The Taiwan-based manufacturer, MSI, has produced some of the year's best gaming laptops. Our favorites include a massive workstation Titan to the stylish Stealth Thin.
We said in our review that the Stealth Thin "delivers everything [we] want in a gaming laptop." It checks all the boxes you want in an awesome gaming laptop: portability, performance, and style. Nvidia's Max-Q tech makes it possible to stuff RTX 2080 graphics in a package that fits into a bag. If you're looking for a powerful workstation, the MSI GT75 Titan is an excellent choice based on its raw horsepower. Content creators can rely on the Titan to be powerful enough to handle all of your extensive production needs.
As the year draws closer to end we will keep this list updated with all the best MSI gaming laptops.
Until the advent of the GS65 Stealth Thin, every thin and light gaming laptop was either too expensive or too inefficient to viably replace your desktop. Or even your existing clamshell for that matter. In a way, the MSI GS65 Stealth Thin disrupted an increasingly complacent subsect of computing that, to this day, is in dire need of a revolution. Black with gold accents, it took the banal red and black gamer's palette of the past and subverted it. Its gold-trimmed lattice exhaust breathes opulence. All the while, it's economical at the low end, and its recent configurations are capable of raytracing in real-time.
I'm left with few complaints about the MSI GS65 Stealth Thin. Sure, I'd prefer to have G-Sync or a higher resolution screen option, but at what cost? Right now the battery lasts through a whole day of basic productivity tasks. Introduce a pair of battery-hungry features to the mix and we'll lose out on its stately endurance.
Should you crave the winning desktop-level performance of the Razer Blade, not to mention its narrow screen bezels, for a lower price, the MSI GS65 Stealth Thin is the best MSI laptop for gaming 2019 can afford. However, if its (roughly 10 percent) weaker Max-Q graphics aren't for you, perhaps this next entry will be.
Against all odds, the runner-up to the best MSI laptop for gaming is the polar opposite of thin and light. Lugging around a 10.05-pound gargantuan might sound like a chore, but we assure you it's worth it. Especially since it's not supposed to be travel-size, the MSI GT75 Titan is a sight to behold. For one, its desktop-class Intel processor is joined by your choice of full-fat, non-Max-Q Nvidia GeForce GTX or RTX graphics. This means you can save some money by opting for the last-gen GTX 1070 or 1080, or alternatively you can experience highfalutin raytracing for enhanced lighting and shadows in games such as Battlefield V and Metro Exodus.
For day-to-day tasks, you'll enjoy fewer typing mistakes since the GT75 Titan boasts a deeply satisfying SteelSeries mechanical keyboard. Tactilities aside, the "HK" moniker of the housed Core i7-8750HK or i9-8950HK silicon indicates overclockability. You can raise the stock frequency on the CPU using the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility or by toggling on Turbo in Dragon Center.
But what sets the Titan apart from the inferior 17-inch MSI GS75 Stealth is its screen. Unlike most gaming laptops, you don't have to prioritize refresh rate over resolution. Instead, you can take your pick between a 1080p 144Hz screen and a 4K 60Hz one. Oh, sweet freedom.
At the cross section between the MSI GS65 Stealth Thin and the GT75 Titan exists the GE63 Raider RGB, a midrange gaming laptop that—while thin and light—foregoes shortsighted industry trends in favor of uninhibited balance. Despite its RGB surname, don't be confused: ostentatious lighting is not the real value proposition here. Performance is.
On the GPU front, the Raider packs Nvidia's formidable RTX graphics, absent the stifled Max-Q design of the GS65 Stealth Thin. In other words, the GE63 Raider's RTX 2080 is about 10 percent faster than its GS65 equivalent. If you care more about frames per second than cosmetic appeal, it might be for you.
As for the LEDs, yes, it's stacked. To no surprise, the keyboard is graced with per-key illumination, meaning you could theoretically assign a different backlit color to every key on the keyboard. The keyboard itself is rather deep for a gaming laptop of this stature, with 2mm of travel guiding each press.
Moreover, the GE63 has a couple of weird accents on its lid, resembling the number 7 and its mirrored counterpart. Some will see these embellishments as garish and unnecessary. Those people hate fun. Kidding aside, the MSI GE63 isn't too unwieldy, nor is its potential softened by the limitations of Max-Q. Quite the contrary. It's just right, in almost every aspect.
