MSI GS77 Stealth review: Don’t let the name fool you

Do not let the title idiot you – there’s nothing stealthy about this gadget.

The MSI GS77 Stealth has lengthy been the transportable choice amongst MSI’s gaming elite, and whereas that truth remained doubtful with final 12 months’s 5.4-pound GS76 Stealth, the 0.79-inch GS77 thick and 6.17 kilos this 12 months really launched this concept into the Solar. This laptop computer is huge, thick and chunky, and whereas it lacks the sunshine strips and LED grilles that different flashy gaming laptops have, its RGB keyboard nonetheless makes it very clear that it is in the beginning. supposed for video games.

That is not essentially an enormous knock in opposition to the gadget – the GS76 was fairly mild for what it was, and the GS77 introduced the Stealth collection again according to the remainder of the 17-inch market. It now weighs a bit greater than Razer’s Blade 17 and Asus’ Zephyrus S17. And it is virtually the identical weight as MSI’s extra highly effective GE76 Raider.

One can perceive why MSI could have wished to get greater, because the chips inside have fried nearly each chassis they’ve touched this 12 months. The mannequin despatched to us includes a twelfth Gen Core i7-12900H – some of the highly effective cellular chips in Intel’s historical past – paired with Nvidia’s RTX 3070 Ti, 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, all powering a 240Hz QHD show.

However the brand new girth takes away a significant benefit the GS77 had over these fashions: the GS77 Stealth appears to have misplaced a few of what made it fascinating as a ‘transportable’ buy. The keyboard is flat, the touchpad is uncomfortably stiff, battery life is not good, and the gadget is just too huge and heavy to reliably carry anyplace. What we’re left with is a pc that calls for most of the identical compromises as essentially the most highly effective gaming laptops in the marketplace with out delivering the identical stellar body charges.

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The primary benefit of the Stealth is now its value. My take a look at unit is at the moment listed at $2,899. Getting that GPU within the GE76 Raider (which has an excellent beefier Core i9 in addition to a fancier design) would price $100 extra, whereas a QHD Razer Blade 17 with the 3070 Ti would price $3,399.99. I used to be additionally capable of finding GS77 fashions for as little as $1,799 (for a 144Hz 1080p show, RTX 3060, and 16GB of RAM), whereas the most affordable Blade on Razer’s website is $2,799. $ and the twelfth Gen Raider begins at $2,299. Nonetheless, $2,899 is not a price range value, and it is price understanding what trade-offs you make for that decrease price.

Initially, the side of the GS77 which is an plain enchancment in comparison with final 12 months: the standard of manufacture. I’ve had gripes about MSI’s chassis previously, however the GS77’s base and lid are each sturdy and rigid. The trackpad picked up fingerprints pretty simply, however the remainder of the chassis wasn’t an excessive amount of of a magnet for them. It is a good wanting laptop, and it hasn’t picked up any scratches or dents from being overwhelmed up in a suitcase for a couple of days.

Different benefits of earlier fashions stay. There is a good vary of ports, together with two USB-C, two USB-A, a headphone jack, HDMI, Ethernet and an SD card reader. (The SD reader is oddly slower than it was final 12 months, as different reviewers have famous.) The QHD display makes video games look nice. There are six audio system inside, and whereas they do not sound one of the best within the 17-inch market, my video games nonetheless sounded fairly good. I had no points with the microphones, which help AI noise cancellation, and the webcam has a bodily shutter swap on the aspect for some peace of thoughts.

That mentioned, I actually cannot see myself utilizing this gadget as a each day driver for 2 vital causes: the keyboard and the touchpad. The keyboard has good lighting, however it’s skinny sufficient to kind on, with extra of a spongy really feel than a click on. And whereas there is a quantity pad, the keys are all a bit cramped. The arrow keys, specifically, really feel small.

And the touchpad is the place I actually struggled. It is huge however it was as arduous of a click on as I’ve ever skilled on a touchpad. (And it is fairly loud, too.) It felt like I actually needed to press my finger right down to register a click on. I used to be about to plug in a mouse (which I do not do when testing productiveness use instances, as a rule) due to how a lot I hated shopping with it. These aren’t extraordinary compromises on the subject of 17-inch gaming laptops, however they underscore how a lot I would advocate this develop into a each day driver.

