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Box Content

Our review unit came with a separate mini USB mouse, all the manuals and recovery CD's, getting started guide and though not stated it may also come with a carrying case - depends on where you buy.

Specification

• CPU: T7250 Core 2 Duo at 2GHZ
• Mem: 2GB DDR2 667Mhz
• HDD: 160GB 5400RPM
• Display: 12.1" WXGA ACV(Amazing Crystal Vision) Display with max res of - 1280 x 800
• USB Ports: 3
• HDMI: 1
• RJ45: 1
• RJ11: 1
• VGA DSUB: 1
• DVD RW
• Graphics: Integrated Intel card - Forget playing games with this one
• Battery: 8 cell - 5hr 48minutes - in power saving mode on full charge
• Headphone/Mic: Yes
• Web Cam: 1.3MP
• Audio: SoundBlaster compatible
• SD Card Reader: 1
• Biometric fingerprint reader: Yes
• OS: Vista Home Premium, 60 Day trial of Office 2007, Works 8.5,Cyberlink DVD Solution 7, Norton Internet Security 2007 (90day trial), Adobe Reader and WinRAR
  
• Weight: 1.8KG

Design/Build Quality

We have seen a lot of comments from other reviewers about the design of the PR 200, stating that it looks dull and is its weakest point, to be honest we did not see a problem with its design and thought it looked smart. The only design flaw that we could see was the oversize battery that sticks out of the back.

Apart from this the Laptop is reasonably small, has a nice MSI logo on the lid (which also closes and opens properly), a good size keyboard underneath, handily placed ports to the front and sides for conencting your headphones, mouse or SD card and overall great build quality.

Its weight does increase when the 8 Cell battery is added, but it was still comfortable to use on our laps for well over an hour - though the battery can dig into your legs a touch, but it was not that noticeable.

The Keyboad was responsive and we could get some really good speed out of it.

As for the 12.1" screen we had our initial doubts over the size, but our fears were squashed during our tests. It was actually a quality screen and we could watch videos, type documents or view presentations for hours without too much eye strain.

The only snag was its viewing angle - which was not the best - so looking at the laptop from the front view is the only real choice.

Performance

For the performance tests we ended up ditching the majority of the benchmark software we use in the end, primarily because the Internal Graphics card was not capable of running the 3D mark 06 tests fully.

We also had to update the graphics driverse to get Unreal Tournament 3 to work and even then it was unplayable at the lowest 640 x 400 res.

However this is not a major concern because this laptop has been optimised for business use and it works well in this department.

We did run PC Mark 05 to see how it compared to our Desktop PC - which should perform better in key areas such as HDD and Graphics. Which it did, but as you can see the laptops CPU and memory was top notch and is the key to the devices business performance.

For battery performance we decided to use a real world test for this, in other words we simply sat down and used the laptop as you would do in a day-to-day environment.

First off we ran a HD DivX movie (Full Screen), with the battery set to Balanced Performance mode (three modes are available which result in different level of battery performance, the Powersaving mode is the lowest, followed by Balanced and then High Performance) and the back light on full. After 42minutes the battery had drained by 20%.

Then we did 10minutes of solid browsing with the battery light on full and it went down by 5%

Setting the battery to High Performance mode and running the same 42 minute DivX HD movie on full screen with full brightness, resulted in a 23% loss of power.

Finally we started a basic word processing test with the battery on Balanced Performance mode with full back light. After 53minutes of typing and the occasional session of web browsing, the battery had dropped by 22%.

So overall the battery was a great performer.

Features

Apart from the standard USB, RJ11 Modem and RJ45 (LAN) port, you will find a HDMI port which is impressive as most business laptops fail to include this modern connectivity port.

Joining the HDMI Port you will find a Dual Wi-Fi and a Bluetooth adaptor integrated within the chassis. Perfect for linking up to Mobiles or Wi-Fi Hotspots.

The integrated 1.3MP camera is housed in the lip of the lid and whilst it’s not the best camera in the world, it does provide a handy means of communicating to your colleagues without having to add an additional USB camera to the mix.

Another great feature was the biometric fingerprint reader. Essentially this can be used as an alternative way of logging into your Laptop, so instead of typing in your password you can swipe your finger across the sensor and away you go.

This does take a bit of time to setup but once mastered you can also use the fingerprint reader to open applications - such as Internet Explorer - and we found this really useful.

Noise

We have to point out that the noise levels of the PR200 were excellent, its hard drive was almost in-audible. Only the fan made a slight bit of noise and this was mainly at the start, when Vista starts indexing the files on the hard disk.

Heat

Another area we wanted to mention that was impressive was the heat or the lack of it shall we say. After nearly an hour of using the laptop on our laps it was still lukewarm to the touch.