We can see why MSI describes this laptop as a crossover laptop for both professional and gaming use. The MSI GS77 Stealth has long been the portable choice for the top gamers at MSI, and while that fact was questionably true with last year’s 5.4-pound GS76 Stealth, this year’s 0.79-inch-thick, 6.17-pound GS77 has effectively put that idea into the spotlight. You will check our article on MSI GS77 Stealth review. Although this laptop lacks the LED grids and light strips found on other ostentatious gaming laptops, its RGB keyboard still makes it abundantly clear that its primary purpose is gaming. This isn’t necessarily a major criticism of the product because the GS77 has brought the Stealth series back into line with the rest of the 17-inch market and the GS76 was already quite light for what it was. It now weighs a bit more than Razer’s Blade 17 and Asus’ Zephyrus S17. Additionally, it weighs nearly as much as MSI’s more potent GE76 Raider.
MSI GS77 Stealth review: Design
With its all-black exterior, the MSI Stealth GS77 once more resembles an intimidating stealth fighter. Only in the correct lighting is the glossy emblem on the lid visible. The only color is provided by the weird, individually lighted RGB keys inside and the silver MSI logo below the screen, unless you want to go completely black and turn them off. It’s fantastic. And it’s well constructed. Even though it contains a 17.3-inch screen, the lid barely flexes when turned. Despite not being the stiffest, the hinge provides the screen with reliable support. The IPS screen on the MSI Stealth GS77 itself boasts a true 4K, UHD, 3840 x 2160 resolution and a refresh rate of 120Hz. The Windows Desktop is wonderfully sharp and clear, and it is bright, well-lit, and sharp. We found the games to be impressive. There are other SKUs with faster, lower resolution panels, but the 120Hz refresh rate keeps everything fluid, and the quick pixel response time minimizes ghosting. Thanks to contrast, details are still visible in dark areas, but they can disappear in particularly light areas. Color gradients have very little banding, and monochromatic transitions have even less. Videos produced for multimedia platforms had great motion, vibrant colors, and good contrast. We were deeply moved.
Keyboard and touchpad
Steelseries’ per-key RGB gaming keyboard is included with the MSI Stealth GS77. Standard shortcut buttons and a dedicated numpad are present on the keyboard. The keys are soft, responsive, and provide good feedback, making for a satisfying typing experience. When working in offices or cafes, there is a lot of travel and it provides a very quiet typing experience. Combinations of the Fn keys can be used for additional shortcuts on the top row of function keys. The touchpad is simple to use and properly recognizes and responds to multi-touch gestures. Additionally, the MSI Stealth GS77 has a fingerprint scanner next to the touchpad that Windows Hello can use in place of the IR webcam, making signing in to the laptop as simple as unlocking your phone.
Display
We’d want to go over some of this screen’s fundamental specifications before getting into the specifics of the display. The device under evaluation features a 17.3-inch IPS thin-bezel display with UHD/4K (3840*2160p) resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate, making it a superb gaming screen. Depending on their preferences, buyers can also choose a faster refresh rate but lower resolution. The display’s look reveals that the bezels are extremely thin. The screen frame is made of rough plastic and has been thoroughly matted. We tested the display’s capabilities and discovered that it boasts 100% sRGB, 88% Adobe RGB, and 99% DCI-P3 color gamuts. The maximum brightness is 458.6 nits as well. The average Delta-E value was 1.42 as measured (2.25 highest and 0.27 lowest). also you will learn our article on MSI GS77 Stealth review. It’s important to note that the company has also included MSI Center, a pre-installed piece of software that enables users to choose between a range of colour options in accordance with certain conditions. The webcam, which the manufacturer has positioned at the top bezel and can be switched off electronically, is also there (on the left side). Additionally, the webcam features facial recognition functionality and 1080p video recording at 30 frames per second.
MSI GS77 Stealth review: Audio
This element enables laptops to have adaptive technologies like G-Sync and can potentially result in a significant performance difference (both the Raider and the Blade do have it). It seems strange to leave it out at this price range, and many people who are willing to spend $2,900 won’t want to make any concessions. This is untrue; MSI’s modifications to the Stealth series increased its power at the price of other aspects that gave it its stealthy reputation. It’s too huge and heavy to regularly carry around in a briefcase or backpack, the battery life isn’t sufficient for working continuously without access to a power source, and the keyboard and touchpad aren’t something I’d personally like to use on a daily basis. Internally, the notebook we received has a Core i9-12900H CPU and an RTX 3080Ti GPU. The Core i9-12900H is without a doubt the best option available in Intel’s Mobile CPU series. Although there are still better GPU options available, such as the RTX 3090 and 3090Ti, the notebook has the RTX 3080Ti GPU, which is also an important component. The laptop also supports PCIe 4.0 SSD Storage and the most recent DDR5 Memory.
