Custom PC - UK (2020-02)

M

SI’sGS75Stealth8SG-046UKis the
mostexpensivemachineontestthis
month,witha pricethat’smorethan
£200beyondeventheAlienware.It’stheonly
machineherewith32GBofmemoryaswell,
andit has1TBofsolidstatestorage.It also
comeskittedwitha GeForceRTX 2080 Max-Q
GPU,whichis oneofthemostpowerfulGPUsin
theLabs– justliketheAlienware.
Theother17.3inmachineontest,the
Chillblast,usesthefull-powerRTX2070,
whichhasfewerstreamprocessorsbutfaster
clockspeeds.However,theMSIusestheolder
Corei7-8750H,whichstillhassixcores,but
hasreducedspeedswhencomparedwiththe
Corei7-9750Husedinrivals.
Thatmeansreducedapplication
performance.TheMSIbeattheAlienwarein

MSI GS75 STEALTH

8SG046UK/£2,830 inc VAT

SUPPLIER box.co.uk

the single-threaded image editing test, but it

was at least 35,000 points behind rivals in the

Handbrake benchmark and more than 12,000

points back in the overall result. The CPU isn’t

slow, but you can get more CPU power for less

money elsewhere.

The MSI offers reasonable gaming

performance, though, with Tomb Raider

scores that beat the Chillblast, although

its performance was outpaced by several

competitors in Battlefield V with High DXR.

On the plus side, the use of a Max-Q GPU

has enabled MSI to slim down the chassis to

just 18mm thick. With a weight of just 2.3kg,

this makes it the slimmest and lightest 17.3in

laptop on test this month. The aluminium

panels look and feel good too, although the

bronzeedgingis reallya matterforyourtastes

• it looksgoodtooureyes,butit’snotneutral.
  Elsewhere,thebasepanelis a littleweak,
  althoughthekeyboard’schicletbuttonsare
  goodenoughforgamingandtyping.There’san
  RGBLEDbacklighttoo,althoughkeengamers
  willpreferthetaller,moresolidAlienware
  buttonsortheChillblast’smechanical
  hardware.Thetrackpadis disappointing.It’s
  large,butitspositiontotheright-handsideof
  thebasemeanswristseasilycatchit, andits
  built-inbuttonsaretoosoft.
  Thescreenis a highpointthough.TheMSI’s
  brightnessof376cd/m²is thebestresulton
  test,andthecontrastratioof1,106:1is goodas
  well.ThedeltaE of0.74is fantastic,thecolour
  temperatureis goodandthepanelrendered
  95.5percentofthesRGBgamut.Combine
  thiswiththe144Hzrefreshrateand
  you’vegota displaythatwillmake
  anygamelookgreat.
  Thosedimensionsdon’t
  leavemuchroomfora
  decent battery though.
  The MSI couldn’t make
  it through an hour of
  gaming with the screen at
  full brightness and couldn’t

handle 90 minutesofworkeither.It wasnever

particularlyloudinthermaltests,whichis good,

buttheAlienwareandChillblastwerebotha

littlequieter.

Conclusion

TheMSImayhavea goodscreenand

plentyofgamingpower,butitscheaper

rivalsarequickerinbothgamesand

applications.Alienware’spriceyportable

lookssnazzierandhasa superiorkeyboard,

andtheChillblastischeaperandbetterin

mostdepartments.

VERDICT

A great screen in a slim and light chassis, but

you can get faster performance for much less

money elsewhere.

STEALTH FIGHTER

• 
  

  Good screen quality

  
  


• 
  

  32 GB of RAM

  
  


• 
  

  Slim and light

  
  

STEALTH TAX

• Rivals are faster


• Old processor


• Very expensive

PERFORMANCE

20 / 25

HARDWARE

22 / 25

DESIGN

19 / 25

VALUE

15 / 25

OVERALLSCORE

76 %

SPEC

CPU 2.2GHz Intel Core i7-8750H

Memory 32GB 2666MHz DDR4

Graphics Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q 8GB

Screen 17.3in 1,920 x 1,080 IPS 144Hz

Storage 2 x 512GB M.2 SSD

Networking Gigabit Ethernet,

dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi

Weight 2.3kg

Ports 3 x USB 3.1 Gen 1, 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2

Type-C, 1 x Thunderbolt 3, 1 x mini-DisplayPort,

1 x HDMI, 1 x audio jack, 1 x microSD

Dimensions (mm) 358 x 248 x 18 (W x D x H)

Operating system Windows 10 Home 64-bit

Extras Bluetooth 5

Warranty One year parts and labour return to base

LABS TEST / GAMING LAPTOPS