Customer Ratings & Reviews

Just a bit of background information, I am a student who will be attending college within the next month. I plan on studying computer science. I have researched many thin and light gaming laptops that would allow me to both perform typical school tasks as well as game back in the dorm during my free time. I was contemplating between several devices such as the Gigabyte Aero 15x, Dell XPS 15, and the 2018 Razer Blade 15. Although these are all great devices, the MSI GS65 really is the best machine you can get out of these for my needs. Design: One of the reasons I went with the GS65, the black and gold color scheme really looks elegant and non-gamer like. I have read reviews that mention the flex in the body of the GS65, but this has not been an issue for me. The body really is quite rigid and feels well made. If you treat it like an expensive piece of hardware, I'm sure that you will have no issues. Display: The 144 HZ FHD display is great. I've heard reviews of it not being very bright, but I disagree. The display is very color accurate and bright enough for my uses. The 144 HZ refresh rate really smooths out gameplay and with a 1070 Max-Q, it can definitely take advantage of it. The thin bezels and webcam up top also set it apart from the competition. Keyboard/Touchpad: The keyboard has lower travel than I am used to, but I feels luxurious compared to something like a MacBook Pro. The keys also have a slight tactile feel. The per-key RGB lighting is also very customizable and fun to play around with. The touchpad is a decent size and tracking is accurate. I would have liked a smoother surface, but it performs well. Also, I have seen reviews mention how the touchpad is hard to press down on, however this has not been an issue for me. Performance: The i7 -8750H CPU is a huge step up from the previous generation, adding two more cores for a total of six. I haven't really been able to push it to its max potential since I typically don't do anything purely CPU intensive, but it is very fast in day to day tasks. The CPU does get quite hot, but this is true for all thin and light gaming laptops, not just the GS65. I would recommend undervolting it reduce temps a bit. The 1070 Max-Q is also great. I mainly play eSports games like Overwatch and this laptop was able to push out 220 frames on low settings, which is how most pros play the game. Very impressive for a thin device! Overall: I'm very happy with the GS65, it has a beautiful design, great build quality, and good performance. I only have a few issues with the device. Although a small issue, the charging port is on the right side of the laptop near the center of the body. Personally, this doesn't look as good to me and can get in the way a bit if you're right-handed and using a mouse. Small issue though. The other thing is that the GS65 is more difficult to upgrade because of a flipped motherboard. There are two M.2 drive bays, but accessing them would require you to take out the entire motherboard. Overall, I am very happy with this laptop. I think that it will be a great college companion if you can afford it. The Best Buy model is also a great deal for the specs that you are getting and you can't beat great value!

I purchased the MSI GS65 laptop because I needed a powerful laptop that would allow me to meet my work related software development work and gaming needs. This laptop is the most powerful easily affordable laptop I have seem. I spent 3 weeks researching laptops to select the best fit laptop for my business and gaming needs. The MSI G65 laptop is the best laptop to meet those needs. Overall the laptop has receive excellent user reviews throughout the internet sites. This laptop is blazing fast, especially after upgrading the main hard drive with a Samsung EVO 900 NVme 1TB SSD drive. The only caveat I see with the laptop is the same every other power user has reported. The fans can be a bit loud (for a laptop) when running high end gaming or application. Still, that is expected when operating this much power in such small footprint. I am very satisfied with the product and highly recommend it to any power user or gamer on the go.

