MSI PE60 6QE Prestige iBuyPower Edition Notebook Review

Maintenance

Serviceability is the same as on the GE62 and previous PE60. It's relatively easy as the entire bottom panel can be removed as one piece, but it's also a bit of a hassle as a total of 18 Philips screws must first be removed. Users get direct access to core components such as the 2x SODIMM slots, M.2 2280 slot, WLAN module, battery, and 2.5-inch SATA III slot. Unlike on the larger MSI GT72 series, the CPU and GPU for the PE60 are soldered onto the motherboard and cannot be upgraded.

Warranty

MSI notebooks purchased new from iBuyPower receive the standard one-year limited warranty. A few manufacturers like Gigabyte offer two-year limited warranty as standard instead.

Keyboard

The keyboard is essentially the same as on the PE60 2QE except that the sides of each key are now translucent too allow for more even illumination when the backlight is on. The keys are surprisingly quiet with little clatter and are very comfortable with great travel and firm feedback. There is very little to complain here except for perhaps the lack of any dedicated multimedia or customizable Macro keys. For a business notebook, however, this shouldn't be a large issue. The Turbo Fan option as found on the gaming G series returns and is largely unneeded for day-to-day or gaming use.

Touchpad

The large touchpad (10.8 x 6.1 cm) is smooth to the touch with an even and reliable glide for cursor movement. The Synaptics V7.5 software recognizes up to three-finger gestures with easy two-finger scrolling and zooming. Meanwhile, the dedicated mouse keys are shallow in travel with a very firm and loud auditory feedback. The force required for an input can make constant double-clicking tiresome, so we find it easier to simply double-tap on the touchpad for quicker actions.

The system provides no TrackPoint that is normally a staple on core business notebooks.

The wide gamut of the PE60 shows it uses a high-end panel despite the poor first impressions. Colors cover the sRGB spectrum entirely and almost 75 percent of the wider AdobeRGB standard. Colors are even deeper than on our pricier HP ZBook 15 G3 SKU. Some Clevo barebones like the Schenker XMG U726 aim for wider AdobeRGB coverage, though such notebooks are not common.

Measurements with an X-Rite spectrophotometer show that the system is in dire need of calibration. Like the recently reviewed PX60, color temperature is much too cool and gives way to more inaccurate colors at all tested saturation levels. A quick calibration flattens RGB Balance and corrects the color temperature for a significantly improved display. Colors still become increasingly less accurate the higher the saturation level, so additional tuning may likely be needed for more accuracy.

Outdoor usability is below average as expected and the wide angle from the hinges (up to 150 degrees) isn't so useful considering that the notebook uses a TN panel with more limited viewing angles. The backlight is especially disappointing as it is fit almost exclusively for indoor use only. The screen is already too dim when working under shade and even worse if under direct sunlight.

Viewing angles are good side-to-side, but degrade quickly if viewing from below the normal. This is expected from a TN panel and it is no different on the refreshed PE60.

The quad-core Core i7-6700HQ is a common CPU of choice for the latest gaming notebooks. Higher-end and costlier gaming notebooks like the MSI GT80 or Eurocom DLX7 can be equipped with overclockable Core i7-6820HK or Core i7-6700K processors, respectively. The latter in particular can outperform the Core i7-6700HQ by 20 to 30 percent depending on the processing workload according to CineBench benchmarks. Otherwise, the i7-6700HQ isn't significantly faster than the previous generation Core i7-4700HQ or Core i7-5700HQ in terms of raw CPU performance.

See our dedicated CPU page on the Core i7-6700HQ for more technical information and comparisons.

PCMark benchmarks rank our MSI in the same ballpark as other systems sporting the same CPU and GPU like the Ideapad Y700 and XPS 15 9550. The newer SKU also comes out ahead of the older PE60 2QE by about 15 percent in PCMark 8 Home and Work.

Subjectively, the notebook performs swiftly and without any software or hardware issues specific to the test unit.

The GTX 960M GPU performs similarly to the one in the Asus G501, so the MSI system is not being artificially hindered in terms of graphics power. 3DMark benchmarks place the GPU roughly 20 percent ahead of the GTX 950M while the more powerful and demanding GTX 970M is ahead by 60 to 70 percent.

We stress the notebook with demanding benchmarks to observe for any stability or throttling issues. With only Prime95 active, the CPU maintains a core clock rate of 2.9 GHz or 200 MHz slower than its rated maximum Turbo Boost for all active cores. Core temperatures remain relatively cool (for a notebook) at around 76 C. FurMark stress will put the Nvidia GPU at a steady 1137 MHz and 69 C core temperature. Running both Prime95+FurMark simultaneously will throttle the CPU to 2.5 GHz with temperatures in the mid 70 C range.

Unigine Heaven stress is more representative of gaming loads. The system is able to maintain its maximum CPU Turbo Boost of 3.1 GHz or greater depending on the onscreen load with a steady GPU clock rate of 1202 MHz (compared to its base clock rate of 1097 MHz). Users will not need to worry about throttling issues when gaming or running everyday tasks.

Running on battery power will not limit CPU or GPU performance. a 3DMark 11 test on batteries returns Physics and Graphics scores of 8461 and 5310 points, respectively, compared to 8502 and 5463 points when connected to mains.

Surface Temperatures when idling are flat with the warmest spots around the touchpad. The bottom quadrant nearest the secondary HDD is also noticeably warmer than the rest of the notebook. These spots aren't uncomfortably warm, but it's a bit unusual for a notebook as most designs tend to keep the front areas cooler by moving motherboard components away from the area.

Maximum load with Prime95+FurMark stress will warm up the notebook significantly around the heat pipes and processor. The touchpad becomes even warmer at just over 40 C to make it uncomfortable (and sweaty) for palms and fingers. This is particularly something we'd like to see improved upon for future hardware revisions. Similarly equipped notebooks like the Asus G501 and XPS 15 experience much smaller temperature changes on their front halves compared to the MSI.

Runtimes from the small non-removable 42 Wh battery are essentially the same as on last year's model despite the CPU differences. Users can expect just under 3 hours of constant WLAN use, which is below average compared to other 15-inch notebooks where 4 to 6 hour runtimes are more common under similar testing conditions.