Check out the brand new ultra-slim gaming laptop: the MSI GS75 Stealth. For $2999 (starting at $2099), this device gives you everything you’ve ever wanted in a stylish gaming laptop. The incredible stunning design of the GS75 Stealth features a powerful Nvidia RTX 2080 Max-Q GPU, a 17.3-inch dynamic 144Hz panel, and a superb pair of high-sensitivity Dynaudio speakers. The only drawback is that the life of the battery is below average and it is very hot during games. But overall, the GS75 Stealth is a fantastic high-end gaming laptop that encloses a ton of power in a sleek design. Learn more about this laptop in our MSI GS75 Stealth Review.
MSI GS75 Stealth Review – Design
It’s a sexy machine. While sitting at my desk thinking about how to describe the MSI GS75 Stealth, I noticed that I was in his aluminum hood – pierced by the glittering, sandblasted finish that contained a seemingly dark space infinite. The gold-cut diamond and the Dragon Shield covering the hood looked like star-dust gradually inserted into the singularity, while the gold hinges and the exhaust grilles were the chains that prevented the devil from eating everything.
And the interior was just as exceptional. Each key on the keyboard that lit up the entire RGB spectrum greeted me, while the ultra-thin bezel screen almost winked at me for a test drive. After a few uses, the GS75 Stealth traced some fingerprints here and there, but it was nothing. For a sleek gaming notebook, the GS75 Stealth offers a variety of decent ports. On the left side are the power connector, an RJ45 port, a USB 3.1 port, a microSD card slot, and separate headphone and microphone inputs. The right side contains a space for a lock, an HDMI port, a type C USB port, two USB 3.1 ports, and a Thunderbolt 3 port.
The GS75 Stealth beats all of its competitors with its slim and sexy body, measuring 5 pounds and 15.6 x 10.2 x 0.7 inches. The Aorus X9 (8.1 pounds), the Alienware 17 R5 (9.8 pounds) and the original PC Eon17-X (8.6 pounds) are almost twice the length and weight of the Stealth GS75, but this is mainly due to their complete GPUs.
MSI GS75 Stealth Review – Keyboard and TouchPad
Typing on the GS75 Stealth’s SteelSeries keyboard seemed natural and satisfying, but the extended touchpad was sometimes awkward. Usually, the touchpad is placed under the space bar, but here it is exactly in the middle of the deck of cards, where my palm would rest and click accidentally on the touchpad. If the touchpad should be absolutely in the middle, MSI should have left the keypad so that the keyboard can be properly aligned with the trackpad.
In terms of design, the font of the keyboard is fluid, in its own way, cyberpunk. And each key is individually illuminated by an RGB backlight, which warms my heart and my eyes. You can adjust all the backlighting through the SteelSeries Engine 3 application, which is incredibly complete, but confusing because of the many options spread across the user interface. It took me 15 minutes to adjust the settings to create a rainbow color shift effect.
Do not get me wrong on the 5.4 x 2.5-inch touchpad – I absolutely loved it. It is soft, offers a fleshy click and offers so much room for my fingers to move freely. In addition, MSI has included Windows Precision Drivers in this release so that I can easily disable my nemesis: one click. Windows 10 gestures such as three-finger tabbing and two-finger scrolling was accurate and responsive.
MSI GS75 Stealth Review – Display
Looking at the 17.3-inch 1920×1080 panel of the GS75 Stealth, it looks like you’re sitting in a bright prism with all the power of a rainbow at 144Hz with a response time of 3 milliseconds – I’m feverishly in love. Although Peter Parker slipped across the Web at high speed in the Spider-Man trailer: Far From Home, the combination of his Spidey costume was sharp and the distinctive red pattern appeared when the titular hero crossed the Thames. And when both Nick Fury and a nonchalant boat trip in the middle of the night, I could clearly see the surrounding docks in the background.
At the opening of Battlefield V, I was struck by the aurora borealis floating over Norway. I literally stopped in the middle of the fight just to watch the bright green light dangling in the snow. When the enemy shone the spotlight on my unit, it bounced off the snow, creating darker blacks and brighter whites than the Stealth accurately represented.
Embrace the color! The GS75 Stealth panel covered 161% of the sRGB color gamut, crushing the average of 136% of high-end gaming laptops. He even disgraced the Eon 17-X (104%), the Alienware 17 (110%) and the Aorus X9 (122%).
With a brightness of 339 nits, the GS75 Stealth overturned the category average (278 nits), the Aorus X9 (243 nits) and the Eon17-X (252 nits). However, the screen of the Alienware 17 came with 352 nits of brightness.
MSI GS75 Stealth Review – Audio
The Dynaudio speakers of the GS75 Stealth, which shoot at the top of me, brought me successfully into the Second World War. When I jumped on a turret in Battlefield V, the big shells shredded my enemies and my ears with a penetrating sound satisfying. In the following scenario, the narrator’s philosophical dialogue was crystal clear and even reasonably good to hear about the GS75 Stealth fan sound. And while I was walking in a desert in a tank, my ears were turned upside down by explosions of tank shells and by the buzz of the fighter jets that passed me, I was in the middle.
