Buy a high quality MSI gaming laptop for an awesome gaming life? The MSI GS65 Stealth was one of our favorite gaming laptops last year, a stylish thin-and-light premium machine at a fair price. The new GS66 Stealth (starts at $1,499; $2,699 as tested) is a sturdier build with more power, but it loses some of the sleekness and unique flair of its predecessor. Internally, the brand-new Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super (Max-Q) GPU and Intel Core i7-10750H processor power the GS66 to super-high frame rates, shown on a blazing 300Hz display. But considering the expectations raised by our test unit’s price and parts, it doesn’t quite blow away the competition—between our performance and design nitpicks, the Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX502 remains our high-end gaming Editors’ Choice. We’ll wait to see other systems with these flashy new components before possibly picking a new favorite.
One of the most intriguing laptop categories, exploding in variety over the past year, falls between business desktop replacements and mighty mobile workstations—powerful portables for creative professionals, lacking workstations’ independent software vendor (ISV) certifications for specialized apps but built for designers and content creators. The Dell XPS 15 and Apple MacBook Pro 16 are classic examples, and we’ve seen MSI join in with the P65 Creator. Now, the company has played another card with the Prestige 15 ($1,799), with attractions including a 10th Generation Intel Core i7 processor and the 4K display the Creator lacked. It won’t satisfy speed freaks who want the hottest graphics or an eight- rather than six-core CPU, but it’s a fast, classy, affordable platform for productivity and creativity alike.
The GE66 and its more diminutive cousin, the GS66 Stealth, are both revamped for 2020, though they’re not clean-sheet designs. The GE66 replaces last year’s GE65 Raider, bringing many external and internal changes and improvements. The most visually obvious changes include an additional measure of design restraint in the display lid, which ditches the red-striped ridges in favor of a completely smooth surface. It’s a welcome improvement for people who cringe at the gamer aesthetic. MSI also toned down the shield logo on the display lid, removing its color so it blends in with the dark silver surface. See more details at msi gaming laptop.
In addition to the 2.3GHz (4GHz boost) Ryzen 7 3750H CPU and Radeon RX 5500M graphics, my Alpha 15 test unit (model A3DD-004) features 16GB of dual-channel memory, a 512GB PCIe solid-state drive, Windows 10 Home, and a one-year warranty. Its 144Hz full HD display with AMD FreeSync is unique to this configuration; the $899 model (A3DD-003) drops the refresh rate to a still respectable 120Hz.
Physically, the build is a lot sturdier this time around, and just slightly thicker. After an industry-wide obsession with thinness, we’ve seen multiple manufacturers pull back slightly, at least on gaming laptops. Vendors have seemed to realize that the performance and feature gains provided by an extra tenth of an inch or so outweigh the benefits of an imperceptibly thinner design. Thus, the GS66 Stealth measures 0.71 by 14.2 by 9.7 inches, compared to the GS65’s 0.69 by 15.1 by 10.2 inches—slightly thicker, but almost an inch less wide, so you’re still saving space. Even with the changes, this puts it right on par with a top competitor like the Razer Blade 15 (0.7 by 14 by 9.25 inches). Read extra info at this website.