Chinese computer company MSI has produced a series of impressive computing devices throughout the years and they have definitely established themselves as one of the front-runners in the gaming world. Among those interesting products is the MSI GE73 Raider 8RF – a gaming laptop that attempts to accomplish more than gaming.
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| MSI GE73 Raider 8RF Review: Bulky And Future-Proof |
Is it prepared enough to cover the absence of a high-end desktop? Let’s find out.
DESIGN:
Let’s start with the obvious: this computing device is housed in a huge, 17-inch brushed metal body that will surely capture the eyes of hardcore gamers out there. Unfortunately, its size does come with a hefty amount of weight that might cause your back to break down when put inside a bag along with your personal belongings. Honestly, we don't really care about the weight since it is set to give more than we wished for. More on that later.
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| MSI GE73 Raider 8RF Logo |
The monitor’s back panel displays the MSI logo being sandwiched by two inverted acute angles, which are lit up by RGB “Mystic Light.” To our taste, a solid color will do for the rear panel design instead of the RGB, but MSI could have chosen the latter to match its keyboard motif. It's pretty fascinating that MSI lets you customize their behavior to your liking through a software that we're discussing below.
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| MSI Logo and Mystic Light |
The right side of the main surface holds the power button, the SteelSeries Engine 3 (SSE3) button for pre-installed keyboard manager application, and the Cooler Boost button for maximizing the fan speed to cool down the notebook’s temperature. The extra two buttons won't bother you as they have this subtle design below the power button.
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| SteelSeries RGB Keyboard |
Speaking of keyboard, the GE73 lays a SteelSeries rubber keys that, as we’ve mentioned above, wears an RGB glow. When the keyboard lighting is switched off, the keys are outlined by white accent and through the SSE3 software, you may choose from nine modes, four effects to toggle the keyboard’s 24 adjustable zones.
See Also: MSI Philippines Launches NVIDIA GeForce RTX-powered Gaming Laptops
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| Apps |
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| Mystic Light Config |
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| Per Key RGB Keyboard Config |
In terms of typing experience, the GE73 won’t let you down as its keys are comfortable to press. Although the most essential functions are scattered in distance, the layout is easy to get used to.
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| Per Key RGB Keyboard |
Down south is a trackpad that is favored to the left. Its glossy surface helps in crawling the cursor swifter, but the left- and right-click buttons spoil the fun due to its flimsy feeling.
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| Trackpad |
GE73’s left edge holds the ports for LAN, HDMI, mini-display, USB 3.0, Type-C, and audio input/output. The other side, meanwhile, hosts two USB ports, card reader, and power connector. Both sides are accompanied by ventilators that extend up to the back.
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| Ports |
To wrap up this section, we love the laptop’s physical features (except for its bulk) and the RGB Mystic Light theme – and how it managed to remain sleek despite its gaming reputation. The placement of ports, which is favored to the left edge of the device, is also lovable since we don’t want to meddle with our mouse’s movements during game time should MSI had chosen to make the right edge the busy one.
DISPLAY:
MSI boasts GE73’s anti-glare screen, a 1920 x 1080 resolution, and a 120 Hz frames-per-second rate. With this kind of display on board, every visual challenge seems manageable.
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| MSI GE73 Raider 8RF |
Using it outdoor, under the daylight, the laptop’s brightness could get through it without a sweat. We watched American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace to measure the display’s colors as this particular TV series has played with the color grading intensively to portray the 90s era.
Also Read: MSI Unveils New GS75 Stealth and Full Gaming Laptop Lineup with NVIDIA RTX
Unfortunately, the colors are a bit more desaturated than it’s meant to be. This deficiency also affects the video and photo editors since this task requires more accurate colors on the monitor. We’re holding the Anti-Glare technology responsible for this drawback, though.
In games, we’re assisting that information down in the Performance section to show you if GE73’s NVIDIA GTX 1070 8GB GPU did well.
PERFORMANCE:
Upon holding the GE73 for the first time, it’s easier to tag it as one of the top liners in its department. Its full specs are listed down below:
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| CPU Information |
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| GPU Information |
MSI doesn’t want you to stop right there. Despite having an impressive built-in hardware, the GE73 lets you upgrade RAM, hard drive, and SSD smoothly with its user-friendly layout below the device. We played Rise of the Tomb Raider, NBA 2K19, and Mortal Kombat X, and ran benchmarks on PC Mark 10, 3D Mark Time Spy to measure the GE73’s hardware. See below what we found out:
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| Games FPS |
As you can see, the GE73 did very well in the Rise of the Tomb Raider and the 120 frames-per-second was perfectly fit for the game. This setting is also compatible with first-person shooter games. However, the NBA 2K19 prefers up to 60 frames-per-second only, thus the slide of the benchmarking result. Overall, having the GE73 set to 120Hz refresh rate could have advantages, but it can fluctuate in some games.
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| 3D Mark Result |
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| PC Mark 10 Result |
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| Cinebench R15 Result |
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| CPU-Z Result |
Given the configuration, the GE73 is a surefire top-notcher. In addition, MSI lets you add more power with its user-friendly layout at the bottom just in case you're into adding more RAM to its built-in configuration. That said, such specs require more power, and therefore draining the battery faster. When unplugged, this laptop can run up to 40 to 50 minutes when playing high-profile games.
Its built-in speakers did pretty well, too, thanks to GE73’s Hi-Res technology by Sony. For some reason, playing music, games, and movies with heavy bass lines didn’t need to be plugged into an external speaker to experience a more immersive sound quality. We were playing through the built-in speakers in the 80% volume and we’ve already had a decent sonance for our bass-dependent music (Another One Bites The Dust) and movie (Transformers).
VERDICT:
Since the MSI GE73 Raider 8RF technically hits every tune right on the spot, we could say that this laptop can serve the widest bracket of computer users in the field. From gaming, video editing, media playback, down to daily workload at the office, it’s obvious based on the benchmark results how the GE73 could easily flex its muscle to be whatever you need it to be.
However, for gamers who loves to travel with their gaming kit, this laptop’s weight, bulk, and its hefty price tag of Php144,995 would make you think twice. Not to mention the device’s short battery life, defeating the purpose of it being a portable computer. Nevertheless, given its specs, the GE73 Raider 8RF is definitely worth purchasing if you're trying to look for a future-proof device that would last for the next three to four years.
MSI GE73 RAIDER 8RF Specs (Philippines):
- Windows 10 Operating System
- Intel Core i7-8750H Processor
- 17.3-inch Full HD Display (1920 x 1080)
- NVIDIA GTX 1070 8GB GPU
- 16GB DDR4 2400 MHz RAM
- 256GB SSD + 1TB HDD Storage Space
- 120Hz Refresh Rate
- Bluetooth v5.0