MSI GP62 Leopard Pro World of Tanks Edition Laptop Review

MSI World of Tanks Edition Laptop There are many of us who like to be able to game on the go, for some my Nintendo DS might do the job, but for those of us who love our PC games, there's only one true solution; a gaming notebook. World of Tanks is an extremely popular eSports game but is also a big hit with many other gamers around the world. MSI has joined forces with the game developers to create something truly unique to the market with their World of Tanks edition GP62 laptop. Equipped with a 7th generation Intel Core i7 processor, a 15.6 inch full HD display, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 or 1050 Ti graphics card, DDR4 memory, and much more. This is a gaming laptop that is going to be well suited to the world of eSports and competitive gaming. Intel® 7th Generation i7 CPU with Nvidia GeForce® GTX 1050Ti/1050 "With the new Intel® 7th Generation Core i7 CPU, AKA Kaby Lake, gamers are expected to experience up to 10% in CPU performance boost, 4K gaming and 4K video transcoding. GP62M provides 2 GPU options that boost performance in high-definition games and support DirectX 12 features to deliver super-fast, smooth, power-efficient gameplay. Performance comparison between GeForce GTX1050Ti and GeForce GTX965M is shown in 3Dmark11; and with GP’s OC tools to turbo charge the 1050Ti model, it even outperforms GeForce® GTX970M. On the other hand, GeForce GTX1050 also offers superior performance over 965M but at more approachable prices." - MSI Custom Design What really makes this laptop stand out from the crowd, is that it comes with a unique finish. MSI has treated each one to some custom graphics on the rear of the laptop, as well as on the interior below the keyboard. Obviously, this is a bit of a niche market, and it's really going to appeal to fans of World of Tanks. However, if you're not a fan of World of Tanks, then perhaps you will be wanting to look at the standard design. That being said, I'm a big fan of things that are a little more unique and original compared to what everyone else has got, and that's certainly an appealing aspect of this laptop. SteelSeries The customisation doesn't end there either, as the laptop comes equipped with a SteelSeries RGB keyboard, that's going to look great while you're working and gaming. Other added features that are certainly welcome include good connectivity, powerful built-in speakers, Killer Gigabit LAN, high-speed Wi-Fi, and an m.2 SSD. Specifications A Closer Look From the moment you take it out of the box, you know this isn't your standard laptop. The design with the tanks on the top panel looks staggeringly beautiful. This is not just a simple sticker on the back of the case, it’s more integral than that and a beautifully detailed printed design into the chassis. The colours really pop and the choice of image used is superb. Down the right-hand side, you will see a USB 2.0 port, as well as a memory card reader, and the mains power input. On the left side, there are a plethora of connectivity options. Working from front to back, you'll find HD audio jacks, USB type-C, USB 3.0, DisplayPort, HDMI, USB 3.0, and LAN. World of Tanks! At the rear of the laptop, there are two large heat exhausts; nobody wants a laptop to overheat. There's also some nice red trim that just breaks up what would otherwise be a fairly bland looking panel. Most of the ventilation for this laptop it's hiding on the base. There are four large rubber grip feet providing good ground clearance as well as an angled cut design towards the edge to allow for better airflow. There are air vents at the front sides and plenty more in the middle, and this should allow for excellent airflow to all major components. With the lid open you can better appreciate that World of Tanks design on the rear. While you're hardly going to see this much yourself while you're actually looking at the screen, for anyone else looking, it's going to be a pretty cool thing for you to show off. Opening up the lid, you get your first glimpse of the interior decals. A tank design has been laid across the whole width of the laptop, right across the bottom edge of the keyboard. More Tanks! Once opened up, everything looks pretty straightforward. There's a full-size keyboard with number pad, so it's going to be just as good for productivity as it is for gaming. There is a built-in scratch pad for the mouse as well as two separate buttons for the left and right mouse clicks. While I don't tend to use the built-in mouse for gaming, at least the separate LMB and RMB make it more easy to use for gaming in a pinch. The keyboard is obviously a low profile chiclet design and is provided by SteelSeries, so the switches do have a nice feel to them. they’re light and responsive, and of course, they come with full RGB backlighting. All the usual functions of the keyboard are here, but there are also some FN shift functions, which allow you to control the key brightness, volume levels, and more. The screen has a nice matte finish on it, and it's not too reflective of ambient light. This means it's going to be a lot easier to see in brighter rooms, and shouldn't be too harsh if the sun decides to shine on the screen. Testing & Methodology To test each system or notebook, we want to stress every component of the system to check stability and performance, giving us an idea as to why those particular components were picked for this particular system. We use a wide variety of applications to gain a broad spectrum of results for comparing diverse aspects of system performance. Games Used All games are tested at both 1920 x 1080, 2560 x 1440 and 2160 x 3840 (4K). Please note that for systems which do not support a particular resolution, such as 1080p laptops, we will not test the higher resolutions on those devices. Rise of the Tomb Raider (Steam) DX12 Medium Preset Pure Hair Off Deus Ex (Steam) DX12 Medium Preset Ghost Recon: Wildlands (Uplay) Medium Preset Turf Effects Off Far Cry Primal (Uplay) Normal Preset Software Used 3DMark Fire Strike (download) FireStrike (1080p) Benchmark Unigine Superposition (download) 1080p Extreme Benchmark PCMark 10 Professional (download) Express