PowerPro 10:17 (MSI 1727) Review

The PowerPro 10:17 is built on the MSI 1727 gaming notebook. It features an Intel Core i7 processor, powerful Nvidia graphics, and a large 17” screen. Read on to see how it fared in our testing.

A special thanks goes to Donald Stratton of PowerNotebooks.com for sending us this review unit.

Our PowerPro 10:17 (MSI 1727) has the following specifications:

• 17.0” WSXGA+ (1680x1080) display
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel Core i7 820QM (1.73GHz/3.06GHz Turbo Mode, 8MB L3 cache)
• Nvidia GeForce GTS 250M 1GB graphics card
• 4GB DDR3-1333 RAM (2x 2GB)
• 320GB 7200RPM hard drive (Seagate Momentus 7200.4/ST9320421AS)
• Intel Wireless WiFi Link 5300AGN
• Built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
• 8X DVD burner
• 1 Year Parts w/2nd Day Ship & 24/7 DOMESTIC Toll Free Support +Lifetime Labor
• 9-cell 7200mAh battery
• Weight: 7.9 lbs
• Dimensions: 15.55” (W) x 10.94” (W) x 1.32~1.56” (H)
• MSRP: $1,926

The 10:17 starts at $1,479; our test unit has a reasonable $400 in options. The core i7 820QM processor was $200 more than the base 720QM and Windows 7 Home Premium was $115. Unlike most mainstream notebooks the 10:17 does not come standard with an operating system which can save customers a few dollars if they already own a copy.

Build and Design
The 10:17 has a nondescript look. It has no outstanding design features; the chassis is a traditional rectangle shape sans radical curves or designs. It is reasonably slim for a 17-inch notebook at about one and a half inches thick at the highest point. The plastic used in the construction is noticeably thicker than what makes up most consumer notebooks. It has a solid feel and does not rattle when tapped. One design characteristic of the 10:17 we appreciate is the use of matte plastic instead of glossy plastic; matte plastic is not only more durable but also far easier to keep clean. The 10:17's matte surfaces feel very smooth.

The 10:17 has good build quality. The chassis exhibits marginal flex when twisted however nothing significant and less than we are used to seeing. The palmrests hardly flex under pressure. The 17-inch lid has some flex however it is expected on a screen this large. It is anchored to the chassis by two strong hinges. Many notebook manufacturers use thin plastic for the bottom access panels – this is not the case with the 10:17. The access panels are impressively solid and would not budge when pressure was applied.

Fit and finish are good – all parts fit together neatly and with even spacing. The 10:17 overall has consistent quality– no one part of the notebook appears to be of better or worse quality than another. Overall we are satisfied with the build quality; the use of some metal alloys would not hurt but on the whole there is little to complain about.


Screen and Speakers
The PowerPro 10:17 has a 17-inch display available in one resolution: 1680x1050. It has a glossy surface and CCFL backlighting. The display is of average quality. While contrast is acceptable we found it lacking brightness. Additionally the display suffers from not being very clear; it is slightly grainy. One positive aspect of this display is the high screen resolution of 1680x1050. Most 17” notebooks come with 1600x900; 1680x1050 has significantly more screen space and is easier to multitask with. The display also has reasonable viewing angles both vertically and horizontally.

The 10:17 has very reasonable speakers for a notebook. They do not sound tinny and have a surprisingly good mid-range for such small speakers (there are four total speakers). There is measurable bass thanks to the built-in subwoofer. For those wishing to use external speakers/headphones, the 10:17 has many output options including HDMI, S/PDIF, and a headphone jack.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The PowerPro 10:17 has a full-size keyboard with separate numeric keypad. The keyboard is very communicative and is encouraging to type on. It has a rubbery feel and sound, which is a positive mark in our book. It is easy to type quickly and accurately on this keyboard for long periods. The quietness of the keyboard is appreciated. The keyboard exhibits no flex with the exception of the number pad, however it only appears if abnormal pressure is applied. An interesting aspect of the keyboard is its color coding. The W, A, S, and D keys, commonly used for gaming, are highlighted in red. The Function keys (F1 – F12) and the arrow keys are a dark orange. The color coding is a nice touch.

One small nitpick about this keyboard is that the Home and End buttons are integrated as secondary functions into the PgUp and PgDn keys, respectively. This means the Function key must be pressed to access them; anyone who uses these keys frequently will find this annoying.

