Buying a gaming laptop is a tricky affair. You can go wrong in more than one way if you are not careful enough because in most cases what you see is not exactly what you get. Ideally, a buyer looking for a gaming laptop tends to look for a few key features in the device. These are: high resolution, extra computing power (which means the best processor and rich RAM capabilities); sturdy body since you will handle them roughly; no touch-screens because they are battery-guzzlers and costly; strong and comfortable keyboard; best-in-class graphics chip; and, as the topping of the cake, a solid slate drive (SSD) of decent size so your games load and shoot fast. Buying a good brand is arguably the best option for many because often buying a not-so-known brand or model can backfire on you. Which is why most gamers tend to stick to big-ticket device makers. There are not many of them and most such laptops come with a hefty price tag. This is where laptops from MSI try to make a difference. The most attractive element about them is the affordable pricing. Next comes the line-up of impressive specs and the performance.

Light and game

Priced nearly ₹70,000 and upwards, the MSI GF63 8RD (they must really unlearn a lot about naming their products) comes with a bouquet of impressive features and faculties. That said, the laptop looks suitably ordinary. Some users may be drawn to the retro charm, but we felt it could have had some modern tenor. The lid and deck are made of plastic; the body is slippery and can fall from your grip easily if you are not careful enough. You’re advised to use a back-cover. At 1.86 kg, this is not a very heavy laptop; considering that gaming laptops tend to be on the heavier side, one can easily call this a light gaming laptop.

The MSI GF63 8RD has a 15.6-inch full high-definition (1920x1080) screen backed by an IPS-Level display. Technically speaking, an FHD display is good enough for the kind of games an average user would run on a laptop of this mettle. Still, the display could have been better as one gets a feeling that the screen doesn’t do justice to the images and video it renders, especially while playing games that feature fast movements and brightness that can make the screen bleed. We tried nearly a dozen games and played many movies on this and our experience suggests the display is a work in progress. The display bezels are of 4.9 mm thin.

This allows for better screen real estate and users get to use almost all of the 15.6-inch display. With size dimensions of 14.1 x 10 x 0.85 inches, this laptop is thinner than many of its competitors, such as the Dell G5 15 or Lenovo Legion Y730. The screen and body get finger marks easily so if you want to keep it clean and shining, you need to be very careful with its handling.

That said, the processing power compensates for such blemishes. The device has the latest Intel HM370 chipset, which is the 8th-generation Core chips, and aided by an 8GB RAM, which is not great for a gaming laptop, delivers an impressive performance (you may upgrade the RAM up to 32 GB).

Thanks to the powerful chip, games are loaded and booted fast and the performances are simply seamless. The laptop features NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics processing unit, which is backed by a dedicated 4GB RAM. The GTX 1050 Ti is part of NVIDIA’s new low-cost graphics cards that target no-frills gamers. The chip can handle high-fidelity gaming to an extent, but it is ideal for low-fidelity graphics and games.

Key to touch

The MSI GF63 8RD has a strong keyboard. The backlit keyboard (single colour, red) is well spaced out and the keys respond without any transmission delays. That said, the keys feel so soft that your fingers may slip on them while playing games that require aggressive finger movements; you would need extreme levels of finger dexterity to stay on track.

At times you get a feeling that you have not pressed a key even after pressing it once or twice. This confusion can turn hazardous in first-person-shooter games and similar instances. Full disclosure: I got killed a few times while playing a PUBG combat just because of a key-mishap. So, you’re warned! But the 4.1 x 2.6-inch touchpad is spacious enough and its responsiveness is pretty amazing. The buttons, though, feel light and lack robustness.

The MSI GF63 8RD has a good audio department. Sounds are rendered without glitches. Even low-resolution audio gets a fair treatment there. This gaming laptop runs on Windows 10, an operating system that is not so kind on the battery. If you are a long-hours gamer, the device needs refuelling in between and this can be disturbing. The laptop has enough USB ports. A USB 3.1 Type-A port is conveniently located near the power input and there are two more USB 3.1 ports and a USB Type-C port. That said, the Type C is not Thunderbolt 3, which is the trend now. The MSI GF63 features a dedicated Ethernet port and there are dedicated slots for mic and headphone.

To sum up, the MSI GF63 8RD is a good entry-level gaming laptop which, much like many of its peers, can be used as a good multi-tasking device.

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