If you can afford the price tag, it is well worth the money. It out performs any other laptop I have tried for gaming, and the transportable design and incredible display also make it ideal for work.
The MSI GS65 Stealth Thin gaming laptop is gorgeous and sleek with a black aluminium case and little gold details that make it both modern and trendy. Best of all, it's relatively light. You can immediately see why it's called “stealth thin” as it is, by my approximation, a couple centimetres thinner than most laptops its size (15.6 inches). As far as appearances go, this laptop was nailing it before I had even turned it on!
Once on, the customisable LED keyboard takes centre stage. The default rainbow wave looks impressive, but as a gamer the ability to customise my keyboard lighting through Dragon Center 2.0 is a real treat.
To take advantage of its portability, I wanted to take this laptop out and about to different locations as I do when I'm working from home. It was very portable and the box it came in was actually very convenient for carrying it around. The laptop display is very impressive – 144hz 7ms IPS – and as a digital artist I enjoyed being able to see my work on such an accurate and high definition display. The eight-hour battery life was also super convenient and meant I could work for hours without worrying about running out of power.
Similarly, as the MSI GS65 is a gaming laptop, I wanted to ensure I was gaming in different locations, as well. I immediately found it performed a lot better gaming while plugged in, but that isn’t surprising as that is a common laptop issue. It didn't matter though thanks to the quality of game play. Dragon Center 2.0 made it super easy to get all my settings ideal for my games and consequently made them look pretty dope. The keys are quite large and have big lettering. This, combined with the LED keyboard, could also benefit people with either poor eyesight or large hands.
The audio was crisp and clear whether I had headphones plugged in or not, and despite the humming of the powerful fans that is always in the background. The fans, however, did a great job of keeping the G65 Stealth cool even after I’d used it for hours. Although the trackpad wasn't ideal, it certainly did the job. When I got around to plugging my mouse in to game, it was easy to turn off the trackpad with keyboard shortcuts. This helped stop interference from my resting hands during gaming.
I kept it simple and stuck mostly to playing Overwatch, as my nightly habit of playing meant I could easily compare the laptop’s performance. Normally if I switch to a new computer, my game play is terrible for the first half an hour or so while I warm up. Getting used to a new set up is usually hard. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this wasn't the case with the MSI GS65. Despite going from a clunky mechanical keyboard with small keys to this laptop, I was getting regular head shots after only a few minutes.
Bottom line: If you can afford the price tag, it is well worth the money. It out performs any other laptop I have tried for gaming, and the transportable design and incredible display also make it ideal for work. I rate it 4.5 out of 5 and recommend it to anybody looking for a powerful but sleek gaming laptop.
Read the review for MSI GE63 Raider here.
