Gaming notebooks are a great companion for gamers on the go who can't stand a day without gaming. There are many brands of gaming notebooks to go for and MSI is one of the very few that delivers very high-end gaming notebooks that goes as far as 2 x NVIDIA GTX980M on SLI, the MSI Gaming GT80 Titan SLI. Yet, not everyone wants to carry a bulky gaming notebook and let alone can really afford the high-end models.
Today we'll be examining the MSI Gaming GL62-6QF gaming notebook, courtesy of MSI Malaysia. The GL62-6QF is a new and less bulky model from MSI that comes with a fairly decent specs that are supposed to be able to fulfill the needs of most gamers on the go. Let's keep things short and let us proceed with the performance test!
(The MSI Gaming GL62-6QF retails at RM3999)
Specifications
Unboxing
The GL62-6QF comes in a rather normal looking packaging, much contradict to the higher-end models that comes in a more artistic dragon printing packaging .
Highlights of features can be found at the back of the packaging, such as the proprietary Cooler Boost to ramp up the fan speed for extra cooling performance, Nahimic audio enhancer software, high-speed data transfer with USB 3.0, M.2 SSD, DDR4 and more.
The accessories you'll find in the box are, the power cord, power adapter, user's guide, warranty service book.
THe GL62-6QF has a very clean appearance in overall, smooth matte surface, MSI Gaming G Series Dragon Shield.
At the back, you'll find 2 exhaust vent of the the dual fan cooling design that is behind MSI laptop's excellent cooling solution the is clearly different from the rest.
The left of the GL62-6QF consists of 1 x Killer Networking - Killer™ Ethernet E2400, 2 x USB 3.0 port, 1 x USB 3.0 Type-C port, Audio Jacks for Speaker and Microphone, HDMI port and a mini DisplayPort.
As for the right side, you'll find a DVD Super Multi optical drive, 1 x USB 2.0 port, built-in card reader and the charging port.
Unlike the higher-end models like the GT72 and GE72, the GL62-6QE hinge design doesn't allows it to lay completely 180° flat.
The keyboard on the GL62-6QF isn't the illuminated keyboard that we'd hoped for, but illuminated keyboard is merely an added aesthetics and it doesn't actually affect the overall performance.
The keyboard by Steelseries has been on MSI gaming notebooks since the very first day.
The basic function keys that we normally see on MSI gaming notebook is still there, with the function as same as the following:
F3: Enable /Disable the touch pad
F4: P1 shortcut key for Instant Play feature that launch a designated application when pressed
F5: Eco mode (power saving mode) for lower power consumption
F6: Enable / Disable the webcam.
F7: The SHIFT function to toggle system performance according to your needs
The arrow keys as well, has it's very own function for increasing/ decreasing the brightness of the screen, mute volume, increasing/ decreasing the volume of the built-in speaker.
On the right side of the palm rest, you'll find these label which indicates what's inside this very gaming notebook - we can see that there's an Intel i7 CPU and NVIDIA GTX960M GPU powering this GL62-6QF, something that we have more interest in.
The touchpad has a granuled texture that allows your fingers to glide smoothly on its surface and doesn't leave much traces of fingerprints, but we'd still prefer a smooth surface compared to this.
The shortcut key for Cooler Boost to ramp up the fan speed to maximum and MSI Dragon Gaming Center software for system monitoring, utlitity, etc is located at the top right of the chassis of the GL62-6QF.
The bottom of the GL62-6QF has a wide area of vent that allows better air flow for effective cooling, thus maximizing the twin cooler performance for a lower operating temperature that leaves single-fan cooling design gaming notebook of the same tier to bite the dust.
The Dynaudio subwoofer got you covered with extra bass while you're gaming, watching movies or listening to music.
While self-upgrade can easily be done, you'll be taking your own risk to perform that as there's a warranty sticker located right above one of the screws. Performing upgrade should be done by MSI authorized reseller or service center as voiding the 2 years warranty will be the last thing you want to do to a brand new laptop.
Software: MSI Dragoon Gaming Center
System Monitor is a pretty useful tool for one to monitor the system performance, shift mode, temperature and network speed. All the details is presented in the simplest form which can be easily understandable.
The Utility allows you to compile all frequent used applications into the list for the ease of access.
The instant play tab allows you to add your most frequent played games to the list and launch it via the P1 function key located at the F4 key.
Display & audio tab allows you to adjust the volume for speakers/microphone and display brightness/gamma.
