MSI's New Gaming Laptop: MSI's Answer to the Razer Blade Pro

[fishymamba]

 

MSI tentatively entered the world of thin and light gaming laptops with the GE40. With the newly launched GS70, the company is leaping in with both feet. The 17.3-inch portable is clearly built to take on the Razer Blade Pro,

 

 

So, it is significantly lighter than the Blade Pro(almost 1lb), a tiny bit thinner(.88 inch vs .85 inch), has double the RAM, has more storage, and is $500 cheaper than the Blade Pro(If you compare the cheapest versions of both)

If you can give up the touch pad on the Blade Pro, the MSI is clearly the winner. 

Other features of the GS70 include: 

• Intel i7 4700HQ CPU
• Nvidia GTX 765M GPU
• 16 GB RAM
• Killer wired and wireless networking
• Steelseries designed multicolor keyboard

 

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/08/05/msi-gs70-2013/

Another link with more pictures/info: http://www.slashgear.com/msi-gs70-brings-geforce-gtx-765m-as-new-worlds-thinnest-and-lightest-gaming-laptop-05292744/

 

 

UPDATE:

 

For those of you looking to purchase this, get it right now! Newegg is offering a free LG monitor with this laptop! 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=34-152-443&cm_mmc=SNC-YouTube-_-NETV-_-2pi6iRMQ7Tc-_-34-152-443

 

[RatedBlam]

Looks nice, but is the extra 500 $ just the cost of buying razer or is there something else going on ?

[Emperor_Piehead]

But how good is the screen? If it's anything like the blade 14in vs the ge40 it will be really disappointing.

[Emperor_Piehead]

Looks nice, but is the extra 500 $ just the cost of buying razer or is there something else going on ?

Razer laptops have always been overpriced. This year razer laptops are less overpriced then they used to be.

[fishymamba]

Looks nice, but is the extra 500 $ just the cost of buying razer or is there something else going on ?

 

It is the price difference between the cheapest GS70 model and the cheapest Blade pro model.

 

GS70 starts at $1800. Blade Pro starts at $2300

 

The $2300 Blade Pro includes just a 128GB SSD

The $1800 GS70 includes a 128GB SSD + a 750GB HDD

[RatedBlam]

Razer laptops have always been overpriced. This year razer laptops are less overpriced then they used to be.

And maybe the screen you asked about has something to do with the price

 

It is the price difference between the cheapest GS70 model and the cheapest Blade pro model.

 

GS70 starts at $1800. Blade Pro starts at $2300

 

The $2300 Blade Pro includes just a 128GB SSD

The $1800 GS70 includes a 128GB SSD + a 750GB HDD

Thanks for the responses

[Emperor_Piehead]

And maybe the screen you asked about has something to do with the price

On anandtech when they reviewed the 14in blade it was the worse screen they had ever had and then the msi ge40 had an even worse screen. 

[RatedBlam]

On anandtech when they reviewed the 14in blade it was the worse screen they had ever had and then the msi ge40 had an even worse screen. 

oh wow, so it does have something to do with the screen. Laptops with bad screens seems to be a trend anyways

[Emperor_Piehead]

oh wow, so it does have something to do with the screen. Laptops with bad screens seems to be a trend anyways

Clevo's small form factor laptop is smaller than both of them, is cheaper, and has an IPS screen. 

[criso8]

It is the price difference between the cheapest GS70 model and the cheapest Blade pro model.

 

GS70 starts at $1800. Blade Pro starts at $2300

 

The $2300 Blade Pro includes just a 128GB SSD

The $1800 GS70 includes a 128GB SSD + a 750GB HDD

I think it actually has space for 2 ssds. At least the 1899 model does.

 

I think the weight probably comes from a lighter shell.

[YellowDragon]

Finally something that is not extremely gaudy looking, razer gave alot of companys a kick in the rear in gaming laptop design, death to the 2 inch thick 20lb monster laptops.

[Guest MixedCore]

On anandtech when they reviewed the 14in blade it was the worse screen they had ever had and then the msi ge40 had an even worse screen. 

Yeah I remember that being one of the most pointed out problems of both, especially for the MSI, by reviewers across the board.

[TheRetiredSlave]

The 17" Blade's pricing has come down since it originally hit the market. Didn't it start out at $2800, with only a GTX 555M? Now we have a higher tier of GPU at a lower price. (I believe that it also has two mSATA slots, but I haven't seen any reviewers open up the 17" model).

 

Anywhoo, competition is always good.. It forces companies to push the boundaries of what they can do, and also push the boundaries of how low they can make the price. The end result for the consumer is that we're left with better products at lower prices, which is awesome.