The design of the laptop is what first attracted me to this laptop. It’s thin attractive design feels very premium, on the level of premium feel you can get anywhere. It feels even more premium than the MacBook pro’s I have bought in the past. Excellent Gold diamond edged cutting around lid and trackpad, with two tone effect going on of Black and Gold. MSI is on to something hear with the design of this laptop. Best design I have ever used, more so than Apple or Razer offerings. Okay so enough of exterior design; what is so darn impressive about it is what they are packing in this thing! Top tier performance parts shouldn’t be possible in such a thin and lite body. The 8th gen intel i7 6 core CPU is an absolute beast accompanied with Nvidia 1070 MAXQ GPU that absolute slams any game I throw at it! And I play a ton of different games. You can expect to play any game on Ultra/High settings. The SSD is 512GB M.2, very fast. I do plan on adding another 512 M.2 eventually as there is room for an extra. One thing I must point out to potential buyers of this laptop is how amazing the screen is! This screen is far better than other laptops I was considering. It has 144hz 1080P 15 inch display that is perfect for gaming obviously, but to top it off it’s color and clarity is what sold me along with the refresh rate. Much better than other high end gaming laptops I was looking at. It has a super nice quality IPS panel. As someone who spends a lot of time on a computer, this keyboard is great too! I work all day on a computer, and my hobbies of programming and gaming also include me using a computer… so yeah, Lot’s of computer use. This keyboard feels great typing or gaming on. I believe it is a mechanical keyboard from Steel Series. RGB which is very nice. The RGB looks great too btw, and fully customizable as you would expect. For such a powerful and thin computer, the battery last much longer than I thought it would. I can get a all the work done on the go I need with just the battery. With default settings of high end performance and screen brightness maxed I can get a couple hours rather easy. But when I’m expecting to be away longer from a power source I turn Power Save mode with lower brightness and I can be good for 4-6 hours rather easy. For gaming obviously you want to be plugged in, I havent tried to do any serious gaming on just the battery. Some other things to note, I really like that MSI has choose to include a nice Headphone and Mic Jack! As I like to use nice sennhesiers headphones GSP 500’s and Game One’s. Sound quality seems great even great! The speakers are pretty good too for regular use. Trackpad is nice and large and feels and reacts great. Overall as someone who is really picky about my computer hardware, I absolutely love this computer. 10/10

Allow me to preface this review by saying that I have always preferred gaming on my desktop computer mainly because the components are readily accessible, and the option to upgrade/downgrade is there when I need to make change. One thing I don't like about my desktop computer is that it is heavy to carry around. It is not meant to be portable. But when you have a girlfriend who expects you to be in her presence 24/7, sometimes you gotta do whatever it takes to make yourself happy. For me that was gaming when I had free time. I love my girlfriend, but I also need my "me time." From my house to hers, I would have to transport the pc tower, my 24" monitor, my keyboard, mouse, and all the cables that come along with each of these parts... you get the idea. And if I needed to be back home, I would have to carry all of that back and set it up again. It is bothersome to say the least. Then it dawned on me--why not just get a gaming laptop? Not only do I save time transporting back and forth, but I also save my back from having to lug the computer around. It took me a long time to find a gaming laptop that fit my criteria. I wanted performance that rivaled or at least came close to what my desktop pc was capable of. I wanted something powerful yet thin and light, something I could game or work on for the next 2-4 years without having to splurge on another laptop to keep up with technology. Then I stumbled on this beast; a beast in the form of a laptop: the MSI GS65 Stealth Thin (what a name). I built up to this moment, but I am getting too excited as I type this review. It is that good. The chassis is thin and light (you will have to read the product description for the exact dimensions and weight). The keyboard comes with RGB lighting--a bonus feature for me that wasn't on my checklist. The bezels are minimal, and the screen is absolutely gorgeous. It is color accurate, and the 144hz refresh rate is buttery smooth while gaming. I play CS:GO and Overwatch competitively, and the MSI GS65 Stealth Thin (inhale) far exceeds what I expect out of a gaming laptop. I can game when I want, where I want. And storing it away takes only a matter of minutes to put in my backpack. The only con I can think of is that it attracts fingerprints easily, inside and out. It may need to be wiped down with a microfiber towel every once in a while to keep it looking fresh. Anyway, if you need a recommendation for a gaming laptop, go with the MSI GS65 Stealth Thin. The price may scare a lot of people away, but understand that you are getting a lot of horsepower in a small package. I have not had a single moment of buyer's remorse, and it has been two months since I pulled the trigger on this device. I have been happy with this purchase decision. I say it is worth.

