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July 8, 2009

MSI VR630 review

Product Code: VR630096UK

The MSI VR630 is a sub-£500 budget laptop with 16in widescreen display.

For less than £500, it's now quite possible to find a fully featured, full-size laptop. We tried the MSI VR630, a 16in display model with 2GHz processor and 250GB of storage. And at less than 2.5kg, it shouldn't break your shoulder either.

The basic running spec of the MSI VR630 is quite impressive for the price: there's the quarter-terrabyte hard disk, 3GM RAM, a choice of two card slots, 16in widescreen LCD and dual-layer DVD rewriter. Costs have mainly been cut with the choice of processor, a 2GHz AMD dual-core Athlon CPU that doesn't have the speed or efficiency of the latest Intel parts. Based on older 65nm technology, it lists a reasonably good thermal design power (TDP) of 25W.

In our benchmark tests, the VR630 scored 69 in WorldBench 6; that's around ten points down on what we'd expect of a comparably clocked Intel Core 2 Duo. It may run hotter too, apparent by the steady exhaust of warm air from a rear vent, and all too obvious from the battery life figures.

We gave the VR630 a couple of runs with MobileMark 2007, but couldn't coax a better lifetime than 110 minutes from it.

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Build quality is reasonably robust, with a dark glossy top panel above, discreetly patterned with wavy lines, covering a simple and functional keyboard and silver-painted palm rest deck underneath.

The keyboard is full width with numeric keypad included, but the action is rather poor - too much flex in the middle and with floppy action to the keys themselves. To switch on facilities such as wireless and webcam, you use touch-sensitive areas hidden between keyboard and screen.

Thankfully the trackpad and mouse buttons were more assured in their action, with the buttons handily positioned for relaxed use.

Screen colour quality was far from top league, looking a little milky and low in contrast. With 16in across the diagonal, though, the screen is a good size to get things done or simply watch films or video. Sound proved to be tolerable but tinny from a pair of speakers fixed on the far left and right of the top deck.

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expert rating

Build quality

3.5/5

Features

4/5

Value for money

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Overall

4/5

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MSI VR630

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