Notebookcheck Logo

Review MSI CR630 Notebook

Plastic book. Many shortcomings and few genuine good points, is how we would sum up this cut-price laptop for €370. Before we can get too pleased about its excellent range of ports, our hands slip over the case’s glassy surface. Read on to find out more about this laptop and its AMD V series V120 processor.
MSI CR630-V1225FD: Does this 15.6-inch laptop have anything more to offer than a good port layout?
MSI CR630-V1225FD: Does this 15.6-inch laptop have anything more to offer than a good port layout?

Cheap laptops are still selling extremely well. Particularly just before Christmas, when the chances are high that Dad or Grandma will send a Euro or two in the direction of their offspring, the season of cheap laptops is truly upon us.

As we have so far not been able to get our hands on the price-busting HP Compaq Presario CQ56-103SG (XH187EA), €299, we ordered this MSI CR630-V1225FD which has similar hardware (CPU and GPU).

A straightforward office companion for €370? It does without frills like a dedicated graphics card (IGP ATI HD 4270) or the extravagance of dual-core performance. With the AMD V120 (2.20 GHz), it offers classic singe-core performance, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The CR630 also keeps down the price by not coming with an operating system (Free DOS is installed).

Case

Glossy palm rest
Glossy palm rest
Yielding surfaces (base plate)
Yielding surfaces (base plate)

Out of the colourful box comes a black 15.6-inch laptop covered in an understated pattern of stripes (cross-hatch design). Fingerprints quickly engulf it from top to bottom, something you should be aware of before you buy a glossy machine.

The lid does flex significantly in response to pressure and twisting forces, and the screen surface too. The hinges hold the lid securely in position but cannot completely prevent it from wobbling. The lid’s maximum opening angle is an unusually large 185 degrees. The hinges are firmly attached to the case, but you can see that their movements distort the chassis a little.

The smooth palm rest is the only area on the top of the base unit that is properly robust. The keyboard flexes a little across its entire length, making typing feel spongy. The base plate is essentially sound, but you should not press too hard on the plastic air vent or the optical drive - the surface can be pushed inwards quite noticeably in these places.

Connectivity

Back: USB, HDMI, eSATA, VGA
Back: USB, HDMI, eSATA, VGA

The MSI CR630 delivers to your living room or desk all the ports you would expect from a good all-rounder. The right and left sides of the machine do not look promising at first, as they house only a USB port (right) and an Ethernet port, ExpressCard34 slot, card reader and audio ports (left). But in fact MSI has indulged in the old laptop tradition of putting the most commonly used ports on the back of the machine. The high position of the hinge mechanism, along with the battery which is stowed under the palm rest, make this unusual layout possible.

On the back edge we found those ports which are most commonly used: the VGA (D-Sub) for an external monitor, HDMI for a TV (or monitor) and two USB 2.0 ports for peripherals (combined with eSATA).

The highlight of the ports given the price range is not just the eSATA but the ExpressCard34 slot for expansion cards. Even some multimedia hot-shots costing more than €1,000 come without this slot. It makes it possible for you to expand the CR630’s technological features to include USB 3.0, FireWire or other controllers. This only leaves the question of whether this is actually relevant for such a low-powered notebook.

Front: no ports
Front: no ports
Left: Ethernet, line-out, mic, CardReader, ExpressCard34
Left: Ethernet, line-out, mic, CardReader, ExpressCard34
Back: Kensington lock, AC, VGA, HDMI, eSATA/USB, USB 2.0
Back: Kensington lock, AC, VGA, HDMI, eSATA/USB, USB 2.0
Right: USB 2.0, DVD multi-burner
Right: USB 2.0, DVD multi-burner

Communication

The wireless module is an Atheros AR9285 802.11n (120-240 Mb), and supports the latest networking standard Draft-N. Bluetooth has not been included. Those who would rather use a wired connection can make use of the maximum bandwidth, with 1000 Mb/s; the Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller supports Gigabit Ethernet.

Accessories

The only disk included is a driver CD. Windows 7 has to be bought separately, as the only thing pre-installed is the pseudo-OS Free DOS. We quickly installed Windows 7 Premium 64 Bit. This does have one advantage: no bloatware on the system. In the box we also found a warranty card and a quick-start guide.

