[Review] MSI GE62VR Apache Pro Review – On the warpath

MSI’s latest refresh of the GE62 series dubbed the GE62VR notably sports NVIDIA’s latest GTX1060 graphics card with an Intel Skylake processor and subtle refinements to MSI’s Dragon Center control app while retaining the features that made it a solid gaming rig like its SteelSeries keyboard and relatively sturdy build quality.

The MSI GE62VR is done up in MSI’s signature black finish with red trim. The top lid comes with a polished black aluminium finish with slight machined grooves for aesthetic effect to evoke something akin to dragon wings.

MSI’s hallmark dragon logo emblazoned on the top completes the picture. The top lid itself is extremely sturdy with no give or flex. The hinges propping the top lid up are sturdy affairs with little to no wobbling when deployed.

The base of the notebook is done up in a matte black plastic raised up by rubberised feet for cooling purposes by elevating the base for air circulation and interspersed with cut-outs for venting heat as well as to provide room for the subwoofer to work.

Unfortunately, there’s quite a bit of flex in the plastic making up the base which is at odds with the excellent build quality of the top lid though it doesn’t detract from the otherwise sturdy build quality of the GE62VR.

The left side of the notebook notably comes with a Kensington lock, a Gigabit Ethernet port, a HDMI 1.4 port, a 1.2 Mini Display Port, a pair of USB 3.0 ports, a USB Type-C 3.1 port, a 3.5mm mic-out and a headphone out.

The front base of the notebook sports a pair of downward firing 3W stereo speakers with vents  machined into the plastic base along with centrally placed three indicator lights to indicate if the Wi-Fi, storage and battery are in use.

The right side comes with an optical drive, a USB 2.0 port, a card reader and the charging port to juice the notebook. As you’d expect from a gaming rig this powerful, the GE62VR’s power brick is about the size of a paperback novel and weighs thrice as much at 740g.

In terms of portage,the GE62VR has more than sufficient ports for almost every conceivable usage scenario though the provision of the HDMI and Mini DisplayPort 1.2 means that well-heeled users can support up to 2 monitors on the notebook.

The GE62VR’s SteelSeries keyboard is a full-sized job that comes with a numeric keypad. The whole affair is fully backlit with the ability to display a rainbow array of colours on demand subdivided across three rough zones on the keyboard. To avoid accidentally pressing it in the middle of a game, the Windows key has been moved to the right of the keyboard.

The mousepad itself is generously sized and oriented slightly leftwards with two mouse buttons located just below it. Nestled right next to the power button in the upper right corner of the keyboard is a Cooler Boost shortcut button that fires up fan speed to cool down the notebook as needed along with a SteelSeries Engine shortcut that lets you swap between predefined customised keyboard layouts at will. As gaming notebooks go, it’s considered relatively light at 2.48kg though it’s still hefty enough that it will give your biceps quite a workout to carry this for any extended length of time.