So i’m looking at laptops for college. I’m going to major in engineering so it needs to be pretty good to allow me to run cad and other programs. I’m also going to do some gaming on it. I was looking at high performance, yet portable laptops and stumbled upon the MSI G60 Ghost Pro. It has pretty much everything i need, since the laptop has to be portable to walk around campus but also needs to serve as a desktop replacement. The only thing is, i’ve never used msi, so i don’t know quite how good the brand is, and I also can’t find any information about the battery life. Should i get this laptop, or do you have any other recommendations.
Battery life will probably be fair, but a bit on the low side. Likely 4.5 to 5.5 hours general usage (discrete graphics disabled). Maybe 2 or so for more intensive activities. How it does will also on screen resolution and which graphics card you get. To maximize battery life, use integrated graphics, rather than the discrete card.
From what I read MSI’s quality is very good. It definitely is on their desktop products. Me and my friend use their graphics cards all the time. If possible, I recommend ordering through xoticpc.com to get upgraded thermal grease. The laptop gets very hot under heavy use without it. It’s hard to fit high-end cooling in such a small frame. The extra flexibility in hard drive configurations is a big plus, as well.
This looks to be a good laptop too. My cousin has an asus and he quite likes it so i’m between the msi and this http://store.asus.com/us/category/A23719
That might be a better option. That asus has a 96 watt-hour battery, which is way more than the msi gs60’s 52 watt-hour battery, so it’ll probably last quite a bit longer. The screen is 4k though, so you may have to play with the settings to get maximum longevity. I’d say to go with the asus. That enormous battery is too good to pass up.
Edit: I said 92, but it’s actually a 96 watt-hour battery. Either way, it’ll offer far better longevity than the MSI laptop.
how is asus’ build quality?
I have a couple of friends who have asus laptops, and they’ve been very happy with them. Outside of that, I can’t really comment.
Edit: Also, I just saw that the 4k panel is optional. You probably shouldn’t upgrade to it. Too many pixels to push and it’ll suck up juice like no tomorrow. 1080p is A OK.
MSI is a good brand.
@Mandalorian Yes, MSI is a very good brand. I love their graphics cards 
I think that the G501 is a better buy because of how freaking huge its battery is (almost twice as much capacity as the MSI’s), which should make it a better college laptop.