MSI X600

Another day, another CULV laptop — this time from MSI. The X600 is the latest model in the X Series that first saw light of day at CES and it still sticks to that same ‘thin & light’ philosophy. The difference this time around is that the MSI X600 isn’t exactly an ultraportable — it has a 15.6in screen.

If you’re wondering why MSI has bothered with an energy-efficient laptop this size, then we can’t help but agree, but the idea isn’t as batty as all that. Other 15in laptops may weigh as much, but they’re nowhere near as thin — the X600 is just one inch thick.

This is still a big laptop though, and at almost 400mm wide, it occupies nearly as much desk space as some 17in desktop replacements. The sheer black finish and smoothly sculpted case do at least help the MSI X600 maintain a pretty low profile and its 2.1kg weight means that it’s still light enough to carry around — assuming you can find a big enough bag to put it in.

There’s a reasonable selection of ports, including HDMI and eSATA, but there’s no internal optical drive. This is extremely unusual for a laptop this size and although MSI does include an external DVD writer, we can’t help but feel that it could have squeezed one into the case somehow.

You know what they say about big laptops — big keyboards. The MSI X600’s is full-size and has a separate numeric keypad, so at least the extra case width hasn’t gone to waste. The keys themselves are wide and flat, but the whole keyboard is rather cramped — the layout looks like it’s been assembled using Tetris as a template. The shrunken Return and Backspace keys don’t help matters either, but the keyboard is reassuringly solid and — once you’ve adjusted to it — comfortable to use.

There’s a bit of a trend towards trackpads that are built into laptop wrist-rests and while we like the streamlined aesthetic of the design, it’s not without its problems. The ASUS UL50 was let down by its trackpad, since making it form the same shiny material as the rest of the wrist-rest created too much friction for a finger to slide around smoothly. Thankfully, while the MSI X600 takes the same tack, its wrist-rest has a textured matte finish and the trackpad works perfectly as a result.

The 15.6in screen has a wide 16:9 aspect ratio, resulting in a resolution of 1366 x 768 and we’d have preferred a few more vertical pixels. Still, it’s enough for 720p video, but the image isn’t the best we’ve seen. The screen was a little washed out along its bottom edge and text is far from crisp. Images also become indistinct if you look at the screen from above by a few inches, lading to a sorely limited vertical viewing angle.

Despite the ‘Dolby Home Theater’ sticker, the MSI X600’s sound quality isn’t too hot, either. The speakers are tinny and indistinct even with the sound set low, and they become distorted at full volume — and this isn’t even a particularly loud laptop. Actually, that’s not strictly true, since a noisy fan kicks in when the X600 isn’t even breaking a sweat — so much for the idea of CULV processors requiring little cooling.

The MSI X600’s performance does help counteract these quibbles though, and it’s the fastest CULV laptop we’ve reviewed so far. This is a bit of a surprise given that its Core 2 Duo U9600 chip runs at just 1.6GHz, but that’s apparently enough to put it toe-to-toe with laptops that use standard 2GHz Core 2 Duo processors.

Since it's too large to really consider carting around for the daily commute, MSI has also taken the liberty of fitting more than the usual frugal Intel integrated graphics. The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 graphics chipset is hardly cutting-edge, but it’s enough for 3D gaming, as long as you’re not too worried about high resolutions and detail settings.

CULV processors are all about making the most of battery life, but with a beefy processor, discrete graphics chip and that large, power-sucking screen, we didn’t hold out much hope for the MSI X600 away from the mains. So, we were pleasantly surprised when it ran for two and a half hours in Battery Eater Pro’s demanding Classic test and that’s longer than the less-capable Advent Altro and ASUS UX30 .