Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

MSI's latest gaming notebooks are thin, light, and VR gaming-ready

msi leopard pro gaming notebook series header featured
Image used with permission by copyright holder
If you’re looking for a new gaming notebook, then your decision just keeps getting harder. The number of excellent options at all price points just keeps growing, from low-end machines that offer decent gaming performance for under $1,000 to massive dual-GPU monster pushing $10,000 fully configured.

MSI is doing its part to expand the gaming notebook market, with a new line of thin and light gaming machines that offer some seriously high-end specs. The company has just announced the GP62X and GP72X Leopard Pro series, and they appear focused on ensuring not just high performance but also some of the best refresh rates you’ll find on gaming notebooks today.

The highlight of both machines is MSI’s offering up a full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS display option that features a 120Mhz panel with 5ms response times. Normally available only in desktop displays, these specs offer smooth and tear-free gaming. The display is available exclusively on the 17.3-inch GP72X Leopard Pro machines to go with a more mundane panel, while the 15.6-inch GP62X Leopard Pro offers two FHD displays using wide-view and IPS panels.

Both the GP62X and the GP72X utilize NVMe solid-state drives (SSDs) for fast game loading with read performance up to 2.2GB/s. The use of seventh-generation Intel Core i7–7700HQ quad-core processor and GeForce GTX 1060 3GB graphics in the GP62MVR and GP72VR variants should provide outstanding 1080p gaming performance and support for virtual reality (VR) systems. The non-VR machines utilize GeForce GTX 1050 or 1050 TI GPUs, and a maximum of 32GB of DDR4 RAM can be configured for all machines in the series.

MSI has built in its Cooler Boost 4 technology to keep things cool, which utilizes two fans with six separate heat pipes dedicated to the CPU and GPU. Overall, the cooling system increases airflow by 20 percent and results in what MSI lables “the most advanced heat pipe design in a gaming notebook.”

In terms of input options, MSI worked with SteelSeries to pack in keyboards that offer highly customizable RGB lighting utilizing SteelSeries Engine 3 technology. SteelSeries GameSense means that titles like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Minecraft allow changing keyboards backlighting based on in-game action. Connectivity is robust with a USB Type-C 3.0 connection, two USB Type-A 3.0 ports, a USB Type-A 2.0 connection, an SD card reader, and both HDMI and mini-DisplayPort outputs.

The machines are available today at retailers like Newegg, Amazon , and Best Buy. Pricing Amazon  and goes up from there. Anyone looking to add another gaming notebook to the list now has a brand new line of versatile of portable gaming and VR systems to consider.

Amazon

Editors' Recommendations

Mark Coppock
Mark has been a geek since MS-DOS gave way to Windows and the PalmPilot was a thing. He’s translated his love for…
M4 chip: here’s everything we know about Apple’s latest silicon
Official render of Apple's M4 chip.

Apple has just announced a new slate of iPads, including an updated iPad Pro. What has that got to do with the M4 chip? Quite a lot, as those iPad Pro tablets come equipped with the M4, shockingly enough. That gives us plenty of information on what the chip might be capable of -- and what it could be like when it finally arrives in the Mac.

But while Apple spilled the beans on the M4 in its iPad range, concrete details on how that chip will affect the Mac are few and far between. If you feel adrift without a compass and want to know what to expect, you’re in the right place. We’ve gathered up all the latest M4 chip rumors and known information in one place.
Price and release date

Read more
Here’s why M4 MacBooks were a no-show — and when they’re coming
A person holds a MacBook Air at Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference (WWDC) in 2023.

Apple has just released a new iPad Pro with a shocking surprise -- it includes the M4 chip rather than making the more standard upgrade to the M3. It's the first time we've seen an iPad debut the latest M-series Apple Silicon rather than a Mac, which may leave us Mac fans wondering what's going on.

So, what's the deal? Don't worry -- M4 Macs are surely on the way, but these new iPad Pros have thrown in a wrench into the conventional timeline.
The missing M4 Macs

Read more
A new standard is raising the bar for HDR on PC
Cyberpunk 2077 running on the Samsung Odyssey OLED G8.

HDR is about to get a big upgrade on PC. The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA), the nonprofit group behind standards like DisplayPort and Adaptive Sync, is releasing a new specification for its DisplayHDR standard. DisplayHDR 1.2 not only introduces several new tests for validation, but it also raises the baseline requirements for monitors to earn the coveted badge.

Nearly every aspect of the certification has been tweaked, and several new tests are now a part of the process. VESA tells me this change is meant to reflect where displays are in 2024. DisplayHDR was first introduced seven years ago, and the price of monitors with the badge has more than halved during that time. DisplayHDR 1.2 raises the bar.

Read more