Warranty

Unlike other brands of budget notebooks (e.g. HP 625, 12-month send-in service), MSI offers a 24-month collect and return warranty.

Input devices

Keyboard

The keyboard is not particularly suitable for those who have to type a lot. The keys have a short stroke depth with unclear tactile feedback and a spongy feel upon impact. Typos were frequent during our testing, thanks to the tiny Enter key and right-hand Shift key. Compared to a standard keyboard layout the keys are very small.

The arrow keys have been crammed in under the Enter key and next to the Shift key, making typos much more common in this area. One positive feature is the clear white lettering on the keys; also a separate number pad with the standard layout has been included, making it easier to enter figures and use the calculator.

Touchpad

The Synaptics V6.2 touchpad continues the disappointing trend. The pad is integrated into the palm rest and sits in a small, matt depression. We could move the cursor around accurately using the pad, whose surface stays responsive right up to the margins. You can zoom or scroll with one finger using the horizontal and vertical scrollbars (not marked).

But anyone wanting to use the usual multi-touch gestures will be disappointed - as the pad doesn’t support them. So zooming with two fingers or flicking through pages with a sweeping motion is not possible. And the two deeply inset touchpad buttons (both buttons housed under one bar) were a thorn in our side. They depress only a short way and require too much force to get them to move. This was enough to cancel out any praise we might have given the buttons due to their quiet click when pressed.

Number pad
Number pad
Arrow keys
Arrow keys
Touchpad
Touchpad

Display

MSI has used a WXGA screen with a native resolution of 1,366 x 768 pixels. The 16:9 screen (manufacturer Chunghwa Picture Tubes, model type not readable) is glossy and picks up reflections when the background lighting conditions are unfavourable. The screen contrast, at 172:1, is very poor. We measured a black level of 1.03 cd/m². The glossy finish, which makes colours appear more vibrant, is not enough to disguise the greyish tinge which affects black areas of the screen.

The CPT display has very little to offer in terms of colour space either. Compared to a good consumer screen like that of the Sony Vaio VPC-EB3Z1E (t), the CR630 is roundly defeated.

ICC CR630 vs. AdobeRGB
ICC CR630 vs. AdobeRGB
ICC CR630 vs. sRGB
ICC CR630 vs. sRGB
ICC CR630 vs. Sony Vaio EB3Z1E
ICC CR630 vs. Sony Vaio EB3Z1E
168
cd/m²
169
cd/m²
176
cd/m²
171
cd/m²
177
cd/m²
182
cd/m²
179
cd/m²
185
cd/m²
192
cd/m²
Distribution of brightness
tested with Gossen Mavo-Monitor
Maximum: 192 cd/m² (Nits) Average: 177.7 cd/m²
Brightness Distribution: 88 %
Center on Battery: 177 cd/m²
Contrast: 172:1 (Black: 1.03 cd/m²)57% AdobeRGB 1998 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
81.7% sRGB (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
55.3% Display P3 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)

However, the screen does have an even distribution of brightness (88%). No differences in brightness are visible to the naked eye. The display is brightest in the bottom middle segment with 185 cd/m²; in the top left-hand corner the brightness falls to 168 cd/m². The average is 177 cd/m², far too low to use in full-on daylight.

The display is not suitable for outdoor use because of its glossy surface and poor brightness. Strong reflections will obscure your view nearly all of the time, forcing you to keep adjusting the screen in the search for a better angle.

View from left, direct sun
View from left, direct sun
View from right, direct sun
View from right, direct sun
View from front, direct sun
View from front, direct sun

Users have a 40 degree viewing angle to play with in the horizontal plane, but views from above or below (vertical deviation) cause the picture to fade after only 15 degrees. If several people try to watch a film around this laptop, it will be hard to find a position that is good for everyone.

Viewing angles for the MSI CR630-V1225FD
Viewing angles for the MSI CR630-V1225FD

Performance

MSI has fitted this budget 15.6-inch laptop with a single-core AMD V120 (2.2 GHz). The entry-level processor has only 512 KB of L2 cache. The so-called V series is related to the Athlon II P and N series and represents the bottom end of the scale of AMD’s standard notebook processors (like Celeron with Intel).

