MSI GS65 Stealth Thin (15.6-inch, 2019)

The lightest gaming laptop we’ve seen ; Solid performance with NVIDIA’s GTX 1070 ; Max-Q Great battery life ; 144Hz display is smooth and colorful ; Gorgeous case design

Trackpad is stiff and hard to use ; Display is limited to 1080p

Trade disputes be damned.

Improved keyboard comfort ; Excellent Retina display ; Four Thunderbolt 3 ports ; Long battery life ; Good graphics and computing performance

Expensive as configured ; Limited port variety ; No support for Wi-Fi 6

A tweaked keyboard and the option for a 10th Generation Intel "Ice Lake" CPU bring typing comfort and better performance to Apple's already-excellent 13-inch MacBook Pro.

Attractive, subtle design Gorgeous, fast display Excellent performance Effective thermal management

Underside gets burning hot Forthcoming biometric login Poor native audio

For the price, the MSI GS65 Stealth is one of the best gaming laptops you can buy today. This is officially the most impressive Nvidia Max-Q gaming laptop that we’ve tested to date, outclassing most rivals by trouncing them in design and style.

Excellent build quality ; High-end performance ; Great speakers, touchpad, and port selection ; Solid battery life

Area above keyboard can get hot enough to sear steak ; Display is dimmer than the competition’s ; Still no Windows Hello support

Gorgeous screen ; High-end gaming performance ; Shallow yet solid keyboard ; Thin and light

Flexes in certain parts ; Subpar speakers ; No Windows Hello

While I do wish the GS65 had better build quality and better speakers, it has a lot of other new thin-and-light gaming laptops beat for both gaming and productivity needs. Simply put, it is one of the best gaming laptops you can buy right now.

Thin, light, and attractive design. Fast new Intel Core i7 "Coffee Lake" processor. Very strong HD gaming performance. Long battery life. Lots of game-centric software features.

Construction doesn't feel especially premium. So-so keyboard. A little short on storage.

Bottom Line: The MSI GS65 Stealth Thin is a slim Max-Q gaming laptop with fast performance, slick looks, and a long battery life. Only the less-than-stellar build quality keeps it from earning our top recommendation.

Great overall and graphics performance; Barely there bezels; Excellent audio quality; Slim, beautiful design; Impressive battery life ; Gets hot while gaming ; The MSI GS65 Stealth delivers great graphics and overall performance in a svelte,...

Gets hot while gaming ; The MSI GS65 Stealth delivers great graphics and overall performance in a svelte, sophisticated chassis.

The MSI GS65 Stealth delivers great graphics and overall performance in a svelte, sophisticated chassis.

fast GPU performance ; solid CPU performance ; thin and light build ; 144 Hz display with good response times ; screen is relatively color accurate ; reasonably good battery life ; switchable graphics ; RGB keyboard backlighting ;...

lackadaisical build quality and flimsy construction ; case creaks audibly during light use ; maintenance is limited and overly difficult ; no card reader ; Fn key location on right side of keyboard is awkward

To be quite frank, today’s MSI GS65 configuration does little to address the complaints we explicated in May’s review of the previous SKU. The biggest drawbacks remain the questionable workmanship and disappointing rigidity (resulting in unavoidable...

Refined, but still classy design ; Healthy range of specs and prices ; Outstanding performance ; Universal 240Hz refresh rate

1080p resolution cap ; Hot hot heat ; Overly sensitive touchpad ; Norton Security bloatware

Seeing how it radiates wealth (it's literally a gold and black laptop), the MSI GS65 Stealth Thin could be a lot more expensive than it is. Somehow it tucks an Intel Core i9 processor, RTX 2080 graphics, 32GB of RAM and a huge 1TB hard drive into a...