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00:00Hey, how's it going? Dave2D here. Today we're looking at the MSI GS65. This is their latest
00:09thin and light gaming laptop. It's running the new 6-core CPU from Intel with a GTX 1070
00:14Max-Q. It's a completely decked out thin and light laptop that just, it's awesome, as you
00:20could tell by the title. It's been redesigned this year, completely redesigned. The previous
00:25generation and the one before that all shared the same chassis, they just kind of switched
00:28the internals. Brand new, everything this year. The build quality on this new design
00:33is good. It feels slightly better than the GS63 to me. It has no red on it at all. I
00:37think this is the very first gaming laptop from MSI that wasn't black and red. It's got
00:41this black and gold theme going on, very subtle. It actually looks really good. You could bring
00:45it to work or a coffee shop and no one would think anything of it. It's super stealth.
00:49It honestly looks like a premium black and gold laptop. Now in case you're wondering,
00:53the logo up here is completely flush to the surface. If you're inclined and want to mask
00:57this logo out, you could probably get a skin for it and it would look even more murdered out.
01:00The hinge is on each side, so it doesn't run along the whole length, but it actually feels
01:05really well built. And this kind of hinge aesthetic is just not something we've seen
01:09from MSI before. I really like it. Inside we have the power button in the middle of the
01:13laptop and there was talk about how there was going to be a fingerprint sensor. This
01:16engineering sample does not have a functioning one, but it might in the future. The build
01:20quality of this whole thing is good, very good. It's not perfect, like this isn't a
01:24unibody build or anything like that. It's like not milled from a single piece of aluminum.
01:28It's using paneling, but it's pretty good. There are some panels with a little bit of
01:32flex from the perforations, but it is a well built laptop. Okay, before I go any deeper
01:36into this video, I feel like I should bring something up with you guys. I really like
01:39this device. It's a great laptop and there are some issues with it, but I had to dig
01:43pretty deep to find them. I think a lot of you guys might think that I'm just like nitpicking
01:46and I really am. I feel like that's what you have to do when it comes to products that
01:50are really well built and just good. You just got to dig deeper than normal to find
01:55something that you can kind of use as a reason that some people may not like it, but you'll
02:01see. Okay, let's go with the keyboard first. I feel like that's like a good place to start.
02:05It's pretty much your standard MSI keyboard. It's SteelSeries backlit, but the keys have
02:10this layout that takes a little bit of time to get used to. Once you do, you'll be comfortable
02:13on it. The trackpad is, well, technically it's a Windows Precision trackpad. It's running
02:18Windows Precision touchpad, but it's using Synaptic software underneath. It feels good,
02:23it's just not perfect. Gestures are on point, but there's something with the tracking that
02:26feels off to me. It's like the acceleration is just a little bit too fast. I can't really
02:31describe in words. It's just, it doesn't feel like your standard Windows Precision software
02:35to me. It's good, just not perfect. The button mechanism is a little stiff, but it's tactile
02:40and I like the feel of the trackpad overall. One of the first things that I didn't like
02:44about this laptop is the accessibility. So MSI's thin and light laptops are never really
02:48easy to get into. Like, I've never had a lot of problems, but they're just not, you know,
02:53one screw and remove it. It's always a little bit of work. This one is very difficult. I'm
02:58not saying it's impossible, but I couldn't get in there and I've opened quite a few laptops.
03:02See, this isn't even my unit. It's like an engineering sample and I'm already a little
03:06bit more aggressive than I would be if I'd purchased this with my own money, but I just
03:09can't seem to get in here easily. The other thing is that the drive in here is a little bit slow
03:13and it's okay when companies put in slow drives because, like, it keeps the cost down and you can
03:18upgrade it, but in this case, it's pretty difficult. I'm sure you can get in there,
03:21it's just not an easy thing. The display is excellent. I really like it. It's bright,
03:26it's fast, it's 144Hz, excellent color gamut. There's nothing I really have to complain about
03:31it. The top bezels are thin, the side bezels are really thin. There is a bit of a chin,
03:34but I mean, if you're gonna put a thick bezel somewhere, the bottom one's probably the best.