The CPU has a TDP of 25 Watts and sits on the AMD RS880M chipset; it is supported by 2,048 MB of DDR3 RAM. Only one out of two RAM sockets is full.

The ATI Radeon HD 4270 (IGP) has its own 256 MB of DDR2 memory according to GPU-Z. This is theoretically possible using sideport memory, but in fact it is a false readout from the tool. The HD 4270 has a certain share of the system memory allocated to it. In BIOS the “UMA Frame Buffer Size” can be limited to 32, 64, 128, 256 (default) or 512 MB. The available RAM capacity increases to about 350 MB if the limit is set at 32 MB. The HD 4270 helps the processor with HD Videos (MPEG-2, H.264, VC-1) using a video decoder (UVD 2).

System info CPUZ CPU
System info CPUZ Cache
System info CPUZ Mainboard
System info CPUZ RAM
System info CPUZ RAM SPD
System info GPUZ ATI HD 4270
DPC Latency Checker Idle, no latencies
DPC Latency Checker WLAN On/Off, short latencies
 
System information for the MSI CR630-V1225FD
AMD V-Series V120 (2.2 GHz)
AMD V-Series V120 (2.2 GHz)

For the processor benchmarks, we compared the AMD V120 (2.2 GHz) with Intel’s low-end processors like Celeron and Pentium. These are in roughly the same price range and can be found in laptops costing up to €450. In the single-core rendering part of the Cinebench R10 32 Bit test (V120: 1,858 points), the processor does a little worse than the Celeron 900 (2.2 GHz, 2,140 points) and the Celeron-M 585 (2.16 GHz, 2,062 points).

Popular dual-core processors in the lowest price range do not perform much better in the single-core test, for example the Pentium P6000 (2,046 points) and Pentium T4500 (2,306 points). But when these two operate with both cores, they leave the single-core processors trailing in their wake; the Pentium P6000 scores 3,900 while the Pentium T4500 scores 4,337. The distance between our processor and the Core i3-330M (2.16 GHz), meanwhile, is enormous, as it scores 5,000 points.

3.7
Windows 7 Experience Index
Processor
Calculations per second
4.3
Memory (RAM)
Memory operations per second
5.5
Graphics
Desktop performance for Windows Aero
3.7
Gaming graphics
3D business and gaming graphics
5.3
Primary hard disk
Disk data transfer rate
5.7
Cinebench R10 Rendering Single 32Bit
1858
Cinebench R10 Shading 32Bit
2220
Cinebench R10 Rendering Single CPUs 64Bit
2144 Points
Cinebench R10 Shading 64Bit
2219 Points
Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64Bit
3.78 fps
Cinebench R11.5 CPU Multi 64Bit
0.58 Points
Help
PCMark 05 Standard
2964 points
PCMark Vantage Result
2360 points
Help

Cinebench R10 is a purely synthetic benchmark, which does not take other components into account that are relevant to the performance. However, PC Mark 2005 uses all components including the DDR3-RAM, the hard drive and the HD 4270. The result of the laptop’s efforts was 2,964 points. A system with Celeron M 900 (2.2 GHz, 2,586 points) does a little worse in this test (see Acer Extensa 5230E), which is because of its weaker Intel GMA 4500.

The PCMark Vantage benchmark gives the MSI CR630 a score of 2,360 points. We have no value from a Celeron M 900 to use for comparison. But Pentium P6000 (3,616) and T4500 systems (3,576) benefit greatly from their two cores and larger L2 cache in this test. However, they do cost more.

AMD fans who don’t want an Intel alternative could also consider the Athlon II P320. This dual-core processor achieves a respectable 3,567 points (HD 4250, HP Compaq Presario CQ62-A04sg). The CR630 with this option costs €100 more (CR630-P3443W7P).

The application performance we experienced was fine when using a smaller number of simple applications. There is nothing to stop this notebook being used as a mobile web-surfing machine. But when an application takes up a lot of processing power, the speed of the other applications drops markedly and you can end up waiting for them to respond.

