Serious firepower.
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The MSI GE62VR Camo Squad edition (See it on Amazon) is a VR-ready 15-inch laptop packed into a chassis that sports a desert camouflage paintjob as part of a tie-in with Ghost Recon Wildlands. You can judge the look for yourself, but in my opinion it's somewhere on the border between ridiculous and totally awesome. Given how well the GE62VR performs, it tips the scales toward the "awesome" side of things.
For a limited time, ordering the special Camo Squad edition of its GE62VR entitles you to a whole bunch of camo-covered swag, including a nice laptop bag, a water bottle, desert camo MSI-branded mouse pad, and a set of MSI dogtags. You also get a copy of Ghost Recon Wildlands and a Season Pass for the game too, which is pretty decent deal if you planned on picking up the game anyway. Of course, all this camo makes the laptop easy to misplace if you live in a desert environment, but a blood-red MSI badge on the cover will help. And it's worth noting that MSI sells a non-camo gaming notebook with essentially identical specs and parts for more than $200 cheaper, if you're not into the aesthetic or extras.
Here are the specifications of the MSI GE62VR sent to me for review:
- Display: 1920x1080 "IPS level" display
- Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
- Processor: Intel Core i7-7700HQ 2.8GHz
- Memory: 16GB DDR4 2400MHz
- OS: Windows 10
- OS Drive: 256GB M.2 SATA SSD
- Storage Drive: 1TB 7,200 RPM HDD
- Ports: 1 x Type-C USB 3.1, 2 x USB3.0,1 x USB 2.0, 1 x RJ45 Ethernet, 1x SD (XC/HC) card reader, 1 x HDMI, 1 x Mini-DisplayPort, mic-in, headphones out
- Battery: 6-cell 51 Whr
- Wireless: Killer 802.11ac
- Weight: 5.2 pounds
- Price: $1,699
Under The Hood
The GE62VR sports a potent config that seems to be the new baseline for gaming laptops; four of the five laptops we're reviewing currently have essentially the same parts, with the latest Intel Kaby Lake Core-i7 7700HQ on the CPU side and Nvidia's GTX 1060 6GB graphics card handling graphics. Combining the power of the two allows for fluid 1080p gameplay and also gives it the status of "VR Ready." Memory can be maxed out at 32GB, but 16GB is standard.
On top of ample power, there's also plenty of storage. It has both a 256GB SSD for your OS and games, and a 1TB 7,200rpm hard drive for data, which is just enough for each storage medium. With many modern games taking up tens of gigabytes, and games like GTA5 swallowing 70GB, the 256GB SSD fills up quickly, so the addition of the 1TB hard drive is welcome, and offers plenty of elbow room for your music, files, and other games to live out their digital days.
The SSD uses the new M.2 form factor, but it is a SATA model instead of PCI Express. This makes it a tad bit slower overall than newer drives, but helps keep the price of the laptop down, and in the real world it certainly seemed fast to me. During testing there were a few instances during restarts where I glanced away for just a second, only to glance back again and see the desktop. It happens so fast it had me questioning whether I'd restarted or not, as it's one of the quickest-booting laptops I've tested.
As far as expansion goes it has one USB 3.1 Type-C port for high-speed data transfers, as well as two USB 3.0 ports and one vanilla 2.0 port too. There's a DVD multi-drive and an SD card reader, but given how infrequently we use DVDs, it's a weird inclusion, and the space would be better used for more expansion ports or bigger fans inside the chassis. There are also external display options including HDMI and Mini DisplayPort. Finally, there's a Gigabit Ethernet port and headphone and mic jacks too. All in all the port selection is abundant and covers all the bases.
The whole laptop is plastic, which cuts down on weight and isn't surprising given its low-ish price, but doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. The lid is where the plastic build really shows its weakness, literally. Pressing down even slightly on the lid itself distorts it significantly. It springs back into shape the second you let go, but the fact it moves at all is frightening, and it doesn't seem like it will hold up to a few knocks or small drops. The camo design that paradoxically helps the GE62VR stand out is basically just a decal instead of the result of some sort of elaborate printing process. It seems prone to scratches.
Software
As much as I like what the GE62VR has to offer in terms of specs, I could do without the bloatware. It's a necessary evil for computer makers, helping them cut costs to consumers, but throughout testing a preloaded Norton software utility was constantly popping up for one reason or another, always at the most inopportune times too.