The mouse tab, allows you to control the mouse pointer speed, double click speed and scrolling line number easily without having to access the mouse properties in Control Panel.
The resource release tab lists out all the active programs and you can select the programs to be killed to release resources for the designated games when instant play is activated.
Device Setting allows you to toggle for enable/disable of Windows key on the keyboard, enabling/disabling the high performance profile and toggle the system performance with the shift mode's green (low power consumption), comfort (balanced) and sport mode (high performance mode).
Gaming Performance
To test the capability of the GL62-6QF, we have opted for ultra and high settings on all the games and synthetic benchmark which will be tested in this review. We've set 30 FPS as the bottom line, a standard which some claims as a playable frame rate that is commonly seen on game consoles like PS4 and Xbox One.
Games like Crysis, Watch Dog and Tom Clancy's The Division is deemed to be unplayable on Green mode and Comfort mode, and the only way to make these games playable is none other than shifting to Sports mode for the maximum performance.
Temperature
We've ran a series of system stress test with Prime95, Intel Extreme Tuning Utility, FurMark that has been widely used by enthusiasts around the globe for system stability test. While the stress test generates heat, we've recorded the temperature reading for both situation where the cooling fans operate normally and with Cooler Boost enabled under sports mode for maximum heat.
Battery Life
The battery life for the GL62-6QF isn't looking very good under heavy usage as we only manage to last for about 2 hour 24 minutes after going through heavy gaming session on high performance mode. To game longer on the GL62-6QF, you can opt for comfort mode or green mode that somehow sacrifices some of the performance by reducing the system performance so it is less taxing on the battery.
Audio
Audio wise, the Nahimic software didn't turn out really well on the GL62-6QF. The Dynaudio speakers by itself is able to deliver clear and powerful sound stage for gaming and movie session without the assistance from the software. Enabling the software somehow contained the sound, reducing the overall clarify for music and movies.
Keyboard
When it comes to gaming keyboard, we're expecting for design and feature that is beneficial to gamers. Designed by the renown gaming peripherals manufacturer Steelseries, the keyboard on the QL62-6QF comes with fancy lighting and key mapping that appears to be helpful for the gamers, but we find that the keyboard itself is lacking of the N-key rollover feature that has been widely used on most expensive gaming keyboards on the market.
We've tried the commonly used key combination for FPS games and everything seems well for now.
The commonly used key combination for racing games seems okay as well.
When we tried playing rhythm games that requires simultaneous keys to be pressed at the same time, the signal blocking issue arises and the maximum amount of keys that can be registered simultaneously is limited to 6 keys (not including modifier keys). We've tried configuring the key configuration on other area of the keyboard and there's not way for us to resolve the issue.
Verdict
Performance wise, the result of the games benchmark hovers around the deemed to be playable 30 fps for taxing games like Tom Clancy's The Division, Watch Dogs, Crysis 3, a result that is pretty reasonable given that we're setting it on the highest settings possible. While going for the highest possible details heavily taxes the GTX 960M, you can opt for higher FPS by turning down the graphics settings to achieve better frame rates which you find comfortable to game on - not to mention that it'll save you some battery life for longer operation.
Temperature wise, the GL62-6QF is doing great with the Cooler Boost and twin fan design that gives a very significant drop in temperature compared to normal fan operation (up to 8°C difference for our case). Though, you'll be sacrificing the acoustic performance as enabling Cooler Boost will turn the GL62-6QF into a mini jet engine.
Last but not least, a subjective issue that we've been highlighting since our first review on MSI Gaming Notebooks - The keyboard roll-over feature. While not everyone is going to press all of the keys on the keyboard at the same time, the N-key rollover is still an important feature that should be cater of if its targeted audience is to be gamers from all kinds of game genres.
Judging from what the MSI Gaming GL62-6QF can deliver, RM3999 is a fair price for a decent gaming notebook compared to most of the same tier products from other brands. However, things could be even better if MSI would consider to give the GL62-6QF an illuminated keyboard, a simple non-RGB one will do.
Pros
Aesthetically pleasing
Decent audio from the speaker alone
Decent graphics performance
Decent cooling performance from the twin fan cooling design and Cooler Boost
Adjustable system performance for extended battery life and lower temperature
Cons
Costly
Short battery life
Nahimic audio software didn't worked as well as how it is on the higher-end models
Subjective
Keyboard isn't illuminated
Keyboard doesn't comes with N-key rollover feature