MSI GT70 review

Performance aside, the GT70 impresses in other areas. MSI has teamed up with peripheral manufacturer Steelseries to create one of the best laptop keyboards we’ve ever used, thanks to its superb response and springy action, with just the right amount of travel. The keyboard is a Chiclet-style design, with a separate numeric keypad, but all the keys are full-size and there’s absolutely no sign of flex in the keyboard tray. It’s also backlit with RGB LEDs, and the laptop comes with an application to change the colour, intensity and pattern of the lights.

The compact touchpad is a little disappointing given the size of the screen, and it’s not big enough to span the entire desktop in a single swipe. The buttons below it are more responsive, and there’s a button to disable the touchpad completely when you plug in a mouse.

The 17.3in screen is another highlight. Its matte finish helps it cope with overhead reflections, and, unlike many matte displays, the MSI’s screen still displays vibrant colours. The 1,920×1,080 resolution makes games look fantastic, and lets you enjoy high-definition films from the built-in Blu-ray drive at their proper resolution. The screen has plenty of contrast to help pick out details and enemies hiding in the shadows in games. There’s a huge amount of screen tilt, but you’ll need the adjustment as the screen only has mediocre viewing angles.

Right now, the GTX 680M is the fastest mobile GPU available, and MSI is the first manufacturer to launch a laptop with this graphics processor – in this respect the GT70 is currently the ultimate gaming laptop. It costs a fortune, though. Although the GT70 is incredibly fast, it’s only marginally faster than other, less expensive systems from the likes of Dell. The Alienware M17x scores the same in our multimedia benchmarks and is only around 10% slower in games, and is a huge £450 cheaper than MSI’s laptop.