MSI GS75 Stealth Gaming Laptop Review
The MSI brand is a big player in the league of gaming laptops, and with the MSI GS75, it scores extra points on the fine margins of portability and performance by gaming laptop standards.
It packs in the powers of a 10th Generation Core i9 processor and can call on the ray-tracing superpower of its NVIDIA graphics card, an impressive combo by all accounts.
And with sufficient memory and storage provision to back it up, this laptop will make a good run at all the heaviest games on offer, and come out tops too.
It still struggles to shrug off the typical challenges that are associated with most gaming laptops. And it gets an A for effort as seen with the battery, but not so much for the fans, which can go as high as three by the way.
Design and Appearance
The MSI GS75 Stealth has not exactly gone under the knife since its predecessors, it looks like it is still in a good way. While its 5.03 pounds of heft stacks up nicely against a majority of gaming laptops in its size class, it will most likely make a podium finish in a 17.3″ gaming rig beauty contest.
It is built with premium materials, from the smooth and matte aluminum cast of the lid to the surfeit of RGB LED panels at the keyboard.
Then there’s the gold plating at the hinges and the intricate weave at the edge-sited vents. Talking about vents, there are a whole lot of those around, especially with the keenly anticipated heat-producing exertions of the high-powered processors.
There’s the mass of cutouts at the bottom and the bigger vent provisions at the edges, and we cannot pick holes in that huge grille area just above the keyboard. As for the hinges, they are pretty sizable and flip open the display up to an angle of 160 degrees, although they could do with a little more firmness.
The same goes for the base of the laptop, although it will still come out unscathed from the furious pounding of intense gaming. Other than that, the whole laptop feels like a tough nut to crack.
Ports and Connection
The GS75 Stealth gets a generous port selection if we’re going by the standards of gaming laptops, and the Thunderbolt port is the clincher for fairly obvious reasons. While there are 3 USB Type-A 3.1 ports and a USB Type-C port at the edges, you’ll also find connectors for the HDMI and RJ45 provisions.
Then there are slots for the microSD card and separate slots each for the 3.5 mm headphone and microphone jack, both of which are plated in gold.
Wireless connectivity is provided by the Wi-Fi 6 module, while Bluetooth 5.1 takes another slot on this laptops’ networking ensemble.
Keyboard and Input devices
As with a majority of the most recent rollouts from the MSI stealth line, the Steelseries keyboard makes a colorful appearance on the deck.
Other highlights include a NumPad, full-sized Arrow keys, and a firm keypress that is accompanied by a clicky feedback and significant travel.
And while the per-key RGB backlight is undoubtedly brilliant in its glut of colors, more conservative viewers can opt for a single color backlight.
The Clickpad on the other hand only settles for a rectangular footprint as a result of it being pushed further down the laptop by the keyboard. With an aspect ratio that mirrors that of the display and a smoothness that makes for seamless navigation and precise cursor control, this touchpad is almost everything that you’ll ever want from a laptop.
In the absence of dedicated mouse buttons, the surface incorporates a firm and easily discernible clicking function that is pervasive across its entirety.
Audio
The front-firing speakers in this laptop do not particularly make a resounding impression overall. There are deviations across all the ranges and bass is almost nowhere to be found, but volume is very substantial. Do not mistake the large grill above the keyboard for speaker cutouts as they are only intended to serve as inlets for ventilation. You’ll be best served by headphones if you want to make the most of your listening experience.
Display
Many people would take the highlight of this laptops’ 17.3″ display as its big-screen coverage in a heartbeat. But it shouldn’t necessarily be the only thing that catches the eye as that would be turning a blind eye to plenty of other things.
The screen is not just big in size, it is also big on viewing angles by virtue of its IPS panel. And the display is vibrant too, not exactly a color fest but colorful enough to bring all the on-screen characters to life.
With a Full HD resolution, a brightness at an average of 220 nits across the screen, and a 99% coverage of the sRGB color space, this screen will pop up with bursts of color to make things interesting.
And when you settle down to some gaming, the 300 Hz refresh rate will blow you away. It will make for smooth and snappy gameplay visuals that are hard to beat. Lastly, there is a webcam that will come in handy for the average zoom calls and for broadcasting your gaming exploits.
