Review: MSI GT72S Dominator Pro

Introduction and design

Most modern, high performance gaming laptops take their design cues from super cars, with powerful hardware wrapped in sleek, angular cases. The MSI GT72S Dominator Pro has a lot of power, but that's where the comparison to a super car ends. In fact, with lackluster features and a cheap, plastic feel, the 17-inch rig has more in common with a Camaro than a Lambo.

That's not to say the GT72S isn't a powerful laptop. It has plenty of horsepower thanks to an Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 graphics card and a decent i7 CPU. It also has a bright, 17-inch 4K screen and an honest-to-goodness Blu-ray drive. But to take the car analogy even further, when it comes to battery life, this thing is a gas-guzzler.

Design

The lid on the laptop is an attractive, brushed aluminum panel, with the red MSI badge prominently on display. The cooling vents have the same angled, sports car look other high-powered gaming laptops have adopted, but the GT72S is more of a tank than a supercar.

Unlike its metal top, the bottom of the computer is plastic and very cheap-feeling at that. It seems like the same filmsy plastic used on budget, sub-$500 laptops. This is partially thanks to the heavily vented bottom, which is necessary to facilitate cooling but it compromises its structural integrity.

Between the weight of the GT72S and the weakened plastic, lifting the machine one-handed causes the chassis to bend in a unsettling fashion. The slats on the vents especially seem ripe for just snapping off.

A step back

A multi-colored backlit, chiclet-style Steel Series keyboard graces the face of the interior. The keys feel firm, with good travel and are spaced well. The 17-inch behemoth means there's plenty of canvas for a full-sized keyboard, but some of the keys aren't where I expect them to be.

The sole Windows key is on the right side of the space bar, and is missing entirely from the left side. Its placement makes it harder to accidentally hit it when playing games with a mouse and keyboard. Personally, I would rather have the left-side Windows key in the usual spot, with the option to just turn the key off during play instead of trying to retrain a lifetime of keyboard-layout familiarity.

The delete key is also in a weird place, above the number pad. I'm a big fan of the delete key, and its placement here makes no sense.

Unbalanced sound

The Dynaudio speakers are loud. It's one of the louder laptops I've tested. At full volume, it doesn't become distorted, which is great. While it retains its fidelity even at its loudest, the sound isn't particularly great to begin with. It's passable for casual listening, but there's no richness to it.

Sound also seems off-balance. There's a sub-woofer on the bottom left of the computer, and the equalizer pushes an excessive amount of bass through it. The result is there's more sound hitting my left ear than my right, which makes me crazy.

Screen Bleed

If the audio issues weren't bad enough, the 4K screen on the GT72S has serious light bleed, particularly along the bottom edge. On top of that, the integrity of the screen is questionable.

Adjusting the screen angle dramatically distorts the colors . It's not just limited to where I grasp the bezel either, the entire screen dims to a sickly green when I press my whole hand on the back of the lid.

While the light bleed isn't particularly noticeable during play or normal use, any time the screen goes black, or if there's a dark stage in a game, it becomes extremely apparent. The effect worsens when the computer is used in a dimly-lit room. It's really a bummer because otherwise, the 4K screen is bright and colorful. It's one more thing that makes this really expensive laptop feel cheap.

Specifications and performance

Nothing about the GT72S is small. At 8.4 pounds, it's not the heaviest laptop, but it certainly starts to feel like it is after is sits on your lap for a while. It's not quite as beastly as the Origin EON17-SLX, which comes in at 10.5 pounds, and it beats the PC Specialist Octane II by a mere 0.09 pound. Make no mistake, even as the lightest of the three, it's still a heavy computer.

It may be heavy, but to its credit, there's a lot to jam in there. A desktop-grade graphics chip packed in a laptop is impressive, even if it's becoming commonplace among these big rigs. The GT72S measures 16.8 x 11.6 x 1.9 inches (W x Dx H) comparable to the EON17-SLX and the Octane II. In other words, it's huge.

