GT627 build quality...is it REALLY that bad?

I've got it narrowed down between this and the Sager NP8662, and the GT627 would of course save me $200-300 and would fit all my needs perfectly (the Sager might actually even be overkill). I love the portability of it compared to the Sager, and I could get used to the moronic keyboard layout with time so that's not that big of an issue. And I'm not too keen on the idea of it downclocking to near-unusable speeds every time it goes on battery, but I'm sure you can fiddle with some settings to change that. I also thought about the EX625, but it just looks a bit weak.

The big issue though, is build quality. I've heard horror stories of touchpads, mouse buttons, and palm rests showing wear after just days or even hours of usage (though apparently putting a screen protector over the touchpad helps). I've also heard about cracks in the casing after just a month or two. Are all of these things common, or are the reports just exaggerated?

The other thing is upgradeability. I can't really see anything needing over 4GB of RAM anytime during the period I hope to have the laptop (3-4 years), but if it does...doesn't the GT627 max out at 4GB? And won't MSI void your warranty if you upgrade anything anyway?

I really like this laptop...I love the specs, design, portability, and price. But the build quality is really worrying me, since I don't want to spend $1300 on a laptop and have it look worn out not long after I get it. Should I be worried, or can anyone quell my fears?

 

if your that worried about build quality buy the sager or an asus g50vt-x6(same thing as the gt627 but better built). and no the msi should max out at 8Gbs of memory. but i dont know about the warranty. but i think it will void the msi warranty.(don't quote that).

 

Ok well sadly, the touchpad issue is true. The speed at which it wears depends on the user, but all have agreed it wears very fast. Mind you, some people have rubbed away the matte coating completely (to make it evenly glossy everywhere on the touchpad) and there isn't any decrease in sensitivity. Another option is as you said the screen protector.

I haven't heard cracks as a common issue so that shouldn't be a problem.

Really the touchpad is the worst I've heard about the MIS notebooks. The other thing is keyboard flex, but that's easy to fix(there's a thread here on how to do it) and it's not really bothersome for some people.

And IIRC, the MSI maxes out at 8Gb, but I'm not certain about this. Also, upgrading RAM usually doesn't void most warranties.

 

Thanks for the answers. Sounds like upgradeability won't be a problem like I thought it would be, but the touchpad issue could be a thorn in my side. Keyboard flex doesn't bother me, since I can do the fix if it annoys me that much.

Does anyone have maybe some pics of the touchpad wear, as well as pics of what it looks like after the "fix" of rubbing the matte away completely?

 

Well personally I love this laptop, it is great and the few problems you mentioned in my opinion at least aren't that big.

I personally have had no problems with the downclocking when on battery. But then again I haven't played any games while on battery. But videos and internet/youtube work just fine. Keep in mind that if the computer did not downclock some it would destroy the battery and you would barely get any time at all. As for the keyboard, I was slightly worried about it to, but its actually not bad at all... I have had absolutely no problem what so ever using it (even after switching back and froth from my desktop keyboard).

Personally I have had no ware on the palm rest but that might be because the one hand that I have on the palm rest is on top one of those glass cleaning cloths (I do this to keep it clean since it gets tiring to clean it all the time). From what I have heard though the palm rest was just oil buildup with the touchpad getting the actual wear. Like you mentioned putting a screen protector might helps (I put one on just in case and the mouse pad works the same, no decrease in sensitivity.)

Unfortunately for me mine does have a small hairline crack at the very top left hand corner. I can say that it is not from wear since I had it since I got the laptop. It is not very noticeable and I don't think it should cause much problem. Except for that one small thing the case is very sturdy (in my opinion).

Just as a warning when reading these kinds of forums, most people tend to post only when they have problems, so you will see a pronounced amount of those kinds of threads, less people post when they have nothing to complain about.

Unfortunately you can not upgrade anything on this laptop as there are void warranty stickers on the underside of the case, so the only thing you can take out is the battery. You can however upgrade the LCD if you wish with no problem.

I'm pretty sure its capped at 4GB of DDR2, but I'm not sure if you would need more than that in the future anyway. Plus if you stick with the 32bit OS included you can't even use the full 4.

It is a great laptop and has many benefits, with only a few small issues, but if you do decided to get it you will forget all about them once you start it up. Hope my post was of some help.

