MSI GS75 Stealth 10SE-620 Review

MSI has supersized our favorite, svelte GS65 Stealth Thin 15.6-inch gamer. The newer MSI GS75 Stealth 10SE-620 not only brings a larger 17-inch screen to the gaming arena but also Nvidia’s new, mobile-friendly GeForce RTX graphics card for a substantial performance boost.

Our review model, the Stealth 10SE-620, features the RTX 2060 GPU that had been toned down to check out heat output and fit everything in a thin chassis. Well, that reduces the oomph a bit, but it remains a top-end gaming laptop capable of more than 63 frames per second (fps) at 1080p, with a 240Hz display to illuminate all those extra frames.

With considerably moderate weight, a solid build, and respectable battery life, the big GS75 Stealth is a gadget of envy, and it’s currently the big-screen GeForce RTX laptop to beat. If you’re not much concerned with portability and budget, the ASUS TUF Gaming F17 remains our Editors’ Choice for its superior build and evenly matched performance.

MSI GS75 Stealth Specifications

• CPU: 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7-10875H Eight-Core
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB GDDR6)
• Memory: 16GB DDR4
• SSD: 512GB NVMe PCIe M.2
• Display: 17.3-inch, 1920×1080 @ 240 Hz
• Operating System: Windows 10 Pro
• Dimensions: 10.22 x 15.59 x 0.75 inches
• Weight: 5.29 pounds

Design and Features

The GS75 Stealth 10SE-620 replicates its smaller-screen sibling, but it isn’t a simple scaled-up remake. The two Stealths share a design template, as any good product line will – both sport a sleek black aesthetic trimmed in gold accents. The lid has gold trim, with MSI’s signature dragon logo a more minimal gold tracing than the typical red-and-black shield present on most MSI units. Like on the 15-inch model, I do like this color scheme more. It ideally sets the GS75 Stealth apart as a premium system.

Overall, the GS75 Stealth shames its competitors with a slim and sexy body, measuring 5 pounds and 15.59 x 10.2 x 0.7 inches. Compared: The Aorus X9 (8.1 pounds, 1.2 inches), the Alienware 17 R5 (9.8 pounds, 1.2 inches) all are nearly double the height and weight of the Stealth 10SE-620, but that’s primarily due to their full-fledged GPUs.

The GS75 Stealth has decent port options for a gaming laptop this thin. There’s a power jack, an RJ45 port, one USB 3.1 port, a microSD card slot, and separate headphone and microphone inputs on the left side. The right side holds a security lock slot, an HDMI port, a single USB Type-C port, two USB 3.1 ports, and one Thunderbolt 3 port.

Display

The 17.3-inch screen looks great, has advanced gaming features, though it lacks one key thing: support for Nvidia G-Sync screen smoothing. MSI uses a full HD (1,920-by-1,080-pixel, or 1080p) native resolution. For a gaming laptop this good, you might want the resolution to be a little higher, especially at this price point, but it pairs well with the laptop’s high 240Hz refresh rate. Still, at 1080p, this hardware is well matched to push a high enough refresh rate to use the extended refresh rate.

The screen is an in-plane switching (IPS) panel; as ever, it has better viewing angles and vibrant colors with a 3ms response time, which is a smidge slower than some twisted-nematic (TN) panels but still fast. The picture quality is rich, with crisp colors and well-saturated blacks, but not as detailed as the 17-inch display on the Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX701, which has G-Sync support.

When it comes to aesthetics, the super-thin bezels surrounding the screen look sleek and modern, with a high screen-to-body ratio of 85 percent. Despite the thin bezels, MSI manages to keep the 720p webcam up too, where it belongs – unlike Huawei, who pushed the webcam to the lower bezel on the MateBook X Pro laptop.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The Stealth 10SE-620 uses a SteelSeries, which is pretty comfortable with 2 millimeters of travel and 72 grams of actuation. It has translucent key edging (which isn’t my favorite look), and the individual keytops feel a bit cheaper, but the typing experience is comfortable enough. You also get per-key backlighting on this laptop, customizable via the included MSI software. You’ll find the default pulsing on the keys appealing, but having all keys lit up in one color will be more practical most of the time.

The touchpad is okay, is both roomy, and feels to use. It tracks swipes smoothly and clicks in well without feeling cheap or flimsy. It also has shiny gold trim, matching the lid detail. The speakers are average for this thin machine; they get loud enough to pump a game or movie, but the quality isn’t overly impactful, even when you crank them all up.

Gaming, Graphics, and VR

This sleek beast is powered by an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 GPU with 6GB of VRAM, which runs Battlefield V at 90 frames per second on Ultra settings at 1080p (ray tracing on). The game plays smoothly, but you’ll experience occasional screen tearing, and sometimes the fans kick in loudly.

On the Rise of the Tomb Raider (Very High, 1080p), the GS75 Stealth hits 85 fps, past the 78-fps premium gaming laptop average. Meanwhile, rivals like the Alienware x17 R1 (89 fps) and the Aorus X9 (81 fps) manage to deliver better results due to their full-size RTX 2080 GPUs.

Despite the heavier competition, mainly from RTX 3060-powered gaming laptops, the Stealth GS75 nailed 76 fps on the Hitman 2 (Ultra, 1080p), which is still above the category average (71 fps). Still, it stayed behind the Alienware x17 (108 fps), which packs an RTX 3060 GPU.

Like its powerful competitors, the MSI GS75 Stealth hits a perfect 11 on the SteamVR performance test, beating the 10.6 premium gaming laptop average.

Productivity performance

An Intel Core i7-10875H CPU powers the Stealth GS75, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 512 GB PCIe-NVMe SSD. That’s more than enough to pull my usual workload of 20 to 30 browser tabs, which includes streaming music or video and could even run more strenuous tasks.

It takes the Stealth 10SE-620 eight seconds to copy 4.97 GB of files. That’s just ahead of the average (598.2 MBPs), and both the Alienware and Aero are equally fast. Again, managing to pair 60,000 names and addresses in 40 seconds on Excel macro test indicates that this laptop is faster than average.

Battery Life

The MSI GS75 Stealth lasts longer than its competitors on a single charge. But, as ever with gaming laptops, you’ll still need to carry your power brick with you. The laptop lasts for 3 hours and 45 minutes on a battery test, which involves continuously browsing the web, streaming videos, and others background apps. The category average is 3:21, which the Stealth manages to pass.

Bottom Line

The MSI GS75 Stealth 10SE-620 is a capable gaming laptop with a sleek, adult design, powerful gaming performance, and a bright 17-inch display. Suppose all you want is svelte. Lightweight desktop replacement with an RTX 2060 GPU; this is a strong pick.

If you’re looking for raw power for around the same price, both the ASUS TUF Dash F15 and the ASUS ROG Strix G17 with RTX 3060 GPUs are good alternatives. They are as portable and stylish as the Stealth, but they cost slightly more.

That said, if you can get over the lack of G-Sync hiccup and use headphones for better sound, the MSI GS75 Stealth is not only a looker; it’s a sexy, slim performer, too.