User Interface, A/V Quality, and Thermal Design
User Interface
We’ve already touched on the GT72’s far superior physical buttons, replacing their capacitive GT70 counterparts which we so frequently maligned. But a few other minor improvements to the user interface have also snuck into this updated model.
For starters, though the SteelSeries keyboard is mostly identical to that of the GT70, some subtle adjustments have been made. Most notably, the Enter and Backspace keys are now wider, which makes for more comfortable operation and a quicker adjustment coming from other keyboard layouts. The keyboard also completely avoids all flex, with a solid feel across the breadth of its layout. The rest of the keyboard continues to escape any degree of serious criticism: the keys are flat-surfaced, featuring a comfortable medium-length stroke and an only slightly soft impact. Feedback is partially a subjective matter anyway, but the Steelseries model here once again feels generally good to use—and as a bonus, it’s also quiet.
The keyboard is once again backlit, featuring three distinct zones of colorful illumination. The zones and color profiles can be toggled with a quick press of the corresponding button to the left of the keyboard—another nice feature. The backlighting appears even and high-quality.
The touchpad, on the other hand, has seen a near-complete redesign. As opposed to the countersunk, somewhat small touchpad on the GT70, the GT72’s is larger and completely flush with the rest of the surface of the palmrest. The slightly rubberized texture continues across the surface of the touchpad, but we didn’t find this to be a problem in general use; it merely proved comfortable. For lack of a haptic dividing line between touchpad and palmrest, the border actually illuminates along with the keyboard when backlighting is on. The buttons below the touchpad, meanwhile, are once again superior to those on the previous model, with quieter clicks that are still no less decisive and a superior texture and appearance to that of the glossy faux-metallic plastic on the GT70. Our only minor criticism here is consistent with that of all notebooks featuring seamless palmrest and touchpad surfaces: that is, that it can be occasionally difficult to determine by feel just where the touchpad is located. Naturally, while gaming with a mouse, this is not a concern.
A/V Quality
The GT72’s CMN N173HGE-E11 17.3” Chi Mei display is a 1920×1080 (1080p) matte panel that’s of a popular family amongst modern gaming notebooks. That’s thanks to the fact that it’s not only of relatively high quality, featuring very good contrast and reasonable brightness (around 300 cd/m²)—plus great viewing angles for a TN panel—but also because it’s cheap. When such panels can be sourced for as low as $70 by the end-user, it’s hard to comprehend why notebook manufacturers would ever opt for lower-end compromises simply to save 20 or 30 bucks in production. It’s far from the best we’ve seen, with an undeniably cool temperature that probably begs some calibration from those who have the resources and the conviction, but we have little more to criticize about it here than we did its sibling component found in the GT70 (the N173HGE-L11). It would be nice to have IPS across the board, but this is at least a very good TN option.
Audio is, once again, absolutely top-notch. Thanks to high-quality drivers and a dedicated subwoofer on the bottom, the sound profile is full-bodied and volume is more than sufficient. Bass is well-represented, whereas the high frequencies remain clear even at high volumes. Overall, it’s simply an excellent sonic experience, and one which should completely preclude any concerns about needing to resort to external speakers.
Cooling
Thanks to the GT72’s completely redesigned case, thermal management has seen serious improvements. As opposed to the single-fan design of the GT70 with limited ventilation on the bottom of the machine, the GT72 features dual cooling fans (one for CPU and one for GPU), plus the previously-detailed thoroughly-vented bottom panel.
The results of these changes—in conjunction with better efficiency from the GTX 980M over the previous GTX 880M—produce a machine which is not only cooler during gaming, but also far quieter than its predecessor. Of course, it’s still loud under load, but no longer is it a nuisance; with audio turned on, we never found ourselves bothered by its operation. There were also no problematic hot spots on the machine during our gaming sessions. Though we never recommend gaming on the lap, the GT72 proves that it can handle it by remaining comfortably temperate during such testing. Meanwhile, the keyboard and touchpad maintain merely tepid profiles even under the harshest of conditions. Clearly, the redesign was both an aesthetic and practical success
Oh my science.
Oh my science.
For $3000 you can have a
For $3000 you can have a gaming desktop with 4790k a 500 gig ssd 2 gtx 970s in sli all the bells and whistles plus have a decent laptop probably with the same specs minus the mobile gpu for some remote steam big picture gameplay.
Thanks for the feedback
Thanks for the feedback guys!
There's no disputing that gaming desktops are far cheaper, but then, what's the point of even looking at gaming laptops if you're satisfied with being tethered to a desktop in the same place each time? Most people are, but some people want to move around. That's what these machines are all about.
