MSI recently expanded its ultraportable offerings with the addition of two last generation Ten-Slim notebooks. Although they're designed to be lightweight and meaty, the X460 notebooks also strive to be powerful, courtesy of Intel's Sandy Bridge processors. The flagship model comes with Intel'south Cadre i7-2630QM, packing the quad-core chip while boasting an viii-hour battery life.

There's also the X460DX, which tin come configured with Cadre i3 or i5 processors and the Nvidia GeForce GT 540M GPU. Both the X460 and X460DX share the aforementioned dimensions using a 14" LED backlit screen. While ultraportable laptops generally bear a 12 to xiii" display, MSI says the X460 strikes a fine residue betwixt mobility and performance.

With enough power to put the average desktop PC to shame, the MSI X460 flagship model costs roughly $1,100. Even so, that price tag makes the X460 one of the cheapest second-gen Core i7 notebooks money can buy. Meanwhile, the less-endowed X460DX can be constitute for around $750 with the Core i3-2310M, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB HDD and the Nvidia GeForce GT 540M.

Hardware Impressions

The X460 is a supposed to be slim and attractive, and I retrieve MSI has accomplished that. It measures 13.3" (339mm) wide, nine.four" (239mm) deep and just 0.87" (22.3mm) thick, while weighing 4.36lbs (1.98kgs) including the half-dozen-Cell Li-Ion (5900mAh) battery.

The hat measures is just 5mm thick and features a sparse aluminum backing that gives the screen a little extra protection and looks great in the process. Lifting the lid exposes the 14" LED backlit screen (1366x768), which features a gloss pic -- something I dislike.

I personally prefer matte screens, simply as far every bit glossy panels go, the X460 does take an splendid picture quality. The screen has an embedded 1.3M Hard disk webcam and is surrounded past small safe feet that help avoid marking the screen on the keyboard when information technology'south folded.

Speaking of the keyboard, MSI has included an 87 cardinal half-dozen-row chiclet-style non-backlit solution. As with nigh mod notebooks, there are function central combos to speedily enable or disable features such every bit wireless network, webcam, Bluetooth, rails pad and then on.

The keyboard feels great and I'd happily use information technology on a daily basis. We too institute it easy to avoid the trackpad, which measures 3.fourteen" x one.69" (80 10 43mm). The palm rest has an aluminum insert that feels nice to residuum your easily on and doesn't mark easily.

A bluish-lit power button is on the meridian left of the keyboard area, adjacent to 2 quick launch buttons that interact with the supplied S-Bar application.

Underneath the X460 there are various pocket-size grills to let cool air in, as well as eight small rubber feet that raise the laptop and cease it from marking surfaces such every bit a desk-bound. Finally, there are 2 buttons that permit you to lock or unlock the removable battery.

As for connectivity, you'll find two sound jacks (headphones/in-put) next to a SD(Ninety/HC)/MMC carte reader and a single USB two.0 port on the right side. For the models that feature an optical device the bulldoze will exist accessible from the right side of the notebook.

Spinning effectually to the opposite side, there are two USB 3.0 ports followed by the Gigabit Ethernet port, a VGA output and HDMI output. There's also a large exhaust vent to expel hot air from the X460 and a circular power connector to attach the 90w Ac adapter.