Hey, how's it going? Dave2D here
Today, we're looking at the MSI GS65
This is their latest thin and light gaming laptop
It's running the new six-core CPU from Intel with the GTX 1070 Max-Q
It's a completely decked out thin and light laptop that just-
It's awesome, as you could tell by the title
It's been redesigned this year, completely redesigned.
The previous generation and the one before that all share the same chassis
They just kind of switch the internals
Brand new everything this year. The build quality on this new design is good
It feels slightly better than the GS63 to me. It has no red on it at all
I think this is the very first gaming laptop from MSI that wasn't black and red
It's got this black and gold theme going on
Very subtle, it actually looks really good
You can bring it to work or a coffee shop, and no one would think anything of it.
It's super stealth, it honestly looks like a premium black and gold laptop
Now in case you're wondering, the logo up here is completely flush to the surface
If you're inclined and wanting to mask this logo out,
You could probably get a skin for it, and it'll look even more murdered-out
The hinge is on each side, so it doesn't run along the whole length
But it actually feels really wellbuilt, and this kind of hinge aesthetic is just not something
we've seen from MSI before, I really like it
Inside, we have the power button in the middle of the laptop
And there was talk about how there's gonna be a fingerprint sensor
This engineering sample does not have a functioning one
But it might in the future. The build quality of this whole thing is good, very good
It's not perfect, like this isn't a unibody build or anything like that
It's like, not milled from a single piece of aluminum
It's using paneling, but it's pretty good
There are some panels with a little bit of flex from the perforations
But it is a well built laptop. Okay, before I go any deeper into this video
I feel like I should bring something up with you guys. I really like this device
It's a great laptop, and there are some issues with it, but I had to dig pretty deep to find them
And I think a lot of you guys might think that I'm just like nitpicking, and I really am
I feel like that's what you have to do when it comes to products
that are really well built and just good...
You just got to dig deeper than normal to find something that you can kind of use as a reason
that some people may not like it but...
You'll see. Okay, let's go with the keyboard first. I feel like that's like a good place to start
It's pretty much your standard MSI keyboard
It's SteelSeries backlit
But the keys have this layout that takes a little bit of time to get used to
Once you do, you'll be comfortable on it
The trackpad is, well technically it's a Windows Precision trackpad
It's running Windows Precision touchpad, but it's using Synaptics software underneath
It feels good, it's just not perfect. Gestures are on point,
but there's something with the tracking that feels off to me. It's like the acceleration
It's just a little bit too fast. Um, I can't really describe in words
It's just- it doesn't feel like your standard Windows Precision software to me. It's good
Just not perfect. The button mechanism is a little stiff
But it's tactile and I like the feel of the trackpad overall
One of the first things that I didn't like about this laptop is the accessibility
So MSI's thin and light laptops are never really easy to get into
Like, I've never had a lot of problems, but there's just not, you know, one screw and remove it
It's always a little bit of work. This one is very difficult
I'm not saying it's impossible, but I couldn't get in there, and I've opened quite a few laptops
See, this isn't even my unit, it's like an engineering sample
And I'm already a little bit more aggressive than it would be if I purchased this with my own money
but I just can't seem to get in here easily
The other thing is that the drive in here is a little bit slow,
and it's okay when companies put in slow drives
Because like it keeps the cost down and you can upgrade it, but in this case,
It's pretty difficult. I'm sure you can get in there, it's just not an easy thing
The display is excellent, I really like it
It's bright, it's fast. It's 144 Hertz excellent color gamut. There's nothing
I really have to complain about it. The top bezels are thin, the side bezels are really thin
There is a bit of a chin
But I mean if you're gonna put thick bezel somewhere, the bottom one's probably the best
Webcam's up top. Image quality isn't amazing, but at least the angle is good
and it's just really nice to see laptop companies put in faster screens because,
Last year, we were seeing really high end laptops
with something like GTX 1080s in them, but they're capped with 60 Hertz screens
which just didn't make sense to me
This is the way to do it. Fast screens with fast processors and fast GPUs. Good stuff all around
One thing to note though, this display does not have G-Sync
And I think for some people they're just like ''hey dealbreaker, no G-Sync?"
but the truth is I actually like that it doesn't have it
Here's why.
Number one: it keeps the price down. If they had a display that was
licensed for G-Sync, this would be like an extra 100 or 200 bucks
The other thing is battery life. By not having G-Sync, you get to use Nvidia Optimus
So you can use the onboard graphics to keep your battery consumption down when you're just not playing games and stuff
But the main reason for me is that G sync is only really useful at like
60 frames per second or slower the moment you bust like six seventy eighty frames per second it just doesn't it's not as useful
I'm not saying it's not useful
It's just not as useful as it would be when you're at lower frame rates at
144 Hertz this thing can shoot way beyond the frame rates
Where g-sync is clutch in terms of connectivity the port selection is quite good
There's nothing I feel like this thing's missing it even has an Ethernet port if there's one thing
I would add it would be like an extra Thunderbolt three USB-C port, but that's basically it now
I don't love that the location of the AC adapter
Hole is just kind of in the middle of the side here, and I think some people won't care
but it just doesn't look as clean to me when it comes out the middle and the cable can kind of cover the exhaust in
Some circumstances, it's a minor issue, but I thought I'd put it out there the speakers are located on the bottom
And I wish they weren't located on the bottom because they actually sound okay
They get really loud just the location is really poor when you have these things playing in a normal position
the audio gets really flattened out by the table or the desk or whatever you have your laptop sitting on it just
Loses so much clarity because of its position that I just wish it was positioned elsewhere the battery inside here has been
Significantly upgraded from the previous generation it's now 82 watt hours
It's a six hour battery for regular use with the screen at 250 nits. The AC adapter is 180 watts
Nothing special kind of like your standard MSI adapter the performance on this laptop is straight-up excellent
It's the six core i7 8750H
And you're gonna see great performance numbers if you want more details on this particular CPU you can check out the video that I'll link
Below, but for multi core applications, it's a big step up from last gen the GPU is awesome 1070
Max-q really good performance for basically any kind of game at 1080p and you'll be able to take advantage of that 144 Hertz screen
It's a really good combination
The fans can be controlled in Dragon Center like you can crank up the fans if you're doing with a 3d render
Or if you want like the best gaming performance possible you can crank it up
It'll be loud, but you'll get great performance
or you just leave it on auto and just let it do its thing on idle its silent and
On load, it gets a little bit louder, but you get great performance
You can slow down manually if you want
But on a thin and light laptop like this with a six core processor and a 1070 max-q
you kind of wanna let the fans do its thing and I think they do a really good job with the thermals the
Exterior temperature is also pretty good on the top surface. It gets a little warm on the bottom, though
I'd play games on a table or a desk and not so much on your lap so overall I feel like MSI did a really
Good job on this device
There's some one about this thing that I feel like people would appreciate there's so much they did right about this thing um
The only real complaint to have about it is seriously the accessibility. That's something
I really wish they just I don't know why they made it so difficult to get in there
But it is the pricing at eighteen hundred dollars in the base model is
Fair it's not great. This is never gonna be cheap a six core desktop replacement. It's never gonna be cheap right now, but
It's reasonably priced
I feel like there's gonna be way more expensive models that do something similar to this
As for whether you should upgrade if you're running a 7700 HQ and all you do is play games and probably not
But if you do anything that can take advantage of the multi-core stuff like the six core CPU. This is a good one
Okay, hope you guys enjoyed this video!
Thumbs if you liked it, subs if you loved it!
See you guys next time!