MSI GS63vr 7rf (kabylake) short review

[Lillchillers]

Hi!

 

I'm a Finnish/swedish guy who just bought the gs63vr kabylake FHD model (7RF-218NE) and wanted to share my thoughts. It won't go though everything just talk about whats good and bad.

 

The bad:

 

- The trackpad: I can understand why other reviewers have been complaining about the trackpad. The plastic surface feels cheap and cause more traction than glass. The right and left click is also quite stiff which makes one handed use a little bit harder. The elan touchpad software is ok. This is however not an issue that have bothered me yet.

 

- The speakers:

Yes, the speakers don't have any base and the sound can be quite hollow and thin. How bad you ask, well let's put it like this: I would rather listen to music from my galaxy s6 speaker. This bothers me quite a bit if I want to watch movies. I use headphones/speakers when listening to music.  

 

- Killer wirless card

It sucks! Just like every other laptop with a killer wirless card. Why not use a intel one instead...You can't download something at the same time you wan't to surf the web. If you do the internet dies. Removing all apps and programs from killers and reinstalling drivers made it a little better. This bothers me alot.

 

The meh...., that could have been better:

 

- the screen

The IPS sceen that came with this model is the same panel as in the asus strix gl502vs (LG Philips LP156WF6-SPB6, LGD046F) It has good viewing angles but the colours look "dull and dim". I would not recomend this laptop for photo editing. The display is also quite dark, I'm using it on max brightness all the time.

 

- Battery

There are only one option which is a 65 wh 3 cell battery. It's a shame that they don't have an option to pick a larger battery and skipp the HDD. The battery holds for 4.5- 5 hours on battery-/ecomode while surfing the web or watching movies which is ok but not great.

 

The good:

 

- Build quality

The chassi is solid and feels premium. The laptop is very slim and light. I hate the dragon logo tho. No lightbleed. 

 

- Performance

It performs really well however there are no diffrence from skylake models. Stock Firestrike score is 9700. 

 

- Cooling

After undervolting the cpu by 0,120 V and disable turbo boost the CPU never reaches over 70 degrees celcius which is amazing with a laptop this thin. The GPU max out at 78 degrees celcius. This is with fan mode set to auto mode not sport mode and doing 4 firestrike benchmarks in a row and playing H1Z1 for 1,5 hour. They where both reaching up to 85 at stock at sportmode which sounded like a vacuum machine.

 

- Fan sound

At first I was disapointed because of a high pitched sound comming from the CPU fan which made me want to kill myself. But instead of doing so I did the CPU fix above and now I bearly here the cpu fan at all. The gpu fans is quite loud but far from to high and won't bother anyone with headphones. Im suprised how silent it is reading all the negative reviews. The fans is not running at all while surfing the web or watching movies.

 

I'm happy with the laptop even with its drawbacks. I'm amazed how much power there can be in so small of a package. The premium you pay for portability is in my mind worth every penny.

 

Hope this helps someone!

 

Cheers! 

 

// Lillchillers

 

 

 

[oskarha]

Nice review, I might consider making something like this for my GS43VR (14" version), although it would be very similar.

[Lillchillers]

Thank You!

 

I would advice everyone with a GS63vr, 73vr or 43vr to take a look at this reddit post if you have any problems with your laptop: