MSI GL65 Leopard 10SFK-062 15.6" FHD 144Hz 3ms Thin Bezel Gaming Laptop Intel Core i7-10750H RTX2070 16GB 512GB NVMe SSD Win 10

Update 9-10-20 - I've spent close to a couple months with this laptop now. After I received the replacement (bad fan bearing in CPU fan) I've been extremely happy with my purchase. I'd recommend installing the Offline Dragon Center utility as it seems more stable than the Windows Store version. Otherwise, it does everything I wanted. Don't expect mobile versions of the RTX 3000 series until at least next year, so if you want a good RTX mobile laptop right now rather than 4+ months from now, this laptop is still your best bang for the buck.Update 8-06-20 - After a couple weeks with my second GL-65, I'm very pleased with the laptop. If you have a defective laptop, don't be afraid to send it back to Amazon for replacement if it hasn't been a month yet.Update 7-22-20 - I've encountered my first problem; the left fan (CPU) appears to have a bad bearing, and when it spins up in the 4000-5000 RPM range, it will make a clicking noise. It gets worse when the laptop is tilted, making me believe it's indeed a bad bearing. These things happen and I'm okay with this as long as MSI gives me a decent path to a repair. Currently I opened a case with MSI to see if they'll just ship me the replacement fan (I repair laptops from time to time) to save the time and money that would be required shipping the laptop back. Failing that, I'll be requesting a replacement on Amazon.Update 7-22-20 : MSI support contacted me and informed me they could send a replacement fan, but I'd have to pay $10 to have it shipped to me. That seems reasonable, but I don't like that I'd have to pay to repair something I just bought. I'm a little tempted to dock the laptop a star, but I'll wait to see if the replacement has any issues first. I decided to simply return the laptop to Amazon for a replacement. It only took around 10 minutes and a replacement is on the way.Original Review:I've been laptop hunting for a couple months for a laptop that can (likely) play Cyberpunk 2077 when it comes out later this year. I came down to a handful of requirements:1.) GTX 1660 TI, RTX 2060 or RTX 2070. AMD mobile cards are unproven at the moment, but the 5600m came in slightly faster than the GTX 1660 TI, so I wasn't ruling it out. It's just rare right now.2.) Either an AMD Ryzen 7/9 CPU or 10th gen Intel i7/i9.I was very close to buying the ASUS ROG G14, but the RTX 2060 MaxQ runs at 1660 TI levels and is the least powerful RTX card that exist. Ray Tracing is a token feature when it will barely run on it. I also came close to buying the Asus G15, and even closer to the HP Omen 15 since it had a RTX 2070 and appears to be a solid laptop.Then I found this laptop. The reviews are great, the thermal system is robust, the monitor is solid and the specs are perfect for this price range. ($1400-$1600)Pros:1.) One of the best i7-10750H + RTX 2070 laptops on the market. It's actually designed to handle the thermals of these two components.2.) The RTX 2070 is a 115watt mobile spec, meaning it's not a handicapped MaxQ part that runs closer to a RTX 2060. That means you have a full 8GB frame buffer and better RTX support.3.) The i7-10750H, while outclassed by the 3rd gen Ryzen 5/7/9 is an unlocked CPU, and this laptop allows you to fully manipulate it once unlocked in the BIOS. This is probably the best Intel mobile CPU you can currently have for gaming, as the i5 series is a little weak with only 4 cores and no "K" level manipulation.4.) The keyboard is quite nice. I immediately disabled the rainbow RGB and turned it all green. I like how it looks with solid colors. The trackpad is fine and I love the dedicated buttons rather than the silly "Mono-slab" popularized by Apple. Dedicated buttons are almost always better for power users. I use a USB wireless mouse anyway, but I appreciate the buttons.5.) The build quality, while very plasticy, is good. I was able to remove the bottom panel to install an extra 1TB SSD and was impressed by the excellent heat pipe design and layout.4.) Neither RAM module is soldered on, so you can upgrade to 32GB if you really want. Currently 16GB is ideal, which it comes with.5.) The MSI software, while clunky, is effective once you get used to it. I appreciate the "Mode switch" keys. Silent mode is