Performance
We expected excellent performance because the MSI Stealth GS77 has the greatest specifications we’ve ever seen. The 12th generation Intel Core i9-12900H processor, which has 20 threads and 14 cores (six performance-based and eight “efficiency-based”), is located inside. A massive 64GB of the brand-new DDR5-4800 RAM flanks it, while a PCIe 4.0 2TB hard drive serves as its foundation. This resulted in a total score of 7526 on the PCMark 10 general test, which is the highest number we’ve ever seen (!). It achieved the fastest scores we’ve ever seen in the computationally intensive Cinebench rendering tests, scoring 2942 in R15 and 17,107 in R23. It received a 10,907 on 3DMark Time Spy. This is impressive, but a number of cheaper processors that have larger chassis and better overclocking performance trump it. In our other testing, a similar circumstance occurred. It received scores of 12,746 on Fire Strike Extreme (average frame rate: 59), and 6831 on the challenging Port Royal ray tracing test. When using MSI’s Control Center to boost performance, you run the risk of blowing the thermal tolerance that the Stealth’s chassis can withstand. We’re actually happy MSI didn’t overclock this Stealth because doing so could have easily affected stability in such a thin device. All of this proves that, at least when placed in the MSI Stealth GS77, the 3080 Ti is not as revolutionary as the 12th Gen Intel CPU. When there is greater room for overclocking, perhaps in the GE76 Raider’s upcoming upgrade, we anticipate it to run smoothly. However, it all adds up to enormous performance, and any game will play flawlessly and look fantastic on the 4K screen. A large laptop should always make some noise, yet the Stealth GS77 accomplishes so with relative silence. Yes, there is a constant, slight swoosh, but even under load, it isn’t significantly worse than the top-performing beefcakes we’ve tested. The GPU reached 81oC with a 100% load while only producing a minimal swoosh. It appears that we will soon be able to create thin, noise-free laptops that are capable of singing and dancing.
Battery life
Runtimes are essentially the same as what we recorded on the GS76 last year and a little longer than what we recorded on the new Blade 17. The large 99 Wh battery in the most recent GS models stands out in comparison to the 90 Wh or less battery in the majority of other gaming laptops. It takes almost 2.5 hours to fully charge a laptop from empty, which is about an hour longer than most other laptops. The system’s lone Thunderbolt 4 port also supports USB-C charging. you can read our article on MSI GS77 Stealth review.
MSI GS77 Stealth review: Heat
The MSI Stealth GS77 employs the most advanced iteration of the Cooler Boost 5 technology in terms of cooling. The heat is dispersed by the two fans using a total of 6 copper heat pipes. Four copper heat pipes target the GPU, while the other two target the CPU. However, when the laptop is under load or being used for gaming, temps can rise significantly. When the fan is running quietly, it becomes audible.
Configuration Options
The largest advantage Stealth has right now is its price. My test machine currently sells for $2,899. To put this GPU in a GE76 Raider (with an even more powerful Core i9 and fancier design) would cost another $100, making a QHD Razer Blade 17 with a 3070 Ti a whole $3,399.99. The GS77 model also costs $1,799 (144 Hz 1080p screen, RTX 3060, and 16GB RAM), but the cheapest Blade on Razer’s site starts at $2,799 and the 12th generation Raider at $2,299. Still, $2,899 is hardly cheap, and it’s worth knowing what compromises are being made for that low price.
Conclusion
The Stealth GS77 series, a 17-inch portable computer, can be the ideal multi-purpose laptop for you if you can afford the price. While concealing uncompromising specs and capabilities on the inside, the subdued look makes it a sleeper in formal business and educational settings. With the rearranged IO and updated inputs, we are happy to see a more durable construction and improved ergonomics. We also value the updated internal design and thermal module, the updated audio, and the fact that this series still includes a 99Wh battery. On the other hand, we had hoped for a higher-power GPU implementation, but putting that aside, for those of you with deep enough pockets to buy it, this sounds like a potential winner right now at launch.
