- Joined
- Jul 7, 2016
- Messages
- 2
I didnt take any pictures when unboxing, so Im just going to write a review.
MSI GS Series GS60 Ghost Pro-002 Gaming Laptop 6th Generation Intel Core i7 6700HQ (2.60 GHz) 16 GB Memory 1 TB HDD 128 GB SSD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M 3 GB GDDR5 15.6" Windows 10 Home
Pros: I received the black aluminum GS60 for my review unit, and my first impression of this machine was a resounding ?wow.? The exterior is slick, beautifully machined, and gracefully merges ?gaming? looks with a modern ultrabook profile. It?s sharp enough for me to confidently bring it to a business meeting, but has angles and accents that would turn heads at a LAN. The top lid has two metal accents that add style without screaming ?MLG GAMER,? and the MSI logo is beautiful without looking gaudy.
Opening up the laptop yields a similar impression - as the machine purrs to life with a tap of the LED-lit power button, the glow of the customizable backlit keyboard adds a layer of polish to the already sleek design. Like the exterior, the keyboard, trackpad, and speaker arrangement of the machine doesn?t suggest anything out of the ordinary (bar the choice of typeface for the keys). Steelseries has provided a wide range of colors to choose from for the 3-zone keyboard, including settings to pulse, breathe, and wave colors back and forth. The keys have a nice travel to them, and the Windows key is nicely placed out of the way from misclicks and alt-tabs.
The GS60 is as good as it gets when it comes for work/play balance though, I see kids dragging 2-3 inch thick Asus/Alienwares to class, and I chuckle to myself knowing my rig is lighter, more portable, and MOST LIKELY still faster than whatever they?ve got. Color me impressed.
Looking on the sides, the standard array of ports are available, with enough USB ports for all of my external IO (keyboard, mouse, gamepad), a good choice of video outputs, and most importantly (for my line of work) an ethernet jack. Though lots of hardware manufacturers are straying away from hardwired connections, for the sake of gaming and latency-dependent tasks, good ol? copper is still the king. There?s even a Thunderbolt/Mini displayport jack, the importance of which we?ll get to later.
Vent placement on the GS60 were nothing out of the ordinary, though I did appreciate the usage of the space on the back of the case for ventilation (which my previous laptop did not have).
I?m a business/engineering student, so I do a lot of the standard writing/reading/notetaking on my laptop. Going to and from class with the GS60 is a MASSIVE improvement over the GE60, saving me a textbook?s worth of space and a good chunk of weight. The battery lasts enough for 3-4 hours of light note taking on the go, and whenever I need to fiddle around in CAD/image editors it has more than enough horsepower to run whatever I need.
Cons: My main complaint for the built-in HID is the surprisingly mushy trackpad. Though I doubt anyone will play games on it, the trackpad doesn?t provide CRISP tactile feedback to clicks and doesn?t distinguish right and left mouse buttons very well - a minor frustration when doing work away from my usual desk setup. The built-in speakers are solid and do a good job, but I personally almost always have headphones/earbuds on-hand.
I will note however, that this particular model doesn?t have a removable battery, while not important to most people, I always like the option to change out batteries as they degrade. Relative to the size of the laptop, the power brick is surprisingly bulky (but to be expected with regards to the internals of the machine).
For the sake of my warranty, I didn?t open my unit to inspect the interior.
My only gripe is the battery life - though I?m aware that this is a gaming laptop outfitted with internals (high end mobile i7, GTX 970m) that would rival most modern desktops, the GS60 is no 8-10 hour marathon ultrabook that?ll get me through the day on a single charge. I rarely leave my power brick behind in my dorm for this reason, and I spend my time in between classes (an hour here and there) in the library next to an outlet refueling. In addition, because of the nature of the internals, the bottom of the laptop will get annoyingly warm even when I?m only doing word processing, but it?s a small price to pay for the raw power that this rig packs.
MSI GS Series GS60 Ghost Pro-002 Gaming Laptop 6th Generation Intel Core i7 6700HQ (2.60 GHz) 16 GB Memory 1 TB HDD 128 GB SSD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M 3 GB GDDR5 15.6" Windows 10 Home
Pros: I received the black aluminum GS60 for my review unit, and my first impression of this machine was a resounding ?wow.? The exterior is slick, beautifully machined, and gracefully merges ?gaming? looks with a modern ultrabook profile. It?s sharp enough for me to confidently bring it to a business meeting, but has angles and accents that would turn heads at a LAN. The top lid has two metal accents that add style without screaming ?MLG GAMER,? and the MSI logo is beautiful without looking gaudy.
Opening up the laptop yields a similar impression - as the machine purrs to life with a tap of the LED-lit power button, the glow of the customizable backlit keyboard adds a layer of polish to the already sleek design. Like the exterior, the keyboard, trackpad, and speaker arrangement of the machine doesn?t suggest anything out of the ordinary (bar the choice of typeface for the keys). Steelseries has provided a wide range of colors to choose from for the 3-zone keyboard, including settings to pulse, breathe, and wave colors back and forth. The keys have a nice travel to them, and the Windows key is nicely placed out of the way from misclicks and alt-tabs.
The GS60 is as good as it gets when it comes for work/play balance though, I see kids dragging 2-3 inch thick Asus/Alienwares to class, and I chuckle to myself knowing my rig is lighter, more portable, and MOST LIKELY still faster than whatever they?ve got. Color me impressed.
Looking on the sides, the standard array of ports are available, with enough USB ports for all of my external IO (keyboard, mouse, gamepad), a good choice of video outputs, and most importantly (for my line of work) an ethernet jack. Though lots of hardware manufacturers are straying away from hardwired connections, for the sake of gaming and latency-dependent tasks, good ol? copper is still the king. There?s even a Thunderbolt/Mini displayport jack, the importance of which we?ll get to later.
Vent placement on the GS60 were nothing out of the ordinary, though I did appreciate the usage of the space on the back of the case for ventilation (which my previous laptop did not have).
I?m a business/engineering student, so I do a lot of the standard writing/reading/notetaking on my laptop. Going to and from class with the GS60 is a MASSIVE improvement over the GE60, saving me a textbook?s worth of space and a good chunk of weight. The battery lasts enough for 3-4 hours of light note taking on the go, and whenever I need to fiddle around in CAD/image editors it has more than enough horsepower to run whatever I need.
Cons: My main complaint for the built-in HID is the surprisingly mushy trackpad. Though I doubt anyone will play games on it, the trackpad doesn?t provide CRISP tactile feedback to clicks and doesn?t distinguish right and left mouse buttons very well - a minor frustration when doing work away from my usual desk setup. The built-in speakers are solid and do a good job, but I personally almost always have headphones/earbuds on-hand.
I will note however, that this particular model doesn?t have a removable battery, while not important to most people, I always like the option to change out batteries as they degrade. Relative to the size of the laptop, the power brick is surprisingly bulky (but to be expected with regards to the internals of the machine).
For the sake of my warranty, I didn?t open my unit to inspect the interior.
My only gripe is the battery life - though I?m aware that this is a gaming laptop outfitted with internals (high end mobile i7, GTX 970m) that would rival most modern desktops, the GS60 is no 8-10 hour marathon ultrabook that?ll get me through the day on a single charge. I rarely leave my power brick behind in my dorm for this reason, and I spend my time in between classes (an hour here and there) in the library next to an outlet refueling. In addition, because of the nature of the internals, the bottom of the laptop will get annoyingly warm even when I?m only doing word processing, but it?s a small price to pay for the raw power that this rig packs.