The touchpad has a matte surface that is easy to track on. It is smaller than we are used to seeing on 17-inch notebooks however the functionality is the same. It is easy to find the touchpad by feel since it is inlaid into the palmrest slightly below the surface. The touchpad buttons, also easy to find by feel, have solid feedback but are somewhat noisy.

Ports and Features
The PowerPro 10:17 has an impressive array of ports including HDMI (for connection to HDTVs) and eSATA (a fast connection to external hard drives).

All picture descriptions are left to right.

Left Side: Kensington lock slot, 56k modem, Gigabit Ethernet, 2x USB, optical drive

Right Side: ExpressCard/54 slot (top), memory card reader (xD, SD, MMC, MS/MS Pro – bottom), USB, eSATA/USB combo port, IEEE 1394 mini-Firewire, headphone, S/PDIF, line-in, microphone jacks, heat vent

Back: Heat vent, HDMI, VGA, power jack

Front: Status lights

<!--nextpage--><!--pagetitleowerPro 10:17 (MSI 1727) Performance, Benchmarks and Conclusion-->

Performance and Benchmarks
The 10:17 rakes in high scores in our benchmark tests thanks to its top-shelf components. The Intel Core i7 processor is especially strong, and the Nvidia GTS 250M graphics card can play essentially all modern games on high settings.

The graphics performance is impressive by itself however competitors at this price point offer slightly faster graphics cards. The Nvidia GTS 250M graphics card likely has headroom for overclocking, however that is beyond the scope of this review.

Wprime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

Crysis gaming benchmark (1600x900 and high settings):

Left 4 Dead 2 benchmark (1680x1050, high settings, and 4X MSAA):

HDTune storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
The 10:17 has two large exhaust vents at the top right corner of the chassis. At idle the 10:17 is nearly silent; it occasionally spins up to rid excess heat from the chassis. At its highest speed the fan is audible but not intrusive; it mostly sounds like a rush of air. Under full load the chassis remains impressively cool; the surface does not even get more than lukewarm on the top and bottom. External temperatures shown below are listed in degrees Fahrenheit.

HWMonitor shows that the graphics card reaches a maximum internal temperature of 61 degrees Celsius, which is well within the acceptable range (some notebooks' graphics cards get to 80-90 degrees Celsius or more).

Battery Life
The PowerPro 10:17 lasted for three hours and one minute in our battery test, which is very good for a 17-inch gaming notebook. The time was achieved while word processing and surfing the Internet with the screen at minimum brightness. The 9-cell 72Wh battery is larger than the batteries in most 17-inch notebooks.

Operating System and Software
By default the PowerPro 10:17 does not come with an operating system; ours came configured with Windows 7. We like how PowerNotebooks.com makes the operating system optional; it can save customers money if they already have a copy (or can get one for less than retail). No unwanted software came pre-installed, which is greatly appreciated. Most consumer notebooks come loaded to the gills with trial software and other gimmicks.

Warranty and Service
The PowerPro 10:17 comes standard with a one-year warranty, which includes second day shipping (both ways) for service, 24/7 domestic telephone support, and lifetime labor. A three-year warranty with next business day shipping for service (both ways) is optional. This warranty is superior to warranties offered by most large notebook companies.

Conclusion
The PowerPro 10:17 is a well rounded if not remarkable gaming notebook. It produced good numbers in our gaming benchmarks though some competitors were higher. Our main complaint is the screen; the high resolution is appreciated however we wish it were brighter and more vibrant. Other than the screen the 10:17 impresses in many areas, including build quality, fit and finish, the keyboard, and it even has good speakers and respectable battery life. The 10:17 is somewhat expensive however the warranty and customer service compensate for that. We can confidently recommend the PowerPro 10:17 to gamers and multimedia enthusiasts looking for a break from the mainstream.

Pros:

• Solid build quality
• Superb keyboard
• Stays cool and quiet
• Excellent overall performance
• Good warranty/service
• Decent speakers
• Reasonable battery life (three hours)

Cons:

• Screen not bright enough
• Gaming performance not as good as competitors
• Bland looks
• Only one internal hard drive

 

Thanks for the review charles, definately fits this machine, curious as to how core 4 spiked to 86 though, thats a fair bit scary. :S

But yeah i generally agree, its a shame they went with gddr3 not 5 for the GPU, as that would bump it up to where it would need to be, i suppose i can see why they used a graphics card like that, i7 + a gpu which uses really low power could result in a relatively cooler chasis, still would have liked to see another 4850/4870 machine , the gx740 is supposedly going with a 5 series card and i series, now thats a combo!

