MSI GT627: Bringing Balance to the Force?
by Jarred Walton on April 29, 2009 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Ugh... Another Low Contrast TN Panel
The last area we want to test is the display quality; prepare to be unimpressed (again). We test color accuracy using ColorEyes Display Pro, and we test with two different colorimeters, a DTP-94 and an i1 Display2. We test the laptops with both colorimeters using ColorEyes Display Pro, generating both LUT and Matrix color profiles. The reason we do this is that some displays respond better to LUT profiling while others work better with Matrix profiling (although in laptop testing, Matrix profiling has been better in every case so far). We select the best result out of the four tests for our color accuracy charts. Besides the color accuracy, the generated profiles allow us to determine color gamut, using GamutVision. We use the matrix color profiles for gamut, as they usually have ~10% higher gamut volume. We will also report the maximum LCD brightness and contrast ratio.
We've been beating on this drum quite a bit lately, in the hope that eventually manufacturers will catch on. As we mentioned earlier, the LCD in the GT627 is very disappointing. While we would like something with a higher resolution - 1440x900 would be great - the real killer is once again contrast ratio. In a word, it's lousy; it's the type of LCD most laptop owners use on a regular basis, probably because they just don't think there's anything better. All you have to do is look at any desktop LCD and it's clear that laptops aren't trying very hard in this area. 218:1 isn't the lowest contrast ratio we've seen, but it's pretty close. Color accuracy is better, but we would take lower color accuracy with a better contrast ratio in a heartbeat. The color gamut is also down with the large group of ~40% LCDs. The only saving grace is that this is an $1100 notebook that can handle most games at the native resolution. As we said before, we would happily pay $50-$100 for a better LCD, but at least we don't feel like we're paying more and getting less, which was the case with the Gateway P-7808u.
Is anyone out there making IPS, PVA, MVA, or - gasp! - OLED displays for notebooks? If so, please get in touch with us or send us a sample for testing. We would love to show just how good a laptop display can be. If you're like us and think it's time we saw some better laptop displays, let us know in the comments! Manufacturers do read those comments, and perhaps we can actually bring about some worthwhile changes.
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fwacct4 - Saturday, May 2, 2009 - link
I'm glad noise has been evaluated in this laptop review as well. Lots of stuff on desktop noise, but since I can't stick a laptop in a closet and still run it, fan noise on a laptop distracts me like nothing else. Even worse are laptop fan noise coming from people sitting near me.Rolling Camel - Friday, May 1, 2009 - link
I'm really looking forward to a GT725, it is the uber notebook below $2000, not Gateway. My A64 3000+ is really slow and i need a computer with enough graphics power. So either i get an Phenom 2 X3 and Hd4870 based system, or get the GT725. The desktop is cheaper and more powerful, but i need mobility for my school.I know the GT725 has some worries:
1.The keyboard, although there is a solution for it.
2.Many report that the track pad wears fast, as if i will ever use.
3.I'm worried about the thermal dissipation. The R770 seems more fit for the task.
4.Warranty and customer service.
The HD4670 equipped EX 625 is very tempting with it's $750 price tag.
ira176 - Friday, May 1, 2009 - link
Apple's batteries are custom made lithium polymer. They are not typical run of the mill lithium ion cells that most manufacturers use. Apple's batteries use all of the space in their design and have no "dead" space due to round cells packed in a rectangular battery as most win pc notebooks have. Although Apple's OS may be a little more conservative on battery usage it's got to be the mere fact that there's more capacity in their battery design, and maybe even cherry picked hardware and LED lcd displays. Win pc's could probably see better battery life with better battery designs and better part choices. Of course we would pay more for that pc notebook.JarredWalton - Friday, May 1, 2009 - link
Apples batteries are rated at between 40 Whr and 50 Whr in the current models - 40 for the Air, 45 for the standard MacBook, and 50 for the Pro if I'm not mistaken. The construction and material used in a battery does not affect the rating in Whr. If something is designed to output 5200 mA at 9.6V, it is a 50 Whr battery. A lithium polymer might be lighter for the total capacity, but I'm not talking about capacity.Given the above, it means that Apple's standard MacBook apparently consumes around 9.4W when surfing the Internet. In contrast, the ASUS U6V eats up 21W on average for the same task. I'm hoping to get a MacBook for a bit just to make sure there's nothing else going on, but Apple apparently uses less power surfing than most Vista PCs use at idle.
Zan Lynx - Friday, May 1, 2009 - link
From what I've gathered about it, Apple "cheats." They can turn hardware on and off and do clock scaling that isn't available via ACPI.JarredWalton - Friday, May 1, 2009 - link
Lenovo indicated to me at CES that they actually turn off components that aren't in use, which is how they improve battery life (supposedly - still waiting for a test sample). It makes sense that if your optical drive is inactive, completely shutting off power makes more sense than a .5W sleep state. They said they also power off the speakers when the sound is muted or when headphones are connected (another few hundred mW). I don't know about other devices, but really I don't care if it's "cheating" - custom designed hardware that functions better than the competition is fine as long as it works properly. Windows 7 is supposed to enable some better power savings (up to 11% better battery life I've heard), so we'll see.The0ne - Thursday, April 30, 2009 - link
If you're going to game on it why not just get one with 17" LCD? Better yet, get one with 1900x1200 and everything is just beautiful :)It's great that the article addresses the LCD issues. I mean come on, it's one of the main components when considering a laptop.
Rob94hawk - Thursday, April 30, 2009 - link
Where is this Clevo901c laptop?JarredWalton - Thursday, April 30, 2009 - link
I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean where are the specs? If that's your question, the Sager NP9262 is a Clevo D901C chassis. Several other companies (WidowPC, AVADirect, Eurocom, etc.) use the Clevo chassis and rebrand it as their own, so I figured listing the original manufacturer in that case made the most sense.GoatMonkey - Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - link
The display on the MSI GT627 218US is apparently different, because it is listing max resolution of 1680x1050. I'd like to know if that display has better contrast ratio.Also, any news on the upcoming MSI GT628 with the nVidia M160?