XMG c703 (msi gs70) review with Clevo P170EM comparison

So i just bought an XMG c703 for my girlfriend and from how things are going it seems i might be using it more than her! I absolutely love it!
First of all buying from mySN was a good choice, as expected: fast email response and quick shipment.

Let's start from the body, very well made and solid although the lid is very flexible, seems almost fragile, but I guess it's a small price to pay for a 2.5Kg 17' laptop. I like the minimalist look: keyboard, touchpad and powerup button, nothing else, very clean.

The screen is fantastic! It's not common these days to find a matte screen, and even when I stumbled upon one in my research it wasn't good quality, but this is not the case! This screen is as good as it gets: bright, wide angles, very good colours and so on.

Another great thing about this laptop is the touchpad: it's big, you can feel the edge so you don't end up scrolling your palm rest and the software is well made so multi touch gestures are pretty fluid.

Now to the keyboard: it's good overall definitely better than my clevo one to the touch but it has a notable lack of lightning, even at max (it has 3 levels of brightness). The keys themselves are not illuminated. A bit annoying, since if lit properly it would've been almost perfect.

also fn+ f7, f8 and f9 lack labels, (the actions are: all fans to max, on/off wifi, on/off bluetooth)
Some people might not find this important but I am a fan of the big return key, here it's split in 2, and for some reason these keys are stuck together (why?).
The windows key is set to the right of the space bar, as it is a gaming notebook i find it appropriate.

Sound. I am actually surprised, how can a laptop this thin have such a great sound? Much better than the onkyo speakers used on clevos which I dislike, the subwoofer also does a really good job, unlike the clevo one which is 99% useless; I could almost compare it to the one of my old Dell XPS m1710 which was incredible.

While i was looking at the ports something caught my eye: the audio ports.

Who the hell on earth puts the inline between audio-out and mic?! Since so many headsets have the mic and audio in the same cable and the jacks split only at the end one would expect all manufacturers would put those 2 ports close to each other.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/u5jq7f4iq2gpmew/2014-03-23 18.20.25.jpg

Something else I really don't like is that the battery is not removable, I usually remove mine and only use it when I have to carry the laptop around so it doesn't decay due to constant charging. Not possible here, or at least certainly not quickly and easily. Other than that the maintenance of the laptop is hassle free, just unscrew the bottom and the fans are accessible for cleaning. It's also worth mentioning that XMG uses a high quality thermal compound so it shouldn't need repasting any time soon.

I really like how this laptop has dual fans and the exhausts are on the sides rather than the back, very convenient if you want to use it on your laps lying in bed, no risk of blocking the air! There is also an air intake right on top of the keyboard which is great to guarantee airflow even if you place this machine on a carpet!

On the front of the case are located the status LEDs which are way too bright, small but blinding flashlights, they could have used those for the keyboard lightning perhaps?

The power supply block is in tune with the high-end components of the laptop but much smaller than my clevo's which is double its size.

The power cables are a bit too short for me: ~1.75m and 90cm but longer than clevo's (which are at times almost inconvenient). The shortest of the 2 can be replaced if it's an issue.
I like how the power cable plugs into the side rather than the back, it also connects with a 'click' so no risk of unintentionally unplugging it while on the bed as happened countless times with my clevo.

Something I don't understand though is why the power cord passes right in front of the most used (CPU) exhaust, the energy block is covering half the vent. This has got to be one of the dumbest designs I've seen in a long time.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/noxgkh9m3ui35hr/2014-03-23 18.24.20.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6na4gi2qg7cbusc/2014-03-23 18.27.05.jpg

The CPU temperatures on idle are around 50°C while the fan is off, when it kicks in they drop to around 45°.
I haven't seen GPU temperature go higher than 83°C, even after 10 minutes of kombustor burn-in test, which is a very good result for a laptop like this. At this stage the fan gets pretty noisy but it's not a surprise since so much power is packed into such a compact machine.

specs:
- 17.3" (43.9cm) Full-HD 1920x1080 Matte Display
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 765M
- Intel Core i7-4700HQ Quad Core
- 8Gb RAM
- 1Tb 5400rpm HDD
- Intel Dual Band wireless AC 7260
-24 months warranty
price: 1100€ (i bought it during olympic discounts)

 

There seem to be a problem with the bigfoot bootloader, I disabled the notification but every time the laptop is turned off the settings are reset, any sugestions on how to fix it? According to XMG i have the latest bios.

 

And now flash msi bios and ec to get full colour keyboard and other msi features .

 

I don't think XMG uses steelseries keyboard, which other features? I'm afraid of messing up everything if I install MSI bios..

 

Did you do it? How did it go? Does the C703 also has a 3 different backlighting area? Can you change the lighting to a different color for example? I've read somewhere that you can download the msi program and change the keyboard lighting.

 

Hi, I bought the XMG C703 1 month ago (25% OFF in France), so I can answer to your questions. The C703 has the exact same keyboard as the GS70, it has the same functionnality (colors, area, breathing...) you only need to install msi's keyboard led manager (KLM), and you will have the exact same features. The only difference is that there is no "Steelseries" branding in the left corner.

 

Hello,
I have just bought the schenker xmg c703. Every day the laptop is unplugged it loose about 8% of battery (in 6 days 40% is gone).
All is unplugged , the computer is in the bag with no special option in bios...
I have called technical service and they say that it's all theirs c703 that have this problem , and that they can't do anything !
Is it true ? Have you experienced this problem ?
Thanks,
BIG_J

 

There is an option in bios which enables charging from usb ports even if the pc itself is shut down. Are you sure thats disabled?

Sent from my HTCSensation using Tapatalk

 

yes it's icharger at S6/S7/ ... it's disabled !

 

Would you mind sharing a bit more information ...? I'm unlucky enough that the klm simply doesn't change the colors ... I'm on windows 8.1
Laptop purchased 1.5 month ago...
Any help appreciated...

 

Hello there,

I would like to ask if its necessary to flash msi gs70 bios to get full keyboard working , or simply the msi klm would do just fine as it is...?

I myself tried the klm application but had no success...
As well , liptimscieu claims klm is the only thing needed but he has replied to my prev post ...

Any help is appreciated ,
Thanx

 

another new C703 user waiting for some light!

 

+1 ... for me too

 

Hey, 6 months later,I'm back ^^. Well, if I remember I only installed KLM software, I know I didn't flash the bios. Maybe that SCM is needed too, it is also installed on my computer.

My XMG still work perfectly after almost a year. The only little problem I have are some little stains (white dots) apparently coming from the glue used on the LCD. Anyone has this problem? I may send it back to get it fixed, but I don't want to be separated from it for too long...

 

mhhhhhh,now, somtimes the LED (on/off) ist amber, this means, the NVIDIA-Grafik is on. but only the intel work. I tested it with GPU-Monitor. i musst restart for this problem. i think, the new Driver ist not good???