Here are the specs of the MSI GT72S Dominator Pro sent to us for review:

• CPU: 2.7GHz Intel Core i7-6820HK (quad-core, 8M Cache, up to 3.60 GHz with Turbo Boost)
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 (8GB GDDR5 VRAM), Intel HD Graphics 530
• RAM: 16GB DDR4 (2,133MHz, 4 x 4GB)
• Screen: 17.3-inch UHD IPS Screen (3840 x 2160)
• Storage: 256GB SSD (PCIe, m.2 SATA); 1TB HDD (7,200 rpm)
• Ports: 6 x USB 3.0, 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C, HDMI 1.4, 1 x mini DisplayPort, SD card reader, Ethernet, headphone jack, microphone jack, Line-in jack, S/PDIF
• Connectivity: Bigfoot Killer Wireless AC N1535, E2400 Gaming Network LAN, Bluetooth 4.1
• Camera: Built-in 1080p webcam
• Weight: 8.4 pounds
• Size: 16.8 x 11.6 x 1.9 inches (W x D x H) 428 mm x 294 mm x 48 mm

Priced at $3,099 (£1,689, AU$5,299), the MSI GT72S is one exorbitantly expensive gaming laptop even for an high-end machine. Thanks to its heady price tag and desktop graphics, it's batting in a ballpark fielded by the $3,305 (about £2,341, AU$4,114) Origin EON17-SLX and £1,899 (about $2,648, or AU$3,669) PC Specialist Octane II.

Unlike the Origin EON17-SLX and the PC Specialist Octane II, the GT72S has a Blu-ray drive built in. Technically it's a BD-RE, so you can store files on rewritable Blu-rays, if you're into that sort of thing. I was really excited to watch some of my Blu-rays on the 4K screen, but sadly the CyberLink PowerDVD 12 included with the pack-in software simply didn't work.

I tried to go the VLC route to watch Blu-rays, following online instructions to add the proper files in the proper places, but I eventually gave up. My personal desktop has a Blu-ray drive as well, one I was able to make play nice with VLC, so this isn't my first rodeo. It was frustrating and disappointing.

The GT72S has plenty of storage space, with a 1TB hard drive similar to both the Octane II and the EON17-SLX. However, the version I tested only has a 256GB solid-state drive, and installing Shadow of Mordor, Grand Theft Auto 5, and Dragon's Dogma triggered the MSI's low-storage pop-up.

Sure, 1 TB of hard drive space seems great, but if you're serious enough to buy a computer of this caliber, running games off a hard drive is probably not something you're interested in. The Octane II has twice the solid-state storage of either the EON17-SLX or the GT72S, putting it in a more comfortable place for holding today's enormous game files.

Performance

In spite of its problems with fit and finish, the GT72S performs well. Really well. In 3DMark tests, the GT72S easily beat out the PC Specialist Octane II and gave the Origin EON17-SLX a good run for its money.

Here's how the MSI GT72S Dominator Pro performed in our suite of benchmark tests.

• 3DMark: Cloud Gate: 24,512; Sky Diver: 21,622; Fire Strike: 10,913
• Cinebench CPU: 699 points; Graphics: 102.3 fps
• GeekBench: 3,726 (single-core); 13,850 (multi-core)
• PCMark 8 (Home Test): 3,350
• PCMark 8 Battery Life: 1 hour and 40 minutes
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor: (1080p, Ultra) 102 fps; (1080p, Low) 163 fps
• Grand Theft Auto V: (1080p, Ultra) 36 fps; (1080p, Low) 157 fps

Both the Octane II and EON17-SLX have the significantly faster i7-6700K CPUs, with a clock speed of 4.0GHz. The GT72S has an i7-6820HK, which is a great mobile CPU, but in our benchmark tests, it can't compete with with its faster sibling. The Cinebench CPU score for the Octane II and EON17-SLX are 878 points, compared to the GT72S' 699.

