14 DAY TRIAL // One problem with ultrabooks is that, like every other type of notebook, they have a pretty standard specifications sheet that they can't easily stray from, not without ruining the whole price-performance balance.
It's still possible to toe the line, however, if you only choose one feature which to push above the others.
Or you could, you know, not toe the line at all and just outfit the product with everything you want, then sit back and wait to see if anyone takes the bait.
What Micro-Star International recently did falls under the second category. After all, after years of efforts to bring ultrabooks to a “normal” price range, one with a tag of two thousand dollars kind of stands out.
To be more specific, the product in question, the MSI GS60 Ghost Pro, is priced at $1,999, which can mean anything from €1,435 to €1,999.
The main reason for that is the special display with a native resolution of 2880 x 1620 pixels, though the two storage devices don't really help matters.
The 1 TB HDD is pretty routine, but the solid-state drive with a capacity of 128 GB really takes the cake.
It's there to hold the OS and ensure a very high boot speed, and overall system performance. It's a shame that SSDs cost so much more than HDDs.
Indeed, we may even say that the SSD adds more to the price tag than the LCD itself, though that also goes for the 16 GB of DDR3 RAM.
Add to that the quad-core Core i7 CPU from Intel, clocked at 2.4 GHz, and it's clear that MSI went for power over affordability all the way.
Of course, we shouldn't forget about the GeForce GTX 870M discrete graphics card. All in all, the MSI GS60 Ghost Pro is a real piece of work, packing as much power as some high-end desktop PCs without taking up more space than half a notebook. All in a weight of 5.7 pounds / 2.58 kilograms.
Finally, the LCD screen has a diagonal of 17.3 inches, which is big enough for both gaming and comfortable viewing of films if, say, you cuddle with your better half in the evening to watch a film in bed.
If nothing else, we can definitely say that everyone who held off on buying the original MSI Ghost laptop will be glad they waited. Now we just have to wait for a 4K laptop and we'll be all set.