3DMark 03 Standard
3668 points
3DMark 05 Standard
2926 points
3DMark 06 Standard Score
1402 points
3DMark Vantage P Result
230 points
Help
WDC Scorpio Blue WD2500BEVT-22A23
Transfer Rate Minimum: 29.2 MB/s
Transfer Rate Maximum: 75.1 MB/s
Transfer Rate Average: 57.6 MB/s
Access Time: 18.7 ms
Burst Rate: 98.5 MB/s
CPU Usage: 1 %

The Western Digital hard drive (model type WD2500BEVT-22A23), with a total capacity of 250 GB, has an average transfer rate of only 57 MB/s (sequential reading, HD Tune). Modern notebook hard drives, also with 5,400 rpm, generally reach 65 to 70 MB/s.

The burst rate came out relatively high at 98 MB/s. This value describes the volume of data that can be read from the HDD cache inside of one second. The Crystal DiskMark 3.0 test gave a reading result of 69 MB/s because of its different testing process, which is somewhat below average for this test.

WD2500BEVT-22A23 250GB 5,400rpm
WD2500BEVT-22A23 250GB 5,400rpm
HD Tune 57.6 MB/s reading
HD Tune 57.6 MB/s reading
Crystal DiskMark 68.9 MB/s reading
Crystal DiskMark 68.9 MB/s reading

Emissions

System noise

When writing emails, surfing the net or listening to music, the fan runs at a consistently low speed, never turning off completely. Under light use we measured a volume of 35.7 dB(A). The hard drive, when active, is barely audible above the background level of noise: 32.9 dB(A).

During a 3DMark2006 test as well as constant GPU stress (Furmark), the fan speeds up a little and reaches 36.4 dB(A). There are no fluctuations. This very civilised behaviour from the fan continued during the stress test (Furmark and Prime95) for over two hours; the fan noise increased to a clearly audible but constant hum of 40.2 dB(A).

Noise Level

Idle
32.6 / 32.7 / 32.7 dB(A)
HDD
32.9 dB(A)
DVD
34.4 / dB(A)
Load
36.4 / 40.2 dB(A)
  red to green bar
 
 
30 dB
silent
40 dB(A)
audible
50 dB(A)
loud
 
min: dark, med: mid, max: light   Voltcraft sl-320 (15 cm distance)
Stress test: CPU max. 56 degrees
Stress test: CPU max. 56 degrees

Temperature

In idle the average temperature of the top and bottom surfaces of the base unit do not even reach 25 degrees. The palm rest stays safely in the blue zone. Only during heavy use do some of the areas move towards the red. Our infra-red thermometer measured a maximum temperature of 32.5 degrees on the topside during the stress test; this is not even enough to make your fingers warm. The underside reached 40 degrees in the region near the air vent during the stress test. Because of the majority of areas remained blue, the average temperature overall was less than 30 degrees. Nothing to complain about here.

Max. Load
 32.5 °C
91 F
28.9 °C
84 F
24.3 °C
76 F
 
 32 °C
90 F
32.1 °C
90 F
23.6 °C
74 F
 
 31.4 °C
89 F
31.2 °C
88 F
22.3 °C
72 F
 
Maximum: 32.5 °C = 91 F
Average: 28.7 °C = 84 F
23.6 °C
74 F
29 °C
84 F
40.3 °C
105 F
23.8 °C
75 F
33.6 °C
92 F
29.6 °C
85 F
21.5 °C
71 F
31.2 °C
88 F
29.2 °C
85 F
Maximum: 40.3 °C = 105 F
Average: 29.1 °C = 84 F
Power Supply (max.)  41.5 °C = 107 F | Room Temperature 19.8 °C = 68 F | Voltcraft IR-360
(+) The average temperature for the upper side under maximal load is 28.7 °C / 84 F, compared to the average of 29.5 °C / 85 F for the devices in the class Office.
(+) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 32.5 °C / 91 F, compared to the average of 34.2 °C / 94 F, ranging from 21.2 to 62.5 °C for the class Office.
(±) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 40.3 °C / 105 F, compared to the average of 36.7 °C / 98 F
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 24.3 °C / 76 F, compared to the device average of 29.5 °C / 85 F.
(+) The palmrests and touchpad are cooler than skin temperature with a maximum of 31.4 °C / 88.5 F and are therefore cool to the touch.
(-) The average temperature of the palmrest area of similar devices was 27.7 °C / 81.9 F (-3.7 °C / -6.6 F).

