A Trio Of 10th Generation Intel Powered MSI Laptops
Meet The GS66 Stealth, GE66 Raider and Creator 17
MSI has released three new laptops built on 10th Gen Core processors, two aimed at gamers and a new Creator with a variety of interesting features. You can order up to an i9-10980HK in all these models and NVIDIA cards up to the RTX 2080 Super. As you would expect all make use of NVMe PCIe SSDs for their main storage, all but the Raider feature Thunderbolt 3 with charging support and even the Creator has backlit keys, though not fully RGB’d like the Raider and Stealth’s Steelseries ones.
One of the most interesting things about the Creator 17 is the 3840×2160 16:9 screen which is MSI’s first Mini LED display, it sports pixel density just above 220ppi, 1000 nits brightness, also referred to as Display HDR1000 and 5570 LED chips give the monitor 240 independent lighting zones. As for colour replication it ships with 100% DCI-P3 gamut configured as well as Display P3 which lets you work together with Mac users while knowing the colours remain consistent between the two OSes.
Inside you can have up to a Core i7-10875H, and RTX 2080 Super, 32GB of DDR4-2666 and a 2TB SSD and depending on your preference and budget you can forego the mini-LED 4K display for a 144Hz 1080p display. They didn’t skimp on the audio either, the Nahimic sound share feature lets you share your audio with numerous Bluetooth devices simultaneously. Last but not least is the Creator Centre which allows you to make custom system configurations based on the app you plan to use.
The 15.6″ GE66 Raider, which also comes in the Dragonshield model pictured at the top, needs at least an RTX 2070 to drive the 240Hz display which is the least expensive option; if you can afford it there is a 300Hz display is powered by an RTX 2080 Super Max-Q. The 10980HK chip is capable of hitting 5.3GHz in Single-Core Turbo boost mode, with a 10750HK model also available which can hit an even 5.0GHz.
The above will be cooled by MSI’s Cooler Boost 5, which has also allowed MSI to slim the design, the thickest point on the laptop is a mere 23.4mm. As skinny as it is for a high end gaming laptop, they did not skimp on peripheral support as you will have two USB 3.2 Type C ports, one at 20Gbps and one 10Gbps, two Type A’s at 10Gbps and 5Gbps, mini-DP 1.4, HDMI 2.0, SD card reader, audio jack and even a network plug!
The 99.9WHr battery is still going to be drained quickly at full power but the Battery Master software will ensure it remains happy and healthy during the suggested nine hours of life you will get from this beastly Li-ion power source.
Last to sneak up in the announcement is the GS66 Stealth which is quite similar to the Raider as far as hardware goes, both the CPU and GPU as well as the impressively high 300Hz refresh rate on the top model. It is quite different on the outside, with a pure black shell and laser etched design that MSI describes as letting you be a worker by day and gamer by night on the same machine; a bit like an electronic mullet, but in a good way.
The Stealth uses the Cooler Boost Trinity plus, with three fans that sport 67 seperate 0.1mm blades each, and seven heatpipes that will keep your components comfortable in the 18mm thick shell. Like the Creator the Stealth features a proper ThunderBolt 3 port which supports charging and 40Gbps data transfer, along with three USB 3.2 Type A ports and HDMI 2.0. The Stealth boasts that same impressive 99.9Whr battery as the Raider, even with the slimmer design.
We hope to get our hands on one or more of these to be able to provide you with a proper review.