MSI GS65 Stealth Thin Review - Review 2022

The MSI GS65 Stealth Thin (starts at $ane,799; $1,999 as tested), built with Nvidia's Max-Q technology, is a solid Hard disk gaming laptop with a long-lasting battery. It'south thin and lite, and is proficient all around thanks to the eighth-generation Intel "Coffee Lake" processor it packs inside. The GS65's build quality isn't the most impressive compared with its contest, only it looks precipitous, especially given that this is the least expensive Max-Q arrangement we've tested. The pricier Origin PC EVO15-S remains our Editors' Choice for its higher-quality build, similar gaming performance, and huge storage chapters.

All That Glitters Is Gold

The GS65's style is immediately noticeable. The matte black laptop frame is edged in gold, every bit is the touchpad, with accents on the swivel, ventilation, and MSI logo on the chapeau. It's tasteful, unlike the aggressive ruby and black combination you see on many gaming systems, and tin can be used in a more professional setting without fear that you'll stick out like a sore thumb. Information technology may, instead, draw some envy—a few of my colleagues commented positively on the design.

The Max-Q technology allows the GS65 ($1,999.00 at Amazon) to be quite thin, a big gene in its sleekness. It measures 0.69 past fourteen.09 by 9.75 inches (HWD) and weighs iii.9 pounds, splendid for a gaming laptop. I think it's off-white to say this design is inspired past, or at least made to rival, the look of Razer's Blade laptops—black, slim, and simple. At 0.87 past xiii by 10.6 inches and 5.43 pounds, though, the Bract is both thicker and heavier.

Build quality isn't as solid equally some of its pricier competition. The GS65 is fabricated of a plastic-like alloy rather than metal, only it doesn't feel too flimsy. In that location's a scrap of flex in the center of the keyboard as you blazon, and a little along the ventilation grille at the height. That may be a bit more than you would similar in a $ii,000 auto, just it shouldn't be plenty to dissuade you lot. The Razer Blade's all-metallic build is sturdy and premium-feeling, if build quality is one of your acme concerns. Amongst other Max-Q laptops, we too saw some like flex on the (much pricier) Asus ROG Zephyrus, mostly on the bottom panel, while the Origin PC EVO15-S (1,615.00 Base Configuration at ORIGIN PC) is much sturdier overall.

Gaming First

MSI is a gaming-centric company, and as such, most all elements of the GS65'due south design have some sort of game-focused characteristic. This begins with the display itself, a xv.6-inch screen with a 1,920-by-1,080 (Hard disk drive) resolution and a 144Hz refresh rate. Its matte end dulls the moving-picture show somewhat, simply the colors are vibrant (with a claimed "close to 100 percent" of the sRGB spectrum). It looks articulate and smooth while gaming. The screen is appropriate given the graphics menu within: A Max-Q GTX 1070 is capable of gaming beyond HD, but frame rates volition suffer and threaten to dip below 60 frames per 2d (fps) at college resolutions on some titles. Additionally, the high refresh rate can be utilized for smoother-looking gameplay. (Almost screens take a refresh rate of 60Hz.)

Finally, though less game-focused, the GS65's bezels are very thin, allowing for a larger display in a smaller chassis. Crucially for some, the camera is squeezed in along the superlative bezel, rather than the beneath-the-screen nostril cam we've seen on other laptops. The screen tin can also rotate flat to 180 degrees, which could be helpful to display it to a gathered group, an absolutely fairly niche apply case.

The SteelSeries keyboard doesn't particularly stand out in terms of the typing feel—there's a decent corporeality of travel, but the keys border on the mushy side. Information technology does have per-key RGB backlighting, though, which you can easily customize through included software with a diversity of furnishings and colors. The system sound is provided by Dynaudio, merely the quality is a bit lacking. At maximum book there'south a noticeable tinny sound—information technology'south loud, but doesn't accept the best fidelity.

Features and Configurations

Inside the GS65, at that place'due south a 512GB M.2 SSD, which is quick to load and boot the organisation. There's no secondary storage for large game installations, however, which these days tin can take up as much as 30GB of space or more per title. Farther, the 512GB is split into 2 drives, with Windows taking upwards well-nigh half of 1 299GB drive. The other drive is costless, but this setup lessens the already lower-than-average capacity. The Origin EVO15-S that we tested costs about $400 more, but it packs a 512GB SSD and a huge 2TB hybrid bulldoze, which is more in line with expectations for a gaming system. All of that said, you lot can mitigate the capacity's impact by simply keeping the handful of games you're currently playing installed.

It's worth noting here that at that place are multiple configurations for the GS65 Stealth Sparse. Our configuration is available at Best Purchase, but other models can be ordered from Newegg, Amazon, and other retailers. SKUs range from $1,799 to $2,999, all begetting the same resolution and processor, simply some with a GTX 1060 and differing amounts of RAM and storage. This is all to say there is some degree of choice to adapt your needs, only information technology's far from fully customizable.