impressive, in that it manages to keep the fans reasonable at ~3000 RPM while only losing 10-20% of your FPS at worst.6.) Performance in games is excellent. Red Dead Redemption 2 plays excellently at max settings, 1080p. Warhammer Total War 2 also plays great maxed out (maybe step back some of the excessive effects for 60FPS+) and I'm sure the rest of my games will do fine too.7.) The monitor/lid is sturdy, has very thin bezels for the top and sides. The bottom bezel is larger, but not bad. The webcam is tiny and actually there, something the Asus G14 is missing. The 144hz refresh rate is impressive and the screen hits 320 nits brightness, pretty close to ideal. There is some moderate backlight bleed, but this shouldn't be an issue in games.Cons:1.) Although it's not terrible, the MSI logo on the front lights up with the monitor's backlight and can't be turned off. It looks kind of cheesy and I wish it was just a solid lid with minimal logo.2.) The design is moderately gamery, with the bottom being a strange mess of design (but effective vents) and the lid "ribs" being a little cheesy. I think they really strengthen the lid however, so I won't complain too much. I like HP's 2020 refresh Omen 15 and Asus G14 designs better.3.) Playing with stock balanced mode settings, the fans can get very loud and the i7 CPU will happily run up to 95C and throttle. This is more of an Intel issue, as they have been falling behind in die shrinks compared to AMD, and suffering thermal issues as a result. However, I'll touch on this later, as it can be fixed.4.) It's a little heavy, but within reason. 5.1 pounds for the laptop and a big ~2.1 pound charger adds a lot of weight to your bag. I definitely notice it even though my previous laptop was 4.8 lbs with a 1 pound charger.5.) The glossy finish is a fingerprint magnet. It'll annoy you if you don't like smudges.6.) Battery life is towards the bottom of most laptops, but you can improve it by disabling CPU boost. I get between 3-5 hours with normal web usage, and only an hour if gaming. You've got to tinker with it to pull 5 hours out. (Disable CPU boost, Max Battery mode, dim screen)7.) Although this is in the top range of ray tracing capable mobile cards, expect to be a little disappointed as Nvidia jumped the gun and needed another generation to truly make RTX enticing. You pretty much have to use DLSS 2.0 to make it usable, otherwise, expect unplayable framerates or lowered settings. If you are really wanting an excellent ray tracing capable laptop, you'll have to wait until next year when the next generation of AMD and Nvidia cards become available in mobile form and likely have much better ray tracing performance.8.) The speakers, while they can be cranked loud, sound tinny and have no bass and little midrange. I raised bass all the way to the top in the included Nahimic program and it kind of helps, but there's definitely something wrong with the design here. All the MSI marketing about "giant speakers" makes me disappointed by this second thought implementation. If you want good sound, hook up speakers, a HDMI display with sound or headphones.Overall, I'd recommend this laptop to anyone who wants to do some mobile PC gaming. It's durable and has great specs. The thermals are excellent for a laptop in this class, and it's an overall excellent value.Tips:1.) The CPU in any gaming laptop, AMD or Intel, will add unnecessary heat, as usual the GPU is the bottleneck. Try disabling CPU boost mode, and tinker with it. You can use Intel's XTU or Throttlestop if you're an advanced user, or even easier, search in Google for, "Disable processor boost mode to prolong your battery life" and try "Disabled" mode or play with settings until you find a happy place between thermals and performance. Some games run fine with disabled turbo, some don't.2.) The BIOS has an unclock mode to enable undervolting, overclocking, etc. Use with caution or not at all if you aren't very familiar with this. To enable it, press ALT + RIGHT-CTRL + SHIFT together then press F2 while in BIOS. This should enable the advanced mode. Again, be careful here.3.) Make sure to update all the drivers, as out of the box they are a mix of late 2019 and early 2020. There are new drivers available for almost every component. You can either get them directly from Windows Update, MSI's website, or Intel.

