- I finally did it.
25 years after seeing the volleyball
documentary shower room drama fighter jet movie, "Top Gun",
I finally got a proper replica of the
F14 Tomcat control column
for my flight and space simulators.
That's not what this video is about.
Tune into the next episode of
Mr. Mobile Stays Home for more about this
triumphant tribute to the Tomcat.
This video is about the latest laptop
i've plugged that joystick into.
My first ever review unit from MSI
a machine so monstrous,
it takes two tubers to tackle it.
I'm Michael Fisher.
- And I'm Joshua Vergara.
What's going on everybody.
- [Michael] And this is the MSI Creator 17,
a desktop replacement built for well,
- [Together] creators.
(upbeat music)
- The reason I wanted Josh to help me out
with this one is because stress testing PCs
is really not what I do.
As you may recall when my nose is to the grindstone,
I make my videos in Final Cut on a MacBook Pro.
And when it's Thrustmaster time, well,
I'm usually playing games from the late nineties that would
barely tax your phone, let alone a PC.
So I'm going to take you through the fundamentals of this
laptop from casing to keyboard, from screen to speakers,
and then I'll pass it over to Josh
for his thoughts on performance.
When you first lay your eyes on the Creator 17,
it's kind of a love it or hate it situation isn't it.
For part, I love it.
In a kind of,
this could have been in "Independence Day 2" kind of way.
As with all desktop replacements
this one is supreme in scale and hella heavy,
but unlike other manufacturers that seem to be leaning more
and more minimalist MSI had fun with this design.
Sure the fan grills are gaudy
and the keyboard font is capital A aggressive.
But as you know,
I'll take bold over boring any day.
Along the sides,
you'll find enough ports to keep your production pipeline
humming from USB-A to USB-C and Thunderbolt
to HTMI even an RJ 45 ethernet port
along with separate jacks for headphones and microphone,
which should make streamers and pod-casters happy.
The only complaint I had here was the micro SD slot,
which is nice to have,
but a full size SD would have been nicer.
It's not like they didn't have the room.
On the other half of the clam shell,
MSI is very proud of this 17 inch 4K display,
which is backlit by mini LED technology that gives it more
versatility, especially for HDR content.
And of course it also has the range and accuracy for editing
photos or video.
I tend to prefer, OLED in my laptop panels.
Every time I go back to my ASIS ZenBook Pro Duo,
it's a feast for my contrast obsessed eyeballs.
But this display nails two other details
that other manufacturers too often miss.
A matte finish so I can still see the screen,
even in high glare environments and peak brightness of
nearly a thousand nits.
You haven't tasted frustration until you've tried getting
work done on a panel that just doesn't have
the oomph to overcome harsh sunlight,
whether that's on a rooftop patio or
in front of big windows.
So this retina searing backlight is
probably my favorite feature.
We'll talk about what that means for battery life.
Spoiler alert, it's not good,
but first, let's touch on these keys.
I had high hopes for this keyboard when I took my tentative
first taps.
They've got great travel and a nice soft stop
with quiet switches, but the layout has some challenges.
Look,
I love a NUM pad and I think every desktop replacement
should have one.
But for some reason on this machine,
I feel the offset of the main keyboard, much more keenly.
So it always feels like I'm typing slightly sideways.
Maybe that's because of the very wide track pad,
which picks up erroneous touches all the time
and when I do mean to click it,
feels as mushy as an old pillow.
It's also frustrating to two finger scroll,
which often triggers a three finger gesture for some reason.
About the only thing I like about
this track pad is the fingerprint scanner, which is SWFT.
Even if it's made for south paws.
Back to the keyboard,
even things that should be a win aren't.
It's great to have these full-sized arrow keys,
but they're totally nullified by the decision to place the
right arrow in line with the last row of the NUM pad.
The result is whether I'm using the NUM pad
or using the arrow keys,
I'm always pressing the wrong button even after a week.
There's also no visual indicator for Numlock.
There's no function lock that I can find.
And this is another one of those PCs with no media shortcuts
in the function row.
All in all, it's just not a great input experience,
which is a shame because of how comfortable the keys
themselves actually are.
I was also let down by the Creator 17's endurance.
I understand that desktop replacement machines aren't made
to be road warriors,
but with MSI claiming seven hours of runtime on the 82 watt
hour battery,
I thought I got at least squeeze out an afternoon.
Instead I got exactly two hours from unplug to power down.
Even though I was behaving,
I was only using Microsoft Edge with a handful of web apps.
And I had the display brightness set to 40%.
Oh,
also I had the creator center scenario set to silent.