The GS65 is stacked with ports for such a thin laptop. The left flank holds an Ethernet jack, ii USB 3.0 ports, and headphone and mic jacks. On the correct, there's another USB iii.0 port, a USB-C port with Thunderbolt iii, an HDMI port, and a Mini DisplayPort connection. The Ethernet is provided past Killer and includes the E2500 chipset and DoubleShot Pro, which will prioritize your gaming network traffic to forestall lag and lower ping. The laptop is supported past a i-year warranty.

Assume Control

On the software side of things, MSI has a new version of its Dragon Center control panel, where you can monitor and alter PC performance. Some of the changes are cosmetic, like a new interface and a transparent design. Others are focused more on office, like a one-click button for freeing up retentiveness. Within Dragon Center, you can bank check CPU, GPU, retentiveness, and disk usage; alter display coloration settings; ready fan speeds; and more. Not everyone will feel the need to tinker, but information technology's appealing to gamer crowds who tend to savour customization options and performance monitoring. Dragon Center besides includes voice boost to increase your VOIP volume and remainder it against game audio beyond multiple applications (including Skype and Discord).

For those who are less inclined to mess with software controls, Dragon Center also has a feature chosen Gaming Mode, which can automatically tune settings on a per-game ground to accomplish the highest frame rates with the best visuals for your hardware. At launch, at that place's a pocket-size list of games it works with, with more to come: PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Rainbow Six Siege, Dota two, World of Warcraft, Rocket League, and Need for Speed Payback. Here, you can likewise set the keyboard lights to serve as in-game notifications.

Caffeine Boost

The star of the bear witness on the performance side is the Intel "Coffee Lake" processor, in this example the Cadre i7-8750H. The big benefit of this processor compared with its "Kaby Lake R" predecessor is the add-on of ii more than cores, which mainly impacts straining multicore tasks similar media projects. MSI estimates a roughly 20 per centum operation increase over Kaby Lake chips for gaming, which mostly diameter out in our testing. The GS65's PCMark viii score, which measures general productivity aptitude, was one of the highest we've recorded on the exam, a testament to its overall speed.

It also scored very well on the multimedia tests, dropping below the 1-minute mark on the Handbrake encoding test (rare for all but the most powerful laptops) and posting strong scores on our Cinebench and Photoshop tests. The EVO15-Due south includes a 7th-generation processor and, even with a higher clock speed, comes in backside the GS65 across the board. It's not a huge gap, but the difference is noteworthy, and the trend holds compared with other contest. While "Coffee Lake" will bring a price bound to new systems, information technology looks like it has the performance to justify it.

On the 3D side, the effects of both the GTX 1070 and Max-Q tweaks are clear. This high-end menu performs very well in Hard disk drive. As a Max-Q version of the card, though, it's not quite as powerful as the standard GTX 1070. Every bit is the case with other Max-Q GTX 1070 systems, it performs a bit closer to a laptop with a standard GTX 1060. Its scores on the 3DMark tests were loftier, showing general proficiency at 3D tasks if y'all need to utilize the GS65 for media or modeling projects on the side. For gaming, the more obvious focus of this model, 60fps in HD at maximum settings is an easy task. On the Heaven and Valley gaming tests gear up to Hard disk drive resolution and ultra-quality settings, the GS65 averaged 88fps and 91fps, respectively. As you can see, "Coffee Lake" didn't offer too much of a heave on the 3D and gaming side; it's however mostly about the graphics carte du jour.

That aside, those are great results, and y'all don't need to worry virtually how it scales to higher resolutions since the monitor maxes out at Hard disk. The EVO15-S uses the same card and netted slightly lower frame rates, while the Zephyrus' Max-Q GTX 1080 crept higher than 100fps on these tests. The Max-Q-tuned GTX 1070 is safely higher up the hardware flooring for VR—and it didn't run besides hot or get especially loud during testing.

Encounter How We Test Laptops

Battery life is a big win for the GS65, lasting 7 hours and 14 minutes on our rundown exam. That's long for gaming laptops in general, but especially skilful for Max-Q systems. The Zephyrus lasted for only 2:31, the EVO15-South for 4:27, and the MSI GS63VR 7RG Stealth Pro for 4:29. Not having a long-lasting bombardment is somewhat contradictory to the thinner, more portable Max-Q designs, and so it's prissy that yous can actually use the GS65 off the charger for an extended period. Exterior of Max-Q competition, the Razer Bract still rules the roost at 10:36.

Slim, Long Lasting, With a Single Flaw

The GS65 looks slick, performs well, and has a long-lasting battery. The build quality doesn't quite match its advent, but information technology'due south not egregious and keeps the system calorie-free. If you can overlook this, compared with other Max-Q models, it's the least expensive pick for getting a high-performing graphics card in a thin and lite design. "Coffee Lake" volition quickly make it in more laptops, so you don't need to run out for the GS65 to get its benefits if that's the main draw for you. The Origin EVO15-Southward remains our Editors' Option for its sturdy build, loftier performance, and tons of storage, fifty-fifty if it costs $400 more.

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Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/netbooks-products/20427/msi-gs65-stealth-thin-review

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