Benchmark WPrime (download) 32M and 1024M CineBench R15 (download) CPU Multi CPU Single Handbrake (download) Custom MP4 to MKV 4K conversion (details below) AIDA64 Engineer (download) CPU-Z (download) HWMonitor (download) Handbrake To stress processors to their absolute limit and accurately judge their performance in video editing workloads, we transcode a 7.7GB compilation of gaming footage; this particular file is freely available from here. The captured footage is 22 minutes and 12 seconds long, it has a bit rate of 50.1 Mbps and it uses the Advanced Video Codec. Additionally, the video runs at a constant 30 frames-per-second and opts for a 3820 x 2140 (4K) resolution. Once loaded into Handbrake, we then transcode the 4K MP4 to an MKV file using the "normal" profile. Synthetic Benchmarks 3DMark Firestrike The GP62 WoT Edition isn't the most high-end system we've reviewed, especially so since we revised our testing methods. Still, this is a respectable score for this GPU and CPU combination, and about what we expected. Unigine Superposition 1080p Extreme Moving onto a GPU bound score, the system scored a respectable 1292. Obviously, that's looking a bit slow compared to some other systems, but this is the first GTX 1050 Ti equipped notebook, and that is one of the more affordable mobile gaming GPUs on the market today. PCMark 10 The CPU holds up really well, scoring a super healthy 4303. When it comes to day to day work and browsing, the GP62 is certainly no slouch. WPrime 32M and 1024M Again, we see a decent performance from this CPU, clocking a respectable 239.497. Sure, that's no world record, but for a laptop of this spec, it's pretty decent. Cinebench R15 A video and 3D rendering system this is not, but that CPU does have enough grunt to set a good score. I wouldn't be using it as my Premiere workbench anytime soon, but it'll get the job done in a pinch. Handbrake MP4 to MKV Conversion 4K Another competitive score for Handbrake. Sure, not many are going to use a gaming notebook to transcode 4K video files, but it'll get the job done if needed. Just be prepared for a noisy fan, as this is a very demanding workload for any system. Storage Write Storage looks a little slower in this system, but it's far from it. It uses a normal high-performance SSD rather than an M.2 like some of the other systems we've tested recently. It's easily competitive with any consumer 2.5" SSD on the market and plenty fast for work and gaming. Read Gaming Performance Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Obviously, this system only uses a 1920 x 1080P display, so we've omitted our 1440P and 4K benchmarks. The GTX 1050 Ti is a quick GPU given it's a more affordable solution, but it is one of the least powerful mobile GPUs we've tested since we refreshed our testing software a couple of months ago. It hit close to 60 FPS in pretty much everything, even the more demanding games. A few minor tweaks could easily get to 60FPs and still maintain good quality settings. For lighter games like LoL, World of Tanks, Rocket League, etc, it'll make easy work of them. Rise of the Tomb Raider Ghost Recon: Wildlands Far Cry Primal Power Consumption and Temperatures Temperatures The CPU cooling performance isn't too amazing, it's not the worst, it's not the best, but it's perfectly reasonable given the CPU will happily run up to the mid 90's. One advantage of the GTX 1050 Ti is that it's pretty efficient, and it doesn't get too hot, so the temperatures maxed out at just 55c. This reflected in the acoustics, topping out at just 48 dBa, putting it on par with a few similar sized laptops and far from being too noisy to enjoy your games. CPU GPU Acoustics Final Thoughts Pricing Gaming laptops are rarely cheap, as the high-performance CPU and a GPU combination are quite expensive. The MSI GP62M 7REX World of Tanks GTX 1050 Ti Gaming Laptop is available for around £1163, which is a lot of money, but it's still one of the more affordable gaming focused laptops on the market. Overview I see many laptops and gaming systems come through the office each month, and most of them look about the same. Of course, the main focus is on the gaming hardware on the interior, and how it performs, but this laptop is just a little bit different. Mixing gaming hardware with a very cool looking gaming chassis design. Performance The GTX 1050 Ti is pretty much the base level for good quality PC gaming. For those who are gaming at 1080P, it's more than competent enough to run the latest games are reasonable settings. It's not crazy powerful, but it'll maintain good framerates, and is particularly well suited to many of the eSports titles on the market. Even in some of our more demanding games, the frame rate was in the ballpark of 60 FPS, which is superb. Design Obviously, not everyone is going to be into World of Tanks. I myself bloody hate the game, albeit because I well and truly suck at it, like... really badly. That being said, I still love the design, tanks are cool and the graphics are a welcome break from the often blank black and grey panels I see from day to day. If you're a WoT fan, obviously it's going to appeal to you even more. Of course, I'd love to know what you all think of the design in the comments section. Throw in that lovely full RGB SteelSeries gaming keyboard, and you've got a very cool looking laptop. Lots of pretty colours, lots of awesome tanks, what's not to love! Gaming and Something Working Equipped with the Intel Core i7 7700HQ, this laptop is no slouch when it comes to day to day tasks. Running a bunch of Skype windows, Chrome tabs, media player, and all your usual stuff isn't going to be an issue. It's a quick CPU too, so some light rendering tasks and processing shouldn't trip it up either. Of course, when you're done with your work, fire up your favourite games, and it's got more than enough grunt to take on your friends in WoT. Pros Unique WoT design SSD + 1TB HDD for storage SteelSeries RGB Gaming Keyboard Great 1080P gaming performance Runs cool and quiet Competitive price Cons None Neutral Not the most powerful gaming laptop ever, but it's priced to reflect that WoT theme obviously won't have mass appeal, but it's great to see something unique