03:38Webcam's up top, image quality isn't amazing, but at least the angle's good. And it's just
03:42really nice to see laptop companies put in faster screens because last year, we were seeing
03:47really high-end laptops with something like GTX 1080s in them, but they're capped with 60Hz screens,
03:51which just didn't make sense to me. This is the way to do it. Fast screens with fast processors,
03:56fast GPUs, good stuff all around. One thing to note, though, this display does not have G-Sync,
04:01and I think for some people, they're just like, hey, deal breaker, no G-Sync. But the truth is,
04:05I actually like that it doesn't have it. Here's why. Number one, it keeps the price down. If they
04:09had a display that was licensed for G-Sync, this would be like an extra 100 or 200 bucks.
04:14The other thing is battery life. By not having G-Sync, you get to use NVIDIA Optimus, so
04:18you can use the onboard graphics to keep your battery consumption down when you're just not
04:22playing games and stuff. But the main reason for me is that G-Sync is only really useful at like
04:2760 frames per second or slower. The moment you bust like 60, 70, 80 frames per second,
04:32it just doesn't, it's not as useful. I'm not saying it's not useful, it's just
04:36not as useful as it would be when you're at lower frame rates. At 144 hertz, this thing can shoot
04:41way beyond the frame rates where G-Sync is clutch. In terms of connectivity, the port selection is
04:45quite good. There's nothing I feel like this thing's missing, it even has an Ethernet port.
04:49If there was one thing I would add, it would be like an extra Thunderbolt 3 or USB-C port,
04:53but that's basically it. Now, I don't love the location of the AC adapter hole, it's just kind
04:57of in the middle of the side here, and I think some people won't care, but it just doesn't look
05:00as clean to me when it comes out the middle. And the cable can kind of cover the exhaust in some
05:04circumstances. It's a minor issue, but I thought I'd put it out there. The speakers are located on
05:09the bottom, and I wish they weren't located on the bottom, because they actually sound okay.
05:13They get really loud, it's just the location is really poor. When you have these things playing
05:17in a normal position, the audio gets really flattened out by the table or the desk or
05:21whatever you have your laptop sitting on. It just loses so much clarity because of its position that
05:25I just wish it was positioned elsewhere. The battery inside here has been significantly upgraded
05:30from the previous generation. It's now 82 watt hours. It's a 6 hour battery for regular use with
05:34the screen at 250 nits. The AC adapter is 180 watts, nothing special, kind of like your standard MSI
05:40adapter. The performance on this laptop is straight up excellent. It's the 6-core i7-8750H, and you're
05:46going to see great performance numbers. If you want more details on this particular CPU, you can
05:50check out the video that I'll link below, but for multi-core applications, it's a big step up from
05:54the last gen. The GPU is awesome. 1070 Max-Q, really good performance for basically any kind of
05:59game at 1080p, and you'll be able to take advantage of that 144 hertz screen. It's a really good
06:04combination. The fans can be controlled in Dragon Center, like you can crank up the fans if you're
06:08doing like a 3D render, or if you want like the best gaming performance possible, you can crank
06:12it up. It'll be loud, but you'll get great performance, or you can just leave it on auto and just let it
06:16do its thing. On idle, it's silent, and on load, it gets a little bit louder, but you get great
06:20performance. You can slow it down manually if you want, but on a thin and light laptop like this,
06:25with a 6-core processor and a 1070 Max-Q, you kind of want to let the fans do its thing, and I think
06:29they do a really good job with the thermals. The exterior temperature is also pretty good on the
06:33top surface. It gets a little warm on the bottom though. I'd play games on a table or a desk, and
06:38not so much on your lap. So overall, I feel like MSI did a really good job on this device. There's
06:42so much about this thing that I feel like people will appreciate. There's so much they did right
06:46about this thing. The only real complaint I have about it is seriously the accessibility. That's
06:52something I really wish they just... I don't know why they made it so difficult to get in there,
06:55but it is. The pricing at $1,800 on the base model is fair. It's not great. This is never going to be
07:02cheap. A 6-core desktop replacement is never going to be cheap right now, but it's reasonably priced.
07:09I feel like there's going to be way more expensive models that do something similar to this. As for
07:13whether or not you should upgrade, if you're running a 7700HQ and all you do is play games,
07:17then probably not. But if you do anything that can take advantage of the multi-core stuff, like the
07:216-core CPU, this is a good one. Okay, hope you guys enjoyed this video. Thumbs if you liked it,
07:26subs if you loved it. See you guys next time.