Graphics
This laptop is equipped with the Geforce RTX 2070 super Max-Q graphics card, a player in the big leagues by every right. With its copious fill of shaders and cores in addition to its ray tracing capacity, this chip can take on graphic demanding tasks that call for the application of lighting effects, rendition of reflections, and other special effects.
With this GPU, the laptop can process advanced multi-layering tasks on Adobe Photoshop, render 3D details in Blender, and make a go for the biggest titles in the gaming scene. Graphic designers will also find considerable value in this laptop.
Gaming
With the RTX 2070 super Max Q graphics card, this laptop is well poised to play all the heavy-lifting games at decent speed and comfort levels. From the Shadow of the Tomb Raider to The Witcher and Metro exodus, this laptop will take on all the big guys at steady and comfortable frame rates.
While the frame rates for Fortnite and Far Cry 5 are not too far off the 100fps mark, The Rise of the Tomb Raider and Battlefield V will play out at slightly above half of that value.
And when you connect to external monitors via the Thunderbolt or the HDMI output, the frames will drop a couple of notches lower, in exchange for the crystal-clear and colorful display that results from higher resolutions.
Battery
The battery life of this laptop is nothing out of the ordinary, as is the vast majority of other gaming laptops, you’ll find laptops under 600 for gaming won’t perform as well as this one. , you’ll find laptops under 600 for gaming won’t perform as well as this one. . The 80Wh battery capacity is very near the industry standard for gaming laptops, and it will keep the light on for 7 hours on end with routine computing tasks while lasting disproportionately shorter with more serious computing.
While the battery will flatter to impress with less taxing workloads like web browsing and video playback, heavier workloads in the mold of video editing and graphic designing will leave a significant toll, while gaming will leave it for dead in less than two hours.
Cooling and Noise Emission
The cooling system employed by this laptop via MSI’s exclusive cooler boost technology goes against the grain in more ways than one. For starters, it deploys three fans as against the norm which is two at most, and then it makes use of an extremely thin but powerful fan design which MSI claims to hold the record for thinness.
To their credit, they work tirelessly and effectively too to keep this laptop cool and comfy for the most part, but it does come with a price.
Users of this laptop will have to brace themselves for the disquiet that is occasioned by the perpetual rotation of the fans, even under moderate workloads.
The spin of the fans will take a turn for the worse as soon as you settle down to gaming. It is your cue to reach for your headphones as the systems’ speakers will be put in the shade by the racket of the fans.
Performance
There is a fairly robust array of processor choices for the MSI GS75 Stealth, with each of them making for high-powered computing performance, albeit in varying degrees of speed and power, and at the cost of battery power.
Options range from the Core i7-10750H, i7-10875H to the i9-10980HK, our review laptop runs on the latter, and it is much of a good fit.
With 8 cores and a base clock speed of 2.4 GHz, this CPU is one of the most powerful processors to have graced the insides of a gaming laptop. And with an impressive support cast that includes 32 GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, this processor presents the GS75 with all the license to thrill that it’ll ever need.
This laptop will chew up anything on the menu without breaking a sweat or its stride. From regular system tasks like booting up and launching apps and web pages to even more intense computing in the form of Video transcoding and web design.
And if you’re the type to dip your fingers in every pie, this laptop is also great at multitasking, what with the hyper-threading capacity of its processor. It is capable of running more than a couple of demanding apps, as well as a slew of chrome tabs in addition to video playback in one fell swoop and with minimal fuss.
Final Verdict
MSI leans towards the portable and lightweight gaming rigs with its Stealth line of laptops, and it achieves varying degrees of success too. And despite the disadvantages that come with limited headroom for hardware, especially with gaming laptops, the laptop maker still manages to squeeze in high-quality components into its devices.
The GS75 is no exception, it is equipped with top-drawer processors, a top-shelf display panel, and a decent port selection to top it off.
The jury is a little out on the audio and a little easy on the battery, while the fans spin like nobody’s business at the heat of the action. But it is the relatively smaller price to pay for all the thrills of high-end gaming that you get, in exchange for a huge dip into deep pockets of course.
Device Specifications
Display size
15.6 Inches
Screen Resolution
1920 x 1080
Processor
Core i7-10980HK
RAM
32 GB DDR6
Storage
1TB NVMe SSD
Graphics Coprocessor
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super Max-Q
Operating System
Win 10 Pro