The trackpad isn't the largest we've seen at only 77mm across, which does feel a little cramped on a laptop of this size. That said, its brushed aluminium surface is a joy to use and it's very responsive too.
The button is a single piece affair that's finished in glossy chrome, which makes it something of a finger print magnet. It's fairly easy to press at the edges but the force needed increases a lot as you move towards the centre. This can be a pain if you're used to two separate buttons as we found ourselves hitting the inside edge of the right button a lot, which either had no effect, or made out thumb sore after several tries. It's likely something you'd get used to, though, if indeed you even use the trackpad.
The keyboard isn't likely to disappoint though. Made by Steelseries, the chiclet keys have a slightly textured coating and have superb feedback and travel. The layout wasn't quite as top-notch, however, with the American-style tiny enter and right shift keys catching us out on occasions. MSI doesn't seem to offer a UK layout, which is a real shame.
The keyboard's main shouting point is it's full RGB backlighting, which can be controlled using software to illuminate different sections in different colours, simply toggle between colours for the whole key set or apply animations effects or different profiles that can be switched between using the keyboard depending if you're gaming or word processing for example.
The lighting isn't overpowering and is really looks the part in a darkened room with very little overspill around the edges meaning the lettering is clearly visible and not drowned out. Whether you're after a subtle shade of blue or vivid red or green, the colour is totally customizable although sadly there's no per-key tweaking - only vertical areas can be adjusted through different colours.
Speaker-wise, thanks to a dedicated subwoofer on the underside, the Dominator Pro is easily one of the best-sounding laptops we've come across. That's not a difficult task of course given that most laptops have dire audio quality, especially bass, compared to even a cheap set of desktop speakers. However we were pleasantly surprised here and found it would certainly suffice for spouting a little music during web browsing sessions or an open-ear gaming session round a friend's house.
Click to enlarge
The button is a single piece affair that's finished in glossy chrome, which makes it something of a finger print magnet. It's fairly easy to press at the edges but the force needed increases a lot as you move towards the centre. This can be a pain if you're used to two separate buttons as we found ourselves hitting the inside edge of the right button a lot, which either had no effect, or made out thumb sore after several tries. It's likely something you'd get used to, though, if indeed you even use the trackpad.
The keyboard isn't likely to disappoint though. Made by Steelseries, the chiclet keys have a slightly textured coating and have superb feedback and travel. The layout wasn't quite as top-notch, however, with the American-style tiny enter and right shift keys catching us out on occasions. MSI doesn't seem to offer a UK layout, which is a real shame.
Click to enlarge
The keyboard's main shouting point is it's full RGB backlighting, which can be controlled using software to illuminate different sections in different colours, simply toggle between colours for the whole key set or apply animations effects or different profiles that can be switched between using the keyboard depending if you're gaming or word processing for example.
Click to enlarge
The lighting isn't overpowering and is really looks the part in a darkened room with very little overspill around the edges meaning the lettering is clearly visible and not drowned out. Whether you're after a subtle shade of blue or vivid red or green, the colour is totally customizable although sadly there's no per-key tweaking - only vertical areas can be adjusted through different colours.
Click to enlarge
Speaker-wise, thanks to a dedicated subwoofer on the underside, the Dominator Pro is easily one of the best-sounding laptops we've come across. That's not a difficult task of course given that most laptops have dire audio quality, especially bass, compared to even a cheap set of desktop speakers. However we were pleasantly surprised here and found it would certainly suffice for spouting a little music during web browsing sessions or an open-ear gaming session round a friend's house.
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