Review: MSI Turbobook GX600

The MSI Turbobook GX600 has a in built turbo button that the producer says can spontaneously boost its performance by as much as 20 per cent, and cut boot times by approximately 50 per cent. But does it really work? Are there any drawbacks? Let’s peep in to reveal the secrets of the revamped GX600.

Design

The Turbobook GX600 looks drooling with the hood closed. The lustrous black finish gives it a modern neat looks that is in line with what the rest of the competitors seem to be doing at the current time. Unexpectedly, it all goes to pot when you open the hood. The turbo button, dressed in the dodgy silver paneling and the off switch located at the top right of the notebook. Software is comparatively scarce, but you are provided with a copy of Windows Vista Home Premium edition.

Performance

With a tag like 'MSI Turbobook GX600', you'd look out for this notebook to be drastically quick. It does by no means can be compared to the fastest we've seen, especially when it comes to the gamer attitude, but it's fast enough to keep in line with the quickest Centrino notebooks on the market.

Its 3D gaming agility isn't as qualitative, though. It just scampered very little in 3DMark testing circuits, and striking the turbo button doesn’t make much difference with turbo enabled, it scores less impressive scores too. For a comparison, the current breeds of high-end gaming notebooks will score at around twice as much as the GX600.

The keyboard and mouse are designed to be a useful performer, but actually they're totally tricky to get to grips with. MSI also contains a 1.3-megapixel webcam just above the display, and an optional free view TV tuner card, sad to mention our review sample didn't contain the latter. Battery sprint life on the Turbobook GX600 isn't specifically inspiring, but then we never projected it to be. The sprinting pace just manages 1 hour 5 minutes in our intensive Battery Eater test.

Conclusion

The Turbobook GX600 is a jumbled bag. It's encouraging for anyone who does CPU-intensive work, as it’s over clocking feature works amazingly and vastly accelerates core performance. The GX 600 is a new kid with the old tag line.

Pros

+ Just as the same old GX-600.
+ 3MB Ram is good addition

Cons

- Turbo switch doesn’t boost much
- Battery life pathetic
- Gaming attitude is poor.