MSI FX600 - Making Multimedia Sense

Making Multimedia Sense

Unlike its more flashy cousin, the series, the MSI FX600 goes for a more subtle look and feel. If you've read our initial findings on the , then you'll be quite familiar with the physical aspects of the FX600 which is mostly positioned as a bigger 15.6-inch basic multimedia notebook. Instead of a shiny gloss surface that is typical of current designs, the MSI FX 600 notebook comes with a patterned matte exterior finish that feels good to touch and most importantly, does not attract fingerprint smudges.

Packing an Intel Core i5-460M (2.53GHz) processor with turbo boost speeds of up to 2.8GHz, 4GB RAM and NVIDIA GeForce GT 325M for discrete graphics, the notebooks feels like a very capable machine on paper, and we'll find out just how well it fairs in our testing. Admittedly, this notebook is still based on the first generation of Core i processor series, but we're still waiting for the full refresh of Sandy Bridge notebooks with the rectified chipset revision before we commence on its newer counterparts . For now, enjoy these shots of the exterior of the MSI FX600.

"Interior FX"

Upon opening the lid of the MSI FX600, you would find yourselves staring at the 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution glossy screen. Sure, it comes in Full HD, but we're no fans of this glossy trend (which you should know by now if you've been following our reviews). We're guessing most consumers like it, but feel free do drop us a line if you feel otherwise so that we know we're not alone.

Apart from the glossy screen though, we noted that viewing angles were very limited. You really had to be seated in front of the screen to view anything off it clearly. For a multimedia notebook, this doesn't really bode well, as you will most likely want to share and watch videos together on the notebook. Any slight movement of your head off the center though and everything starts looking 'strange' with the usual color shifts and poor clarity.

Keyboard wise, we've no complaints, the chiclet keyboard does the job well, but the trackpad seems to have gained some 'artificial intelligence', and seems to have the habit of clicking by itself even when your fingers are still on the trackpad. It can be quite fustrating especially if you're performing plenty of sweeping and dragging movements on screen and having to redo them because of the accidental clicks. This finding however, could be a localized issue to our review unit as we've not yet heard of this from other users and it might have manifested from poor logistics handling from overseas.

Audio wise though, MSI has outfitted the notebook with four speakers, though there's no sub-woofer in sight. This does make the bass notes sound hollow, but the highs are pretty clear. The virtual surround function works pretty well and if you're seated at the center position, you'll be able to watch your movies with pretty good spatial sound effects (well, good enough for a notebook).

Performance Benchmarking

The MSI FX600 seems to have pretty average hardware, and we'll be pitting this notebook against similarly specced notebooks using the Intel Core i5 series of processors. This should give a good indication on just where the notebook stands on the performance side of things. One more point to note is that the MSI FX600 has a Turbo Mode function, which usually overclocks the system  by a small degree. We've tested its performance as well, so expect to see two performance scores for this notebook in our benchmarking graphs.

PCMark Vantage

Between the three notebooks using an Intel i5-processor, the MSI FX600 scores the lowest, even when using their included Turbo Drive mode. Turbo Drive doesn't seem to be doing much for the notebook; in fact, it seems to have lowered the scores! Then again, while the performance is the lowest of the compared notebooks, it's not off by much.

FutureMark 3DMark06

Packing an NVIDIA GeForce GT 325M means the MSI FX600 should deliver pretty average performance in the 3D graphics department, and while the scores show that even in Turbo Drive mode, the FX600 scored the lowest among the notebooks mentioned here. Note that Turbo Drive didn't really give the unit any boost in the 3D performance area, so you may be better off leaving it off to save on power consumption.

Far Cry 2 Game

With not so impressive results from the 3DMark06 test, we expect pretty middling performance, but the game should still be playable at medium settings. As can be seen from our performance graphs, the FX600 still retains the lowest score. While the notebook does have a full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) screen, chances are you won't be playing games at that resolution. Rather, the high resolution screen is more handy for watching movies.

Battery Life and Performance Index

Battery Life and Power Consumption

Running our usual DVD movie looping test, it lasted just 2 hours and 26 minutes - almost 2.5 hours. While that's a pretty decent battery up-time, it's still lost to the comparable and notebooks that we previously tested. Fortunately, it bettered the Toshiba comparison. So on average, it's decent but not great.

As for the power consumption, the MSI notebook does pretty decently here, and builds upon decent long battery life with a low power consumption figure of just 21.61W. Not too bad we suppose, but let's see how it holds up in our Portability Index ratio coming next.

Portability Index

Making a middle entry behind the Acer Aspire Timeline X 5820T and the Dell XPS 15, the MSI FX600 comes up with a ratio of 0.271. Now if you're wondering what the number means, well, simply put, the higher the value, the more portable a notebook supposedly is within its category of comparison. The score is derived from the battery life of the notebook divided by the product of the notebook's weight and volume. Sounds complicated? Fret not, just focus on the big numbers which indicate a more portable solution with regards to overall battery life, physical size and weight.

With a ratio of 0.271 though, the notebook shows that while it's not quite as portable as the Acer notebook, it easily equals or beats many of the other notebooks of the same category. Not too shabby, we think, but there's room for improvement given the notebook's specs.

The FX Factor

So far since the debut of MSI's FX series of notebooks, they've fared reasonably from our trials. It offers consumers a more affordable alternative for a multimedia notebook, and having options is always something good to have. While the performance of MSI's FX600 remained on the lower side of the comparisons, it's still decent enough to make it a consideration for purchase.

Design wise, the FX600 is simple, but the notebook was let down by the terrible viewing angles of the full HD screen (plus it's a glossy screen). It redeems itself with a decent keyboard and quad speakers for virtual surround audio. Last but not least, we hope the retail notebooks have touchpads that don't operate with a mind of their own, albeit we're pretty sure what we encountered was a localized issue to our review notebook.

Generally speaking, the MSI FX600 is a decent enough notebook, and for its price of S$1499, it's not too expensive either. If you don't need top of the line performance from a notebook, but something that can handle pretty much of everything, and is affordable, then the MSI FX600 should definitely be in your shortlist. Its unique blend of specs and features (especially the full HD screen and quad speakers) in an unpretentious design might make you think it's another wannabe, but on closer look, it's one of the more interesting multimedia notebooks. Just don't expect it to be a speed demon and take note what makes it unique from the rest of the crowd.

Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.