MSI's GT683DXR and GT780DXR shred pixels with NVIDIA's GTX 570M (hands-on) - By Aby benedict

We might still be smitten with a certain svelte ebony beaut, but we're aware some of you require absolute maximum performance from your "portable" gaming rig. Here to heed your call for blistering frame rates is MSI, which has gone and refreshed two laptops from its gaming lineup: the 15.6-inch GT683DXR and its big brother, the 17.3-inch GT730DXR. While both retain the Core i7-2630QM from their forebears, the duo now feature NVIDIA's beefy GTX 570M with 1.5GB GDDR5. And just like their predecessors, either can be stuffed with up to 16GB of RAM, dual 500GB or 750GB drives and a Blu-ray burner. Also on board is a premium sound system from Dynaudio, four USB ports (two of the 3.0 variety), Gigabit Ethernet, VGA and HDMI sockets and, of course, 802.11b/g/n WiFi.

They're on sale now, starting at $1,699 for the 15-incher and $1,799 for the 17-inch variant. MSI was kind enough to send us the smaller and lighter of the two, so hop on past the break for our brief impressions.

The first thing that strikes you about the GT683DX is its heft -- at 7.7 pounds, this is a serious piece of kit. We found the 15-incher solid, but were perplexed by its fingerprint-prone glossy display and plastic build when the 17-inch model comes with an aluminum chassis and a matte display for only $100 more. Performance, on the other hand, was exemplary as we were able to blaze through a few matches ofStarcraft II with the graphics set to their maximum (Ultra) at 1920 x 1080.

Our only other quibbles in our brief time with MSI's new rig were with its keyboard and trackpad. We like the chiclet keys, but we were dismayed by the board's squishiness and the hollow noise that emanated from the keys as we typed. Here's hoping the 17-incher's backlit SteelSeries keyboard won't suffer similar issues. And as for the touchpad, one could argue its shortcomings don't really matter, seeing as most gaming laptops are permanently jerry-rigged to external mice for most of their lives -- but for what it's worth, we found tracking was subpar and occasionally even jumpy. It would even appear that MSI feels the same way, as it's offering buyers a SteelSeries Kinzu mouse gratis for systems bought from Newegg in September. Either way, we doubt it'll steer away shoppers, but we feel trackpads are something that should just work on any laptop, especially those at this price point. Interface issues aside, the GT683DX is a capable machine with some serious horsepower, so check back in the coming weeks as we find out just how powerful it really is.