On the subject of body charges, how do these specs stack up? With all sliders at most, Crimson Useless Redemption 2 ran at a median of 60 frames per second at native decision (technically 59.3, however we will name it 60). This jumped as much as 65 at 1080p. On Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 1080p we noticed a median of 83fps with ray tracing on Extremely (its max setting) and 121 with the function off. At native decision, these translated to 58 frames per second (one other quantity we will loosely name 60) and 86, respectively. Briefly, greater than playable.

The GS77 recorded an absurd 400fps on the heavy CPU CS: GO at 1080p and a nonetheless fairly excessive 286 at native 1440p. The one title that induced issues for the sport was Cyberpunk 2077, which – at native decision, max settings, with ray tracing turned as much as “Psycho” – ran at 19 fps (however hit 33 at these settings at 1080p).

All in all, it is positively an enchancment over the outcomes of final 12 months’s mannequin, they usually present you should not have hassle working most trendy video games at QHD decision, although. that they’re decrease than what you will get with costlier Core i9 and RTX 3080 gadgets. There’s one disappointing omission, nevertheless: the GS77 doesn’t help MUX. This part (which has each the Raider and the Blade) permits laptops to help adaptive options reminiscent of G-Sync and may trigger a considerable efficiency distinction. It is a bizarre factor to rule out at this value and one thing I think about lots of people who’re prepared to pay $2,900 will not need to compromise on.

On the subject of different workloads, the Stealth was extra aggressive. It accomplished our five-minute, 33-second Adobe Premiere Professional 4K video export take a look at in two minutes, 15 seconds. The Raider beat that point, clocking in at one minute and 56 seconds, however it’s one of many only a few laptops to ever achieve this. Final 12 months’s 3070 GS76 was 12 seconds slower. (These aren’t meant to be apples-to-apples comparisons, as completely different variations of Premiere can change over time; slightly, they’re meant to present you an concept of ​​how lengthy an export will take.)

The GS77 additionally beat the GS76, in addition to the Blade and different artistic workstations just like the Gigabyte Aero 16, on the Puget Techniques benchmark for Premiere Professional, which assessments stay playback and export efficiency at 4K and 8K. (He misplaced quite a bit in opposition to the Raider). It is not a laptop computer I would advocate individuals use for workplace workloads, so the GS77’s sturdy efficiency right here is not the most important level in its favor.

MSI’s software program actually is not as glitchy because it has been in recent times, which is an encouraging signal. I had no downside adjusting fan profiles and the like with the pre-installed applications. I bumped into a problem the place the display began to show off once I tried to launch video games (a problem on a gaming laptop computer). MSI despatched me a alternative unit, which didn’t have this concern. Nonetheless, that is not the form of factor we wish to see on $2,900 merchandise.

After which we come to what I contemplate the most important trade-off right here: battery life. I solely averaged round two hours and 16 minutes of steady use on this factor, with some trials even lasting lower than two hours. That is acquired to be near the worst battery life I’ve ever gotten from a gaming laptop computer. Whereas it is usually understood that cheaper laptops could have much less highly effective chips, having to surrender the lifetime of the battery on prime of that energy (the Raider lasted me about two hours longer with the identical workload) is a tricky tablet to swallow.

Should you’re simply in search of body charges on paper, this laptop computer is an efficient purchase. It could possibly run every kind of video games at QHD decision with out burning your basement.

However the Stealth moniker and the best way the road has been traditionally positioned would possibly indicate to some those that this gadget is an efficient selection for extra than simply gaming. It is not; MSI’s modifications to the Stealth line made it extra highly effective on the expense of different options that made it stealthy. It is too huge and heavy to consistently carry round in a briefcase or backpack, the battery life is not usable for on a regular basis work away from an outlet, and the keyboard and touchpad do not would simply not be my selection to make use of day-after-day. It is probably not a transportable different to the Raider anymore. It is only a extra reasonably priced model of the Raider.

Which is ok, if that is what you are in search of. However with the Raider providing extra highly effective specs, higher battery life, extra RGB, and a MUX swap for a couple of hundred bucks extra, I feel it delivers a greater total expertise that can be price it for individuals who purchase on this vary.