Disclaimer: I am writing this review partly to receive a free headset. High level summary: This is the best gaming laptop you can currently find (last half of 2018) if you want thin and lightweight. I build computers personally and order them for my company (I am in the IT department), including selection of specs/models. That means I am pretty picky when it comes to my computers. I've owned this computer for a few months now and feel I can give an honest review to everything except its longevity. However, I am not worried about the longevity, as MSI is a reputable company that has a lot of favorable reviews out there. Time will tell. First, the cons with this laptop. -Gets hot quickly when gaming. -Motherboard is "upside down," meaning that its more work to add/upgrade storage/RAM/etc. -Fingerprints show pretty easily. -No SD card reader. The first con, heat, is due to its thinness. You cannot have a thin gaming laptop without sacrificing some cooling. Many other gaming laptops have better cooling with the same/similar components, but they have either added weight, are much thicker, or both. This laptop still cools well enough to keep the components safe, it's underside can just can get uncomfortable to the touch when gaming. The motherboard thing is a MSI thing. As long as you are careful when upgrading it, it can be overcome. But honestly, as of this moment, this will handle almost any (if not every) game out there. Not really a need to upgrade. Fingerprint magnets are a common complaint with lots of laptops. No SD card reader is a minor annoyance, but there are so many tiny MicroSD-to-USB adapters out there, I almost didn’t list this as a con. That being said, I valued thin and light (for a 15” laptop) over gaming-heat-in-my-lap comfort. A few other brands had almost-as-thin laptops, some with faster storage, but they either did not look as good as this one, had unfavorable longevity reviews, or a mixture of both. Some also wanted the same or more money, for lesser graphics cards. The storage in this is fast enough for any game out there right now, and you can always upgrade it later if you wish too. In conclusion, for the money, if you want the lightest/thinnest gaming laptop available, with the best specs as possible for the money, this is pretty much it.

Overall I think this laptop is pretty great, so if you don't want to read much more than that...well then you don't necessarily have to. But I suppose I should write some more and give some background. Here's my situation, I've got a desktop I like to use as well, and I was looking for a laptop that could run games smoothly and yet I could also use well for/at work. I previously had an alienware that I loved, but I'd had it for 8-9 years and it weighed far too much to take to work. I was looking for a laptop that could easily run games (mostly things like Overwatch) smoothly, but also be light, transportable, and not look like 'a gaming laptop' when I'm at work in a more professional setting. Here's my humble opinion so far. Pros: It's extremely light, very easy to carry in my biking commuter backpack, the screen quality is great, theoretically there are discussions regarding g-sync vs 144hz screens, I'll just say the screen is amazing- unless you're the highest of the high end laptop utilizers don't worry about it- this screen is great. I appreciate the lack of glare from it as well. It doesn't get terribly hot, or at least hasn't yet, and it seems to be vented well enough through the sides. Looks wise it's great, subtle yet all the details look great. Easily able to be used for a professional setting as well as gaming. Cons: Speakers- again as noted by people before me, it's not the greatest set of speakers...but most people don't buy $2K laptops to listen to music through the built in speaker system. Just plug in some headphones and you're golden. Also it's got some bloatware initially, just take some time when you get it to clean some of it up. There are a lot of other things that have been commented on, but these were some of the things that stood out to me. Overall it's a fantastic laptop...I'm not sure I needed one that was "this good" when I look back at it. It's got so many bells and whistles that you're paying for things above and beyond what the average (and above average) person or gamer would need. I convinced myself to spend the extra couple hundred dollars on this model because I aim to have it for hopefully the next 8 years like my previous laptop, and so far I love it. Tough to go wrong with this one.

This laptop is amazing. Not only does it look fantastic, which is important to me, but it also runs almost like my old desktop, in the form factor of a laptop. My only complaints so far is that the trackpad isn't that great, which is fine because you would probably only be using it occasionally. The fans can get pretty loud on this machine, which is due to the performance it has. Upgradability is really annoying, upside down motherboard. Other then that the slim bezsils look awesome. The keyboard is really good. the 144hz screen looks fantastic. The ability to have thunderbolt 3 with the full 4 lanes (40Gbps transfer speed) is awesome!. Somehow they even managed to get an Ethernet port on this baby. When not gaming the battery life is pretty good, about 6-7 hours. When gaming don't expect to game more then an hour or two. Luckily when your gaming, you will probably be hooked up to the charger anyway.