Besides, in the conclusion, I mentioned "If it were our money, we’d probably spring for the $2,299 model, which is arguably a better value." It is–and for most people, it makes a heck of a lot more sense. You also skirt the issue of the quad-SSD failure rate concerns if that bugs you too. Quite frankly, at that price, with the GTX 980M, there isn't a better competitor around right now. The display isn't perfect, but apart from that and the internal battery, there's really not much else to hate on here. Until some other comparable machines pop up with considerably lower prices (not likely), it's IMO the best option around.
It's a cream of the crop machine with a couple of small niggles. If that's not what you're after, look elsewhere I say!
Highly disagree with those
Highly disagree with those specs.
A TN panel and it isnt even 120hz.
32 gig ram? for gaming?, 16 is more than enough, 8 isnt even tapped out yet.
Instead of all that mess of hard drives, can i just have ONE 500gig SSD? ill utilize the USB3 ports if i need more for all my legal movies.
At least that i7 is a quad core, instead of the dual core i7s.
Good thing the display is 1080p, it could have been 1366×768.
Wow, such a arrogant comment
Wow, such a arrogant comment for a person with loads of money. I get your point. But you can still have your preferred hardware with GT72 with added cost. Hope you done your research. And guess what, those days you never need more than 2GB RAM for gaming, and now you yourself saying that 16 GB sufficient.
I’m gaming right now and I
I’m gaming right now and I NEED 16Gb… Yeah I have 20 Chrome Tabs opened (1Gb), Minecraft FTB opened using 6Gb and Minecraft Vanilla using 5Gb and Skype using not much but yeah stil needing 16 Gb… Atleast I don’t have my server ON!
Thank you for an excellent
Thank you for an excellent and well-thought review! I purchased the GT72 Dominator Pro and I must say that I am extremely happy with the build quality and performance of this PC. I purchased the 24GB RAM/256 SSD option with the 980M. This was a catch-weight choice for $2,500, I want the computer to be future-proof and last for years. Everything about this PC is so slick and high quality, the aesthetics are just amazing! The GT72 is easy to love, sometimes I just stare at this beautiful beast in admiration. Every game title is easily played on Ultra with virtually no performance challenges that I have seen. Supersampling is the only option that I have seen lower fps. I accepted the fact the LCD screen was TN and 1080P when I made the purchase. I find the screen to be bright and colorful, with great contrast and sharpness. Screen perfection is one of the more discriminating elements of a laptop and it’s a huge cash investment to get modest gains, in my option. I’m glad that MSI invested in engineering that substantially affects performance. Besides, the GT72 allows for (3) 4K displays to be connected in tandem, so if you want to get nerdy, there are certainly options. The 1TB 7200RPM HDD also performs well for gaming, so I keep my key titles and frequent load apps on the 256 SSD and offload the rest to HDD. Lastly I’ll say the audio is immersive and enjoyable while playing games, impressive.
I have always found the desktop/laptop argument to be curious. It’s obvious that gaming laptops are for users that want to be mobile. Streaming is coming along but it’s still very early in that concept. In the 2000’s, I would play games with friend and I would have to travel with a desktop computer, monitor, peripherals. Those days are long behind me and I am willing to take a moderate hit on my wallet to ensure that I am mobile in any situation. Even if you are mildly cost conscious, the GT72 is a beautiful juggernaut and it’s an absolute pleasure to own.
The Nvidia Geforce GTX 460m
The Nvidia Geforce GTX 460m feature reach is not something is able first rate gaming background. Being a midrange item, it is equipped for running all the recreations that are presently in the business. The 1.5gb feature memory is the thing that aides in getting a charge out of requesting recreations. The SLI ability makes it conceivable to match an alternate Geforce representation card which thus helps in boosting the execution. Is it accurate to say that you are searching for a gaming record book with noteworthy sound yield? The Qosmos X505-Q896 has got Harmon/Kardon speakers that are equipped for creating great sound impacts.
The Qosmos X505-Q896 is controlled with Intel Core i7 740qm processor that gives a preparing rate of 1.73 Ghz. This processor is one of the most noteworthy performing processors accessible in the today’s business sector. With 4gb of Dd3 RAM on your framework, you will have the capacity to run a few projects at the same time and subsequently make the best utilization of multitasking.Now i am found this website http://writemyessay4me.blogspot.com/2014/10/blog-post.html it id really helpful. you should be visit.
I have the 970m upgraded to a
I have the 970m upgraded to a 256gb m.2 and added two matching 4gb sticks to the 12gb to have 24gb.(freq brand are a macth). Great laptop smokes my i7 860, gtx670 desktop.