I was originally looking for a decent gaming laptop, something I can bring with me and play while spending time with my loved ones. I never expected the sucker to be stronger than my desktop rig! Originally, I had planned on upgrading my desktop with the new nvidia 3000 series but now I'm content.Now for the juicy, seasoned, succulent details. Food remarks are weird for tech reviews, right? Wrong, because with the amount of power this bad boy has it'll cook anything in the way of those heat exhaust fans. Friends have told me, "there's now way that thing has a full rtx 2070 in there. It HAS to be throttled back." Wrong. The amount of heat this thing dishes out is enough to make my ever freezing, anemic girlfriend comfortably warm. That's saying a lot. Not so much as con as to be expected but just to point out the obvious, where shorts at the least or make sure there's some thick material between the Leopard and your skin. And gentlemen? Keep it away from your junk area.Now, for the reason it's putting out so much heat, starting from the top.Game 1: Hades.Supergiant's colorfully bombastic and wonderfully artistic game was the perfect warm up for the Leopard. With battery alone, it ran it decent but with a noticeable dip in performance while maintaining the high visual quality. But plug in that power supply and the heavens themselves seem to reach down and fill the Leopard with holy powers, purging the evil in all who gaze upon it. It's fantastic, the screen butter smooth at 144hz and making me laugh manically as I stared in awe at how well it performed. So, completely satisfied, I moved onto putting it through it's first REAL task.Game 2: Monster Hunter: World w/ IceborneWas a little worried when it first loaded up and I noticed my character was slightly blurry, but that's just from the resolution scaling (I think) than anything else. Because going back to settings, I made sure everything was on high and/or max. Loading up into the Selliana gatthering hub, everything looked great, frames were smooth as Hades and the graphics were top notch. But let's be real, that wasn't pushing it to it's limits. Not really. I did what every Hunter does in their sacred quest of slaughtering innocent hulking beasts minding their own business.I travelled to the Ancient Forest and slayed the shit out some poor Great Jagras, all for the sake of limit testing. Everything was smooth, creatures in the distance flapped their wings without pixelating. My cloak trailed behind me casting shadows as I ran. The crisp outlines of the grass and leaves brushing against my skin or bobbing gently in the wind was when I realized that the power the Leopard has is beyond incredible. When that Jagras died on the shore, I thanked it for it's sacrifice for progress and exited my game for quiet contemplating.Monster Hunter is a poorly optimized game. It does NOT run well on most people computers, and certainly not 60 frames per second. The Leopard roared at the shitty engine implantation and forced the game itself to bend to it's will, forcing it run better than it had any right to. But, there's one more game I wanted to test, just in time too...Game 3: Baldur's Gate: 3Wow. Just... wow. Character look fantastic, the moment to moment character interactions looked like cutscenes with the excellent amount of mo-cap and an extraordinary high quality voice acting. Even in Early Access, it looks fantastic and runs melted butter smooth. Except for when there's bugs and right now there's a lot of 'em, but no fault on the computer itself.I can't say anything bad about it, other than the speakers but c'mon, that's what headphones are for! They don't sound cheap or anything, just sound isn't as good without some bass and it's a laptop so don't expect a surround sound experience. Honestly, I just giggle and appreciate the fact that the LED lit keyboard is in itself a audio visualizer. Totally unneccessary features like that just goes to show how much fun this thing is and I haven't had my inner child squeal in such excitement since the day I bought my first 4k TV 3 years ago when it was on sale.Leopard > 4k TVNot much else to say after all that. If you have the money and were hesitating on whether it was worth the purchase price, I'll tell you they should be charging more and I wouldn't blame them. This has the power of something that should be almost $1700 or more, but you're getting a steal so strike while you can!