This is the best windows laptop I have ever used. The performance and portability of this laptop is excellent. The display is excellent, even holds it's own against Mac book pros. The Keyboard is actually far better than my Mac book pro. Battery life could be improved but at this weight of 4 pounds, I am not complaining. Overall, this is one of the best laptops of 2018. Highly Recommended. Waiting for some hard shell cover/ Skins to hit the market, then I can safely carry it everywhere.

After reading reviews for this laptop I purchased one for myself. I purchased the best buy version, which has subtle changes from other models. First, it has a SSD, but it is sata connection, not the m.2 nvme type. This is okay for me, I game on this machine, but I have no issues with the speed of the SATA connection compared to the m.2 nvme style that you can pick up. Second, it has an intel wireless NIC instead of the Killer, again, no big deal to me. Now for my review, I have been using the laptop for a few days before writing this review, I have had no problems with it so far. I have tested it with a few different types of games. 1. Rocket League - with this game, I had 130-144 fps constant. and I was playing on the wifi with no problems. The experience was fantastic, it just took a few minutes to get used to the smaller screen than my desk top. 2. Overwatch - I had no problems with overwatch other than my lack of skill. The game played smooth and I noticed no lag, or frame drops. 3. Heroes of The Storm - this is not a game that requires high frame rates, but the computer handled everything great. I was playing on Wifi and it was a smooth experience and had no problems with the keyboard registering my button presses. I have tried this with both a regular keyboard and the steel series keyboard that is on the laptop. I had no problems with either keyboard, I also had no problem with heat. The palm rest stayed cool enough to play on, and the fans didn't bother me as I was using a headset. I have also used the laptop for streaming twitch videos as well as and had no problem with the speaker quality. Overall I love this laptop, and the overall look of the laptop makes me happy to say it is mine. I finally have a laptop that I can play games on when I travel for work, but I can also take it to the office with me to use and have it look elegant.

I just brought my first ever gaming laptop. I did a lot of research. Especially on the msi G65. watched videos and articles. I was on the fence on it based on the fact of the asus gaming laptop and other brand laptops. i wanted something that could play any games and same time for casual usage such as Netflix, internet browsing, etc. also wanted it to be light and able to carry around. I decided to visit the MSI website and read upo about their new products. That's when i found out about this great laptop. The MSI G65 Stealth thin 8RF. i just love that it had a NVidia gtx 1070 max-q with an I-7 cpu and added bonues..VR ready. I became more interested. I decided to visit best buy and find out more information on it and compare it with other laptops. When i saw it in person i fell even more in love with it. smaller. slimmer. the embezzle gold finish. the colorful keyboard and very soft hit of the buttons. it looked perfect. the two employees really sold me on it. so..I brought it. no regrets. Brought it home and opened it. the unboxing felt like it was Christmas. The boxing of it was perfect and very secure. I opened up the laptop and it blew me away even more. Absolutely perfect. Now it does have some small little problems. It pick up almost every finger print on the top of the laptop and on the screen. which is minor. Also the touchpad can be a bit hard to move around but i think i have to get use to it. Other people complaining about the motherboard being upside down forupgrading parts, but that doesn't faze me for i don't really plan on opening up the laptop and upgrade the gpu or any sort. i do worry about the hinges but time will tell. It just minor details that is a problem,but it can be fixed. Overall. i would recommend this to anyone that is on the fence. its light. small. and definietely powerful to run anything you throw at it. It worth the money

