MSI GT725-212US review: MSI GT725-212US

The GT-725 series has a stylish low-key design on the outside, highlighted by a black brushed-aluminum lid. Inside, the design gets a bit more garish: Ferrari-red trim and a shiny silver speaker grille above the keyboard make for a slightly dated red-black-and-silver look, but it's not terrible. The lid hinge is smooth and solid, and with the lid closed, the notebook feels beefy but not overweight, especially for a gaming laptop. A black-and-red touch control pad above the keyboard lights up when its media playback, Bluetooth, Webcam, and wireless modes are toggled.

We found nothing missing from the ports and connections, with everything from HDMI to mini-FireWire and eSATA all arrayed in easy access. The sound output runs 7.1 Dolby surround, and can be configured using all four audio input/output jacks. HDMI and VGA are in the back, and USB ports are arranged on both sides of the keyboard.

Intel's Q9000 Core 2 Quad processor is an impressive inclusion on this MSI, but not essential for gaming. Multicore processing is usually shown off most in multimedia multitasking. The 2.0GHz Q9000 performed in the middle of the pack in our multitasking test. In our Photoshop CS3 image-processing test the GT725-212us fell behind similar recent high-end laptops, but it's still more processing power than you'd need for most common tasks, such as Web-surfing, media playback, and editing video and images.

So, the burning question remained of how the GT725-212us, loaded with the ATI Mobility Radeon 4850, held up against powerhouses like our recent favorite, the Asus W90Vp-X1, when it came to gaming. Unreal Tournament 3 played at 1,280x768 at 159.2 fps, an extremely impressive feat. Only the Asus W90Vp-X1 performed better (and only by a hair), at 161.2 fps in overclocked mode--and that was a new high for CNET laptop performance. The Turbo Drive overclocking feature, which a variable acceleration of performance, only runs when plugged into AC power. Using Turbo, however, added no noticeable advantage in our benchmark gaming tests. While this came as a surprise, especially since the Asus W90Vp-X1 had a slight speed bump, 159.2 fps is still incredible performance--in fact, it's our chart-topper for nonoverclocked performance. We anecdotally tried a build of the upcoming Street Fighter 4 for PC, as well as Crysis and F.E.A.R.2, and all performed well enough to recommend this to any gamer.

The GT725-212us ran for 2 hours and 1 minute on our video playback battery drain test, using the included nine-cell battery. That's not a bad number at all for a desktop replacement with this much horsepower, and we wouldn't expect much more.

MSI backs the GT725-212us with a three-year parts-and-labor limited warranty for everything except the screen and battery, which are one year. An extended warranty for one or two more years can be purchased for $199 or $299, respectively, and that adds an expedited 5-business-day repair time instead of the standard 6-10. The user manual and driver downloads can be found on MSI's global Web site, along with a helpful glossary of tech terms. Calls to tech support require a toll call; lines are open Monday through Thursday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. PT.