 

Hey Charles! Thanks for the great review!

But then I noticed in the photos..

Is the "SLEEP LED" or the Crescent shape LED on your powerbook pro

always turned on?.. cuz mine seems to be...

Regardless of it in sleep mode or not, it is always turned on,

and I was wondering if that was your case,too?

 

Yes that was always on, I believe it just indicates that the system is powered on. There needs to be a system on indicator at the front of the notebook because otherwise, if the lid were closed, you could not tell whether the notebook was on or not at a glance.

 

I dislike core i7 based on prices like these.

Give me a fast dual core or quad core at $1100 and a 9800M GT over the components in this laptop any day.

 

You have a slight error in the specs list. You have it listed as 1680x1080, Im guessing from all the 16:9 laptops you have done.

Other then that Im glad to see yet another OEM that is keeping some 16:10 screens, although 1680x1050 is a bit low for this screen size, still nice though. Great review as always!

 

It's not even Core i7 -- the ASUS G51J with a Core i7 and a GTX 260M could be had for $1500 back in October 09 (if you're looking for something of the sort now, you're probably better off waiting a week or two and getting its successor, the ASUS G51JX-A1 with its Core i7, GDDR5 GTS 360M, 6GB of RAM and 500GB hard drive for $1450). This MSI 1727 is just overpriced by 30-40% based on the components alone. I don't know if the build quality and such justify an extra $500 -- they wouldn't if I were looking for a laptop, but maybe other people think differently.

 

MSRP: $1,926 ????
For i7/4gb ram/1gb nvidia vram/320gb hdd ??? whats great in this laptop ? Asus N61Jq is $1050 with advanced configurations than this.

 

very nice looking laptop, 16:10 as well.
but beware the gts 250 is crippled by gddr3 memory and only 8 rops, compare to 16 of the lowliest of all high end card, the 9800m gs. graphics wise this is a downgrade compared to previous msi gt series laptops.

 

I know it seems fairly badly priced at the moment, but wait till they get the gx740 out, just like the gt725, itl be priced greatly, and blow the competition in its area away.

 

TYPO:

I believe it should be 1680x 1050.

Other than that, good review! The fact that this notebook uses a 16:10 screen alone make me want to buy it! And it has decent power, too!

Hopefully, this will make the bigger OEMs re-evaluate their 16:9 obsession...

 

Oh is it a MSI laptop ?
WORST service experience with MSI for my graphics (GeForce) card

 

Well as far as im aware, there notebook division for warrenty hasn't let any members on the msi section down yet, people occasionally have issues (rarely at that fact.) but they always get fixed.

Shame that your experience hasn't been too good.

 

It seems this laptop is significantly overpriced... and I would have liked to see 1920x1200 resolution on such a large screen. Nice review, Charles.

 

Exactly the same as my post. I too hope that OEMs re-evaluate too.

 

You can shop around at other resellers to get a lower price on the same chassis or for the more tech savvy you can buy the MSI 1727 barebones sans the CPU, HDD, OS, and RAM.

 

Considering that I've got a 1920x1200 display in my 15" HP dv5z now, there's no way I'd get a 17" with only 16xx horizontal resolution. And no backlit keyboard? Doesn't seem like a true gamer machine at all.

 

Thanks for the compliments. The screen resolution is as noted, 1680x1050 and is 16:10 aspect ratio. 16:10 is on the way out (this is the tail end) so grab 'em while they're hot . . .

Regarding the price - note our test unit had a higher-spec i7 820QM processor and not the base 720QM. The performance difference is not significant between the two however the price is. If you go with the 720QM you can save some money. Also, if you have a copy of Windows you can save more money still.
Though there are faster notebooks available for the price as I noted in the review, consider the superior warranty/support/CS from a smaller vendor like PowerNotebooks is worth something. Not many people take that into account but it makes the ownership experience better.

I guess you custom modded your dv5 with that screen - nice. I have 1680x1050 in my dv5t.

