It’s been a wild week of tech announcements thanks to the fully online Consumer Electronics Show and while it’s slowly coming to an end that doesn’t mean there isn’t stuff to get excited over. For example, MSI just unveiled its new range of gaming laptops and we’ll be the first to admit that we can’t wait to get our hands on them.
MSI announced a lot of new machines and while they all have their place in the market appealing to different kinds of consumers, we wanted to highlight the laptops that got us most excited. It’s no secret that all of the included devices are ridiculously powerful but they’re each a little different. So what do MSI fans have to look forward to in 2021? Well, a whole load of Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs, that’s what.
MSI GE76 Raider
This is the big release for MSI this year and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out why. The GE Raider is an absolute monster of a gaming computer that’s probably more powerful than most desktop setups. According to MSI, the GE series boasts the “best performance you can obtain from a gaming laptop” and we believe them. Equipped with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card, Intel Core i9 processors, Wi-Fi 6E and MSI Cooler Boost 5, it ensures that any game thrown at it runs smooth as premium silk. It also sports a 17.3in 1080p 144Hz screen (although a 4K option does come with the Dragon Edition… more on that later).
Speaking to some of those components, the GE Raider will be the first device in the industry to make use of Wi-Fi 6E to ensure the best connectivity possible. The Cooler Booster 5 also sounds like a beast of a cooling system as it includes 6 heat pipes with 2 fans to produce some of the most efficient airflow of any MSI device to date. It also comes with at least ten ports, including two USB-C, three USB-A and an HDMI 2.0 port.
Oh, and a bonus mention to the GE76 Raider Dragon Edition Tiamat which is MSI’s big showpiece of the year. The company really likes to tell a story with the prestige hardware and the Dragon Edition Tiamat (that word order seems strange but okay) is that showcase. It sports all the best parts of the GE76 Raider but comes with a chassis engraved with the legend of the all-powerful dragon Tiamat. You see the link, right? It looks awesome and while some might find it corny we think it’s rad and would love to see it in person.
MSI GS66 Stealth
MSI has gone and designed a gaming laptop for all those business people that are embarrassed at the amount of time they’ve put into DOTA 2. This machine is also equipped with GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs, and puts out 4K resolution thanks to DLSS AI rendering technology. As far as processors it comes equipped with Intel’s latest kit with 8 cores for the best possible performance.
Yet the best part of the GS66 Stealth is the battery. Seriously, this thing has a 99.9Wh battery which is apparently “the highest-capacity battery in a laptop” according to MSI. This is all complemented with True Colour 3.0 support and a 1+2 Matrix display.
MSI Stealth 15M
We’re mentioning the Stealth 15M because it’s able to boast about something we find very cool. MSI has very confidently proclaimed this device as the worlds thinnest 15-inch gaming laptop. It weighs only 1.7kg and comes in at 16.15mm thick. Despite that tiny size, this thing is still capable of going toe-to-toe with machines double its muscle mass.
It’s powered by 11th Gen Intel H series processors but to 5GHz and, of course, comes equipped with a GeForce RTX 30 Series GPU. All of that power stuffed into something so tiny is a genuine marvel.
MSI Creator 15
This might not be the typical MSI laptop (especially if you’re the kind of user who actively looks up MSI devices) but we wanted to give the Creator 15 a shout out because, well, it looks fantastic. We design a lot of things at Stuff and the appeal of a laptop that comes with a 4K True Pixel panel and a 100% AdobeRGB colour gamut sounds like it would make our lives so much easier.
The Creator 15 also comes with an RTX 30 series GPU so rendering times on images and video should be faster than ever before. It also sports that wildly impressive 99.9Wh battery and a touchscreen for all those creatives that really want to feel their art, you know?
There’s currently no word on when we expect MSI’s latest crop to show up on South African shores and even less of an indication on how much they’ll cost you. One has to assume they’ll drop in the next couple of months and probably be fairly pricey. Actually, let’s be honest with ourselves, they’ll definitely be very pricey. Still, you pay for what you get, right? Maybe one of these devices will be able to dethrone the MSI Titan, our favourite machine from the company yet.
If you want to check out the best parts of MSI’s showcase and see what else they revealed, check out the highlight video on YouTube.
