Purchase a premium MSI gaming laptop for a fabulous gaming experience? MSI sells so many gaming laptops that identifying a flagship among the lot is nearly impossible. If you had to try, though, a good candidate would be the GE66 Raider. It’s a classically (i.e., aggressively) styled 15-incher that boasts both excellent features and stellar build quality, as well as some seriously powerful components. The laptop starts at $1,899, but our $2,999 review unit is decked out with an eight-core, 10th Generation Intel Core i9 CPU, as well as an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q graphics chip and a 300Hz full-HD (1080p) display. Its roaring cooling fans might dampen your enthusiasm, but otherwise this is an excellent machine for hardcore, deep-pocketed gamers.
AMD’s Ryzen and Radeon silicon are a popular combo in gaming desktops, but the gaming laptop market hasn’t seen much from Team Red. That changes with the MSI Alpha 15 (starts at $899; $999 as tested), which pairs a quad-core Ryzen 7 3750H processor and a 4GB Radeon RX 5500M GPU to go head to head with Intel-based rigs packing Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1650, producing smooth and reliable 1080p gaming performance. Although it doesn’t unseat the MSI GL65 9SC as our value-gaming Editors’ Choice, you can view the Alpha 15 as a feature-rich, happy medium between that laptop and the Acer Predator Helios 300, our pick in the next (and more expensive) performance tier.
Besides the 1.1GHz (4.7GHz turbo) Core i7-10710U CPU and 4GB GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q GPU, your $1,399 buys you 16GB of RAM; a 512GB NVMe solid-state drive; a 14-inch, full HD (1,920-by-1,080-pixel) non-touch display; and Windows 10 Pro. You can think of the Prestige 14 as a little sibling of MSI’s deluxe Prestige 15 creative laptop, in ways ranging from the same hexa-core processor to the same ability to open its lid a flat 180 degrees and press F12 to invert the screen image for someone sitting across from you. Find even more info at MSI gaming laptop.
In addition to the 2.3GHz (4GHz boost) Ryzen 7 3750H CPU and Radeon RX 5500M graphics, my Alpha 15 test unit (model A3DD-004) features 16GB of dual-channel memory, a 512GB PCIe solid-state drive, Windows 10 Home, and a one-year warranty. Its 144Hz full HD display with AMD FreeSync is unique to this configuration; the $899 model (A3DD-003) drops the refresh rate to a still respectable 120Hz.
At 0.63 by 12.6 by 8.5 inches and 2.84 pounds, the pink Prestige is just a hair larger than and the same weight as the Inspiron 14 7000 (0.6 by 12.6 by 8.1 inches, 2.9 pounds). Its thin screen bezels make it smaller than typical 14-inch clamshells like the Lenovo ThinkPad T490 (0.7 by 13 by 8.9 inches). The bottom bezel stretches around the back of the laptop to prop the keyboard at a 5-degree typing angle when the system’s opened. The MSI has passed MIL-STD 810G tests against road hazards such as shock, vibration, and temperature extremes; there’s next to no flex when you grasp the screen corners and only a little when you mash the keyboard. See even more details on here.