[Emperor_Piehead]

Yeah I remember that being one of the most pointed out problems of both, especially for the MSI, by reviewers across the board.

Anandtech is pretty high up on the reviewing of monitors so I was using them as reference. If anyone wants to know how bad these screens could be(hopefully not), but there slim counterparts had issues scroll down to the 2nd half of the page. http://www.anandtech.com/show/7144/msi-ge40-review-a-slim-gaming-notebook/5

[Emperor_Piehead]

The 17" Blade's pricing has come down since it originally hit the market. Didn't it start out at $2800, with only a GTX 555M? Now we have a higher tier of GPU at a lower price. (I believe that it also has two mSATA slots, but I haven't seen any reviewers open up the 17" model).

 

Anywhoo, competition is always good.. It forces companies to push the boundaries of what they can do, and also push the boundaries of how low they can make the price. The end result for the consumer is that we're left with better products at lower prices, which is awesome.

$2800 for the gtx 555m

$2500 for the gtx 660m

$2300 for the gtx 765m

 

So they are getting better pricing, but are not at a competitive price tag.

[eoso]

Clevo's small form factor laptop is smaller than both of them, is cheaper, and has an IPS screen. 

 

Which one?

OT: The GS70 seems like a viable competitor to the blade, but the ge40 falls short compared to the blade 14.

 

Edit: messed up on grammar.

Edited August 5, 2013 by whysochangry

[Emperor_Piehead]

Which one?

OT: The GS70 seems like a viable competitor to the blade, but the ge40 falls short compared to the blade 14.

 

Edit: messed up on grammar.

it's not as thin, but I would accept that over the awful screen. http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np7330-clevo-w230st-p-6163.html

[Guest MixedCore]

Finally something that is not extremely gaudy looking, razer gave alot of companys a kick in the rear in gaming laptop design, death to the 2 inch thick 20lb monster laptops.

Exactly, just as with many other companies with Razer you could say you also pay for the name, but even so from what I know they were the ones that first thought of just putting as much power as possible in a slim envelope. Also [relating to the price difference] has anybody seen the MSI's power brick? I remember Razer talking a lot about how they tried to get theirs as compact as possible, because if not it would ,even with such a slim system, destroy the ideea of portability.

[fishymamba]

I think it actually has space for 2 ssds. At least the 1899 model does.

 

I think the weight probably comes from a lighter shell.

 

The $2000 model of the GS70 has two 128GB Msata SSDs in Raid 0 + a 1 TB SSD. 

Not full size SSDs, but they should still be fast.

[ShiverMePenguins]

Clevo's small form factor laptop is smaller than both of them, is cheaper, and has an IPS screen. 

 

mind giving a link to this small form factor clevo?

 

[Emperor_Piehead]

mind giving a link to this small form factor clevo?

 

It's 3 posts up. It says sager, but they are just rebranding it. Digital storm and origin also have the laptop, but there versions are more expensive.

[Esivo]

Is that the one Linu's checked out at Computex? Cause I really liked that slick one.

[TheRetiredSlave]

So they are getting better pricing, but are not at a competitive price tag.

Correct, but they're moving in the right direction.

The original Blade was pretty much the first of its kind, and the second gen also didn't have any competition. I believe that the GS70 was released after the new Blade Pro, so the even the 3rd generation of Blade had been designed and initially released without any direct competition in the market.

 

Now that there's direct competition in the market, Razer will be forced to adapt their pricing or create a reason why their model is worth the extra money. I'm going to assume that the next generation with Maxwell and Broadwell will be even cheaper than the current gen, especially if they're losing sales to the GS70..

[ShiverMePenguins]

It's 3 posts up. It says sager, but they are just rebranding it. Digital storm and origin also have the laptop, but there versions are more expensive.

oh, so it doesn't have a ips screen, almost a whole inch thicker, has much worse battery life (estimated), comes with 8 gigs of ram, a non illuminated keyboard, a smaller screen, no ssd, no killer networking card, and no operating system?

 

i also took the time to bring everything up to a closer spec sheet of the ge40 and got this. 1740$ with cash discount.

[TheCroaker]

Finally something that is not extremely gaudy looking, razer gave alot of companys a kick in the rear in gaming laptop design, death to the 2 inch thick 20lb monster laptops.

besides the look part I dont care necessarily how thick laptops are, as long as theres enough reason to go thicker,like better screen or cooling, that shows a significant differents, I just hope that companies dont really limit what they can do with the tech to gain these form factors