5
EDITOR’S CHOICE
AWARD
7
6
2
1
MSI GT70 DRAGON EDITION
RRP: $2,999 | Website: www.msi.com
I
’ve never been a fan of gaming
notebooks. I have always found
them too expensive for what
they offered. Most of the time, they
were bulky, unsightly, with very
poor battery life and lackluster
performance. All the above holds
true for many gaming notebooks, but
once in a while I’m presented with
something a little different. This time
it was with MSI’s GT70 Dragon Edition
notebook. Before I tell you what I liked
about this notebook, it is important
that I go through the list of quirks
which I feel take away from what is
otherwise a fantastic product. There
aren’t many so bear with me. The
power brick is huge, not sure how
necessary that is given how relatively
light it is but more so than that,
there’s no power light indicator. So
you can’t know from a quick glance if
the power brick is operational or not.
That aside, I also found the keyboard
to be somewhat congested given just
how much space you actually have
on this notebook. Other than that, I
would have to say this is one smooth
operating machine.
Aesthetically, it says or rather
46 The OverClocker Issue 24 | 2013
shouts “gamer” and there’s no way
you can pull this out without soliciting
some comments from those around.
This is a good thing I guess since
it is part of MSI’s gaming series of
products. The velvety red may not be
to everyone’s taste but I like it and it
helps break the monotonous black of
the other notebooks in the series.
Size and weight wise, it is as
you’d expect with no less than
three drives (two of which are solid
state), a dedicated GPU, a large full
1080p screen (driven by the NVIDIA
GTX675MX) and some respectable
speakers. This is not meant to
be an ultra-book but a desktop
replacement. Despite all the features
and its dimensions, weight distribution
is fairly even and it feels lighter than
my other notebook w