MSI GL62M 7RD-1407 Review - Quick Verdict
The MSI GL62M 7RD-1407 is a gaming laptop that is made with budget gamers in mind. It comes with an i5 chip, a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 GPU, 8 gigs of RAM, and more to keep the performance steady for continuous gaming. If you’re a gamer and want something affordable to game on, then we might have a winner here.
- Sturdy build for a gaming laptop
- Perfect for modern gaming
- Display is excellent for media consumption
- You have to get a gaming mouse separately as the touchpad is not best suited for gaming
Author's Rating
If you want to game on a budget, there are not a lot of good quality options out there. The MSI GL62M 7RD-1407 gaming laptop is one of the few models that can quench your thirst for gaming on a budget.
Being an entry-level gaming laptop, the MSI GL62M 7RD-1407 laptop comes with a good number of surprising specs. Be it a quad-core processor or a serious, dedicated GPU; this laptop has it all. But how good is the gaming performance? We’ll answer that and more questions in the full review below.
Design
The MSI GL62M 7RD-1407 gaming laptop comes in a design that is proven in the past. The primary material used here is plastic, but a sturdy one. There is no flex with the lid even when you try hard.
The black color gives the laptop a minimalistic look. This kind of a stealthy look is something we’ve seen a lot in gaming laptops. You can also find some red on the backside of the laptop, and even in the logo as well.
The laptop comes with dimensions of 10.2 x 1.1 x 15.1 inches which is not that bad for a laptop with a 15.6″ screen. This is also not a heavy laptop by any means. The notebook weighs 5.29 pounds which is still a bit lighter than other laptops in the same category. Though the laptop looks bulky, it doesn’t reflect in the weight of the product.
MSI has worked on the cooling system of this laptop as it is a dedicated gaming device. The Cooler Boost technology used here consists of 6 heat pipes that can prevent overheating when playing games. With the help of this cooling system, you can avoid throttling and maintain the same level of performance.
Keyboard and Touchpad
We have a SteelSeries keyboard in the MSI GL62M 7RD-1407 laptop.
This is a full-size keyboard which means that you also get a dedicated number pad as well. If you’re someone who uses numbers a lot, this is a good thing to have.
Typing on this keyboard is a neat experience. We can type on this laptop while maintaining the same typing speed. The key travel is pretty good, but it does make a bit of noise when typing.
The keyboard is made in a way to cater to gamers. It comes with an optimum WASD zone and also multi-key input which can be handy for a lot of gamers. The keyboard has single backlighting which is useful when playing in the dark.
The touchpad is very smooth and is easy to slide your fingers on. It supports all the gestures you can do on Windows 10. Sometimes a tap might not get registered, but it is more of an isolated incident and nothing regular.
Multimedia
Whenever you go for a gaming laptop, it is essential to have a good display. In this MSI GL62M 7RD-1407 gaming notebook, we have a 15.6″ display that comes with a full HD resolution.
The plane in this display is an IPS one. With IPS (In-plane switching) panels, you get excellent viewing angles and here it is no different. Even when you’re looking from wide angles, you can see the content on the screen with minimum loss in quality.
There is no anti-glare coating on the display which means you’re going to see a bit of reflection if you’re in a well-lit room.
The display is an excellent fit for gaming, thanks to the accurate colors and contrast ratio. The screen is also great for watching media like movies, series, and other things that are visual.
Audio
The audio output from this laptop is better than what you see in most laptops in this price range. The Nahimic 2 audio enhancement does make a difference in the output quality.
The volume can go higher, but when it has reached a maximum, you do get a bit of distortion which is a bummer. Playing with full volume is also a recipe to drain your battery faster. If you’re serious about gaming, then we suggest you get a good set of gaming headphones.
Performance
When it comes to performance, the captain of the ship is the Intel Core i5 7300HQ processor. This processor has four cores and comes with a clocking frequency of 2.5GHz. The clock speed can be increased with the help of turbo boost. So when you need more power, the processor takes care of it automatically.
The processor gets a CPUMark score of 6801 which is not that shabby at all. The i5 chip can handle all your daily tasks without breaking a sweat. You can even run some heavy applications that demand more resources.
Eight gigs of DDR4 RAM accompany the processor. The DDR4 RAM is faster than the DDR3 ones which mean you can do more multitasking without losing any performance. With technical know-how, you can upgrade the RAM at a later date when you need more.
Storage
The MSI GL62M 7RD-1407 gaming laptop comes with a 256GB solid-state drive. There are no mechanical drives present here so this 256GB is all you’ve got.
Being an SSD, the drive handles all the opening and closing of applications swiftly. The operating system boots up in a few seconds which is what you’d expect in a laptop these days.
We’ve to agree that there is not a lot of space here. But the performance improvements the SSD brings makes up for it.
Gaming Performance
Gaming is more alive now than ever before. By alive, we mean that the resources to run modern games are increasing day by day. To meet the demands of modern gaming, you need a solid graphics card in your laptop.
The MSI GL62M 7RD-1407 comes equipped with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card with a video memory of 2GB. This is a graphics unit that is made for entry-level gaming laptops. It is based on the Pascal architecture and has support for Direct X12.
The graphics performance is slightly better than ASUS’s G752VT model. This is due to the better graphics card and a more efficient cooling system in place.
The graphics card enables you to play the most modern games without any problems. If you want to play graphically intensive games, then you may have to meddle with the settings a bit. But for mid-range games that demand less, this GPU does a stellar job.
Battery Life
The battery life on the MSI GL62M 7RD-1407 gaming laptop is not fantastic by any means. The laptop can last about 4 hours with a light workload. If you’re going to game, then expecting more than a couple of hours can surely bring in some disappointment.
If you’re planning on gaming for long hours, it’d be wise to get hooked to a power outlet rather than relying on this average battery life. Having said all that, the battery life in gaming laptops have always been like this. With so much demand for power, the laptop consumes more energy at the earliest.
Connectivity
The MSI GL62M 7RD-1407 does not lack when it comes to connectivity. There is a USB 2.0 port, a couple of USB 3.0 ports, a USB 3.1 type C port, an HDMI port with 4K support, a mini-display port, an ethernet port, and a headphone jack.
You can also browse the internet at high speeds, thanks to the WiFi 802.11ac support. This is much faster than its predecessors and can help cut some cords on your table. The laptop also has support for Bluetooth 4.1 which is cool.
MSI GL62M 7RD-1407 Review – Bottomline
The MSI GL62M 7RD-1407 is an affordable gaming laptop that ticks all the boxes you’d want to see in a budget gaming device. It may not be as good as other gaming laptops that are not burdened by a low price tag. But it allows gamers on a budget to flex their muscles.
With an i5 processor and a GTX 1050 graphics card, the laptop is not lacking for any power. The performance is also on point, thanks to the complimentary eight gigs of RAM in the memory department. This laptop can not only game but also do everyday work like a boss. For people on a budget, this gaming laptop brings a lot of opportunities.