Hasta La Gadget!

Sure, MSI can build hunky, nine-pound gaming notebooks, but what about lightweight rigs? It’s traditionally left those to the likes of Dell and Razer. Now, though, MSI has an ultra-light gaming laptop of its own. After teasing the 14-inch GE40 at Computex last week, the company is now shipping it, with prices starting at $1,300. What’s interesting is that this announcement comes hot on the heels of Dell unveiling the new Alienware 14, and as far as specs go, at least, MSI comes out on top. For $1,300, you get a 2.9GHz Core i7-4702MQ processor, a 2GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX760M GPU, 8GB of RAM, a 750GB 7,200RPM hard drive, a bigger 90Wh battery, a sharper 1,600 x 900 display and a much lighter frame (4.4 pounds vs. 6.1 on the Alienware 14).

If you like, MSI is also selling a $1,400 version that combines a 128GB mSATA solid-state drive with a 750GB HDD. Now it’s true, the Alienware can be had for a hundred dollars less than the lowest-end GE40, but it’ll mean settling for a 1,366 x 768 display, a lesser CPU and half the VRAM. Naturally, spec sheets don’t tell the whole story, and we hope to eventually review both of these, but if you’re in the market for a lightweight gaming laptop that won’t break the bank, this guy could be it.

Filed under: Gaming, Laptops

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Intel used this year’s Computex to officially debut Haswell-based Core processors, and it had no shortage of willing launch partners: seemingly everyone had at least one updated PC to reveal. The refinements to battery life and graphics also led to quite a few companies pushing the boundaries, whether it was in cutting-edge screens or exotic form factors. Quite frankly, there was a lot to cope with in several days — enough so that we’re putting the more important Haswell offerings in one convenient roundup. Read on for our look at the desktops, laptops and tablets that launched in sync with Taiwan’s premier tech event.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Tablets, Sony, ASUS, Dell, Acer

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You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

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It doesn’t seem fair to call the MSI Primo 81 a KIRF iPad mini. Sure, it looks a helluva like Apple’s smaller tablet, but it wouldn’t be accurate to call it an imposter either. What we have here is a 7.85-inch Android slate that actually uses the same IPS, 1,024 x 768, LG-made display as the mini, putting it a step above a knockoff, if you ask us. In addition to those shared viewing angles, the Primo 81 has nearly identical dimensions, and it’s almost as thin too (7.8mm thick vs. 7.2 on the mini). Even the matte finish is similar to the iPad’s, and the build quality isn’t bad either, even if it isn’t quite on par with what Apple has to offer. As it happens, the Primo 81 isn’t headed to the US, so the specs might be irrelevant to you, but in case you’re tuning in from overseas, this thing runs Android 4.2, powered by a quad-core Allwinner A315 processor, 1GB of RAM and a 3,500mAh battery. No word yet on price or an on-sale date, unfortunately. In the meantime, we’ve got hands-on shots of that below, along with the similarly specced Primo 93, which takes after the iPad 4 with a 9.7-inch screen. With rubber accents on that one, though, you’d hardly mistake it for an Apple product.

Filed under: Tablets

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MSI’s had a busy couple weeks: first it started selling a pair of laptops with AMD chips inside, and then it unveiled a flagship notebook with Haswell. Now, to complete the trilogy, the company’s refreshing the other models in its range. Starting with the GT series, the existing GT70 and GT60 are both getting a quad-core, 3.2GHz Core i7-4200MQ CPU with a 4GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX780M GPU or a 3GB GTX770M. Though the chipsets are the same, however, the 17-incher makes room for more robust internals, including a max of 32GB of RAM and a 1TB HDD paired with up to three 128GB SSDs arranged in a RAID 0 setup. The 15-inch version, meanwhile, tops out at 16GB of RAM with a single 128GB SSD and 1TB hard drive. If 8.6 or even 7.7 pounds is too heavy for your tastes, you might prefer the slim GE series, where both the 15- and 17-inch models weigh in at less than six pounds. In exchange for a lighter design, of course, you get slightly inferior specs: a 2GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX765 GPU, 750GB hard drives, 8GB to 12GB of RAM and six-cell batteries, compared with a nine-cells on the beefier GT models. For what it’s worth, though, most configurations have the same 3.2GHz Core i7 processor. Additionally, the GE notebooks have been refreshed with backlit keyboards, but you still won’t get the full rainbow effect as on the GTs. All are available now. In the US, at least, starting prices are as follows: $1,500 for the GT70 and GT60, $1,400 for the GE70 and $1,000 for the GE60.

Finally, MSI is also showing off a 14-inch model, the GE40, which has an altogether different industrial design than the other GEs, with small red lights on the lid meant to look like devil’s eyes. (Or wings. Whatever.) At 4.4 pounds and 1.14 inch thick, it’s an obvious competitor to the Alienware M14x. No word yet on pricing or availability, but MSI has preliminarily said it will boast a 2.9GHz Core i7-4702MQ CPU, 2GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760M GPU, 8GB of RAM and a battery rated for three hours. The screen will be a 1,600 x 900 non-IPS panel with an anti-glare matte finish. Storage-wise, you’re looking at a 128GB and 750GB SSD, or just the 750-gig HDD. Again, MSI hasn’t said when it’ll ship, but for now we’ve got hands on-photos of the GE40 (and those other machines, too) after the break.

Filed under: Gaming, Laptops

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