I did appreciate the included MSI Dragon Center software suite however, as it is the main control center and has plenty of useful shortcuts. It offers access to the SteelSeries Engine software for making adjustments to the keyboard lighting, as well as a shortcut to Xsplit Gamecaster, and a control center to toggle wifi, bluetooth, the webcam, eject discs, and various system monitoring and tuning options. Tuning is limited to fan speed and power options, and the power options are nothing beyond what Windows itself is capable of. They can also be accessed through function keys on the keyboard. There are no CPU voltage adjustments for overclockers, and since it's a non-K CPU you also can't overclock it.
Keyboard
The SteelSeries keyboard on the GE62VR feels lovely, with satisfying key travel and comfortable spacing between keys. The keys are a tiny bit mushy, and not quite as crisp as some others like the Alienware 13 or Razer Blade, for example, but the keyboard still feels high quality. The trackpad buttons have a good snap to them, and the trackpad itself is textured to differentiate if from the rest of the palmrest. That's important since the camo motif covers the trackpad, too, making it blend in not only with a desert landscape, but the computer itself. The biggest concern with the trackpad is it feels like the camo pattern will wear off pretty quickly as it feels like a sticker instead of being made from an elaborate printing process. The keyboard also sports RGB backlighting, which is cool.
Performance
To see what the MSI GE62VR 7RF was capable of we ran a small suite of benchmarks to see how it compares to similarly configured machines we were testing at the same time. All of the gaming benchmarks were run at 1920x1080 as that's the native resolution of the panel, and our battery rundown results are included as well. Three of the systems we looked at have the same CPU and GPU, so as you can see their performance is incredibly similar. The Asus notebook (review coming soon) has the same GTX 1060 GPU, but an older Core i7-6700HQ Skylake CPU, which isn't that different from the Kaby Lake part that replaced it, so again, its performance is very similar. The Acer notebook has a GTX 1050 Ti however, thus its lower scores (and price).
Concerns with build quality go out the window when it comes to compute power. The GE62VR has no problems facing rivals like the ASUS ROG Strix GL702VM and the Razer Blade, and was surprisingly a bit faster in six out of eight tests. That's quite impressive since three of the five laptops have the same CPU and GPU. It performed slightly better than most of the other machines in the category, and on the lower end of the price spectrum, to boot. Plus you get all that camo gear and free game, too. The MSI GE62VR delivers extremely good performance for its class, and earned top marks in almost all of my tests.
Battery life is a little disappointing, but sadly about average for this class of laptops. Most manufacturers don't want to spend money on a big battery that will never get used, and this laptop is a prime example as it has a small 51Whr battery. That's about as small as they come in a laptop, and is puny compared to the 76Whr battery in the ASUS. In our battery stress test, running a 4K-encoded video in VLC at 50% brightness and with all extra lighting deactivated, the GE62VR went to sleep after just 1 hour and 21 minutes. Using it on battery for everyday web surfing, watching YouTube videos and listening to streaming music on Amazon, sucked the battery dry after around 3 and a half hours. That's a bit surprising given the efficient Kaby Lake processor inside, but considering the size of this laptop I also didn't expect it to hit six hours. Regardless, like most gaming laptops it's not designed to be run on its battery unless you absolutely have to, so don't take the GE62VR too far from a wall outlet.
Purchasing Guide
The MSI GE62VR Apache Pro Camo Squad edition (which includes all the swag) will be on sale until June 30, so squad up while you still can. It's available at MSRP on Amazon and is unlikely to see a notable discount any time soon:
• See the MSI GE62VR Apache Pro Camo Squad on Amazon
Seth Macy is IGN's weekend web producer and just wants to be your friend. Follow him on Twitter @sethmacy, or subscribe to Seth Macy's YouTube channel.
The Verdict
The MSI GE62VR is a high-performance laptop that competes very well against its more expensive rivals. It put up strong numbers in gaming, has ample storage, a comfortable keyboard, and excellent overall specs. Overall I think it's one of the best in its class. However, its low-ish price requires some trade offs, most notably its all-plastic design feels cheap, and its battery life is at fringes of acceptable. Still, it delivers where it counts for a gaming laptop, and has enough power to allow us to forgive its shortcomings. It's nowhere near as sexy as the Alienware 13 or Razer Blade, but it's just as powerful (if not more so) and costs a lot less. That's a winning combination for sure.
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