MSI laptops have been constantly evolving over a period of time, trying to provide a complete entertainment rig without compromising on performance or price. MSI's FX600 is the answer for those looking for a complete multimedia laptop under a tight budget. Incorporating a stylish checkered texture design on the cover-lid, palm-rest and contours of the keypad layout, the FX600 portrays a unique look. The checkered texture design on the chassis, is intended to keep the palm-rest cooler, by promoting better air-flow to palms and also as anti-fingerprint material.

The matte black finish on the palm-rest adds a nice contrast to the glossy black finish on the keypad layout and the textured touchpad blends well with the contrasting checkered textures around it. The four-speaker system optimised with THX certified TruStudio PRO system includes two speakers decorating the top side of the battery compartment and two speakers located just below the palm-rest. The quick-launch buttons for multimedia and other hot functions are sandwiched between the two speakers at the top of the keypad.

With the inclusion of various power management technologies like Turbo Drive Engine, NVIDIA Optimus technology and ECO Engine Power Management System, the user is provided the privilege of tailoring the power-saving and high-performance modes for his needs. The glossy display makes it difficult for viewing while subjected to bright-light conditions and the overall build quality of the laptop is just average owing to cost cutting, for such a powerful configuration. The keypad ergonomics feels good with the isolated keypad design and overcomes the cramped key-spacing issue which we encountered with the Lenovo IdeaPad G565 & G560 laptops. The soft touch keys generate sufficient tactile feedback enabling quick & accurate typing. The marked spacing between keys promotes comfortable navigation and improves usability. Another notable feature is the touchpad hotkey placed right above the touchpad. However, the touchpad is awkwardly modified by stripping off the scroll-bar feature to accommodate two-finger gesture based inputs, wherein the user inputs are often cluttered and messed up. For example, the pinch to zoom feature gets activated when the user actually intends to scroll a webpage and randomly switches between pinch, scroll & rotate functions.

Read on to know the performance, our take, specifications, ratings and performance test results in the next page...

• Processor: Intel Core i3 - 330M
• Memory: 4GB DDR3 533MHz
• Chipset: Intel HM55 Express
• Graphics: Intel HD integrated graphics & Nvidia GeForce GT 325M
• Hard drive: 500GB
• Display: 15.6-inch LED backlit, Screen resolution: 1366 x 768
• Weight: 2.41 Kilograms