This coverage at CES 2020 has been sponsored by MSI, without them I wouldn’t be here
to check out all of their new stuff.
MSI announced a few new laptops at the show.
First up let’s cover the GE66 and GS66, the successors to the popular GE65 and GS65
models.
The GS66 Stealth looks similar to the GS65 at first glance, it’s designed to be more
of a thinner and lighter gaming laptop at under 2cm thick and around 2kg in weight.
Unlike the previous GS65 which had a black and gold colour scheme, the GS66 has an all
black finish, and this is something MSI really seem to be moving towards.
The GS66 will feature 10th gen Intel H series CPUs, however as there’s no news of these
available at the moment, MSI weren’t able to provide any specific information. They
also weren’t specific on what Nvidia graphics would be available, just noting the latest
from Nvidida, so that’ a bit mysterious.
As for what we do know though, it’s got a 15.6” 1080p screen, but what’s interesting
is it goes up to a 300Hz refresh rate. It’s also got WiFi 6, a 99.9Wh battery, the largest
you can legally have to take a laptop on a plane.
The GS66 has a clean all black metal design, the lid just has a subtle dragon logo. The
interior is also quite clean, again with that wide touchpad and usual RGB keyboard. A small
difference I noticed was that the Windows key is over on the left here, it was on the
right before. There are some air vents towards the back to help with cooling, and down the
front there are front facing speakers, which should sound a bit better compared to underneath.
On the left from the back there’s a Kensington lock, air exhaust vent, the power input, USB
Type-C port, HDMI output and USB Type-A port.
On the right from the front there’s a 3.5mm audio combo jack, USB Type-C port, two USB
Type-A ports, ethernet and air exhaust at the back. Oh, and it’s got Thunderbolt 3
too.
On the back there are just a couple of air exhaust vents, and here’s what the air ventilation
looks like underneath, so overall some nice improvements over the GS65.
Next let’s check out the GE66, the successor to the GE65. The design of this one kind of
reminds me of a mini GT76 on the lid, with that silver finish and the hinge area. The
front also has an RGB light bar like the GT76 too. Again like the GS66, it will have 10th
gen Intel CPUs, but no news on what models will be available, and the versions of Nvidia
graphics weren’t provided.
Like the GS66, the GE66 is also available with up to at 300Hz 1080p screen and 99.9Wh
battery, so nice some great improvements to have.
On the left from the back there’s a Kensington lock, air exhaust vent, USB Type-A and C ports,
no Thunderbolt on this one but there’s DisplayPort 1.4 with the Type-C, and a 3.5mm audio combo
jack.
On the right from the front there are a couple of USB Type-A ports, an SD card slot, and
air exhaust vent.
There’s more I/O on the back, from left to right, including a mini DisplayPort output,
USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C port with mini DisplayPort 1.4, ethernet port, HDMI and a rectangular
power input.
For cooling underneath there’s a hexagonal pattern with the air ventilation holes.
The RGB keyboard is also a bit different from the GE65, in that the windows key is on the
left, and the function key is now on the right and shared with the control spot.
Both the GS66 and GE66 are 15 inch laptops at the moment, I asked if there would be 17
inch models like a GS76 or GE76, they said it’s probable but for now they’re just
launching these 15 inch versions. Both also have cameras located above the display.
The Alpha 15 that I’ve already reviewed was also on show, however MSI advised me that
they will be updating this with the new Ryzen 4000 series CPUs in future.
MSI also had the new Bravo 15 gaming laptop on display, though there’s also the Bravo
17 with 17 inch display. Both of these also feature AMD Ryzen 4000 series CPUs with Radeon
RX 5500M or 5300M graphics.
The Bravo 15 has two memory slots for dual channel goodness, 120Hz or 144Hz screen options
with FreeSync and optional WiFi 6.
It’s got a brushed metal lid, and unlike the Alpha 15, the logo is silver rather than
green. The interior has a similar brushed finish with red keys. The touchpad doesn’t
have left and right click buttons like the Alpha 15 though, and the bottom has air vents
towards the back as you’d expect. I’m not sure, but it looks like there are three
M.2 drives installed here.
For I/O on the left we’ve got an air exhaust, power input, and HDMI output, while the right
has 3.5mm audio combo jack, two USB Type-A ports and two Type-C ports, gigabit ethernet
and Kensington lock. The back just has a couple of air exhausts, so overall the design is
a bit toned down compared to the others, leading me to suspect it may be a more budget friendly
option, but we’ll see.
On the creator side of things, they also had the Creator 17 laptop on display. What made
this interesting is that this one one had a 17 inch 4K Mini LED screen, making it capable
of meeting HDR1000 standards, so up to 1000 Nits of peak brightness, you might want some
sunglasses for it.
The Prestige 14 was also on show, but that’s already available, and I’ve actually got
one back home waiting for me to review after CES, so stay tuned for that. They had a few
different colour options on display though from both the Prestige 14 and 15, including
white, burgundy, and a pink. They also had the GT76 Titan in sports red, which has a
glossy red finish, and as I’m sure you well know, red makes things go faster.
So those are the new gaming laptops that MSI was showing off at CES 2020, let me know which
you’re most interested in down in the comments, and if you’re new to the channel you’ll
definitely want to get subscribed for the rest of my CES 2020 coverage.