MSI is the primary of product naming. Their gaming laptops follow a well-established classification where a random collection of numbers and letters is non at all confusing and certainly like shooting fish in a barrel to recollect. Hence why "GS63VR 6RF" is a great name for a powerful 15-inch notebook.

All kidding bated, the GS63VR 6RF Stealth Pro is the latest in MSI's thin and lite 15-inch gaming laptop series. Like essentially all gaming laptops on the marketplace today, the GS63VR uses current-generation GeForce 10 graphics and Intel Core i7 processors, along with mod technology like Thunderbolt 3 and PCIe storage. The hardware in this laptop is, first and foremost, geared towards performance.

Dissimilar other laptops from MSI and its competitors, though, the GS63VR tries to cram this powerful hardware in a portable chassis. At 17.7mm thick and just 1.8 kg heavy (3.96 pounds), this laptop is noticeably thinner and lighter than other gaming laptops of this screen size, which typically clock in over two.2 kg heavy and 22mm thick. The GP62MVR Leopard Pro from MSI, for example, features largely the aforementioned hardware in a chassis half a kilogram heavier and more than 5mm thicker.

The size and weight advantage of the GS63VR Stealth Pro has a big impact on daily usage. While other xv-inch laptops are largely desk-bound, such equally the Alienware 15 I recently reviewed, the GS63VR can be comfortably taken around and used in multiple locations. And the great affair is that you gain this portability without sacrificing operation.

Speaking of gaming-class hardware, MSI has kitted out my review unit with a GeForce GTX 1060 6GB, an Intel Core i7-6700HQ, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 128 GB SSD paired with a 1TB hard drive. This exact configuration is rare in North America, although a most-identical unit with a 256 GB SSD is bachelor for around $i,680.

At this size, weight, and price, the GS63VR competes strongly with the latest Razer Blade, managing to narrowly beat it in all iii categories. The GS63VR is peradventure more impressive as it packs a larger display into a trunk that's marginally lighter than the Bract, although the footprint of the Blade is smaller thanks to its 14-inch display. Impressively, the GS63VR is considerably more than powerful than the latest MacBook Pro at a similar weight and only a slight increase in chassis thickness.

While the GS63VR is 1 of the most portable 15-inch gaming laptops going around, it'southward still non a small unit. It's 29 percentage larger than the 15-inch MacBook Pro in terms of book, more often than not due to larger bezels, and a modern xiii-inch ultraportable is far more portable in general. With that said, the GS63VR (along with the Razer Bract) offering class-leading functioning at this size, and this form cistron is quite unlike most other gaming laptops.

It should exist noted that to unlock the full power of the GTX 1060 in the GS63VR, you'll need to carry around its massive power brick. This brick is almost twice every bit thick equally the laptop itself and weighs a good for you 580 grams (one.2 lb), which needs to be factored in to portability calculations. Of course, the laptop does piece of work without this power brick, although the 65 Wh internal battery isn't all that impressive, and graphics functioning is significantly reduced on battery ability.

Portability aside, the blueprint of the GS63VR is respectable. The overall manner of this laptop is like to other MSI offerings, with a generous utilise of brushed magnesium alloy around the keyboard and lid. The polish black finish is a definite fingerprint magnet, although visually the design is good if a little bland. There's essentially no 'gamer' elements to exist found, but this laptop looks just similar a range of other machines released over the past few years.

The mostly back pattern is complemented by a small handful of reddish highlights, including the rim effectually the trackpad, several red lines near the rear frazzle vents, the MSI gaming laptop on the chapeau, and the well-hidden power status LED above the keyboard. This subtle highlights approach works well, and fits in with MSI's Stealth branding.

Most of the GS63VR's interesting elements are more functional than artful. The display hinge, for example, folds dorsum slightly more 180 degrees, which is more nearly traditional gaming laptops. I'm not sure why you'd need or want to use the GS63VR with its display parallel to your desk, but it'south an choice here.

The ports included on the left and right edges are too quite close to the front in order to conform the cooling solution. On the left is an Ethernet port, which MSI has managed to cram in, along with an SD card slot, three USB 3.0 ports, and two 3.5mm audio jacks.

On the right is another USB 2.0 port, Thunderbolt three via USB Blazon-C, HDMI 2.0, mini-DisplayPort, and the proprietary power connector. The corporeality of USB ports on this laptop is fantastic, although the position of the power connector and display outputs may inhibit mouse usage in some circumstances.

The cooling solution used on such a sparse yet powerful laptop is always interesting. This laptop needs to cool an 85W GPU and a 45W CPU, and does then with vents along the sides, bottom and top. Having a large vent to a higher place the keyboard is unusual for modern gaming laptops, but a lack of space for large heatsinks means MSI has switched to a cooler that relies on large airflow. In this design, air is drawn in through the top and bottom vents, and exhausted out the sparse vents on the rear and sides. The CPU gets a single fan, while the GPU gets two fans to move more than air.

Underneath the GS63VR has some other interesting inclusion: felt. The lesser of this laptop is covered with this soft cloth, except where intake vents are located, to brand the chassis more than comfortable for lap usage. Felt besides provides some insulation and prevents the GPU from simply channeling all its heat through the metallic body and into your legs.

There are some aspects to this design that I'g not a fan of. The ability push is in a very awkward location at the front of the correct-paw edge, and the seven condition LEDs along the forepart border detract from the stealthy design. Having the caps- and num-lock indicators grouped here with the storage access and Bluetooth indicator lights is specially strange; it'd make more sense if caps- and num-lock lights were on the keyboard itself.

The speakers on the GS63VR are located on the base of operations of the laptop in the front left and right corners. Having speakers that fire straight into your desk-bound is not an ideal solution, and this leads to poor audio quality and a reduction in volume compared to peak-firing speakers. Y'all won't want to game using this laptop'south congenital in speakers; purchase a good ready of headphones or external speakers instead.