NOVEMBER 2019 PCWorld 53TRACKPAD AND KEYBOARD
The trackpad features two “mouse” buttons
without clickpad support (where the entire
trackpad clicks). Because the keyboard
features a 10-key number pad, the trackpad is
correctly offset and centered on the Y button.
It’s fairly smooth but with a slight metallic drag
to its surface. It’s also Microsoft Precision
driver-compatible, so you
get the full complement of
Windows 10 gestures.
The keyboard is Steel
Series-branded and is a
fairly pleasant experience
with decent travel. It is
slightly mushy and doesn’t
feature much tactile click,
but hey, it’s a laptop
keyboard, right? It features
per-key RGB backlighting, and the
key skirts are translucent to
accentuate the lighting. The
lighting is decent, but not
dazzling along the lines of say,
Razer’s keyboards. Like Las Vegas,
it’s way cooler at night.
One complaint we have: The
10-key is styled after a phone
10-key, not the more favored
calculator 10-key, which would
correctly place the 0 key under
your right thumb when entering in
numbers.
MSI claims the GE65 Raider
features “Giant Speakers,” which seems to
mean 5X larger chambers, along with a total
of four speakers. We listened to several songs
on YouTube (because that’s where people
get music today) on the GE65 Raider,
comparing it to HP’s Omen 2XS and Dell’s
XPS 15. We found all to be, well, decent for a
laptop. The GE65 Raider had a slight edge inWe didn’t split the case open on the GE65, but other teardowns
indicate it has two M.2 slots, a 2.5-inch drive bay, and two
accessible memory slots.