Loudspeakers

The stereo loudspeakers are positioned under the palm rest area and are relatively close together. They direct their sound down onto the table top. The noise that eventually reaches your ears is dull and distant, almost as if it were being muffled by a cushion. Singing is not reproduced clearly at all. The sound is too heavy on the mid-tones and the sound improvement options (Virtual Surround etc) do not make the slightest bit of difference. What is lacking is clarity and balance. The maximum volume is also too low.

The solution is to attach external speakers using the 3.5 mm audio output port. Not only does the sound quality improve dramatically, but there is also no unwanted noise (simple listening test - no measurements).

Battery life

With the cheaper sort of laptop, many people’s worst fears are realised when it comes to battery life. But you need not be alarmed as far as the MSI CR630 is concerned, as it proved to have respectable battery life in our tests. When surfing the net (WLAN test) it lasted almost three hours (171 minutes).

For a 15.6-inch machine with a 4,400 mAh (49 Wh) battery this is a good length of time. Other budget laptop rivals like the Lenovo IdeaPad G560-M277QGE (151 minutes), the HP Compaq Presario CQ62 (204 minutes) or the Fujitsu LifeBook A530, (178 minutes) are on roughly the same level with their dual-core CPUs (Intel/ AMD).

As far as mobile entertainment is concerned, you will have to wait 127 minutes for the battery to fully recharge from empty. After that you can load a DVD and enjoy a film; the fun ends after 115 minutes - just enough for a long film.

If the 25 Watt TDP CPU is subjected to heavy use, the battery life shrinks to 68 minutes (Classic test). The opposite happens in idle with minimal energy consumption and no activity from the user; the CR630 runs out of steam only after 226 minutes.

Charging 127 min.
Charging 127 min.
WLAN 171 min.
WLAN 171 min.
DVD 115 min.
DVD 115 min.
Stress 68 min.
Stress 68 min.
Idle 226 min.
Idle 226 min.
Battery Runtime
Idle (without WLAN, min brightness)
3h 46min
WiFi Surfing
2h 51min
DVD
1h 55min
Load (maximum brightness)
1h 08min

The energy consumption in idle is a mere 13.9 Watts. This doesn’t sound like much, but considering the low performance of the AMD V120 system it is actually rather high. A Core i3 system, two performance classes higher, draws about 12.8 Watts (Lenovo IdeaPad G560) or 14.8 Watts (Fujitsu LifeBook A530).

Depending on the power settings (balanced, high performance, screen brightness, wireless on/off) the energy consumption in idle can reach as high as 23.4 Watts. During heavy use the consumption can rise to 44 Watts (3DMark06, GPU) or 47 Watts (Prime95, Furmark, CPU and GPU).

Power Consumption
Off / Standbydarklight 0.4 / 0.4 Watt
Idledarkmidlight 13.9 / 18.2 / 23.4 Watt
Load midlight 44.3 / 47 Watt
 color bar
Key: min: dark, med: mid, max: light        Voltcraft VC 960
Currently we use the Metrahit Energy, a professional single phase power quality and energy measurement digital multimeter, for our measurements. Find out more about it here. All of our test methods can be found here.

Verdict

The  MSI CR630-V1225FD seems to have something of an identity crisis. It can’t be a proper office notebook because it doesn’t have a matt screen and its input devices are weak. Otherwise, the ideal positioning of the ports (on the back edge) and its good ergonomic features (low heat wastage/ temperature gain) would have made it the perfect office companion. Its battery life of almost three hours (WLAN test) is also solid.

It can’t be a multimedia laptop because of its weak hardware, the AMD V series V120 processor (2.2 GHz) and the ATI Radeon HD 4270 (IGP). Neither gaming nor video converting would work fluidly. On top of that are the muffled-sounding loudspeakers and the small (250 GB) hard drive. And yet, the wide range of ports (eSATA, ExpressCard) would have been at home on a multimedia machine.

