PowerPro 7:15 (MSI 1656) Review

[Angelic]

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

I have to agree here. Maybe because it was plain looking...

[Charles P. Jefferies]

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

Ah, understood.

If anything, it's a break from the mainstream.

[s-one]

It may be mediocre but it does give a developer a good platform to choose from if they are not high gpu gamer. I think this is a great laptop in the 15" category which gives you 16:10 and i7.

Hey which brings me to question... For $300 bucks more I could get the sager 8690 with 1600x900 screen... same everything else.. processor.. mem... hd.. would it be worth the extra $300 for the gpu even though I wouldn't use it to its capabilities? A note.. I'm staying away from 1920x1080 15" notebooks because of my vertigo.

Kind regards.

[Charles P. Jefferies]

It may be mediocre but it does give a developer a good platform to choose from if they are not high gpu gamer. I think this is a great laptop in the 15" category which gives you 16:10 and i7.

Hey which brings me to question... For $300 bucks more I could get the sager 8690 with 1600x900 screen... same everything else.. processor.. mem... hd.. would it be worth the extra $300 for the gpu even though I wouldn't use it to its capabilities? A note.. I'm staying away from 1920x1080 15" notebooks because of my vertigo.

Kind regards.

I tested the Sager NP8690 here:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5406

It's a solid machine. I like the keyboard on the MSI a bit more - it has a softer feel and the layout is better (dedicated pgup/pgdn keys) - and the MSI has a rather large advantage with the screen at 1680x1050 vs. the Sager's 1600x900. Having those extra 150 vertical pixels makes a difference. Some other things - the MSI is noticeably thinner and has far better battery life than the Sager, which gets less than one hour. Lastly, the MSI is quieter.

If you don't play games or have a specific use for a dedicated GPU then there isn't much of a point, so any extra money you would spend on one would be wasted. I have integrated graphics in my HP laptop and it has not given me any issues (no gaming). HDMI/DisplayPort out works flawlessly.

Please ask any additional questions.

[IKAS V]

Whoa!
Temps in this model are much cooler than the 1651 ID2, my 160M GTS ran much hotter.
I will say that when I added a QX9300 it performed much,much better than this model. I get about 3000 more in 3DMARK06.
Top out around 84C when gaming with the 160M GTS which is not that great but not really that bad.
I think BOG had it right.
It's a step going sideways and not forward with no big improvement in anything over the old model.( except the new i7 CPU's)
You get a cooler running system but sacrifice some performance.

[Sphinx]

For a casual gamer like myself the added CPU power, lower temps and better battery make for a really nice mobile workstation. Would serve me well for work related tasks, which makes me think they were marketing for a broader base then just gamers. I'm actually thinking of recommending it for MEP on the go for one of our cadd/engineering techs.

[jujube]

That's a sweet rig, thanks for the review!

[s-one]

Can you also comment on how the font looks with the native resolution? I just hoping that it isn't too small like I've seen on a Sager 8690 15.4" at 1920x1080. Thanks!

[Charles P. Jefferies]

Can you also comment on how the font looks with the native resolution? I just hoping that it isn't too small like I've seen on a Sager 8690 15.4" at 1920x1080. Thanks!

To me it was fine, but so was 1920x1080 on the NP8690. I found that Windows 7 does a good job of enlarging text to 120 DPI - that made the 1920x1080 15.6-inch screen like a 15.4" 1440x900 screen.

What size and resolution screen do you use now?

[s-one]

Hi Charles thanks again for the review and response. I currently use a 14" 1280x800 laptop and the screen res with native font is perfectly fine. I had tried a sager 8690 at 1920x1080 to include changing the font size, dpi etc and it did improve to some extent. The issue is that in some application the programmers will hard code the font so it can fit in say a small area thus combine that with a large resolution even when adjust still makes it small. Visual Studio is one... Norton Antivirus 10 is another.

The reviewed laptop seems like it would be perfect for my needs but I'm worried about the 1680x1050 res and font sizes even after adjusting. I don't know if you still have the laptop on hand but if you do could you provide more screenshots of some applications running on it?

Kind regards.