When I let Casey Edwards’ “Devil Trigger” cross my room, the low voices and electronic beats had a symmetrical mix when opening. When the choir started, the voice became a hypnotic style. I could even identify each note and beat on the electric guitar and drums if they were perfectly interlaced at the end of the song.
The Nahimic audio application, which offers presets for music, movies, communication, and games, ensures high-quality sound. Although it does not have a complete equalizer, you can adjust the presets individually with parameters such as voice, bass, treble and surround sound, which is much easier for non-audiophiles like me.
MSI GS75 Stealth Review – Graphics and Gaming
This streamlined laptop is powered by an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q GPU with 8GB VRAM, which turned Battlefield V at 57 frames per second with Ultra settings at 1080p (ray tracing) when I entered World War II and came out. A plane roared during the Second World War. Despite the good speed, I noticed a small screen break during my play time.
For the Rise of the Tomb Raider reference level (very high, 1080p), the GS75 Stealth reached 65 fps and surpassed the 61 fps average of notebooks. Meanwhile, the Alienware 17 (68 fps), the Eon 17-X (69 fps) and the Aorus X9 (73 fps) could produce better results thanks to their GPU 1080 life-size GPUs.
Despite the fiercest competition, the GS75 Stealth’s 96 frames per second were retained by the Hitman Benchmark (Ultra, 1080p), which exceeded the category average (93 frames per second) and corresponds to the Eon17-X and Aorus X9. The Alienware 17 (99 fps) outperformed them with only 3 extra frames.
The GS75 Stealth reached 77 fps on the Grand Theft Auto V benchmark (very high, 1080p) and beat both the 73 fps category average and the Eon17-X (55 FPS) average. Alienware 17 and Aorus X9 averaged 85 and 86 fps, respectively. Like its powerful competitors, the GS75 Stealth scored a perfect 11 on the SteamVR performance test, which broke the average of 10.6 high-end gaming laptops.
MSI GS75 Stealth Review – Performance
Armed with an Intel Core i7-8750H processor with 32GB of RAM, the GS75 Stealth cuts 40 Google Chrome tabs and five YouTube 1080p videos like nothing while Battlefield V is running in the background. In the Geekbench 4 overall performance test, the GS75 Stealth scored 20,921, scarcely reaching the average of 21,037 premium gaming laptops. Although the Core i9-8950HK (20,890) of Alienware 17 could not reach the average, the Core i9-8700K (21,273) and Core i9-8950HK (25,915) of the Eon 17-X even surpassed it.
The GS75 Stealth collected 65,000 names and addresses in our Excel test in 44 seconds, just below the category average of 0:41. The Alienware 17 was a little faster at 0:42, while the Aorus X9 took off at 0:31 like a racehorse.
MSI’s 512 GB solid-state drive has copied 4.97 GB of data in just 6 seconds for a speed of 848 MB per second, surpassing the average 544 gaming notebook. AOS 1TB SSD X9 dropped by 424 MBps, while the 256 GB SSD of Alienware 17 and the 512 GB SSD of the Eon17-X both reached 565 Mbps.
MSI GS75 Stealth Review – Heat
Do not place the GS75 Stealth on your lap, especially when playing. After only 15 minutes of using Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the bottom hit 135 degrees Fahrenheit and exceeded our 95-degree comfort threshold. Meanwhile, the center of the keyboard and touchpad recorded 113 and 91 degrees respectively. But the hottest gotten by the machine was 142 degrees, which was in the middle of the air vents at the bottom. The GS75 Stealth still exceeded our comfort threshold with our basic temperature test (streaming a 15-minute HD video) of 113 degrees. The center of the keyboard reaches 106 degrees, while the touchpad measures 86 degrees.
MSI GS75 Stealth Review – Battery Life
Even for a gaming laptop, the battery life of the GS75 Stealth is disappointing. After continuous web browsing via Wi-Fi at a brightness of 150 nits, the battery lasted only 2 hours and 29 minutes and fell below the average gamer average of 3:17. To be honest, the Aorus X9 (2:20) and the Eon17-X (1:52) did worse, but the Alienware 17 was run in 3:47. We, therefore, recommend that you carry your charger if you go out with this laptop.
MSI GS75 Stealth Review – Conclusion
The design of the MSI GS75 Stealth is amazing and incorporates an incredible amount of power into a 0.7-inch slim chassis. I am also impressed by the fact that the GS75 Stealth’s display is so much better than its predecessor and that these vivid images are accompanied by quality sound. But all this power comes at the expense of battery life and the laptop gets so hot under the hood. If you are interested in something with a little more power and you do not mind using a thicker design, you can get the Alienware 17 R5 for $2799 with more powerful graphics, a brighter screen, a deeper travel keyboard, and longer battery life.
However, if your priority is thinness, MSI GS75 Stealth is one of the best high-end gaming laptops, lightweight and stylish, you can buy. Tell us what you think about this MSI GS75 Stealth Review by commenting in the box below.