Otherwise I would not have been able to think over the
omnipresent roar of the fans,
which spin up even when I'm just scrolling Twitter.
Now, if you're thinking there's something funky
with my experience, yeah, join the club.
Notebook Check reported a four hour battery
life in their testing.
Dave 2D reported the same.
And Josh is I think about to reinforce that.
So maybe something's amiss on my review device like this
pre-installed executable that the pre-installed Norton Suite
keeps warning me about.
Apparently this is a software suite
preloaded to maximize the audio side of this spec sheet,
a spec sheet that's one of the most potent
you can find in semi portable form.
And I'm about to hand it over to Josh to tell you all about
it, but since I mentioned audio,
here's one last disappointment of mine.
PC manufacturers,
I sound like a broken record and I'm sorry,
but in a world where the MacBook Pro exists,
you've just got to do better on the built in audio.
("Lookin'" by Tooq)
Now that stuff aside,
I've mostly enjoyed my week with the Creator 17,
but before you decide whether an MSI laptop
is right for you,
let's turn it over to Josh whom I picked for this collab
for a very specific reason.
He's my first and so far,
my only friend whom I've seen use an MSI laptop of his own
for real work, like out in the real world.
So let's go to him for what it's like to use the creator 17
for its namesake purpose.
- Okay.
I know you're not much of a PC gamer, Michael,
but I got to say you're missing out.
The experiences and fun
that you can have with a good, powerful PC like this
take gaming to a whole new level.
And that's why it's easy to love the MSI creator 17.
It's got a lot of what a gamer would want
in a portable shell.
An Intel 10 generation i7 processor,
and the RTX 2070 Max Q are in the upper tier
of performance specs.
And it shows in every game that I've played so far,
I'm actually playing a recent game called "Control" and it
runs smooth as butter on ultra settings with ray tracing put
on medium.
It's the most recent game that I threw onto this laptop
so every other game that I've played just followed suit.
Games like "Borderlands 3", "Jedi Fallen Order"
and "Yakuza Kiwami 2" to name a few.
And how could I possibly complain when it's
all being done on a great 4k high refresh rate,
super bright, vibrant mini led display.
It only gets better when the computer is paired
with a few peripherals.
Like Michael said,
the keyboard and the speakers are definitely just the
weakest part of this package.
But you know what, this laptop is called the Creator 17.
And I think that the shift in focus to creators
makes perfect sense.
See, I've used MSI laptops for years because the same
specifications that drive high powered gaming can power the
video and photo editing processes to.
I edited this very video with DaVinci Resolve and even with
my somewhat simplistic approach to video,
I can overload any standard laptop with 4K footage and
high resolution photos in the timeline.
The Creator 17 right here is actually the first laptop that
I've used that doesn't buckle or even stutter
under my 4k workflow.
So as I get into my office and connect my monitor and other
tools to this laptop,
I'm setting myself up for a great battle station to get any
part of my work or play done.
It just so happens that the laptop can actually leave the
office with me.
Honestly, it's just the quality of life
details of this laptop that do
give this rig some diminishing returns.
If I could even fit the creator 17 in
any of my current bags,
I would throw this laptop and it's huge power brick in them
and enjoy power while on the move.
My Creator 17 has gotten a lot of good use
for both work and play.
It just hasn't moved nearly as much.
MSI got a lot right with the Creator 17, don't get me wrong,
but if you ask me,
they did more to create something like a foldable desktop
than they did a powerful, portable laptop.
- Folks if you want Josh's full rundown
on the MSI Creator 17,
I'll link to his video.
And for more chill tech reviews
that just make you feel a little more relaxed,
be sure you're subscribed to Josh's channel.
The MSI Creator 17 is available on Amazon for between
$1,500 and $3,000 depending on configuration.
And you know, those prices seem awful competitive
given the last few laptops I've reviewed.
While it wouldn't be my first choice,
I'll leave a link to that Amazon listing
in the description below.
This video was produced following seven days
with the Creator 17 review sample provided by MSI,
but Mr. Mobile works for you,
not the manufacturers.
MSI offered no compensation for this coverage
and it was given no copy approval rights or an
early preview of this video,
which means they're seeing it for the first time,
right alongside you.
If you use the affiliate link in the description,
Future PLC, Mr. Mumbles publisher
may earn a small commission.
Please subscribe to theMrMobile and JV Tech T on YouTube
if this is the kind of video you'd like to see more of.
Until next time, thanks for watching.
And if you can't stay home,
then at least stay safe and wear a mask while
you stay mobile, my friends.