Having owned two other gaming laptops before this one, Alienware R15 and Lennovo Y series, this MSI machine beats either one. It’s thin build make for a very attractive platform but it packs a huge punch. Power - CPU is a very capable i7. Not much more to say other than it will not be a bottleneck. 6 cores will ensure you will be good for quite a long time. RAM - 16 GB is perfect for all usage. No real need to worry here either. HDD - 512 GB SSD is nice but with games today, space can be an issue. The laptop can take another m2 ssd but adding one isnt easy. GPU - 1070 GTX Max-Q is a fantastic card. While not the 1080 or a 20 series card, this thing handles any game out there at high settings or more. I have had no issues playing BF5, GTAV, Division 2, Fallout 76 at high or ultra without a single issue. Heat - Always a concern but this laptop does a great job of moving air. The fans can get slightly loud after an hour or two of play but no worse than any other laptop I have used. Keyboard warms up but not to an alarming degree. Misc - Steelseries keyboard is great and the RGB is very nice. Ports are standard fair. Upgradability - You can upgrade system ram and add an extra hard drive. Be warned, unlike the Alienware, this MSI is hard to take apart and should be done only by experienced persons or after watching a video on it. Very involved process. Overall Score - 9/10. This is the best gaming laptop I have ever owned. For the price, you won’t get a better combo of style and power. Only bummer is that upgrades require quite a bit of deconstruction of the internals. They really should have taken Dell’s way of doing it.

Thin bezel, quick refresh, good video card, and ability to see screen when in sunlight is great! I can not only use this for games but for work as well. This is lightweight and portable. This is not a flimsy unit, it is built well with plenty of ventilation. I dont think it emits a tremendous amount of heat, thanks to the ventilation, after hours of use. There is only one superficial thing that I dont like, it picks up fingerprints easily.

The MSi GS65 Stealth Thin is a very powerful and wonderful laptop . The GS65 Steath performs ALL task wonderfully. This model cools perfectly and quietly. This Laptop is high in customization and RGB is accurate. I absolutely LOVE the 144ghz refresh rate. Media applications such as Clip Studio, Adobe Creative Suites, 3d Autodesk Max, etc run smoothly. I recommend the MSi GS65 Stealth Thin easily due to its 8th gen i7 processor, 8gb GDDR5 Nividia gtx 1070, 16gb DDR4- 2400ghz and 512gb SSD. Lastly, ITS VR Capable.

After doing some research, I was glad to have come across this laptop. As an art professional it works really well with my adobe programs, blender 3D modelling, and editing. As well as for the free time I have to game, it provides a nice gaming experience. I do recommend for those that live or work in a warm to hot environment to pick up a laptop fan. It can get extremely hot during large processing tasks or long use. Other than that it is a great laptop, with a beautiful elegant and simplistic design.

Pros: - Very good performance - Beautiful 144hz screen w/ thin bezels - Pretty Light for a gaming laptop - Useful software, not too much bloatware - Good price for this category of laptop - Sturdy build quality Cons: - Fans can be loud, and spin up often, makes sense for a thin gaming laptop Overall thoughts: This should be your first choice for a gaming laptop of this caliber.

So I needed a brand new laptop for school, and I seriously thought I was going to get a Razer Blade or a xps 15, but when I got to the Best Buy near me I really liked how this laptop looked. The black and gold makes this laptop not so “gamey looking”. The cameras in the right place, thin bezels, and the track pads not so bad (I come from Mac). I play counter strike everyday, and the 1070 in it is more than enough for me. The 144 hz screen just feels so good like I don’t want to go back to 60 hz haha. Other than the speakers on the bottom, there isn’t much to complain about for me anyway.

When the MSI GS65 Laptop was announced, I decided to follow it. I've always loved MSI Products so my hopes and expectations for this laptop were pretty high. Well, to be honest with you, this laptop did not disappoint. The build is super slick and nice. Contrary to some reviews I've seen, the keyboard feels really good. It could be because I'm coming from a 2016 MacBook Pro which I was not a big fan of the keyboard. The thin bezel on the display is amazing and in conjunction with the 144Hz display, the quality is incredible. I travel a lot for work, so I'm always looking for a laptop that is light weight. I can literally put both my MacBook Pro and this MSI GS65 inside my messenger laptop bag. For work: It has everything I wanted on a laptop and it doesn't everything I need it for. Nothing more to say here. For Gaming: This is where it shines. With an Nvidia 1070, it is a beast of a machine. I have yet to encounter a game that has not been able to handle. From Witcher 3 to Battlefield 1, it rus smoothly and do they look amazing on that display. Have I mentioned how thin this laptop is? Is still surprises me the power that it has on this small of a body. Does it get a little hot, yes it does, but it was to be expected when running games with high graphics. MSI has a great cooling system and the ventilation at the bottom of the case are really good. I can't emphasize enough how happy I am with this purchase.

