Don’t let the name fool you — there may be nothing stealthy about this machine.

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 ponderous, and whereas it lacks the mild 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 in opposition to the machine — the GS76 was fairly mild for what it was, and the GS77 has introduced the Stealth collection again according to 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 virtually the similar weight as MSI’s extra highly effective GE76 Raider.

One can see why MSI might have needed to go larger 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 — one in all the strongest 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 screen.

However the new girth takes away a serious 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 facet, the touchpad is uncomfortably stiff, the battery life isn’t good, and the machine is just too large and too heavy to reliably convey wherever. What we’re left with is a pc that asks lots of the similar compromises as the strongest gaming laptops on the market with out bringing the similar distinctive body charges.

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

The first benefit the Stealth has now’s its value. My check unit is presently listed for $2,899. To get this GPU in the GE76 Raider (which has a good 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 an entire $3,399.99. I’ve additionally been capable of finding GS77 fashions for as little as $1,799 (for a 144Hz 1080p display screen, an RTX 3060, and 16GB of RAM), whereas the least expensive Blade on Razer’s website is $2,799 and the twelfth Gen Raider begins at $2,299. Nonetheless, $2,899 is hardly a finances value, and it’s price understanding what compromises you’re making for that decrease value.

First, the side of the GS77 that’s an unquestionable enchancment over final 12 months: construct high quality. I’ve had gripes about MSI’s chassis in the previous, 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 choose 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, nonetheless, 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 the finest audio on the 17-inch market, my video games nonetheless sounded fairly good. I had no bother with the microphones, which help AI noise cancellation, and the webcam has a bodily shutter swap on the facet for some peace of thoughts.

That mentioned, I actually can’t see myself utilizing this machine as a day by 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 because of this. The arrow keys, particularly, really feel small.

And the touchpad is the place I actually had bother. 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 nicely.) 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 after I’m testing for productiveness use circumstances, as a common coverage) due to how a lot I hated navigating with it. These aren’t unheard-of compromises in relation to 17-inch gaming laptops, however they do underscore how little I’d suggest this to double as a day by day driver.

In the case of body charges, how do these specs stack up? With all sliders maxed out, Crimson Useless 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 bother 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 definitely an enchancment over the outcomes from final 12 months’s mannequin, they usually present that you shouldn’t have bother operating most trendy video games at QHD decision, although they’re under what you can get out of pricier Core i9 and RTX 3080 machines. There’s a disappointing omission, although: the GS77 doesn’t help MUX. This element (which each the Raider and the Blade do have) permits laptops to help adaptive options like G-Sync and may also result in a considerable efficiency distinction. It’s an odd factor to exclude at this value level and one thing I’d think about many of us who’re prepared to pay $2,900 received’t be eager to compromise on.

In the case of different workloads, the Stealth was extra aggressive. It accomplished our five-minute, 33-second 4K Adobe Premiere Professional video export check 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 carried out so. Final 12 months’s 3070 GS76 was 12 seconds slower. (These aren’t meant to be apples-to-apples comparisons, as totally different variations of Premiere can change over time; they’re extra meant to present you an concept of how lengthy an export would possibly take.)

The GS77 additionally beat the GS76, in addition to the Blade and different artistic workstations like the Gigabyte Aero 16, on the Puget Methods benchmark for Premiere Professional, which checks dwell playback and export efficiency at 4K and 8K. (It did lose to the Raider by quite a bit). 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 certainly not as glitchy because it has been in the previous few years, which is an encouraging signal. I had no drawback adjusting fan profiles and such with the preinstalled applications. I did run into one glitch the place the display screen began turning off after I tried to run video games (an issue on a gaming laptop computer). MSI despatched me a alternative unit, which didn’t exhibit that drawback. Nonetheless, it’s not the type 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 received 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 similar workload) is a troublesome tablet to swallow.

If you’re wanting purely at body charges on paper, this laptop computer is a tremendous purchase. It might probably run every kind of video games at QHD decision with out burning your basement down.

However the Stealth moniker, and the manner the line has traditionally been positioned, would possibly suggest to some folks that this machine is an efficient choose for extra than simply gaming. It’s not; MSI’s modifications to the Stealth line have made it extra highly effective at the expense of different options that made it, nicely Stealthy. It’s too large and heavy to be constantly carrying round in a briefcase or backpack, the battery life isn’t usable for day by day work away from an outlet, and the keyboard and touchpad simply wouldn’t be my alternative to make use of on daily basis. That is now not actually a transportable various to the Raider. It’s only a extra inexpensive model of the Raider.

Which is ok, 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 shall be price the cash for folks purchasing on this vary.