MSI GT72 VR 6RE 1070 Gsync Gaming Laptop Review

MSI GT72 VR 6RE Review

Introduction

The world of gaming computers shifts so rapidly that we can imagine even the great Gordon Moore must be wondering if his proclamation was overly cautious. Desktop systems progress at a dizzying rate, but because of the nature of portable gaming, nowhere does the market move quite as fast as it does in the world of gaming laptops.

It is almost a year to day when we reviewed the MSI GT72 2QE, a £2000 gaming laptop which sported all the premium features of, at the time, current gaming laptop thinking. In this world where a laptop is considered a somewhat disposable item due to the lack of upgrades available it still would be mad for MSI to get rid of their excellent GT72 chassis entirely, and indeed today’s review of the GT72 VR 6RE is what the 2QE would have been if you compiled the specifications list today.

Everywhere you look there are upgrades, and yet because it retains the GT72 design it is also familiar. The white heat of competition refining areas of weakness and MSIs eternal quest for perfection improving the breed. What probably will catch the attention of anyone with an interest in gaming is the graphics card that beats at the heart of the 6RE, a GTX 1070. The efficiency gains of modern GPUs are demonstrated with crystal clarity in a laptop, where heat dissipation and power draw are at a premium. It isn’t even listed in the specifications as a mobile variant, which was eye-opening to say the least.

However, it isn’t what is claimed that we care about, it’s how it performs, but before we get to our benchmark results let’s take a closer look at this latest model from the ever-popular MSI Dominator Pro range of laptops.

Technical Specifications

The GT72VR 6RE reads like a wishlist of components. Even if we ignore the excellent Steelseries keyboard, the i7-6700HQ processor and DDR4 support courtesy of Skylake, we still have a NVMe storage device, 120Hz IPS G-Sync monitor, GTX 1070, BluRay writer and KillerNIC. Add onto that Windows 10, so superior to Windows 8.1 that it’s almost laughable and the GT72VR 6RE has all the boxes ticked.

Model

GT72VR 6RE(Dominator Pro)-040UK

MRSP

£2,099

Chassis colour

Black

Screen

17.3″ FHD, Anti-Glare (1920*1080) eDP IPS-Level with G-Sync

Graphics

nVidia Geforce GTX 1070, 8GB GDDR5

Processor

Skylake i7-6700HQ

Memory size

DDR IV 8GB*2

SSD

256GB PCIE GEN3 NVMe SSD

HDD

1TB (SATA) 7200rpm

Warranty

24 months

Features

PCI-e SSD (NVMe) ready
Killer Shield
Killer DoubleShot Pro
Xsplit Gamecaster
Silver-Lining Print
Keyboard by SteelSeries
SteelSeries Engine 3
120Hz Output
Matrix Display (Surround)
Matrix Display (Extend)
Miracast
True Color Technology
94% NTSC
Audio Boost 2
Sound by Dynaudio
G-Sync
Nahimic 2
Cooler Boost 4
Dragon Center
VR Ready

OS

Windows 10

CPU

6th Gen. Intel® Core™ Processor

Chipset

Intel® HM170

Memory Type

DDR4

Number of DIMM Slot

4 Slots

Max Capacity

Max 64GB

SSD ports (total)

1x M.2 SSD Combo (NVMe PCIe Gen3 x4 / SATA )

HDD slots (total)

1x 2.5″ SATA HDD

Optical Drive

BD Writer (9.5mm)

Webcam

FHD type ([email protected])

Keyboard

Backlight Keyboard (Full-Color)

LAN

Killer Gb LAN

Wireless LAN & Bluetooth

Killer N1535 Combo (2*2 a/c)+BT4.1 M.2 type

Speaker

2x 3W

Woofer

1x 5W

Audio Jack

1x Mic-in
1x Headphone-out (SPDIF)
1x Line-in
1x Line-out

Type-C (USB3.1 Gen2 / DP / Thunderboltâ„¢3)

NA

Type-C Super Port (USB3.1 Gen2 / DP)

NA

Type-C USB3.1 Gen2

1x

Type-A USB3.1 Gen2

NA

Type-C USB3.0

NA

Type-A USB3.0

6x

Type-A USB2.0

NA

RJ45

1x

Card Reader

1x SD (XC/HC) Card Reader

VGA Port

NA

HDMI

1 x HDMI (4K @ 60Hz)

Mini-DisplayPort

1x (v1.2)

Others

NA

Battery (Cell)

9-Cell

Battery (Type)

Li-Ion

Battery (Whr)

83.25

AC Adapter

230W adapter

Dimension (WxDxH) mm

428 x 294 x 48

Weight (kg w/ Battery)

3.78

Software

MSI System Control Manager
MSI BurnRecovery
MSI Remind Manager
MSI Battery Calibration
MSI Social Media Collection
MSI Sizing Options
MSI Boot Configure
Nahimic Audio Enhancer
Microsoft Office 2013 (trial 30 days, 1 year per purchase)
Fresh Paint (Metro)
LINE (Metro)
PowerDVD
WinZip
Norton Internet Security (trial 60days)
Norton Online Backup (trial 30days)
Norton Studio (Metro) (permanent free)
Killer Network
Nvidia GeForce Experience
SteelSeries Engine 3
XSplit Gamecaster
True Color
Dragon Center
WTFast
X-Boost

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