2013 April 11 (Thu)
Overall Score: 4.5/5.0 stars
Updated Score: 4.0/5.0 stars
MSI GE60 Laptop
Basic Specifications:
* CPU: Intel Core i5-3230M
* GPU: Nvidia GeForce GT 650M (2 GB GDDR5)
* LCD Screen: 15.6" LED, 1920x1080 resolution, matte or dull surface (non-glare type)
* Camera: 720p camera on the front side of the screen
* RAM: 8 GB DDR3 (4 GB X 2)
* HDD: 750 GB
* SSD: Option for one internal SSD
* Wireless Internet card (802.11 b/g/n) and Ethernet
* Optical Disc Drive (ODD): reads Blu-Ray, DVD, & CD; reads and writes most types of CDs and DVDs (NOTE: For writing on CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Ray discs, I strongly prefer using an external enclosure with an internal desktop ODD. This is because a laptop ODD quickly breaks down if it is used for writing discs. In addition, a laptop ODD usually costs more, performs slower, has more compatibility problems, and is more rare than a desktop ODD.)
* 2 USB 2.0, 2 USB 3.0
* Go to NewEgg.com or http://www.msi.com/product/nb/GE60-0NC.html for the full specifications
I bought this notebook PC from NewEgg.com on 2013 April 3 (Wed).
The overall build quality is very good. The speakers actually emit decent stereo sound, unlike the garbled speakers found on most laptops. The fan could be easily removed and thoroughly cleaned by simply removing a single panel on the bottom of the laptop. The screen has good contrast, good brightness, and good viewing angles. The screen's hinges are firm with minimal wobbling.
The BIOS offers a password for starting up the laptop and for modifying the BIOS settings, but the hard disc drive does NOT offer a password protection feature.
The keyboard is above average for any type of a keyboard. I prefer a desktop keyboard due to its slightly larger buttons, deeper push, and more feedback. The touchpad is very good. Its responsiveness, accuracy, and features are very good. The touchpad functions like a tablet PC's touch-screen. It senses up to 3 fingers to perform the standard clicks, to scroll through pages, to enlarge or shrink the font, to alternate through opened programs, and so forth. What's keeping the touchpad from being excellent is the touchpad's buttons. It's mouse clicks are too stiff, thus, I strongly favor clicking by tapping on the touchpad.
In regard to the battery, I typically get between 2 hours to 3 hours of battery life when I use Mozilla Firefox with multiple tabs simultaneously opened, Mozilla Thunderbird, plus LibreOffice and/or Corel WordPerfect. For recharging, the battery recharges at a rate of ~0.81% per minute (i.e., ~8.1% every 10 minutes, ~81% every 100 minutes, or ~81% every 1 hour plus 40 minutes).
It comes with some bloatware (e.g., trial programs, WinZip (I prefer 7-Zip), and Adobe Reader X (I prefer FoxIt Reader)) that are easily deleted. The paper documentation is minimalistic, which is what I prefer. You could get the user manual (i.e., basic introduction to the laptop's features) and service manual (i.e., how to disassemble the laptop) from the MSI website.
The optical disc drive is a bit wobbly on the bottom side, thus, I avoid pushing or holding that area.
For some unknown reason, multiple temperature-and-fan monitoring programs (e.g., CPUID HW Monitor) are unable to display the laptop fan's spinning speed.
MSI uses a program called S-Bar to control the laptop's function keys and special hot-keys. S-Bar is a very useful program, except for the fact that the program commands Windows 7's Power Options to revert back to "Balanced" mode (the default power-option) every single time the S-Bar starts up. If you create a new power-options profile, save the changes, and select the new profile, then the S-Bar will still create this power-options reversion when S-Bar starts up. The MSI tech support responds within one to two business days if you register your MSI laptop and use MSI's online tech support. After MSI tech support and I tested out a couple rounds of various solutions, the MSI tech support concluded this reversion was unfixable as long as I use the S-Bar.
I finally discovered that the Power-Option reversion is fixable. If I modify the settings for the default "Balanced" mode, then my modifications will stay the same, even if S-Bar loads up. I guess S-Bar will choose the "Balanced" mode, but it won't modify it.
2014-11-14 (Fri) UPDATE: MSI Gets a Downgrade
The fan on this laptop started breaking after 1 year and a few months of usage. The fan was making a grinding noise. I think the early breakage was due to at least one of these factors: (1) the fan had a manufacturing defect, (2) the fan's basic design was lousy, and/or (3) the fan's software control made the fan accelerate and decelerate too quickly and too repetitively. Anyhow, I got a new fan from the AliExpress website. The new fan's price was a huge rip-off, but the price has been been decreasing a lot. Lots of people were buying this fan.
MSI customer support said my laptop was under warranty, thus, I could pay for shipping my laptop to an MSI facility. Then MSI would fix fan and ship my laptop back to me for free. This process would take up to around one month. The price of shipping my laptop to MSI was almost equal to buying a new fan from the AliExpress website. In addition, the one month waiting period without my laptop was too inconvenient. I asked MSI to ship me a new fan, because I could easily install the fan by myself, but MSI wanted to charge me too much money for the new fan, and the shipment period was around one month. Yeah, MSI has lousy customer support. The MSI customer support quickly responds to my questions and problems, but their solutions are lousy.
Anyhow, I got the new fan from AliExpress and installed it without any problems. I also updated my laptop's firmware. The update should fix the fan's software control's problem with excessive acceleration and deceleration.
After 1 year and a few months of using the laptop battery, the battery is now refusing to recharge above 90%. This is typical for laptop batteries. I have been looking for a new battery, but it's difficult. My MSI laptop will only accept an MSI proprietary battery. I think the MSI laptop has a motherboard and/or BIOS that will only cooperate with a battery that has an MSI proprietary chip inside. This is similar to what Sony and other laptop makers do. The reason for this proprietary interaction is to force customers to pay ridiculously high prices for new batteries. MSI wants ~$100 for a new battery. Screw that profiteering. I'm guessing the new battery only costs like $5 to $10 to make in China. I will wait for a better solution to arise (e.g., price drop from MSI or a 3rd party seller that sells the battery with the MSI proprietary chip at a fair price).
To help protect my privacy against hackers and corporate-government espionage, I covered my laptop's camera with a reusable cover. I created the reusable camera-cover by using a non-adhesive, electrostatic screen protector that is originally made for smartphones; a flashcard; and some packaging tape. I cut out all of the pieces to the correct sizes and shapes. The screen-protector piece attaches the laptop camera. The flashcard piece connects to the screen protector and blocks the laptop camera. The packaging-tape piece holds the flashcard piece and screen-protector piece together. In other words, the flashcard piece is sandwiched between the screen-protector piece and the packaging-tape piece. The screen-protector piece easily attaches to and detaches from the laptop camera without leaving behind any sticky residues and discoloration.