This is a thin and light laptop that's powerful enough to run modern AAA title games. It has the nice 8th gen hexa-core processor so handling rendering is great! The battery life is more than exceptional for a laptop this small and powerful. However, this laptop does run a little hot, but it was easily fixed by undervolting. Overall, this laptop is in my opinion one of the best laptops made.

This gaming laptop caught my eye with its super slim chassis yet has 3 cooling fans and lots of heatpipes! larger gaming laptops don't have as good of cooling as this and this keeps it super slim and sleek. I thought the pictures looked super good for this but once you see it in person it is one of the best looking laptops I have ever seen with its sandblasted looking black and gold edging it looks absolutely amazing. The fans are quiet too!! with the new i7 with 6 cores and the 1070 maxq I was able to play many games on ultra with over the 60 fps range and many more with over 120+ on ultra with its 144hz display looking amazing. Plus I love the keyboard its not mechanical but its still enjoyable to type on not being mushy. overall I wish the battery could be a tad bit bigger but the chassis doesn't really have space and the cooling could be better but with the profile it has it sure surprised me with how good it cools soo that's a given. Other than that the small negatives that are too be expected with the small form factor really don't compare too the many benefits. Overall I think this is a good deal too best one for 2,000 at the time and you can just upgrade the ssd for a cheaper price and save a couple hundred doing it yourself instead of buying it like that from somewhere else.

Title says it all. The new 6 core coffeelake CPUs are very nice and the 1070 mq edition is not too far off from my AIO cooled GTX 1080 in my desktop. The new design's screen is a delight to use because of its small bezels. Comparing this screen to my Macbook Pro 15 2014 screen and also my Dell S2417DG, its color accuracy is better than that of the Dell's but Dell's 24 incher beats it with GSYNC support and higher resolution. The MBP's resolution is also higher albeit with much lower refresh rate. However, the screen on the GS65 does overall feel pretty nice to use. Do note that this Best Buy model use a m.2 SATA drive and not an NVMe drive. This is a non issue however, as the laptop is upgradable (there are 2 m.2 slots and both support NVMe though only 1 supports SATA). So you can put in an aftermarket SSD. The RAM is also upgradable, though it seems like mine is 16 GB in 2x 8 GB sticks at 2666 MHz. So keep that in mind if you are wanting to upgrade to 32 GB. With RAM prices finally dropping however, this might be a good option if you are using this for more than gaming and light computational work. Just note that the disassembly process is not great, especially with the motherboard being backwards; RAM and SSD access is on the side of the motherboard from where you open it so be careful! The keyboard feels decently nice to type on. The less travel design does not bother me at all and the keyboard feels almost as comfortable to use as my MBP's (before the scissor switch mess in the newer models). Obviously, this is not as nice as a mechanical keyboard but that is expected. Some users have noted keyboard flex but I have not noticed any on mine. Not having a numpad is ok for me as I'm already used to it from the MBP. The trackpad is again decent to use compared to some other laptops. There are no physical buttons (I'm ok with this coming from a MBP). Gestures work great and it is a responsive trackpad. Again, quality is almost on par with MBP’s amazing trackpad. I have no flex in my wrist rests like other users have noted. On to why this laptop has 4 stars instead of 5. The default fan curve in MSI dragon center is simply not enough for gaming. First off, GPU fans do not spin up when your computer is not using the GPU. I have changed that so that it is at 30% even with the iGPU in use. I also changed the fan curve so that it goes up to around 130-140%. Even with these fan curves and a 170 mV undervolt and 500 MHz underclock using throttle stop, the laptop consistently reached 80 C on the CPU while playing Battlefield 1 and PUBG. The fans are loud when they ramp up and go even through headphones. The GPU was fine at around 70 C. Overall however, the laptop is pretty nice to use.