The MSI GS65 is a powerful laptop that looks professional. As well as being an avid gamer, I am also an aerospace engineering student. Eventually, I decided on this laptop. With its 6-core CPU and 1660ti Max-Q, it can handle the most demanding of workloads. The 144hz "IPS-level" display left me skeptical of color accuracy and viewing angles. But after seeing it in person, I can tell you the colors are excellent and do not distort at wide viewing angles. As far as backlight bleed concerned, it is barely noticeable on a black screen in a dark room. Better than many IPS screens I have seen in that regard. At max brightness, it is usable in direct sunlight, although it is more comfortably be used in the shade. The display does not have Nvidia G-sync but I see this as an overall positive. The lack of G-sync not only keeps the price down but also allows for Nvidia Optimus to function. Nvidia Optimus seamlessly switches between the less powerful but more power-efficient Intel integrated graphics and the more powerful but more power-hungry Nvidia GPU. This is great because while you are doing mundane tasks such as browsing the internet or editing a word document the Intel Integrated Graphics are used which significantly increases battery life. When doing more strenuous tasks such as playing games or 3D rendering, the laptop intelligently switches to the Nvidia GPU. The led positioned next to the power button indicates which GPU is being used. Orange for Nvidia, white for Intel. The screen does not even flicker when it switches and so far I have had no problems with the technology. (I will update this review if I encounter any.) Battery life is something that was important to me as a student. On the integrated graphics, the battery lasts the advertised 8 hours. Under demanding workloads, the battery lasts about a third of the advertised time. The charger is exceptionally slim which makes carrying it around less of a hassle. The first negative point arises from its thin form factor. Under heavy loads, the CPU reaches over 90C and thermal throttles within seconds. This hampers the performance of the device significantly. This can be remedied by undervolting the CPU. If you have the expertise I would highly recommend undervolting this laptop. I achieved a -150mv offset on the 9750H which decreased temperatures remarkably and allowed it to reach its full potential. Undervolting will also result in slightly increased battery life due to the lessened power draw of the CPU. The laptop is not overly bloated with third-party software. The individually addressable RGB LED keyboard can be easily managed in the SteelSeries Engine software. SteelSeries Engine works well and has a myriad of pre-made effects and allows for a lot of customization. The keyboard feels excellent but is missing a number pad, something that personally does not bother me. The speakers sound fine and although they face downward they sound fair. MSI Dragon Center is great for setting fan speeds and a few power options. Dragon Center has a few premade fan profiles and performance setting which you can customize and assign to your own profiles. The fan profiles can be adjusted for the GPU and CPU fan. The auto fan profile will always have the CPU fan spinning even at idle. I created my own fan profile that allows the CPU fan to turn off when the laptop is idle. The fans are very quiet until about 4000rpm where they get noticeably loud (about 50db) and under full synthetic load, the fans sound like a jet taking off (about 60db). Again, undervolting can help keep your system temperatures lower so that the fans won't have to spin up quite so much. Overall, this is a great laptop that offers a good combination of performance and battery life in a slim design. The CPU can get quite hot, but if you have the expertise, undervolting can solve this problem.

I spent a couple of weeks looking at laptops before deciding to purchase this model. The performance of this laptop is top tier, and my machine has handled every app and game I have thrown at it so far. I have also run a few benchmarks to see where this laptop compares to others in the market, and this machine was often towards the top of the charts. The SSD in the laptop is very fast, with multiple benchmarks showing my machine with read/write speeds over 1GB, which means transferring files to/from the included 512GB SSD will be a relatively quick operation. I have noticed that games such as Skyrim Special Edition and World of Warcraft load quickly, and even applications like Adobe Photoshop are very responsive. With all that being said, I do have to admit that the display is absolutely amazing on this laptop. While this is not a screen with a 4K display, this full HD (1080p) panel does have a refresh rate of 120hZ, which means noticeably smoother graphics in games as well as better performance when having multiple windows open and visible at the same time. All in all, this a great laptop for the price, a laptop I have already recommended to a few friends.