There are further problems with the workmanship of the glossy plastic case. The lid is not as rigid as it could be and some parts of the base plate flex inwards under pressure. Any last pretence to high quality is wiped out by ill-fitting case parts. The case is not fundamentally bad or unstable, but there are better laptops out there that come without the high-gloss look and the bendiness (see the HP 625).

We cannot recommend you buy the CR630. If you are happy with the low performance offered by the AMD V120, you could just as easily get an HP Compaq Presario CQ56-103SG (XH187EA) for €299 and buy an extra GB of RAM for €18. Anyone looking for more power could get the HP 625 with an Athlon II P320 (2 x 2.10 GHz) and a matt case for only €320. The only real argument in the CR630’s favour is the well thought-out layout of the ports on the back of the machine and its eSATA. However even the eSATA could be added to the HP 625 via an ExpressCard.

MSI CR630-V1225FD: The glossy surface call for cleaning.
MSI CR630-V1225FD: The glossy surface call for cleaning.
By courtesy of ...
Please share our article, every link counts!
In Review: MSI CR630-V1225FD
In Review: MSI CR630-V1225FD, by courtesy of:

Specifications

MSI CR630-V1225FD (CR630 Series)
Processor
AMD V-Series V120 1 x 2.2 GHz, Champlain
Graphics adapter
ATI Radeon HD 4270, Core: 590 MHz, 8.720.0.0
Memory
2048 MB 
, PC3-10600
Display
15.60 inch 16:10, 1366 x 768 pixel, CPT, glossy: yes
Mainboard
AMD M785
Storage
WDC Scorpio Blue WD2500BEVT-22A23, 250 GB 
, 5400 rpm, 5400 rpm
Soundcard
ATI RS690 HDMI @ ATI SB800
Connections
1 Express Card 34mm, 3 USB 2.0, 1 VGA, 1 HDMI, 1 Kensington Lock, 1 eSata, Audio Connections: line-out, mic, Card Reader: SD/MMC/MS/xD
Networking
Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller (10/100/1000MBit/s), Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (b/g/n = Wi-Fi 4/)
Optical drive
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GT32N
Size
height x width x depth (in mm): 35 x 374 x 247 ( = 1.38 x 14.72 x 9.72 in)
Battery
49 Wh Lithium-Ion, 11.1V 4400mAh
Operating System
FreeDos
Camera
Webcam: 1.3MP
Additional features
24 Months Warranty
Weight
2.415 kg ( = 85.19 oz / 5.32 pounds), Power Supply: 252 g ( = 8.89 oz / 0.56 pounds)

 

