is text editing so . . .

[Sphinx]

Ahh. I primarily use laptop keyboards as I prefer the feel and nature of them over desktop ones. Personally I left the desktop keyboard world around the time the ps/2 non springy ones started becoming popular. My grandfather has an old DIN style mechanical spring loaded keyboard that I LOVE and I ask him for it all the time. Nothing makes me feel more at home (other then certain laptop boards) then a clickity clackity old style.

[Charles P. Jefferies]

Ahh. I primarily use laptop keyboards as I prefer the feel and nature of them over desktop ones. Personally I left the desktop keyboard world around the time the ps/2 non springy ones started becoming popular. My grandfather has an old DIN style mechanical spring loaded keyboard that I LOVE and I ask him for it all the time. Nothing makes me feel more at home (other then certain laptop boards) then a clickity clackity old style.

I type on a mechanical keyboard - Das Keyboard II. 100% blank as well.

I'm usually very vocal about keyboards if I don't like them. This notebook has a decent if not great keyboard, there is nothing special about it other than the color coding. The MSI 1727 has a better feeling keyboard even though it is very similar to this one; it is seated more firmly.

[Sphinx]

I type on a mechanical keyboard - Das Keyboard II. 100% blank as well.

I'm usually very vocal about keyboards if I don't like them. This notebook has a decent if not great keyboard, there is nothing special about it other than the color coding. The MSI 1727 has a better feeling keyboard even though it is very similar to this one; it is seated more firmly.

Nice! I was worried when they first came out that it would be cramped. Now this DAS is it spring loaded? If so I may look into if for a future desktop build.

[sgogeta4]

What a downgrade from the previous generation's 256-bit GDDR3 card to a 128-bit GDDR3 one (though the memory type wasn't explicitly mentioned in the review). If you don't mind Chaz, I would like a GPU-Z screenshot included in the review since nVidia and ATI tend to do a lot of rebadging and have variations among models, so that we know the memory speed, bus width, etc.

[Bog]

Do you have any suggestions for me?

Sorry, I didn't mean that comment as a criticism of your writing, I meant to say that the product is very... mediocre.