warm nest

Who doesn't like a price cut? When we last Akku Apple visited the MSI X series, the 13-inch X350 offered plenty of style and long battery life but weak integrated graphics for a high price of $999. Now MSI has Akku Apple PowerBook G4 17inch switched to AMD's Fusion processor and lowered the price to $649 ($749 with an eight-cell battery), promising beefier graphics and even longer endurance. Akku Apple A1039 Sounds like a steal on paper, but is this ultraportable machine Akku Apple A1057 really a bargain?

Slim and stylish, the MSI X370 definitely stands out. The top lid is Akku Apple PowerBook G4 15inch a glossy black plastic with a honeycomb pattern that does a decent job of hiding smudge marks, while the undercarriage is made from a single sheet Akku Apple A1045 of sturdy midnight black plastic. We especially like the ridge-textured palm rest. Akku Apple A1078 Also made of plastic, this area flexes under pressure but looks good when paired with the chrome-painted trim surrounding the touchpad.

>At a slim 13 x 8.8 x 0.8 inches and a single hand-friendly 3.4 pounds Akku Apple A1148 (with the four-cell battery), the MSI X370 is the exact same size as its older sibling, the MSI X350. An eight-cell battery Akku Apple A1061 adds a little less than half a pound for a final weight of 3.8 pounds, plus about a quarter of an inch in resting height. Unless you're going to a meeting or you're near an outlet,Akku Apple PowerBook G4 15inch Titanium you'll definitely want the larger battery (more on battery life below). Of course, nothing compares to the 0.68-inch thickness and 2.9-pound weight of the 13-inch MacBook Air, but that notebook costs Akku Apple PowerBook G4 12inch $550 more.

The MSI X370 offers an island-style keyboard with firm tactile Akku Apple A1022 feedback. As with previous MSI X-Series notebooks, though, we wish the right Shift, Enter, and Backspace keys were a little larger. On some occasions Akku Apple A1060 we hit the Up Arrow key instead of Shift.

The spacious 3.5 x 2-inch touchpad felt comfortable when navigating the desktop, Akku Apple A1079 and we had no trouble scrolling with two fingers or using pinch-to-zoom in the browser. The silver mouse bar has a slick,Akku Apple A1062 faux brushed metal look, but the button itself felt a bit loose.

The MSI X370 offers an island-style keyboard with firm tactile feedback. As with previous Akku Apple A1080 MSI X-Series notebooks, though, we wish the right Shift, Enter, and Backspace keys were a little larger.Akku Apple MacBook Pro 17inch On some occasions we hit the Up Arrow key instead of Shift.

The spacious 3.5 x 2-inch touchpad felt comfortable when navigating the desktop, Akku Apple A1189 and we had no trouble scrolling with two fingers or using pinch-to-zoom in the browser. The silver mouse bar has a slick,Akku Apple MacBook Pro 15 inch faux brushed metal look, but the button itself felt a bit loose.

Heat

After playing a Hulu video for 15 minutes, the area near the X370's Akku Apple A1175 front-edge vent reached a warm 100 degrees Fahrenheit, but other parts of the system stayed fairly cool. The touchpad climbed to 96 degrees, Akku Apple MacBook Pro 13 inch and the underside registered a borderline 89 degrees. The keyboard (between the G and H keys) was Akku Apple A1280 a harmless 81 degrees. We consider anything above 95 degrees uncomfortable.

Ports and Webcam

Starting on the right side of the X370 are two USB 2.0 ports (the only two on the system), a headphone and microphone jack, Akku Apple MacBook 13 inch and a power plug. The left side houses a VGA port, an Ethernet jack, and an HDMI port, while a 2-in-1 card reader sits on a downward sloping recess.

Display and Audio

The X370 features a 13.4-inch display (1366 x 768 pixels) that looks crisp Akku Apple A1185 and bright. Viewing angles were a little wider than 45 degrees, and a 1080p version of the 127 Hours trailer streamed via YouTube was Akku Apple A1281 vibrant and rich in color.

Thanks to SRS Sound technology, the MSI X370's audio performance really impressed. Sony VGP-BPS13B/S akk Drums, guitars, and vocals in the Queens of the Stone Age "3's and 7's" were loud, clear, and even punchy. Streamed audio from Sony vgp-bps13S akku ComedyCentral.com, Hulu, and Netflix was easily audible even at 30-percent volume. The X370 easily filled Sony vgp-bps2a akku a medium-sized room with tunes or dialogue.

Performance

The MSI X370 uses AMD's new Fusion APU, which combines the dual-core Sony vgp-bps2c akku 1.6-GHz AMD E-350 CPU on the same chip as the Radeon HD 6310 graphics GPU. The X370 notched a PCMark Sony VGP-BPS8A akku Vantage score of 2,509; that's more than 1,300 points below the ultraportable average of 3,804, but the MSI X370 bests other Fusion systems such Sony VGP-BPS8B akku as the HP Pavilion dm1z (2,198) and the (2,112), both of which have the same 1.6-GHz Sony VGP-BPS8 akku AMD E-350 CPU. The 13-inch MacBook Air's 1.86-GHz Core 2 Duo processor and 128GB flash memory managed about 470 points better, but that's to Sony VGP-BPL9 akku be expected given the premium. However, the $699, Core i3-powered scored about Sony VGP-BPS21 akku 1,000 points higher.

The MSI X370 took 2 minutes and 47 seconds to transcode a 5-minute, 114MB MPEG4 video file to Sony VGP-BPS10 akku AVI. That's the same time as the VAIO B, but nearly a minute slower than the Sony VGP-BPS21A akku dm3t and the category average

Powered by a 500GB, 7,200-rpm hard drive, the X370 moved a 4.97GB folder Sony VGP-BPS21A/B akku of multimedia files at a rate of 24.5 MBps. That rate is not as speedy as the category average of 30.9 MBps,Notebook akku but the Fusion-powered dm1z pulled in a far slower transfer rate of 18.4 MBps. The Sony VAIO YB was about as fast (24.2 MBps)

>The Fusion APU is optimized for everyday computing chores; web-based tasks such PH Notebook Akku as streaming video in Netflix or Hulu and listening to music in Grooveshark didn't drag down the performance Acer Notebook Akku at all.

Graphics

The AMDRadeon HD 6310 graphics inside the X370 returned a score of 2,260 Dell Notebook Akku in 3DMark06. That's higher than the average of 1,489, and creams its predecessor's score of 699. The HP dm1z (2,217) and Apple Notebook Akku Sony VAIO YB (2,490) are in the same ballpark as MSI's ultraportable, and the Intel-powered dm3t scored only 1,143. The X370's score of 284 Asus Notebook Akku in 3DMark11 is narrowly higher than the category average of 282.

The MSI X370 performed decently in World of Warcraft, achieving Lenovo Notebook Akku a barely playable 26 frames per second using the recommended settings. With special effects maximized, the rates dropped to just 12 fps. Though those rates Toshiba Notebook Akku aren't up to the category average of 43 and 13 fps, the MSI X370 Sony Notebook Akku compares favorably to the dm1z (24 / 13 fps) and VAIO YB (29 / 13 fps). However, the 13-inch MacBook Air, which has a discrete Nvidia GeForce 320M GPU, saw Samsung Notebook Akku 53 and 17 fps, respectively.