MSI GS77 Stealth review: don’t let the name fool you

Don’t let the identify idiot you — there’s nothing stealthy about this gadget.

The MSI GS77 Stealth has lengthy been the transportable possibility amongst MSI’s gaming elite, and whereas that truth remained dubiously true with final 12 months’s 5.4-pound GS76 Stealth, this 12 months’s 0.79-inch-thick, 6.17-pound GS77 has successfully launched that concept into the solar. This laptop computer is large, thick, and hulking, and whereas it lacks the sunshine strips and LED grids that different showy gaming laptops boast, its RGB keyboard nonetheless makes very clear that it’s for gaming above all else.

This isn’t essentially an enormous knock towards the gadget — the GS76 was fairly mild for what it was, and the GS77 has introduced the Stealth sequence again in step with the remainder of the 17-inch market. It now weighs a bit greater than Razer’s Blade 17 and Asus’ Zephyrus S17. And it’s nearly the identical weight as MSI’s extra highly effective GE76 Raider.

One can see why MSI could have wished to go greater as a result of the chips inside have been frying nearly each chassis they contact this 12 months. The mannequin we had been despatched features a twelfth Gen Core i7-12900H — probably the most highly effective cell chips in Intel’s historical past — paired with Nvidia’s RTX 3070 Ti, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage, all powering a 240Hz QHD display.

However the brand new girth takes away a significant benefit that the GS77 used to have over these fashions: the GS77 Stealth seems to have misplaced a few of what made it fascinating as a “transportable” purchase. The keyboard is on the flat aspect, the touchpad is uncomfortably stiff, the battery life isn’t good, and the gadget is just too large and too heavy to reliably convey anyplace. What we’re left with is a pc that asks most of the identical compromises as essentially the most highly effective gaming laptops available on the market with out bringing the identical distinctive body charges.

For extra data on our scoring, see how we fee.

The first benefit the Stealth has now could be its worth. My take a look at unit is presently listed for $2,899. To get this GPU within the GE76 Raider (which has an excellent beefier Core i9 in addition to a fancier design) can be $100 extra, whereas a QHD Razer Blade 17 with the 3070 Ti can be a complete $3,399.99. I’ve additionally been capable of finding GS77 fashions for as little as $1,799 (for a 144Hz 1080p display, an RTX 3060, and 16GB of RAM), whereas the most affordable Blade on Razer’s website is $2,799 and the twelfth Gen Raider begins at $2,299. Nonetheless, $2,899 is hardly a price range worth, and it’s value figuring out what compromises you’re making for that decrease value.

First, the facet of the GS77 that’s an unquestionable enchancment over final 12 months: construct high quality. I’ve had gripes about MSI’s chassis previously, however the GS77’s base and lid are each sturdy and unyielding. The trackpad collected some fingerprints pretty simply, however the remainder of the chassis wasn’t an excessive amount of of a magnet for them. It’s a nice-looking laptop, and it didn’t decide up any scratches or dents after being battered round in a suitcase for a couple of days.

Different perks of earlier fashions stay. There’s a great vary of ports together with two USB-C, two USB-A, a headphone jack, HDMI, ethernet, and an SD card reader. (The SD reader is weirdly slower than it was final 12 months, nevertheless, as different reviewers have famous.) The QHD show does make video games look nice. There are a whopping six audio system inside, and whereas they don’t ship one of the best audio on the 17-inch market, my video games nonetheless sounded fairly good. I had no hassle with the microphones, which assist AI noise cancellation, and the webcam has a bodily shutter swap on the aspect for some peace of thoughts.

That stated, I actually can’t see myself utilizing this gadget as a each day driver for 2 necessary causes: the keyboard and touchpad. The keyboard has fairly lighting, however it’s fairly skinny to sort on, with extra of a spongy than a clicky really feel. And whereas there’s a quantity pad, the keys are all a bit cramped consequently. The arrow keys, specifically, really feel small.

And the touchpad is the place I actually had hassle. It’s massive however was as troublesome of a click on as I’ve ever skilled on a touchpad. (And it’s fairly loud as properly.) I felt like I actually needed to thunk my finger all the way down to get a click on registered. I used to be near plugging in a mouse (one thing I don’t do once I’m testing for productiveness use circumstances, as a basic coverage) due to how a lot I hated navigating with it. These aren’t unheard-of compromises with regards to 17-inch gaming laptops, however they do underscore how little I’d suggest this to double as a each day driver.

