Laptop-Review.eu

Construction & Design

The first impression





















From the moment you lay eyes on the GT740, you know it is a gaming notebook. The red on black gives it a futuristic look, along with the aluminium surface that draws attention to lines running atop the device. When I took a closer look at the finer details, I noticed that the aluminium and lattice around the touch-panel were loose at the edges, most likely due to temperature shifts during transportation. I could probably have ripped out the loose parts with ease, but opted to push them into place instead. The glued-on surfaces do not seem like an all that well thought-out idea, even if they do look good.
When you start up the computer the diodes shine with a blue light that contrast nicely with the red, and thus the trip into GT740’s world starts to look better. All in all the design is alright, but the level of craftsmanship is inconsistent.

The lid



The lid is black, brushed aluminium with MSI’s logo printed in the middle. The long crevices in the surface make the device look good on the exterior.

The front



You can just glimpse the two frontal speakers at the front, hiding behind the aluminium lattice. You can also see the diode-panel in the middle, but more on that later.

The rear



At the rear we have a vent followed by an HDMI output, VGA output and the DC-in jack.

The bottom







At the top we have the 9-celled battery sticking out of the computer a bit. Just below we find the hard drive, and at the left there is a larger lid behind which you find the RAM modules and CPU. At the very bottom you can see the subwoofer, which we will get to later as well.

Right side



On the right we first have the ExpressCard slot, with a multimedia card reader for XD, SD, MMC and MS formats just below. After that we have a USB 2.0 port, eSATA / USB 2.0 combo port, firewire IEEE 1334 port followed by audio-in and -out jacks (two of each). You can spot another port at the far right, which is where the built-in TV tuner will be if you get that model.

Left side



On the left we have the Kensington lock slot, followed by an RJ-11 modem port, RJ-45 LAN port, 2x USB 2.0 plus the optical drive.

Buttons/Diodes





The power button is located left of the keyboard and is lit up by a blue diode when the computer is turned on. Above the keyboard is a touch-panel where you can control multimedia and various modules. Specifically: "previous", "stop", "start/pause", "next", "ECO mode", "activate ’Cinema mode’", "activate webcam", "activate Bluetooth", "activate WiFi", and last start-up of a user-defined application.



Below the touchpad is a panel of diodes, indicating the status of WiFi, battery, power, hard drive activity, scroll-lock, numlock and capslock. All diodes are lit with a blue light when active.

Keyboard and touchpad



The keyboard has approximately the same size as a standard keyboard for a desktop, which makes it nice and easy to use. It flexes slightly, but you do not notice it as such. The letters are spelled out clearly, and the WASD keys have been treated to some extra red marking for the benefit of gamers. The device also has all the numpad keys, which can be an advantage for some.



The touchpad responds quite well, and the surface is quite frictionless and thus easy to use. The touchpad is multi-touch enabled, which means you can use several fingers for various gestures and associated functions. The buttons do not look all that traditional, but worry not – they work just as they should.

Display









The display is a 17 incher, running a resolution of 1650 x 1050 pixels. View it from above and the brightness increases; view it from below or the sides and the display gets dimmer. The display is very crisp when you sit directly in front of it though. The backlighting is homogenous or evenly distributed across the screen.

Speakers



The device has four satellite speakers along with a subwoofer at the bottom. Unfortunately the sound is far from optimal as it starts to scratch before you reach the maximum volume. Clearly there was a problem with one of the speakers. However, the deeper tones were hardly impressive either, especially when you consider there is a dedicated subwoofer.

I/Os



Special Features

Webcam



The embedded webcam is a 2 megapixel one, capable of taking pictures in a resolution of up to 8 megapixels interpolated, i.e. 3200 x 2400 pixels. ArcSoft Webcam companion is the corresponding software that allows you to add effects to pictures and such.