MSIGT80 2QE Titan SLI

MSIGT80 2QE Titan SLI

MSI is a brave company. While seemingly every laptop manufacturer in the world is trying desperately to shave their products down to the absolute bare minimum, this Taiwanese component giant has decided to do the opposite. Instead of launching yet another stylish, skinny, underpowered model, the new GT80 is by far the most outrageously, unapologetically, delightfully massive one we've seen in years. It's loud, expensive, packed to the gills with high-end hardware, and has gamers squarely in its sights.

The MSI GT80 Titan SLI is so unusual that even the "gaming laptops" category, which consists pretty much exclusively of oversized models, doesn't even begin to do it justice. This is not the kind of machine you buy to carry around every day to get work done with and also slip in a little casual gaming on the side - it's for those who can afford to spend very close to Rs. 3,00,000 just for fun.

Look and feel
The MSI GT80 feels like a throwback from the 1990s, not just because it's massive but also because of its styling. While still portable at 4.5kg, there's no way anyone could carry this thing around like a regular laptop. It measures 456 x 330 x 49mm, which is roughly equivalent to the volume of six 13-inch MacBook Airs.

The body is mostly plastic, but there are metal elements such as the lid, which has a brushed texture. Aesthetic appeal is highly subjective, so you'll either love or hate the aggressive angles and red plastic accents.

There's no clasp or even magnet for the lid, but the hinge feels solid. On flipping the GT80 open, you'll see one of its most noteworthy features - a full sized mechanical keyboard. Yes, while nearly every other laptop available today has an island-style keyboard with barely a millimetre or two of travel, MSI has gone in the exact opposite direction.

The keyboard is accommodated right at the edge of the laptop, so the trackpad is pushed to the right. This is an ergonomic disaster for left-handed users, but chances are you'll be using the bundled gaming mouse anyway. The trackpad can be turned into a touch-sensitive number pad by tapping the Num Lock icon in its upper left corner, which is a brilliant piece of thinking.

The unusual layout leaves a lot of room for beefy hardware and the cooling mechanisms they require - most of that is housed in the body behind the keyboard and trackpad. This blank space is finished with more brushed metal, but there's an etched MSI dragon logo if you look closely. There are no access panels and even the battery isn't removable, but the bottom seems as though it can be unscrewed with minimal effort.

You'll find three USB 3.0 ports on the left, one of which will let devices charge when in standby. Just next to them are an S/PDIF audio output and individual 3.5mm sockets for headphones and a mic. There's also an SDXC card slot and Blu-Ray writer. On the back, there's a Gigabit Ethernet port, HDMI output, two Mini DisplayPort outputs and the power inlet. There are two more USB 3.0 ports on the right for good measure. This should be more than enough for most power users, though Thunderbolt would have fit in nicely.

For all other purposes though, it's hard to imagine how or why you should buy this product over a desktop PC. You can get a more powerful machine with a larger monitor and more flexibility for far less money. If you have this much to spend, you could build an incredibly powerful gaming desktop with all the bells and whistles - and you'd be a lot more comfortable using it.

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