Why You Can Trust CNET MSI CR620 (Core i5) review: MSI CR620 (Core i5)
MSI's CR620 is decent. It manages to cram Core i5 into the sub-AU$1000 bracket, something we haven't seen before. Though the battery life could be better, and the choice of 32-bit Windows is just plain odd.
Design and features
In a move that will shock few, MSI's latest CR620 is strikingly similar to its previous CR620. In fact, all that differs here is it's been bolstered up to Core i5, while retaining the AU$999 price tag.
MSI CR620 (Core i5)
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
It's otherwise the same machine; a black lid with grey pinstripes, and a grey interior with black pinstripes. An island-style keyboard is featured with a full-size numpad, something that's highly appreciated. Don't expect anything too fancy from the touch pad — it's your standard single touch affair with a scroll zone on the right-hand side. Years after we first complained, MSI still doesn't bundle touch-pad drivers, but at least now it's making them available on its site.
Specs and connections
Inside is the aforementioned Core i5 430M, clocked at 2.27GHz. It's paired up with 4GB RAM, although MSI for some reason has bundled the 32-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium, ensuring that this RAM can never be used to its full potential. A 320GB hard drive, DVD±RW drive and 15.6-inch, 1366x768 screen fills the rest of the spec. If you're willing to break the AU$1000 mark, there's a 500GB hard drive/Blu-ray reader SKU out there as well.
MSI has chosen to put the majority of the ports on the rear, something we can never quite gel with. It supplies two USB ports here, with an HDMI and VGA port sitting next to them. An ExpressCard 34 slot, card reader, and 3.5mm headphone and microphone jacks sit on the left, while the right gets a single lonely USB port and the optical drive.
Disappointingly, for so much value found elsewhere in the CR620, it still only has 100Mb Ethernet. There is 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth, but gigabit would have sealed the deal for us.
Software
We've already mentioned the annoyance that is the inclusion of the 32-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium. On top of this, MSI's laptop has a moderate bundle of software. While you can opt out of some of it during installation, you'll always get Windows Live Essentials (and hence Windows Live toolbar in IE) and Microsoft Works.
A Norton Internet Security trial is bundled, as is a WinRAR trial and the expected Office 2007 trial. ArcSoft's WebCam Companion 3 and Magic-I Visual Effects 2 is the chosen webcam software, although we can't comment on the functionality, as the webcam did not work in our review sample.
Performance
Being the only Core i5 laptop we've seen under AU$1000, we expected some serious performance benefits, and we saw them, turning in a score of 1916 in 3DMark06, and 5518 in PCMark05. This doesn't touch Dell's Inspiron 15R though, thanks to the Dell squeezing in a Radeon 5470 for graphics performance. The MSI by comparison is still running on Intel graphics.
But this should mean better battery life, right? Well, only just. Turning off all power-saving features, setting screen brightness and volume to maximum and playing back an XviD file, the MSI lasted one hour, 59 minutes and 48 seconds, around two minutes longer than the Dell. While we expect cheap laptops to not have particularly thrilling battery times, we'd have hoped for more from the MSI.
MSI's CR620 is decent. It manages to cram Core i5 into the sub-AU$1000 bracket, something we haven't seen before. Though the battery life could be better, and the choice of 32-bit Windows is just plain odd.