MSI has introduced the CR610, a new 16" laptop built on AMD's upcoming Tigris platform. The machine seems fitting for standard multimedia use, and features a LED-backlit 1366 x 768 HD display, an AMD Athlon II CPU and RS880 chipset with Radeon HD 4200 graphics, up to 4GB of DDR2 800MHz RAM, a choice of 250GB, 320GB and 500GB HDDs, and a DVD burner.

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Sounds nice except for the 1366 x 768 resolution. I really want a little more in a 16" laptop.

There are 2 kinds of laptops I would find useful. A 10 to 13 inch with the given 1366 x 768 display and a 17 inch version of this with a wuxga display. Laptops should have the following features:
- light weight
- gigabit ethernet
- wireless n
- long battery life (at least something reasonable say 4hr+)
- optional high resolution screen (pixel resolution depends on screen size)

This laptop ticks most boxes, if it gets an optional full HD screen (1920 x 1200) then I would give it the thumbs up as something I would investigate further. For some reason laptops with gigabit, hi-res screen and light weight for size is hard to find at a good price. In Australia they usually start at just under $2000. For me I don't need a high end graphics card, so long as it will play my HD home videos.

I notice it is meant to ship with a hardware decoder chip for playback of HD content, so why not give it a full hd screen resolution?

1366 x 768 on a 16 inch screen is ridiculous. There has got to be at least a 1920x1080 option on a screen that size.

A good multimedia laptop, just in time for the shopping season, I hope it gets to a nearby store, as I would love to check this out and buy it, if I like it....

But I don't know why everyone is so hyped about not having high resolution... I usually use my laptop with external display and keyboard/mice when at home and on the move I have never needed higher resolution.

It looks quite interesting... now if only I could justify having a laptop :)

It's very nice, but 16" is larger than I'd like to carry in my backpack.

I agree 1366 x 768 resolution should be at least 1920x1080 on a screen that size.
Like ken777 said.
Everything today is about improving resolution.
Why would you buy something going in the wrong direction.
I’m sure MSI wants to get in on the price war with Acer and HP.
But putting low end models out is not going to do it for me.

I'm interested to see what the new AMD platform will bring , as many said this laptop could have used a higher res as the Tigris supports HD just fine . As for the battery life it is expected to be more efficient with Tigris as the chips are ultra low voltage .. I can only wonder how good it will play Crysis <-[chuckle]

Thats looks like a nice laptop but whats up with the resolution? Plus iv never heard of MSI i must be living in a box. it says no price yet but im guessing $700, 800 area?

I've never owned an MSI laptop before, but I might someday. These do not look too bad, but their availability in Canada is no too good.

The 720p resolution caters to the 'general populace'.

Sure, all of us enthusiasts have been using very high resolutions for a long time now, but ma and pa have been using the usual 800x600 since the 90s and even little sis have been using WXGA on a 19" LCD for some time now...

People don't know what they are missing. Also, there are people who are far sighted etc.. (1 out of every 4 people need glasses) and while most people here disagree with 720p on a 16" (I know I sure do!), it's probably the most universally 'acceptable' resolution among their expected audience.

Let's see what will be the price. It could be a good choice to replace a old desktop by a new laptop with Windows 7 for people who do not really need a very high resolution.
The specs are really nice and I hope the price will be too.
So if the price is arround $500 why not ?
Wait and see...

1366x768 is ok for a multimedia oriented notebook like this... is about the same pixel density lixe on a 20' 1680x1050 display. you can play, you can watch movies at a full 720p resolution (with the nice help from AMD/ATI chipset), the internet browsing must be fine (the vast majority of web sites are optimised for resolutions upto 1280x960. If you want hardcore office use, or something like that, there are a lot of options out there.... This notebook is intended like a cheap good 4 all machine for home use.

looks decent but amd still cannot compete with intel in the mobile market. At least it's trying. Now with nehalem is going to be moving toward mobile platform, it would be even harder for amd to catch up. personally, I do not like laptop that's bigger than 15'' because it's just way too big to lug around.

I do question the need for a 16" laptop. If I needed a laptop larger than 15", I would go 17" or 18.4" with a top notch graphics card.

I echo the comments made here. 16" seems like too much of a screen size for such a strange resolution. But 720p seems fine for everyday use.

A good multimedia laptop, just in time for the shopping season.

From TechSpot's earlier article on the Tigris platform:
So, why would you settle for 16" and 720p video when the platform can do much better. I think this is just a waste of resources.
If it would've had a 12" or 13" screen it would have entered the ultraportable area and then it would have made sense, but not like this.

I'm a big fan of MSI products, but this laptop doesn't really impress me at all. I'd like to see like others mentioned higher resolution. It all depends on what they put on the price tag though, but personally i don't think that its going to be much of a deal at all. Better options out there unless this thing has a great price tag.