Backlit keyboards . . . to each their own. I personally don't care for them, I wouldn't pay extra for one. They waste battery life and are more for aesthetics than anything.
BTW I game on a 100% blank/no markings mechanical Das Keyboard.

 

Well i cant stand 1080p on 15 inch, i think its stupid, and 17inch i can just tollerate, but im running 1440x900 and i love it (plus massive performance gains for some things.) 1680x1050 is a perfect res for the reviewed unit, perfect for the slightly weaker GPU.

 

That's $240 out of around $500. Even if you go with the more reasonably priced Core i7, the price is still significantly higher than you can get elsewhere for better hardware.

This is a two edged sword. The laptop I'm currently using is from a smaller vendor (which shall remain unnamed) and while they appear to be knowledgeable and competent, I would not say that the support has made the ownership experience better. The one time I actually wanted to make use of the warranty was when the power adapter was being finicky, but when I called them, they started asking me all of these questions about what exactly was wrong with it and ultimately wanted me to mail it to them (effectively leaving me altogether without a functional laptop...) so I wound up just buying an extra one.

Compare this to the experience of my father and sister who have both owned Dells which also had some issues with power adapters. The conversation went something like this in both cases:
"Hi, my power adapter is having problems..."
"Please give us the address to which we should send the replacement."

I have not dealt with PowerNotebooks except via these forums, but from what I can tell, their philosophy on honoring the warranty seems closer to the vendor who sold me this laptop rather than to those of the big manufacturers.

I still think it might be worth it to buy from the smaller vendors, but only if the hardware is actually better than anything you can get for that price elsewhere. This MSI 1727 is definitely not one of these. The warranty is an iffy proposition, particularly since them being around long enough to honor it is an open question. For example, the company which the PowerNotebooks representative was defending in the thread I linked above went bankrupt (surprise, surprise...).

 

Maybe you should read the review before commenting. The MSI units are quite popular due to their upgradeability, and they do have some pretty decent price/performance models. The previous gen GT725 and GT627 would be an example.

Question for you Chaz, the Crysis benchmark is labeled as 1600 X 900, high settings, while the graph states it is 1280 x 800?

 

yeh, May be MSI is good at laptops, but I do not want to put my money under risk again to a brand from which I had a bitter experience. bol.

 

16:10, sweet! I'm happy!

 

Your experience explains the response you gave so I understand and will respect that.
It is impossible for smaller vendors to compete with Dell/HP/Acer on price so they compete in other ways, which is why I mention the warranty/service - it is a part of this machine as much as any other specification. Small vendors need to go out of their way to provide superior service otherwise there wouldn't logically be a market for their products. Based on customer feedback I read here in the forums and the private communication I had with PN, their reputation for providing mentioned service is justified. Their track record is notable as well.

I did state that you can get better performance elsewhere for the record. Naturally it is up to the customer to validate the end price. To some the warranty/service will be a selling point, and for others just text on the screen.

Edit:

The graph is correct, 1280x800.

 

Yeah, took two tries to find a screen that would drop in, but it's all good now. It's going to have to last me for several years now, because I am *not* buying any 16:9 crap.

I'd rather be wasting battery life lighting up the keyboard, than lighting up the HP logo on the notebook cover. Talk about annoying. (I also disconnected the power to the logo light.)

 

With all this 16:10 talk I may become an MSI fan again! The 15.4 inch they have now is awesome. Sadly at 17in I need WUXGA, or its a bust for me.

 

With the exception of the MSI 1727 there's not many 16:10 17" notebooks left - you'll be looking at a handful of notebooks such as HP/Dell mobile workstations and the Alienware M17x.

One positive thing about 1680x1050 on this machine is that the GTS 250M can play many games at that res - Left 4 Dead 2, NFS Shift, Mass Effect, and a bunch of other modern games. It wouldn't have such a good time at 1920x1200, however.

 

Great points. I think some fail to remember that gamers looking at laptops should also realize that a slightly lower native resolution screen can bump performance up, while still maintaining decent visuals. But since I'm not too much of a PC gamer anymore(mostly RTS and older games) I value resolution for work more these days.

I am glad that Dell, HP and MSI are keeping the 16:10 ratio these days as it is a nice feature for those of us that are either not willing or ready to accept 16:9 screens quite yet. I am hoping that lenovo will follow suit with the w700 replacement.