 

I had mine for the past two months an love this laptop no problems to report.
An just like CrimsonDrx said you can upgrade the LCD I have from 1280X800 to
1920x1200 and done several mods to mine, and about the ram I think it does support 8 gigs I just need to test it some day.

 

I'd definitely keep the native 1680x1050 (planning on getting the 218US rather than the 216), so LCD upgrading isn't an issue.

As for the crack, CrimsonDrx, wouldn't they cover that under warranty? It seems like a build quality issue that they should repair.

 

It's certainly capable of using more than 4GB, I've booted with 6GB before.

 

I just mentioned the LCD cus its the only thing you can upgrade without voiding warranty.

Yeah I know it should but I didn't bother, its very small and I just did not want to send it back and complicate things...

 

I do have problems with the build quality, but it's only in a few spots. Overall, rig feels solid and is sturdy.

Problem areas:
-imho this keyboard has the worst flex i've ever seen. almost trampoline like
-after 3 months my touchpad is 2-tone from where my finger has rubbed the coating off, just a big ugly blotch in the middle
-charger cables, the plastic on these is atrocious, after 3 months mine is all cracked with wires exposed
-both touchpad buttons are a bit caved in now, and the loud click noise isn't so hot either. again, i've had this 3 months
-tray on the BR drive sticks a bit coming out or going in fairly often, from day 1. drive works perfectly fine though

To balance that out, performance is awesome for the price. The screen is one of the best I've seen. All the components have great specs, like 7200rpm hdd. Every interface you can think of: expresscard, 7-in-1 hc reader, esata, firewire, hdmi + vga, etc. Missing only fingerprint reader really.

I mention those positives because this rig does have them. If you can get past the keyboard flex, everything else is fairly minor. Having said that I don't think I'll ever buy an MSI again. I think I'll avoid all the oem custom jobs and go with a brand name, my Dell sucked perf-wise but it didn't feel supercheap either.

 

Ouuuuuch, that looks pretty bad. The mouse buttons were one of my worries, and the touchpad wear I kinda expected. But the charger cables and Blu-ray drive are issues I'd never heard of. Getting second thoughts again.

The build quality is one of the big pluses for the Sager...and it's a pretty big plus, it seems from what I'm seeing so far.

 

It's not like Sager has great build quality either. None of these DIY oem chassises do imho. I just went ahead and noted all the things that I consider poor build quality on my rig, but there's a flip side, too. E.g., the brushed aluminum on the GT627 is imho far superior to the generic cheap looking matte plastic on every Sager I've ever seen. Seriously, to me, those Sagers look like Dells circa 1999.

Even with the build quality I still think the GT627 is one of the best out there, especially when you consider, GT627 can be used as a notebook as well as a gaming rig, while the Sager is a small form factor desktop.

What irks me is that if MSI had put in maybe $50 more to up the build quality, this would be one of the best notebooks ever.

 

As for me, my only issue is the touchpad worn. It gets glossy after few days of use.

Who said that the palm rest wears? It just get much finger prints but don't wear :S

The brushed aluminium areas are very sturdy. The plastic areas are not sturdy. They are weak. But they are not weak in such a way that they crack.

This laptop is very portable. I would be more happy with a portable laptop (gt627) than a good quality laptop but not protable(sager).

I forgot about the keyboard flex from the first day. You just reminded me of it lol.

This is my one month experience with this laptop.

I totally agree with Crimsondrx post.

I have not experienced any of the issues that Cuib posted except for the second issue.

 

So far this thread's been a wealth of information...that's only made my decision harder. =p

The Sager is more future-proof component-wise (DDR3, quad core support, better graphics card), but the MSI is cheaper (Sager is ~$1500ish, MSI is $1299), more portable, has that really awesome-sounding turbo button, and fits my current needs. And from this thread, build quality is pretty much hit or miss with the MSI. So...I'm still right back where I started and no closer to making a decision.

 

I've had my 627 for a whopping four days... and I love it!

 

I just want to stress, the keyboard flex really does bother me, but the rest, as I said before, is minor. E.g., the touchpad buttons, it's not like it's caved in like someone hit it with a hammer, it dips a few millimeters and you can definitely feel the difference in elevation when you run your finger over it. But it's not like it stands out to the naked eye. Anyway I just listed everything that's been an issue on my rig, but I don't want you to think any of these are dealbreakers. Only the keyboard flex is a dealbreaker for me, but that's breaking me all the way to a new rig. I'll keep this as a torrent station or portable BD player or something, it's a nice rig all around.