In terms of body charges, how do these specs stack up? With all sliders maxed out, Purple Lifeless Redemption 2 ran at a mean of 60 frames per second at native decision (technically 59.3, however we will name it 60). That jumped as much as 65 at 1080p. On Shadow of the Tomb Raider in 1080p, we noticed a mean of 83 frames per second with ray tracing on Extremely (its most setting) and 121 with the function off. At native decision, these translated to 58 frames per second (one other quantity we will loosely name 60) and 86, respectively. All in all, greater than playable.

The GS77 put up an absurd 400 frames per second on the CPU-heavy CS:GO in 1080p and a nonetheless fairly excessive 286 at native 1440p. The one title that gave the sport any hassle was Cyberpunk 2077, which — at native decision, at most settings, with ray tracing cranked as much as “Psycho” — ran at 19 frames per second (however achieved 33 at these settings in 1080p).

All in all, these are actually an enchancment over the outcomes from final 12 months’s mannequin, and so they present that you simply shouldn’t have hassle working most trendy video games at QHD decision, although they’re beneath what you will get out of pricier Core i9 and RTX 3080 machines. There’s a disappointing omission, although: the GS77 doesn’t assist MUX. This part (which each the Raider and the Blade do have) permits laptops to assist adaptive options like G-Sync and may result in a considerable efficiency distinction. It’s an odd factor to exclude at this worth level and one thing I’d think about many people who’re prepared to pay $2,900 gained’t be eager to compromise on.

In terms of different workloads, the Stealth was extra aggressive. It accomplished our five-minute, 33-second 4K Adobe Premiere Professional video export take a look at in two minutes and 15 seconds. The Raider beat this time, clocking in at one minute and 56 seconds, however it’s one in all only a few laptops that has ever achieved so. Final 12 months’s 3070 GS76 was 12 seconds slower. (These aren’t meant to be apples-to-apples comparisons, as completely different variations of Premiere can change over time; they’re extra meant to offer you an thought of how lengthy an export may take.)

The GS77 additionally beat the GS76, in addition to the Blade and different inventive workstations just like the Gigabyte Aero 16, on the Puget Methods benchmark for Premiere Professional, which assessments dwell playback and export efficiency at 4K and 8K. (It did lose to the Raider by rather a lot). This isn’t a laptop computer I’d suggest folks use for workplace workloads, so the GS77’s good efficiency right here isn’t the largest level in its favor.

MSI’s software program is unquestionably not as glitchy because it has been previously few years, which is an encouraging signal. I had no downside adjusting fan profiles and such with the preinstalled packages. I did run into one glitch the place the display began turning off once I tried to run video games (an issue on a gaming laptop computer). MSI despatched me a alternative unit, which didn’t exhibit that downside. Nonetheless, it’s not the kind of factor we like to see on $2,900 merchandise.

After which we get to what I see as the largest compromise right here: the battery life. I used to be solely averaging about two hours and 16 minutes of steady use on this factor, with some trials even lasting below two hours. That’s acquired to be near the worst battery run I’ve ever gotten out of a gaming laptop computer. Whereas it’s typically understood that cheaper laptops may have much less highly effective chips in them, having to surrender battery life along with that energy (the Raider lasted me about two hours longer with the identical workload) is a tricky tablet to swallow.

Should you’re wanting purely at body charges on paper, this laptop computer is a high-quality purchase. It may possibly run every kind of video games at QHD decision with out burning your basement down.

However the Stealth moniker, and the best way the road has traditionally been positioned, may indicate to some folks that this gadget is an efficient decide for extra than simply gaming. It’s not; MSI’s modifications to the Stealth line have made it extra highly effective on the expense of different options that made it, properly Stealthy. It’s too large and heavy to be constantly carrying round in a briefcase or backpack, the battery life isn’t usable for each day work away from an outlet, and the keyboard and touchpad simply wouldn’t be my selection to make use of daily. That is not actually a conveyable different to the Raider. It’s only a extra reasonably priced model of the Raider.

Which is okay, if that’s what you’re after. However with the Raider delivering extra highly effective specs, higher battery life, extra RGB, and an MUX swap for a pair hundred {dollars} extra, I feel it delivers an all-around higher expertise that might be well worth the cash for folks purchasing on this vary.