MSI GT72 Dominator Pro-211 17.3 inch Laptop Review

MSI GT72 Dominator Pro-211
via Amazon

MSI Computer GT72 Dominator Pro-211 is a great 17.3 inch gaming laptop- more of a power beast kind of a machine that is neither lightweight nor slim but a desktop replacement with still great all-aluminium design for the best of gaming and daily tasks- to run everything smoothly and without headaches. It comes with the highest specs and features you can get on any mobile machine including connectivity options like a Blu-ray Burner and a total of 6 USB 3.0 ports and if you have the cash to get something this good, it is well worth considering. Let’s see if it will be along the lines of what you need or want.

MSI GT72 Dominator Pro comes with the 4th generation quad core Intel i7-4710HQ ( 6MB Cache) at 2.5GHz speed up to 3.5GHz with turbo and hyper threading for four cores to handle eight threads in parallel- hence better utilisation of CPU, 16GB DDR3L SDRAM at 1600 MHz, 1TB SATA at 7200rpm rotating speed hard drive and 128GB M.2 Solid-State Drive for overall fast performance and up to 17 times quicker than a regular 7200rpm hard drive- plenty of storage along with fast SSD but you can upgrade it with up to a further 4x 256 GB M.2 SSD’s and Windows 8.1 64-bit operating system and probably one of the only complaints we have come across with this system is about the Windows 8, rather than the hardware or anything else to do with the computer.

17.3-inch Full HD eDP Anti-glare Screen with 1920 x 1080 pixel max screen resolution and NVIDIA Geforce GTX980M with dedicated 8GB GDDR5 video memory for great picture quality- sharp images and vibrant colours.. The sound system is well superior on this MSI- The Dynaudio system and 4 x HD high fidelity speakers with the built-in subwoofer offer lots of range and great surround sound effect and fills a room comfortably when you’re listening to music or playing the latest 3D games. The GTX 980M is the fastest mobile graphics card at the moment, up to 50% faster than the previous leader GTX 980M, so you will not have any problems with playing the most current games at the highest settings and FHD resolution. Anisotropic filtering and anti-aliasing features for realistic and smooth gaming can also be comfortably used with it, so you can play all the games on the market maxed out at highest settings with this top of the range card for extreme, serious, immersive and next generation gaming. It also comes with a Full HD Digital Webcam at 30fps- 1080p resolution with built-in microphone.

Full aluminium chassis with red accents and aggressive gaming style cutting edge design black GT72 Dominator has the 16.85 x 1.89 x 11.57 inches of dimensions and 8.4 lbs weight- so it is neither slim nor lightweight, it is more like a desktop replacement type gaming monster with a 17 inch screen. It is not reinforced alloy frame like some Alienware models but not much worse either. It has the 9-cell smart lithium ion battery and chiclet style Steel series full size multicolour illuminated backlit keyboard with 10-key numeric pad and a touchpad underneath. SHIFT technology by MSI allows you to choose between Sport, Comfort and Green modes for effective power management- balance between temperature and performance. Connectivity options include the 6x Blu-Ray Burner + 8x DVDRW/CDRW Super Multi Combo Drive, 2 x Audio-out ports, 6 x USB 3.0 ports 2x Mini Display ports, Killer N1525 wireless 802.11ac with more bandwidth and coverage, Bluetooth 4.0, Killer E2200 Gaming Network LAN, 3-in-1 Card Reader SD / SDHC / SDXC, 1 x Headphone Out Jack, 1 x Microphone, 1 x Line-in Jack, and Kensington Lock for security.

Conclusion: MSI GT72 Dominator Pro-211 is one hell of a gaming machine with the best mobile graphics card- GTX980M and the power of Haswell i7-4710HQ processor with the Passmark benchmark score of 7975 on the day of this review, accompanied by 128GB M.2 Solid State Drive for much snappier performance, faster boot-ups etc. (and can be upgraded up to 4 x 256GB SSDs if needed with all the screws included in the box by MSI)- You can upgrade the memory, SSD and hard drive and the GPU if you need even more in the future. The cooling system is great with the largest fans around and the noise level is not noticeable during gaming, only perhaps at the max Turbo Fan. As mentioned earlier the only complaint we have come across was for the Windows 8 operating system, people not liking it as much as they like the older Windows 7 and another thing is this is not a slim machine but more like 1.9 inch thick- as you’d expect from a super powerful gaming computer. For mobile gaming you’d be hard pressed to find anything better for money. It comes with 24 months of US/Canada parts and labor warranty in US and Canada and 1 year global warranty, 12 months of accidental damage warranty if you register within a month of shipping as well as customer technical support for life.

Click here for a closer look on Amazon