MSI GT72S Dominator Pro review

There's no question the MSI GT72S Dominator Pro is a beast when it comes to performance. It holds its own against both the PC Specialist Octane II and Origin EON17-SLX, and the 4K resolution is always a nice touch on top of a machine powerful enough to handle it.

Unfortunately, all that power comes with trade-offs. The shell is plastic and feels super cheap, while light bleed and distortion ruin an otherwise bright and colorful 4K display. Then compound those issues with the absolutely awful battery life and hefty price tag.

We liked

If all you care about is raw power, the MSI GT72S Dominator Pro has it in spades. With its desktop-grade CPU and competent Skylake processor, the GT72S runs games exceedingly well. The surprisingly quiet fans keep the whole thing from overheating, and unlike plenty of other high-end gaming laptops, they're never a distraction.

We disliked

Battery life makes the GT72S impractical as a laptop. It's really hard to lose yourself in a game when you know the battery is shedding electrons at an alarming rate. The light bleed on the screen is also a major bummer and mars the gaming experience.

Final verdict

It's difficult to recommend a $3,099 laptop with such terrible battery life. For that kind of money you could build a truly monstrous desktop rig, one that would obliterate any laptop.

If you're only concerned with power, the GT72S has you covered. The GTX 980 graphics card means you can run games at settings far and above most other laptops, and light years ahead of any current console experience.

At the end of the day, the PC Specialist Octane II and the Origin EON17-SLX are high-end sports cars, while the MSI GT72S Dominator Pro is an '86 Camaro SS. It's powerful, it gets the job done, but it's plastic and garish.