MSI’s GS65 Stealth is one of the best gaming laptops. This laptop has an amazing design and features that outperform other laptops in its class. MSI has created a laptop that is slim and light, yet powerful enough to handle high-end gameplay. The result of the MSI GS65 Stealth is an attractive laptop that allows you to work or games from anywhere.
The MSI GS65 Stealth gaming laptop offers the power of an Intel Core i7-8750H in a laptop that rivals the design of other high-end models, earning our Editor’s Choice award. But, we like it so much that we’ve also named it the best MSI gaming laptop.
If you’re looking for the best laptop out there, check out the new MSI GS65 Stealth, which has more than enough power to please any audience.
Pros
- + Attractive, subtle design
- + Gorgeous, fast display
- + Excellent performance
- + Effective thermal management
Cons
- – Underside gets burning hot
- – Forthcoming biometric login
- – Poor native audio
Key Specification
CPU: 3.9GHz Intel Core i7-8750H (quad-core, 9MB cache, up to 4.2GHz)
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 (8GB GDDR5, Max-Q)
RAM: 16GB DDR4 (8GB x 2, 2,400MHz)
Screen: 15.6-inch FHD (1,920 x 1,080), anti-glare, wide view angle display (144Hz, 7ms response, 72% NTSC color gamut, 16:9)
Storage: 512GB SSD (M.2)
Ports: USB 3.1 Gen2 x 3, Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C), mini DisplayPort, HDMI-out, RJ-45 Ethernet, 1/1 SPDIF (ESS Sabre HiFi)
Connectivity: Killer N1550 Combo 802.11ac Wi-Fi (2×2 MIMO); Bluetooth 5.0
Camera: 720p HD webcam
Weight: 4.14 pounds (1.88kg)
Size: 14.08 x 9.75 x 0.69 inches (357.63 x 247.65 x 17.53mm; W x H x D)
Design
MSI has made a successful change in the direction of its flagship thin-and-light gaming laptop–a change in which far more people will be interested. This laptop looks sleek and attractive. There are no bright red lights, just a beautiful all-black design.
Gold accents have been implemented on the laptop’s heat vents but nowhere else. The result is one of the most understated gaming laptops we’ve seen to date – one that we would have no problem whipping out in a coffee shop or eSports tournament.
This laptop is thin and light – it weighs just 4.14lbs (1.88kg) and measures 0.69 inches (17.53mm). MSI tells us it could have gone even thinner and lighter but opted for an Ethernet port and the goal of eight hours of battery life. In our backpack, the laptop fits just fine. While MSI made an effort to improve the size of its charging brick, still, this laptop weighs 2.1 kilos and is slightly less portable.
The laptop has plenty of ports because it is just thin enough–enough so that the SteelSeries keyboard can provide feedback while typing. Plus, this keyboard is backlit with 16.7 million colors and has a built-in sensor so that the lighting reacts to your gameplay.
The glass-coated touchpad provides an excellent typing experience, so it is great for palm rejection.
Now, another reason we suspect that MSI went a little thicker with the GS65 Stealth’s frame and heavier with its weight is because of the Cooler Boost Trinity thermal system it includes.
MSI has seen the need to add a few inches to this card’s length but kept the width and thickness the same for its Mini ITX size. A lot of that extra space on the back end is used to accommodate two low-expectation speakers on either side, that fire down from beneath the metal headset holder.
Display
On the contrary, MSI’s new laptop has no complaints about its brilliant display. It offers a screen-to-body ratio of 82% and bezels just 4.9mm wide, cramming a 15.6-inch display into a 14-inch frame.
Even though MSI managed to maintain a normal webcam position with a decent resolution of 720p. Sadly there’s no Windows Hello facial recognition technology built into the webcam, there is a fingerprint reader built into the power button, and MSI tells us that its functionality will be unlocked in a future update. With a 144Hz refresh rate and 7ms response time, this screen allows for fast-paced gaming.
MSI’s True Color 2.0 produces color gamuts that meet 100% of Adobe RGB and close to 100% of sRGB standard, and it can also work with game-specific color modes as well as anti-blue light modes.
The ability to turn the display contents into an upside-down view when the screen is bent 180 degrees, should come in handy for some applications. The display is the brightest and most color-rich we’ve seen on an Nvidia Max-Q laptop yet. However, the lack of Nvidia G-Sync means there are occasional glitches in games, which does not happen often – if ever – with this rig. It’s understandable since G-Sync is unavailable for laptops, but we would have liked to see it because in games smooth graphics are necessary.3
Performance
If you buy a gaming laptop, it will be optimized for performance. Those are the traits that make up our H-series Intel Core i7 processor paired with that Nvidia Max-Q GTX 1070.
Our benchmark results show that the GS65 Stealth absolutely and handily tore through every intense test that we could throw at it, with general performance numbers either crushing or in keeping with its closest rivals. This rig is versatile. It can produce powerful visuals for video games and detailed spreadsheets for you as well.
Games like Warhammer: Vermintide 2 run on laptops with NVIDIA GTX 1070 graphics cards, pushing them through benchmark games and games as they are released. However, on account of the GTX 1080 graphics chip, we expect the Asus laptop explained to outperform the MSI machine.
The laptop will allow you to play games with ease as it refreshes quickly and comes with an excellent display. It can be used for any genre of game as it looks great, so don’t worry about having a hard time finding a good use for it.
MSI’s latest Cooler Boost Trinity system keeps the heat away from our fingers with three, 0.2mm fans each with 47 blades and five heat pipes. We can’t say the same for the bottom of the base though; that heats up. The heat has to go somewhere.
Battery Life
MSI promises up to 8 hours of battery life with this laptop, but our tests are only able to get 4.5 hours of PCMark 8 testing and 5.2 hours in our own battery recording test. Still, that’s better than most gaming laptops which barely make it past three hours. Though, the Asus laptop gets lower performance ratings than both the Gigabyte and MSI.
If you’re traveling out of the US, Europe, or Australia, chances are high that your laptop survived the trip.
Final verdict
The MSI GS65 Stealth is the most impressive Nvidia Max-Q gaming technology laptop that we’ve tested. It meets or outclasses its most performant rivals and arguably trounces them all in terms of design, style, and performance. While the laptop has a few drawbacks, we appreciate the quality provided and that it’s optimized to meet our needs without making compromises.
For the price, the G-Shock 65 GS is one of the best gaming laptops you can buy today. Although there are compromises in the audio area, and it does not have a biometric login available yet, those are small issues to take into account for a laptop that you know you can confidently use for your next session of gaming or work.
