MSI GS73VR Stealth Pro 4K review: Big-screen gaming with a couple misfires
Though MSI put together a generally competent slim gaming laptop, the 4K-resolution screen and overall build quality are out of sync with the rest of the package and price.
MSI's Stealth Pro 4K is a thin gaming laptop with a nice 4K-resolution 17.3-inch display. There's plenty to like inside and out including an Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor and Nividia GTX 1060 graphics and great connectivity options, but the system really targets gamers and graphics pros who want a big, accurate, high-res display in a slim chassis.
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
The configuration I tested comes in at $2,300, though if you hunt around you might be able to find it for a little less. A similar configuration in the UK sells for about £1,900 and in Australia for AU$3,400. That's a far cry from the near $4,000 Razer wants for its similarly thin 17-inch Blade Pro, though that laptop is significantly better in almost all aspects.
On the other hand, if you don't mind some extra thickness and/or don't need the 4K display, you can find other less expensive options like HP's 17-inch Omen and the Asus ROG Strix GL753 that can match or surpass the MSI's performance.
MSI GS73VR Stealth Pro 4K
Price as reviewed | $2,300 |
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Display size/resolution | 17.3-inch 3,840x2,160 display |
PC CPU | 2.8GHz Intel Core i7-7700HQ |
PC memory | 16GB DDR4 SDRAM 2,400MHz |
Graphics | 6GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 |
Storage | 512GB SSD + 2TB HDD |
Networking | 802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 4.0 |
Operating system | Windows 10 Home (64-bit) |
And not only do those laptops compete on price and performance, they feel better constructed than the MSI. The Stealth Pro is a nice-looking laptop with a brushed aluminum body and a relatively unobtrusive logo that illuminates when you open the lid. It's reasonably lightweight, too, at 5.4 pounds (2.4 kg). But pick it up and start using it and its looks start to tarnish.
Flexible, but not in a good way
In general, I don't get too hung up on whether a laptop lid or chassis is a little too flexible. When I call it out in a review, such as with the LG Gram, it's usually because it was particularly noticeable during use, and that's the case here. Just while typing I could feel the keyboard deck giving under pressure from my palms. And when I picked up the laptop with the screen open and my hand wrapped around the back, my fingers pressed into the bottom of the lid causing the screen to bend in.
The bending has no bearing on the performance of the system, but if I'm paying $2,300 for a laptop, it shouldn't bend and flex like that. It speaks to the overall perceived quality of the laptop and with the 4K display being a chunk of what you're paying for here, maybe the lid should be reinforced so as to not bend so easily. I mean, aluminum chassis are nice, but I'd rather have plastic if it means protecting the screen and components and delivering a more comfortable experience.
Also, because of how thin the laptop is -- only 0.8 inch or 20.3 mm -- there isn't much space for airflow to keep its components cool. As soon as you launch a game or do anything else demanding, the Stealth Pro's fans kick in. The fan noise is noticeable, and if you're using the system's speakers, you'll have to crank the audio to hear clearly over the sound.
Unfortunately, you might not like what you hear once you crank the speakers. They aren't the worst I've heard recently (that honor goes to the Asus ROG G752VS), but music sounds thin and hollow. Even after tweaking the included Nahimic 2 audio software, I couldn't get music or movies to sound particularly good. However, when using the game-type-specific presets, audio did sound better with games. Still, you'll probably want to invest in a good headset or external speakers.
Here's the good news
The rest of the laptop's features are actually pretty good. The SteelSeries keyboard delivers a comfortable and responsive typing experience, and RGB LED lighting in three zones is fun and useful. The touchpad is decent, too, though you'll want to tune the sensitivity to help with palm rejection and cursor jumpiness.
MSI's Dragon Center software groups together MSI's utilities for doing things like monitoring performance and adjusting display color along with third-party apps like the aforementioned Nahimic 2 and SteelSeries Engine 3 for controlling the keyboard lighting and creating key macros.
If you're plan is to use this as part of a desktop setup, you should be pretty happy with its connectivity. Along with one USB 2.0 and three USB 3.0 ports, Ethernet and an SD card slot, you'll find mini DisplayPort and HDMI 2.0 outputs, a USB 3.1 Type-C with Thunderbolt 3 and separate mic and audio output jacks.
High-res or high detail?
While the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 card in the Stealth Pro is VR-ready and plenty good enough for games new and old, it can't effectively handle playing at the screen's native resolution with detail settings at ultra or high. You can set it to 4K and back the details down to medium and get playable (and enjoyable) frame rates or you can drop the resolution to 1,920x1,080 and crank up the detail settings, but you can't really do both. Of course, this is going to depend on the games you're playing, but generally speaking, the best experience won't be at 4K with high detail settings.
The 4K display is good for photo and video editing, however, and MSI calibrates the screen and lets you easily switch between sRGB and 100 percent Adobe RGB color spaces. If this is something that you need, then the MSI is worth checking out.
Battery life is never particularly good on gaming laptops (you can only really expect about an hour when playing a game), but the Stealth Pro is shorter than most. In our streaming video battery rundown test it reached 3 hours and 28 minutes.
It's a mixed bag
Assuming you don't care about the flimsy build quality, the MSI Stealth Pro 4K still isn't the easiest to recommend. There's a lot to like about it, especially its 4K display, connectivity options and thin body, but it comes at a higher price than competing systems that might be a little thicker. Plus, its graphics card can't effectively push all those pixels for games. But, if the display and slim design are must-haves, the Stealth Pro is worth checking out.
System Configurations
MSI GS73VR-7RF Stealth Pro | Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 2.8GHz Intel Core i7-7700HQ; 16GB DDR4 SDRAM 2,400MHz; 6GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060; 512GB SSD + 2TB HDD |
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Asus ROG G701V | Microsoft Windows 10 Pro (64-bit); 2.9GHz Intel Core i7-7820HK; 64GB DDR4 SDRAM 2,800MHz; 8GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080; (2) 512GB SSD RAID 0 |
HP Omen (17-inch) | Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 2.6GHz Intel Core i7-6700HQ; 16GB DDR4 SDRAM 2,400MHz; 8GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070; 256GB SSD + 1TB HDD |
Asus G752V | Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 2.9GHz Intel Core i7-7820HK; 16GB DDR4 SDRAM 2,800MHz; 8GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070; (2) 256GB SSD RAID 0 + 1TB HDD |
Asus ROG Strix GL753VE-DS74 | Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 2.8GHz Intel Core i7-7700HQ; 16GB DDR4 SDRAM 2,400MHz; 4GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050Ti; 256GB SSD + 1TB HDD |