MSI GS73VR 7RF-212NE

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Reviews for the MSI GS73VR 7RF-212NE

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The MSI GS73VR 7RF-212NE is a thin gaming laptop with a nice, 4K-resolution 17.3-inch display. There is plenty to like inside and outside, including an Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor, Nvidia GTX 1060 graphics and great connectivity options, but the system is really targeted towards gamers and graphics professionals who want a large, accurate, high-res display in a slim chassis. The Stealth Pro commits to its name with a slim, all-black design and contour lines that are vaguely reminiscent of a stealth bomber. It is thin and relatively light for a 17-inch laptop, measuring 0.77 by 16.21 by 11.21 inches (HWD) and weighing 5.35 pounds. The body is made of a metal alloy, so it feels higher-end than plastic laptops at first, but while testing it, it became quickly obvious that there's significant flex in multiple spots, particularly when opening the lid. While the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 card in the Stealth Pro is VR-ready and plenty good enough for games new and old, it effectively cannot handle playing at the screen's native resolution with detail settings at ultra or high. This means that while users will be able to watch videos and complete other tasks in 4K, they won't be able to take advantage of it when playing demanding or newer titles, which is counterintuitive for a gaming laptop. However, users can set it to 4K and back the details down to medium and get playable (and enjoyable) frame rates or drop the resolution to HD and crank up the detail settings.

The 4K display is good for photo and video editing. MSI calibrates the screen and lets users easily switch between the sRGB and the 100-percent Adobe RGB color space. As for the input devices, the SteelSeries keyboard delivers a comfortable and responsive typing experience, and the RGB LED lighting in three zones is fun and useful. The touchpad is decent, too. Users can tune the sensitivity to help with palm rejection and cursor jumpiness. MSI's Dragon Center software groups together MSI's utilities, for doing things such as monitoring performance and adjusting display color, with third-party apps such as Nahimic 2 and SteelSeries Engine 3 for controlling the keyboard lighting and creating macros. For connectivity, there is USB 2.0, 3.0 and even USB 3.1 Type-C with Thunderbolt 3, and separate microphone and audio output jacks. The laptop can provide about 4 hours of battery life, which is shorter than the average these days. This might be due to the large 4K screen that drains the battery faster than a lower resolution screen.

Hands-on article by Jagadisa Rajarathnam

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (Laptop): Mainstream graphics card based on Nvidia's Pascal architecture and successor to the GeForce GTX 960M. Is manufactured in a 14nm process at Samsung and the technical specifications are very similar to the desktop version. With these GPUs you are able to play modern and demanding games fluently at medium detail settings and HD resolution. » Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Graphics Cards and the corresponding Benchmark List.
Intel Core i7: The Intel Core i7 for laptops is based on the LG1156 Core i5/i7 CPU for desktops. The base clock speed of the CPUs is relatively low, but because of a huge Turbo mode, the cores can dynamically overclock to up to 3.2 GHz (920XM). Therefore, the CPU can be as fast as high clocked dual-core CPUs (using single threaded applications) but still offer the advantage of 4 cores. Because of the large TDP of 45 W / 55 W, the CPU is only intended for large laptops.  
7700HQ: Quad-core notebook processor based on the Kaby Lake architecture. Besides four CPU cores (including Hyper Threading), the chips also integrates the HD Graphics 630 GPU and is manufactured in an improved 14 nm process.» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Processsors.
17.3":

This large display size is used for laptops which are mainly intended for an use on a desk.

Large display-sizes allow higher resolutions. So, details like letters are bigger. On the other hand, the power consumption is lower with small screen diagonals and the devices are smaller, more lightweight and cheaper.

» To find out how fine a display is, see our DPI List.
2.43 kg:

Usually subnotebooks, ultrabooks and quite lightweight laptops with 12-16 inch display-diagonal weigh as much.

MSI: Micro-Star International (MSI), is a Taiwan based computer hardware manufacturer since 1986 best known for desktop computer motherboards. MSI also designs and manufactures graphics cards, barebone PCs, notebook computers, networking products, servers, multimedia, consumer electronics, and storage devices. MSI, as most Taiwanese computer manufacturers, sells products on OEM/ODM basis. It also sells products worldwide based on its own brand name "MSI". The market share of laptops with the MSI brand is rather low.

MSI is not present in the smartphone market. As a laptop manufacturer, MSI has a medium market share and is not among the Top 10 global manufacturers. The ratings of MSI laptops are above average in the tests (as of 2016).

80%: This rating is not convincing. The laptop is evaluated below average, this is not really a recommendation for purchase.
» Further information can be found in our Notebook Purchase Guide.

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