The MSI CR630 is a 15.6-inch laptop with a simple stripe pattern.
The MSI CR630 is a 15.6-inch laptop with a simple stripe pattern.
Poor workmanship is in evidence, like the badly fitting edges here by the air vent.
Poor workmanship is in evidence, like the badly fitting edges here by the air vent.
The small mains adaptor weights only 252 grams.
The small mains adaptor weights only 252 grams.
It delivers 65 Watts and is not overburdened during heavy use.
It delivers 65 Watts and is not overburdened during heavy use.
The underside houses a battery compartment and a large access panel.
The underside houses a battery compartment and a large access panel.
On the bottom of the removable 49 Wh battery
On the bottom of the removable 49 Wh battery
is one of the laptop’s rubber feet. Without it the laptop tips over.
is one of the laptop’s rubber feet. Without it the laptop tips over.
Centre: the heatpipe for cooling the CPU and chiset.
Centre: the heatpipe for cooling the CPU and chiset.
The WLAN module is placed on the motherboard as a mini PCI Express.
The WLAN module is placed on the motherboard as a mini PCI Express.
The only RAM module is easy to reach, and one slot is still free.
The only RAM module is easy to reach, and one slot is still free.
Our review model came without an operating system (just Free DOS).
Our review model came without an operating system (just Free DOS).
the hinges are firm.
the hinges are firm.
The keyboard flexes,
The keyboard flexes,
A whole row of brightly flashing lights shows activity (WLAN, hard drive, number lock etc).
A whole row of brightly flashing lights shows activity (WLAN, hard drive, number lock etc).
When it comes to looks, this plastic poser wants to be out in front,
When it comes to looks, this plastic poser wants to be out in front,
and it shines like soapstone (high-gloss lid).
and it shines like soapstone (high-gloss lid).
The case is not exactly “thin and light” as the manufacturer claims.
The case is not exactly “thin and light” as the manufacturer claims.
We weighed 2.415 kg, not including the 252 g mains adaptor.
We weighed 2.415 kg, not including the 252 g mains adaptor.
The cheapest version of the CR630 with AMD single-core V120 is available from €370.
The cheapest version of the CR630 with AMD single-core V120 is available from €370.
But the selection of ports is not cheap: it comes with an ExpressCard34 slot
But the selection of ports is not cheap: it comes with an ExpressCard34 slot
and eSATA on the back. The bulky VGA, HDMI and eSATA cables will stay out of the way.
and eSATA on the back. The bulky VGA, HDMI and eSATA cables will stay out of the way.
The inconspicuous webcam has a resolution of 1.3 megapixels.
The inconspicuous webcam has a resolution of 1.3 megapixels.
The case does not have many visually striking details.
The case does not have many visually striking details.
The power button is an exception.
The power button is an exception.
The MSI CR630-V1225FD: high-gloss surfaces are not everyone’s cup of tea.
The MSI CR630-V1225FD: high-gloss surfaces are not everyone’s cup of tea.

Similar notebooks

Devices with Same Screen Size and/or Weight

MSI Summit E14 laptop review: GeForce GTX graphics without the GeForce GTX weight
GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Max-Q, Tiger Lake i7-1185G7, 14.00", 1.295 kg
MSI Summit B15 A11M Laptop Review: Embracing Iris Xe Over GeForce MX
Iris Xe G7 96EUs, Tiger Lake i7-1165G7, 15.60", 1.528 kg
MSI Prestige 14 Evo laptop review: Intel is catching up
Iris Xe G7 96EUs, Tiger Lake i7-1185G7, 14.00", 1.2 kg
MSI Modern 15 A10RB Laptop Review: The Dell XPS 15 Lite
GeForce MX250, Comet Lake i7-10510U, 15.60", 1.6 kg
MSI Modern 14 A10RB Laptop Review: Lighter than it Looks
GeForce MX250, Comet Lake i5-10210U, 14.00", 1.22 kg
MSI PS42 8RB Prestige (i7-8550U, GeForce MX150) Laptop Review
GeForce MX150, Kaby Lake Refresh i5-8550U, 14.00", 1.19 kg

Links

Compare prices

Pros

+Reasonable battery life
+Ports on the back edge
+eSATA, HDMI, ExpressCard
 

Cons

-Poor application performance
-Slow hard drive
-Screen too dark, not matt
-Wobbly lid
-Spongy keyboard
-Squashed key layout
-Fingerprints get everywhere
-Imprecise workmanship

Shortcut

What we liked

Finally, ports on the back of the machine. This keeps the desktop neat and tidy.

What was missing

A matt palm rest and better input devices would have made the CR630 into a serviceable office partner.

What surprised us

That a cheap case would have the ideal layout for ports.

The competition

Acer Aspire 5552G: with a graphics card; Samsung P530 Pro: better keyboard; Samsung R530: matt display; Fujitsu LifeBook A530: reasonably priced Core i3 office machine; Lenovo IdeaPad G560: reasonably priced office laptop; HP 625: robust and completely matt; HP 620: more powerful with Intel dual-core processor; HP Compaq Presario CQ62: better quality and with dual-core.

Rating

MSI CR630-V1225FD - 12/03/2010 v2(old)
Sebastian Jentsch

Chassis
68%
Keyboard
65%
Pointing Device
76%
Connectivity
75%
Weight
82%
Battery
73%
Display
69%
Games Performance
53%
Application Performance
69%
Temperature
88%
Noise
86%
Add Points
68%
Average
73%
73%
Office - Weighted Average
Sebastian Jentsch, 2010-12- 9 (Update: 2013-06- 6)