MSI's supercheap 16-inch laptop includes Blu-ray
(Credit:
MSI)
The 2009 budget train continues, as MSI has just announced a back-to-school lineup of 16- and 17-inch additions to the Classic C Series notebook line, promising starting prices as low as $549. What's new and notable here is that the 17.3-inch models all have 1600x900 resolutions, which is a nice upgrade from the 1366x768 we're used to seeing on budget machines. Even more intriguingly, the 16-inch CR600-017 includes a Blu-ray/DVD drive for hi-def movie watching (but sadly and quizzically, only a 1366x768 resolution on that one). But this is the kicker: it only costs $649.
All machines also feature ATI or Nvidia graphics of some sort--the CX600 and CX700 models have ATI Mobility Radeon HD4330 graphics cards with 512MB RAM, while the CR600 and CR700 models have Nvidia GeForce 8200M GPUs.
There is one caveat, however: all these laptops have Pentium Dual Core T4200 and T4300 processors. Therein lies the discount. However, it could be an excellent compromise for those who value some multimedia and screen size over processor speed. In essence, your price options are either $549, $649, or $799. Details below for reference (all 16-inchers are 1366x768, all 17.3-inchers 1600x900):
- CR600-013US ($549): 16-inch, 2.0 GHz T4200, 4GB RAM, GeForce 8200M G, DVD
- CX600-049US ($649): 16-inch, 2.0 GHz T4200, 4GB RAM, ATI Mobility Radeon 4330, DVD
- CR600-017US ($649): 16-inch, 2.1 GHz T4300, 4GB RAM, GeForce 8200M G, Blu-ray
- CR700-012US ($649): 17.3-inch, 2.0 GHz T4200, 4GB RAM, GeForce 8200M G, DVD
- CX700-020US ($799): 17.3-inch, 2.0 GHz T4200, 4GB RAM, ATI Mobility Radeon 4330, DVD
If you're bargain-hunting, check out the gallery below.
Scott Stein, a New York Jets fan and CNET senior associate editor, has written about tech, entertainment, video games, and viral culture for outlets including Laptop, Wired, Maxim, Esquire Online, Asylum, and Men's Journal. He also appears on the Digital City podcast. In his spare time, you might see him performing improv in New York City (when he's not being a dad). 
- by muze0ne October 20, 2009 7:48 PM PDT
- Just to shed some light on the subject, I purchased the CR600-017US and it is amazing. I came preinstalled with Vista Home Premium 32bit and I have installed Windows7 64bit on a separate partition. It scores a modest 4.2 on Win7 and that is from the graphics, not the CPU. The CPU scores a 5.4 out of a possible 7.9 which is good considering I only paid under $600 for this beast. Compared to anything any of the big names are offering, this thing has more pros than cons, a portable blu ray player + mid-range gaming + HTML coding on 16" Widescreen @ school = very happy customer.
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<br />PS For those who haven't heard of MSI (Micro Star International), this is my third different product from MSI and they are a very reliable company. My 1st purchase was a 8800 GTS Video Card 320MB Ram purchased 02/08, still kicking my my wife's AMD64 PC. My 2nd was my P7N SLI Motherboard which is in my main PC purchased 12/08 (Intel C2D E7300 @ 3.5Ghz/8GB DDR2 RAM/6.9 Win7 Rating). The 3rd is this laptop and as I said I am very impressed.
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