When it comes to gaming laptops, MSI is a name which can’t be crossed off the list. The company is known to offer some great gaming laptops like the MSI GV62 8RE, which is a quite affordable gaming machine at $1,049 only if you consider the specifications it offers and how portable it is.

The gaming machine features the latest eighth generation Intel Processor. On top of this, you are getting a VR-ready GTX 1060 Graphics Card which provides sufficient gaming processing power for avid gamers. The build quality seems good and the chassis is smooth too.

Furthermore, you get good quality audio through the laptop’s speakers which isn’t found on many laptops. Though you might be missing out on a bright display.

Design

The design isn’t that great like other gaming laptops since it doesn’t feature aggressive looks and accents but rather mediocre ones. Even with a subdued design, the laptop does look premium.

The rather familiar MSI logo can be found on top of the lid, while its dragon sigil is just below. Just beside the heat vents, there the familiar game red accents. The only problem with the design is that the bottom part of the lid is prone to displacement on a slight touch.

The keyboard isn’t anything out of the ordinary painted in a combination of red and black. The LED Backlight is in RED too. Furthermore, there are dedicated buttons to turn on the fan also.

As far as the measurements are concerned, the laptop measures 15 x 10.2 x 1.2 inches which makes it extremely portable with just a weight of 5 pounds.

Ports

All the usual ports are there catering to a gamer’s need. On the left side, you would find a secure lock slot, an RJ45 port, one USB 3.1 port, an HDMI 2.0 port, a Mini DisplayPort, one USB 3.1 port and a microphone/headphone jack combo. While on the right side, there is a power jack, an SD card reader, and a USB 2.0 port.

Display

The MSI GV62 8RE houses a 15.6 inches Full HD Display with a screen resolution of 1920 x 1080. What’s more is that the display is a matte IPS one which makes up for a great screen with above par brightness levels, and you can view the screen from a wide angle too. Though, the screen isn’t vibrant with colors as you would want.

On the technical side, the sRGB color gamut reproduction for the panel of the laptop stands at just 72 percent, which is way below the category average of 102 percent. Though, the laptop isn’t that below when it comes to brightness levels with 240 nits recorded on the light meter. Of course, it is still somewhat below par the industry average of 260 nits.

Keyboard

The keyboard with its design as mentioned above is clearly meant for gamers. It is also extremely comfortable to type on with its soft chassis. Furthermore, there is a dedicated num-pad for punching numbers quickly. The keyboard has a travel of 1.7 millimeters which is adequate, combined with an actuation force of 74 grams.

Touchpad

The touchpad measuring 4.2 x 2.3-inches is spacious enough, with discrete physical mouse buttons as well. Unfortunately, if you are not a fan of using Tap-to-Click, you won’t be able to turn this function off without installing a specific driver. Else, the laptop’s trackpad is accurate enough, with multi-touch gestures responding quickly.

Graphics

The MSI GV62 8RE boasts a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GPU with a whopping 3GB of Video RAM. On the Steam VR Performance Test, the laptop managed a score of 7.3 out of 11, which is decent enough. There is also an integrated Intel UHD 630 graphics to conserve power when the discrete GPU isn’t needed.

Battery Life

Battery Timing is a crucial part of having a 15 inches laptop, and we all know how gaming machines usually suffer from below average battery life. Perhaps, the major downside of the laptop is its even below par battery, which lasts only 2 hours and 5 minutes while being continuously used to surf the Web at 150 nits of brightness. This is even less than half the category average of 4 hours and 46 minutes.

Webcam

To be short, the laptop’s webcam is below par, and you would most certainly need an external webcam for streaming purposes.

Configurations

You can get the MSI GV62 8RE for $1,049 which features an 8th Generation 2.3-GHz quad-core Intel Core i5-8300H processor, a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GPU with 3GB of VRAM, 8GB of RAM, a primary 128GB SSD and a secondary 1TB 5,400 RPM hard drive. For $1,249 you would get a six-core 2.2-GHz Intel Core i7-8750H processor and 16GB of RAM.

Perhaps, with the affordable price tag, some downsides of the laptop are a trade-off you can let go.