MSI GX620 review

MSI's GX620 has an attractive design with a red strip around the edge. There's hardly any flex in the lid, and build quality is sturdy. A spring-loaded mechanism snaps the lid into place.

The 15.4in display is the dimmest of the three here, but it's the only one with a matt finish, reducing reflections. We noticed uneven lighting along the bottom and right-hand edges, especially in the bottom right corner.

A touch-sensitive control panel sits above the keyboard, and includes short cuts to control music playback and activate built-in hardware. An Eco button underclocks the processor for longer battery life - this provided an extra 30 minutes in our tests - while a Turbo button overclocks it to provide better performance. This resulted in an extra 300 points in our PCMark benchmarks.

The touch pad is large but has shallow, cut-out buttons that are hard to press. MSI has used the full width of the case for the keyboard as well as a number pad. However, the red font on the function keys is dark and hard to read, while the number pad is an odd inclusion for a gaming laptop and makes the whole keyboard look cramped. Although most PC gamers like the idea of having extra control keys, these would have been better placed on the left or top of the keyboard.

MSI has bundled an excellent laser mouse, which includes optional weights so you can adjust the balance. The price includes a smart backpack for carrying the GX620 around, and there's a two-year RTB warranty.

Performance was great, but it was not much better than that of Rock's or Novatech's laptops, even with Turbo mode enabled. Battery life was average at two hours and 20 minutes. A 320GB hard disk is generous, but three USB ports is a bit stingy. Like the other £1,000 laptops, the GX620 has Draft-N WiFi.

The GX620 is a reasonable laptop, but sadly the dim screen and cramped keyboard let it down.