General Analysis Continued

All things considered, the GL62 6QF-628 honestly surprised me with its performance. I really was not expecting much from the Intel Core i5 6300 HQ and Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M. However, the i5 6300HQ offered just about 60% of the i7 6700K's performance in Cinebench R15, which, considering this is a 2.3 GHz quad-core versus a 4.2 GHz quad-core with Hyper-Threading, is quite surprising. The CPU Queen benchmark in AIDA 64 also proved interesting since the laptop's 4-threaded processor scored exactly half of what the desktop's 8-threaded processor managed. Sadly, memory performance is hampered due to the single DDR4 SO-DIMM in the GL62. The lack of a dual-channel setup had the i7 6700K desktop slaughter this notebook in the memory tests. Still, overall, it has enough grunt to handle day-to-day tasks and general work loads without issue.

When it comes to drive performance, the 1TB 5400RPM HDD is alright, but quite underwhelming in comparison to an SSD. Then again, considering this notebook's price, I can't fault MSI for using one. Battery life could be seen as average or below. Not often will someone play AAA games on a laptop running off the battery. However, the 47 minutes at 60 FPS and 1 hour and 17 minutes at 30 FPS were definitely on the short side in terms of longevity. Watching Ted looped via VLC, however, had MSI's notebook last nearly 4 hours, which I would consider acceptable, although it is nothing more than average. Still, most laptops that last longer tend to run ultra-low TDP processors that have next to nothing to offer in terms of graphics performance.

The GL62 6QF performed admirably in all synthetic- and gaming-performance-related tests, which was a huge surprise to me. Could it keep pace with desktop graphics cards in games set to their maximum settings? No. However, drop a couple settings and reduce the resolution to 720p and it will run games smoothly with everything else close to or maxed out. While MSI's notebook certainly won't replace your gaming desktop, it certainly does have enough grunt for an enjoyable gaming experience on the go. I will admit that I did, however, have a great time whenever I used Steam Big Picture mode to stream games from my desktop onto my laptop, while sitting in the living room, feet up with the laptop connected to the TV; it was quite enjoyable.

When it comes to audio, the MSI GL62 had no issues driving my KRK KNS6400 headphones, and the sound quality wasn't bad, either. But it certainly didn't hold up to high-end audio cards paired with the same cans on a desktop. Then again, that is to be expected. The laptop's speakers are okay at best. No miracles to be found here, they are better than what you would find in the lower price segments. Still, their sound quality is only adequate since they muddle thing up a bit. When using headphones, the audio is much improved. The Realtek audio chip will not give you anything remotely close to audiophile quality, so if you like crisp, clean audio, what's provided here won't be what you're looking for. But for a gamer on the go? It is acceptable.

I myself found the MSI GL62 6QF-628 notebook to be a solid all-around offering. It won't "wow" you, but it doesn't break the bank either. Given it has solid specifications, a decent touchpad, and above average keyboard, it hits a lot of the right notes. In fact, I found myself using MSI's notebook more and more because it gave me a great deal more freedom than my traditional desktop. Granted, it could never replace my desktop, but I feel as though MSI really did strike a fine balance here, offering users a good entry with a mid-range offering that allows them to step away from the desk to maybe poke fun at a few Apple users at their local coffee shop.