MSI GT72S 6QE Dominator Pro G Gaming Notebook Review

MSI GT72S 6QE Dominator Pro G Gaming Notebook Review

Brand: MSI
Model: MSI GT72S 6QE-046 Dominator Pro G
UK Price: £1899.97 @ Amazon UK (At time of review)
US Price: $3037.72 @ Amazon US (At time of review)

Video Review

Specifications

• CPU
  Latest 6th Gen. Intel® Core™ i7 processor
• OS
  Windows 10 Home
  Windows 10 Pro
• Chipset
  Intel® CM236
• Memory
  DDR4-2133, 4 slots, up to 64GB
• Display
  17.3”Full HD (1920×1080), G-SYNC ready with 75Hz, IPS level panel
  17.3”UHD (3840×2160), IPS level panel, 100% Adobe RGB
• Graphics
  GeForce GTX 980M
• Graphics VRAM
  8/ 4GB GDDR5
• Storage
  1 x 2.5″ HDD + up to Super Raid 4 (2 x NVMe M.2 SSDs by PCIe Gen3 X4 in RAID0) (Optional)
• Optical Drive
  BD Writer / DVD Super Multi
• Audio
  Sound by Dynaudio with Woofer
  ESS SABRE HiFi audio DAC technology
  Nahimic Audio Enhancer
• Webcam
  FHD type (30fps@1080p)
• Card Reader
  SD (XC/HC)
• LAN
  Killer E2400 Gigabit Ethernet with Killer Shield
• Wireless LAN
  Killer ac
• Bluetooth
  Bluetooth v4.1
• HDMI
  1(v1.4)
• USB 3.0 port
  6
• USB 3.1 port
  1x USB 3.1 Type-C
• Thunderbolt™ 3
  USB3.1 Type-C interface, 4K output, 3A output charging (Optional)
• Mini-DisplayPort
  1(v1.2)
• Mic-in/Headphone-out
  1/1
• ESS SABRE HiFi
  Support 24bit/192kbps sampling rate, up to 122dBA DNR unmatched by PC, Mac or mobile devices DAC
• Line-in
  1(line in)/1(line out)
• Keyboard
  Full-color backlighting SteelSeries keyboard
  Silver Lining Print
• AC Adapter
  230W
• Battery
  9-Cell
• Dimension
  428(W) x 294(D)x 48(H)mm
• Weight (KG)
  3.78Kg (w/ Battery)

Conclusion

I think it’s clear that the MSI GT72S 6QE Dominator Pro G is a pretty potent and powerful laptop, but I think the main question is, does it have enough about it in terms of performance and features to justify the near £2000 price tag?

Of course, these kinds of gaming laptops get compared to desktop PC’s all the time due to the price, but it’s really unfair to do so.  Yes real world performance is awesome, but I still believe laptops are still a little bit off being proper desktop replacements; give it another year or 2 and I think the gap will close even more.  In terms of gaming performance, the MSI GT72S 6QE Dominator Pro G performs very well, but like virtually all laptop processors, they will be limited in the most CPU intensive games at maximum settings; like we experienced in Company of Heroes 2 and Total War – Rome II.  In more graphical favoured games, this particular laptop with its NVIDIA GTX 980M graphics card really comes into its own.  Even with a combination of semi-intensive workloads on both processors (CPU and GPU), it performs very highly indeed and shows why MSI gaming notebooks have been highly popular since their introduction into the mainstream a couple of years ago.

Touching on the design, with MSI’s gaming range you either love it or you hate it, in our case, we do like their unique approach on the red and black theme.  The illuminating MSI gaming dragon logo on the rear panel of the screen is a particular highlight and is complimented by the RGB nature of the SteelSeries keyboard included with this model.

It comes with many different pieces of software such as the highly regarded (by us at least) Nahamic audio software which really does a good job; the speakers of the MSI GT72S 6QE Dominator Pro G sound fantastic too given the fact it’s a laptop and not a 5.1 subwoofer powered dedicated audio setup.  The SteelSeries Engine for controlling the keyboard is also a delight to use too, although I’m still unsure with the MSI Dragon Centre as I still don’t feel the major benefit of it; that could be just me, but it’s just my opinion of course.

Overall the MSI GT72S 6QE Dominator Pro G gaming notebook is a solid all-around investment and for those who prefer to be portable with a powerful machine, this is certainly one to consider.  With it being powered by Intel’s 6th generation Skylake CPU, it certainly makes sense to go for it as the 14nm manufacturing process is providing good benefits, including the ability to overclock which is a fantastic thing to have; it’s just a shame we couldn’t manage it easily with MSI’s help, but hopefully, that will change in the future.

Huge thanks to MSI for sending the GT72S 6QE Dominator Pro G in for review.