Anyway I think you're better off with the gt627, it meets most gaming needs, and when you put it in eco mode it lasts forever. I see the reviews say 2 hours, well for sufing and word processing and 264 vids, it's more like 4. This is a true notebook; that Sager, I personally would go for a desktop + netbook over a tethered laptop. I just don't think the build quality issue by itself should deter you, especially when the alternative isn't that much better build quality wise imho.

 

The keyboard flex is the one issue that doesn't bother me since it's apparently easily fixable with double-sided tape. And the extra weight of the Sager doesn't really bother me too much since I'm used to toting around my 17", 8+ lb. current laptop...although a 5-something pound laptop would be really nice.

And I'd heard that in low-power mode on the MSI you could barely watch Youtube vids, and playing Blu-rays was totally impossible. Exaggeration?

 

The MSI downclocks its hardware when on battery so heavy tasks such as gaming aren't advised, however, my friend who has the GT627 can easily surf the internet and do word documents and other daily tasks without any issue while on ECO mode.

Id about Blu Rays videos(since the version my friend got didn't have it), but I'm pretty sure youtube videos work >.>

 

If it weren't for the kb flex, my satisfaction with this rig would be very high, other issues and all. So I think the only issue that might seriously bug you is the touchpad coating wearing off, which you can avoid with a sticker.

As for the eco mode perf, I don't know about HQ youtube but normal youtube is fine in whatever mode. I also watch h264 vids with CoreAVC in eco mode. Bluray is no-go without ac power. Some gaming is possible on battery, like Titan Quest and NWN2, but you'll definitely notice the slowdown. (NWN2 runs everything maxed on AC, have to go down to 1440 res and turn point lights, shadows, and AA on battery.)

Edit to add, btw with the Sager, it's not just the weight (gt627 isn't exactly a featherweight either) although that is an issue, it's more, you can't get enough battery life out of that thing. My bud has this huge Sager, forget the model, but it's got 3 hdds, he gets like 12 minutes battery life. Once it died because he took too long to move the charger over to the new spot lol. With these huge Sagers, you're basically paying triple cost to have a rig that you can move from a desk to another desk. I just never did understand this craze over metric ton behemoth rigs.

 

Can't you tweak the settings so that it doesn't downclock as much on battery though?

 

I don't know of a way to prevent the downlocking. But I didn't look very hard at all. The reason I don't think it's an issue is that on full power you won't get the battery life to do very much so it's kind of moot imho, though there was this one time I wanted to show someone how well Far Cry 2 runs on this and I couldn't because I was on battery. That's the only time this issue has come up for me.

 

I'm pretty sure you can, I think I remember reading something about it. Since I don't really mind the down clocking I haven't tried to.

Also one more plus for the MSI I think it has a longer battery life than the Sager, it was one of the things that made me opt for the MSI... Not sure if that was mentioned.

 

Thanks for all your help, guys. I decided to go with the Sager, since it's a bit more upgradeable and future-proof...I figure it might last a little longer than the MSI. I had two tabs open though, and I kept switching back and forth between the two laptops until I finally pressed Checkout on the Sager.

 

That's a nice laptop, hope you enjoy it. And good call with going from Xotic I hear they are great.

 

Hi, can you please ask your friend how long his battery life is on the MSI when its running on battery?

 

Yikes. I'm guessing the built quality issues apply to all MSI products since they share the same build materials?

Again, YIKES!

 

No, 627 is the only MSI with the majority of known issues.

The rest just have mouse pad wear.

725 is basically flawless.

 

Thats messed up that the build quality is crappy, I am glad that the 17'' models such as the GT725 dont have this issue, My GT725 has no flex at all and the bezel dont crack either.. I just hope they change there build quality in the near future. I am sure they are aware of it..
My brother bought the GT627 218 model and his touch pad is worn aswell. He contacted MSI and they told him to send it back but he has yet to do so. He dont want to be without his lappy for a few weeks, with that said MSI will fix it if you decide to send them in for the touch pad issue..

 

The GT628 comes out sometime late this summer (possibly August) and will hopefully address the chassis problems of the GT627, but there's no guarantee.