Where the GT72S really pulls ahead of the Octane II is the suite of 3DMark benchmarks. When you add in the 4K screen, the GT72S is the clear winner when it comes to graphics. However, it still falls short of the insanity that is the EON17-SLX, but not by much.

All that power means games run well, even in 4K. I wasn't able to turn everything to Ultra in GTA 5 and still maintain a decent framerate in 4K, but with everything on Low, the game hit an astonishing average 117 fps. 8GB of video RAM certainly makes a difference.

With Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor at Ultra, running in 4K, I managed to pull off a respectable 35 fps. If you're a framerate elitist, that number is probably unacceptable. But just the notion of running a game on Ultra at 4K and having a framerate above 30 fps is insanity. It just looks so good.

Normally I heed to GeForce Experience's guidance for the optimal settings for games, as I find it does a good job with getting the settings just right. However, I ended up forging my own route when the software insisted on a 1366 x 768 resolution for GTA V. It assigned a similarly low resolution to Shadow of Mordor, something I've never encountered before.

I did a little experimenting and ended up with middle-to-high settings at 1920 x 1080 in Grand Theft Auto V, and it looks and plays fantastic. Graphical fidelity in GTA is incredible, and I couldn't resist hooking it to my HDTV to experience it all on the big screen. It almost makes me wish I had a 4K set… almost.

Even at its highest settings, fan noise is never a problem. The cooling system does its job nicely, and while it isn't totally silent, it's quiet enough. The GT72S' quiet-running fans are maybe the biggest surprise I encountered.

Assaulted Battery

Neither the PC Specialist Octane II nor the Origin EON17-SLX are strong in battery life, but they beat out the GT72S by a lot. The GT72S has the worst battery life I've ever seen. The Octane II manages to eke out 2 hours, 17 minutes in the PCMark 8 Battery Test, and the EON17-SLX got a minute more at 2 hours, 18 minutes.

The GT72S couldn't crack the 2 hour mark. In fact, it fell short significantly, coming in at 1 hour, 40 minutes. Watching Guardians of the Galaxy on loop at 50% screen brightness and 50% volume, exhausted the battery in just 1 hour, 43 minutes. I didn't even make it through a full viewing.

Just wow.

Simply using the GT72S for my normal use, with about a dozen tabs running in Chrome, and switching between retro-gaming YouTube videos and Amazon Prime digital music streaming, I got almost an extra hour of use before the computer was begging me to plug it in.

Verdict

There's no question the MSI GT72S Dominator Pro is a beast when it comes to performance. It holds its own against both the PC Specialist Octane II and Origin EON17-SLX, and the 4K resolution is always a nice touch on top of a machine powerful enough to handle it.

Unfortunately, all that power comes with trade-offs. The shell is plastic and feels super cheap, while light bleed and distortion ruin an otherwise bright and colorful 4K display. Then compound those issues with the absolutely awful battery life and hefty price tag.

We liked

If all you care about is raw power, the MSI GT72S Dominator Pro has it in spades. With its desktop-grade CPU and competent Skylake processor, the GT72S runs games exceedingly well. The surprisingly quiet fans keep the whole thing from overheating, and unlike plenty of other high-end gaming laptops, they're never a distraction.

We disliked

Battery life makes the GT72S impractical as a laptop. It's really hard to lose yourself in a game when you know the battery is shedding electrons at an alarming rate. The light bleed on the screen is also a major bummer and mars the gaming experience.

Final verdict

It's difficult to recommend a $3,099 laptop with such terrible battery life. For that kind of money you could build a truly monstrous desktop rig, one that would obliterate any laptop.

If you're only concerned with power, the GT72S has you covered. The GTX 980 graphics card means you can run games at settings far and above most other laptops, and light years ahead of any current console experience.

At the end of the day, the PC Specialist Octane II and the Origin EON17-SLX are high-end sports cars, while the MSI GT72S Dominator Pro is an '86 Camaro SS. It's powerful, it gets the job done, but it's plastic and garish.