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MSI’s CX623 isn’t the prettiest of laptops. In fact, we’ve seen this chassis a number of times before, and the glossy diagonal pinstripe finish doesn’t seem quite as smart as it used to. However if you’re serious about buying a laptop, you’d be foolish to avoid the CX623 because of looks alone: it has a new Core i3-370M processor and a massive 640GB hard disk.
Its best feature isn’t evident until you open it up and turn it on, though. The 15.6in display is one of the best around: its LED backlighting is bright and even, it has great contrast and a wide colour gamut. There’s a very slight blue cast, but overall colour accuracy is excellent, and the glossy finish adds vibrancy. As with most laptops, however, vertical viewing angles are fussy, so you’ll have to adjust the screen’s tilt carefully.
Like many manufacturers currently, MSI has chosen an Nvidia GeForce 310M graphics card rather than use the Core i3’s integrated graphics. It’s a curious decision as the 310M is barely any faster. Even with 1GB of dedicated memory, it could manage only 15.2fps in our Call of Duty 4 benchmark. Even with reduced graphics settings, you’ll struggle to get a playable frame rate. However, Nvidia’s CUDA technology will speed up certain operations in GPU-accelerated applications such as Photoshop.
Performance from the Core i3-370M was good: an overall score of 85 means the CX623 is respectable, as is a score of 98 in the single-threaded image-editing test. A battery life of nearly four and a half hours is also good, helped by Nvidia’s Optimus technology which switches to the Core i3’s integrated graphics to save power.
Although it only has three USB ports, one of these is a shared eSATA port which lets you attach fast external hard disks. An ExpressCard/34 slot could prove useful if you want USB3 or extra eSATA ports. There’s no Bluetooth, but the network port supports Gigabit Ethernet and there’s 802.11n WiFi.
A four-column numeric keypad sits to the right of the main keyboard, and both take up the entire width of the case. The keys are separated from each other and have a convex surface that provides great tactile feedback to your fingertips, and the action is light and crisp. There’s a bit of flex in the keyboard, but not enough to create any problems.
The large touchpad has a smooth and responsive surface, but the seesaw button beneath it is stiff. It has an unusual scrolling method that requires you to hold your finger at either the top right or bottom right corner depending on whether you want to scroll up or down. This isn’t as intuitive as other touchpad mechanisms, but you’ll get used to it.
The CX623 won’t win any style awards, but at 2.5kg it’s unlikely to be taken out much. Also, unlike some laptops, it has a collect-and-return warranty, which minimises cost and hassle should anything go wrong. With decent performance, a massive hard disk and a great screen, it wins a Budget Buy award.
