MSI GS65 Stealth THIN-068 144Hz 7ms Ultra Thin 4.9mm Gaming Laptop i7-8750H (6 cores), GTX 1070 8G, 32GB DRAM, 1TB NVMe SSD, 15.6", Black w/ Gold Diamond Cut, RGB KB, Win 10 Pro 64 Bit

I'm writing a review comparing this to the equivalent Razer Blade with the 2080MQ. I purchased both with the intention of keeping one of them.Both were $3000 and included the latest I7 9750H, NVidia 2080MQ graphics, and a 240Hz screen. For the same price though, the MSI includes 32GB of ram while the Razer includes 16GB, and the MSI includes 1TB of storage while the Razer has 500GB.While I agree with others in that the Razer has a better build quality with a Macbook Pro like aluminum chassis, the MSI still has a very nice build quality. Externally, the MSI has a plastic or composite case, but still feels very solid. It's not creaky, and the material that MSI uses shows finger prints much less than the aluminum case of the Razer. Also, the plastic case of the MSI is MUCH less hot to the touch than the Razer and more comfortable to actually use in your lap since it transmits less heat to your lap. In addition, the MSI has more cooling vents in the case so it seems to cool better than the Razer. Lastly, the MSI is about 1/2 pound lighter than the Razer.The screen on both are comparable, and are probably made at the same factory, although I think the Razer's screen is factory color calibrated, and not sure the MSI is. Both are bright and with 240hz refresh, have very little blur during fast movement. I DO WISH that they implemented G-Sync like Asus laptops do, but unfortunately, neither MSI or Razer do. The ONLY ding I have about the MSI screen is that it has one single stuck white pixel when viewing a black screen. It's very small and hard to spot, but is slightly annoying. I thought about returning it and trying for another, but who knows if I would get something worse (it's tiny and almost looks like a piece of dust, but isn't).I don't like the keyboards of either laptop. It's not the typing pressure or the feel, but the layout. On both keyboards I end up hitting the wrong keys when trying to use the arrows or other keys on the right hand side of the keyboard. Why can't they just use the Lenovo layout?????The touch-pad on both work great and are glass smooth and accurate. Both are Windows precision, and use Windows settings to configure. The MSI touch-pad is larger horizontally, but both work fine.I did performance testing on the processor, memory, graphics, and storage. I used Crystal Diskmark for SSD testing and both came out very close to each other. I hesitate to publish the performance numbers because both companies use different models of SSDs depending on the pricing they get when they are building them - meaning if you buy today, you might not get the same SSD that I got in either the Razer or the MSI. I do though like that the MSI includes TWO spaces for NVME drives while the Razer has only one, so you can get twice the storage on the MSI (or performance if you do RAID 0) - a big plus for the MSI.Performance of the CPU and graphics was testing using the Unigine benchmarks (heaven, valley, and superposition). I also used 3DMark PortRoyal to test ray-tracing performance. I ran two runs of each benchmark, and both came out very similar, although the MSI came out about 1-2% ahead of the Razer, probably because it cools slightly better and throttles less (the MSI has more cooling vents in the case). I did not under-volt either.I'm a software developer and upgraded the Windows version to PRO on the MSI - and boy was that a mistake. It's a dual purpose laptop, to be used for coding and gaming. The reason I upgrade to Win10 Pro was so that I could run hyper-V. Unfortunately, that kills gaming performance by approximately 50% frame-rate wise, so when I game, I have to disable hyper-v using BCDEDIT from the command prompt (then reboot).I ended up keeping the MSI and returning the Razer for the following reasons:- The MSI is lighter and carrying it around in a backpack you can feel the difference- The MSI includes more memory and storage for the same price- MSI has an option for a second NVME SSD (RAID 0 performance)My only hesitation on choosing the MSI was that MSI support is pretty poorly rated, but I have called them twice to ask questions (one about chargers), and they did fine. I just worry if I have a real problem.If you have any questions on something I didn't cover, please don't hesitate to ask.

I REALLY LOVE the aesthetics of this machine. It's just so classy and great to look at.Pros:-Great Keyboard, easily my favorite that I've ever used. I also love the lighting on it.-SO MUCH CUSTOMISATION, Love that you can customise the key colors, screen colors, and so on-Very nice display, looks sharper than my old Acer V Nitro though both have the 1080P screen-Best trackpad I've ever used, rarely have I felt necessary to hunt down my mouse like I've always had to in the past.Cons:-SPEAKERS, jesus, they should be embarrassed. They're terrible. Out of the box they were very quiet at full blast, and then I putzed around in the settings and somehow got them to get louder, but they're terrible. They're tinny and hollow sounding.-Ports, they're good, but no SD card slot, only one USB type C but that's it. Internally they make up for it; 2 M.2 slots and 2 Ram slots.-Personally not a RAID fan. It's too volatile.-A LOT OF PRE-INSTALLED SOFTWARE. I get some are necessary like the STEEL SERIES and gaming centric MSI apps. The MS Store apps aren't, nor the Norton Antivirus trial. There are a couple of dozens of that stuff.Conclusion:Super happy with it, going to start using it to do 3d printing and drawing. Glad I went with the 32GB RAM option with the dual NVME 512GB drives installed in RAID. This seems like the sort of laptop that would be a pain to upgrade yourself given how compact and loaded it is.

Love this laptop because it has all the power I need to play games, run Zwift, multitask, etc. I have not had an issue with it and it just works!!! The only complaint I have is the size of the power brick. This thing is huge. At 25.55 Oz (for the brick and integrated cord not including the detachable cord the plugs into the wall) and 6X3X1.5 inches. Heavy duty cord and brick. But damn, traveling with the laptop and the power brick is some good exercise. Luckily for me, I don't really travel that much and it is mainly a home base machine. So, overall, fantastic purchase.

The media could not be loaded. 1 year Update:Still working great!! I haven't noticed any changes in performance!!The only things I don't like are how big the track pad is (I tend to hit it with my palm), and that there's no number pad, but those aren't deal-breakers for me.Overall I love this laptop and I get complimented on it at school all the time (I go to an IT-focused college). It is lightweight and powerful!!Original:I am loving this computer! I bought it 2 months ago and have been using it mainly for online schooling and browsing. I am able to run multiple VMs on this computer without too much problem. The fan can be a bit loud at times (even when I'm just browsing the web) but it isn't too bad. The battery life is definitely not as good as expected. I get around 3 hours of schoolwork before I have to charge; but I am usually near my charger anyway so I leave it plugged in while I'm using it. Make sure to reinstall windows when you first get it, there is a lot of bloatware on it. Overall I love the usability and lightweightness.