MSI GE72 2QD Apache Pro review: A dream laptop for gamers

MSI doesn’t do middle-of-the-road laptops – it makes brash, in-your-face laptops built for gaming. With the GE72 2QD Apache Pro, MSI delivers a 17in beast of a laptop stuffed with powerful components at a modest price.

Despite its gaming pedigree, the Apache Pro is a surprisingly pretty laptop. The bottom may be made of molded plastic, but the lid and keyboard surround are clad in luxurious brushed black aluminium. Compared with the rather bland Chillblast Helix 2 or the angular plastic of Dell’s Alienware 17 R2, MSI’s machine feels rather luxurious.

Once you switch it on, the Apache Pro has a real treat in store: a hallucinogenic haze of ever-changing lights that gleam out from beneath the keyboard. You can switch these off but – call me crazy – I rather liked them, especially the option to create a rainbow selection.

Normally, I wouldn’t bother to mention a laptop’s trackpad, but I can’t fathom why MSI thought it wise to carry the chassis’ brushed aluminium texture over to surface of the touchpad. It’s a terrible design decision that ruins its usability. Thankfully, since most keen gamers use a dedicated gaming mouse, it’s unlikely to be little more than a minor irritation for most.

As with most 17in gaming laptops, the GE72 is a desk hog. It measures 419 x 280 x 29mm (WDH) in size and weighs a hefty 2.7kg without the charger, so you’re not going to want to lug it around. Still, this is a do-it-all laptop designed to replace your hulking desktop – it even has a DVD-writer.

MSI GE27 2QD Apache Pro: Specifications

At the heart of it all is a fifth-generation Intel Core i7-5700HQ with a nominal clock speed of 2.7GHz, turbo boosting to 3.5GHz in times of need. Backing that up is a respectable 8GB of RAM, although you can up that to 16GB, plus an Nvidia GeForce GTX 960m supplied with 2GB of GDDR5 memory. When you don’t need the power of the 960m, Intel’s own on-chip HD Graphics 5600 GPU takes over and eases the burden on the battery.

As for storage, the Apache Pro is equipped with a 128GB SSD plus a mechanical 1TB hard disk. With Windows 10 installed on the SSD, the Apache Pro boots in seconds, which is always welcome.

Connectivity is also excellent, especially when it comes to video. You can plug in two external monitors via the HDMI and DisplayPort outputs, and if you’re lucky enough to own two 4K monitors, you can output to both at the same time – although don’t expect smooth, full resolution gaming if you do.

The speakers Dynaudio-branded speakers pump out substantial sound and, even on the loudest setting, don’t distort. However, if you’re playing using an external keyboard and mouse (as your hands aren’t pressing the laptop down on the desk) the chassis does tend to resonate and vibrate at higher volume levels.

Elsewhere, you have everything you’d expect from a high-end laptop: three USB 3 ports, one USB 2, dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 4.0 and an SD card slot.

MSI GE27 2QD Apache Pro: Performance

When buying any laptop, performance is important. When buying a gaming laptop, squeezing the best performance possible from your price bracket is downright essential. Thankfully, MSI’s beast of a laptop can keep up, and even outperform, some of its more expensive rivals.

In our games tests, which is where the Apache’s skills matter, it bested the Chillblast Helix 2  – a laptop that, on paper, should be more powerful. Running through BioShock Infinite’s benchmarking utility, kindly supplied to us by Green Man Gaming, the Apache Pro blew away the competition, hitting 81fps at 720p in Ultra mode. Knock up the resolution to 1080p and the frame rate drops, but it’s still good (see table below).

While the added grunt of the i7-5700HQ is enough to help MSI’s laptop get ahead in the games department, the limitation of 8GB of RAM means it just falls short of the Helix 2 and Alienware 17 R2 in our general use tests. That said, it’s still blazingly quick, completing our image editing, video editing and multitasking tests in 96, 1,016 and 1,994 seconds respectively for an overall score of 90. The Chillblast Helix 2 scored 96.

As you can imagine, with a 17in screen and a Core i7 processor, the Apache Pro eats the battery at a rate of knots. Despite MSI’s best efforts to improve power efficiency, it lasted 3h 6mins playing a 720p video with the screen set to a brightness of 170cd/m2, and you can expect that figure to halve when you start playing games.

The worst aspect of the Apache Pro, however, is its display. While it’s not drastic enough to ruin games, it isn’t pleasing to the eye. Maximum brightness is decent at 281cd/m2 and a contrast ratio of 1,222:1 ensures that images pop off the screen, colour accuracy is poor.

While lighter shades of yellow, green and blue are replicated reasonably well, MSI’s IPS brightens darker shades and give many colours a slightly blue cast. Fortunately, MSI bundles an app that allows you to tweak the Apache’s display until you’ve got it how you want it.

MSI GE27 2QD Apache Pro: Verdict

The MSI GE27 2QD Apache Pro may not be the best gaming laptop when it comes to raw power. The textured touchpad may be horrid, and the display distinctly average, but like me you’ll probably find once you start playing you’ll forget all that.

As soon as you boot up Fallout 4 or run through the plains of Eorzea in Final Fantasy XIV, you’ll stop caring about its shortcomings and remember that you’ve got a great gaming laptop at a bargain price.

See also: The best smartphones of 2015/2016: Your ultimate buyer’s guide