I purchased this laptop due to its reasonable price and relatively amazing specs. I was previously looking at laptops such as the HP Spectre (not a gaming machine), but luckily discovered the MSI GS65 which turned out to be similarly priced but for much higher performance capability. I'm not too familiar with MSI, but I know they are a Taiwanese company. I have noticed a couple English grammatical errors/typos within the Dragon software, but nothing unreadable. The Dragon software is very user-friendly and modern. I have no trouble switching between ECO mode and Sport mode. Best Buy had this laptop on sale for $1449.99 in-store, which was excellent. So far, everything is working well--work-related apps, internet browsers, and game-related functions. Microsoft Word has crashed on me one time, but the machine has never crashed during gaming. When gaming, the fan turns on and is definitely noticeable, but nothing too loud. The bottom of the laptop also heats up a bit which spurred me to purchase a cooling pad with fans. I have my laptop set-up connected to a monitor and wireless keyboard/mouse and have not noticed any problems with this. The ports are a little tight and require a bit of force to stick USB cords and such in, but there are a plethora of them which I like. Super light, but much heavier/thicker than the average student laptop. Only purchase if you know you want to game/utilize the full extent of the machine. I would recommend this machine to most gamers.

I chose this laptop because it was a reasonably affordable system with a 9th generation processor (i7-9750H). In case you do not know, the 9th generation processors support Wi-Fi 6, the latest standard that supports a max throughput of 10 Gig per second. No, I do not have Wi-Fi 6 at my house...yet! I am not a gamer, so I cannot speak to its gaming capabilities. I do software development with some user interface work. I wanted a system that met my needs now and for sometime in the future. This system meets both those requirements very well. It is lightening fast (boot-up, processing) compared to my previous HP. I was not sure I would like the oversized keys, but it took very little time to get the hang of them. Since this is a gaming system, I am hoping the keyboard is built to last. I plan to use it for some VR when I get a chance and some cash to buy the equipment. That will be the real test of it of its abilities for me.

I researched gaming laptops for a few months before this one popped up. I wanted a gaming laptop to use while on the couch so size was king here. The smaller the better. This laptop fits the bill perfectly. While it definitely is too hot to lap, using just the box it came I can game quite confortably on the couch while the kids watch TV. The screen is very bright and crisp with vivid colors, the keyboard is comfortable and the trackpad, while large, has not given me any issues with random palm hits. Though I sometimes end up resting an extra finger from my other hand on it accidentally, but otherwise it feels great. Really it is comparable to the trackpad on the Pixelbook. The fans can get a bit whooshy, but there is no whine or anything else, in fact with just a bit of background noise they blend in well even going full steam ahead. Overall I am very happy with this laptop. I was unsure given the price but it has proven to be worth every penny.

At first, I was skeptical because of the design of the laptop. It doesn't look easy to get into however nothing is impossible for any potential upgrade later. So I ran some pretty recent games on the highest graphic settings and I am impressed to see how well this unit performed. Overall, I think this is a good quality laptop that can play games and get the job done where needed on other applications. I really have no big complaints with this laptop. The coolest feature (no pun intended) is the Msi Dragon Center. Being able to tweak settings such as raising the fan speed has really made a difference when needing a quick cool down. I would recommend this to any gamer, maybe designers because the display is what caught my attention in the first place, but not to casual people who just need something to do office documents.

After looking through a bunch of different options in terms of portable gaming laptops, I decided to go with the MSI and have not been disappointed. It's light weight and easy to carry around in a backpack and can still play the latest games on the highest settings. Additionally, a nice feature is that it doesn't look like a gaming laptop so if you are using it in an office environment it will fit right in. The only recommendation I would have is that you get a cooling mat for when you are hanging out at home and playing games on it. The thing gets hot, but it's expected with a slim design gaming laptop with this much power. I would definitely recommend it.

I had no issues so far. I think it's a great laptop for daily schoolwork, running simple simulations and gaming. Only downside is the price. It is relatively expensive; however, the build quality is way better compared to its counterparts. It allows me to do some basic engineering simulations without overheating and the overall performance is very smooth. Also, as a soft gamer, I really like the display. Some games might cause heating issues, but the cooler boost fan speed cools it down immediately. Only problem with the fan is that it is a little noisy at the cooler boost setting, but I don't think there is any other laptop model can solve the heating issue silently. Overall, it's a great product. I definitely recommend this model although it's a little pricey.