Right from the moment I was handed the box containing the GF63, I was impressed with how little it weighed. I actually had doubts that there was a product in the box until I opened it up. Weighing in at 1.86kg without the charger, this little 15 inch beast is the ideal travel partner for any gamer that does not feel like lugging around a huge system. Contrary to popular belief, bigger is not always better, and the MSI GF63 is living proof of that, without question.

Fancy Finishing

Being a 15 inch Laptop, the dimensions were also spectacular, with a Width of 359mm, Depth of 254mm and miniscule Height of just 21.7mm, you can see why it weighs next to nothing. Now you might be asking, how can such a thin laptop fall into the “Gaming” category. That is purely due to how MSI has evolved with great pace in the technology field, packing features-for-days into tiny chipsets and spacing out their internal layouts like Professional Tetris Champions. I kid you not, I had a peek under the hood, and was wildly impressed with the component management, with the RAM Slots (2x) being easy to access, the SSD rack being easy to get to should you wish to install an M2 SSD Drive (1x available slot), which is always highly recommended.

The MSI GF63 has 3x USB Type 3.1 Ports in total, which is 1x more ports than what most high-end systems offer, which I appreciated straight away, as my personal gaming laptop only has 2x ports, forcing me to utilize a powered hub to run all my external peripherals. The MSI GF63 also comes with 1x USB 3.1 Type C (Gen 1) Port, 2x Standard 3.5mm Ports for Headphones and an External Microphone, along with an Ethernet Network Port (which I guess is the reason they could not make the GF63 even thinner). Lastly, on the rear of the GF63, all you see is the HDMI Port to extend your desktop to an external screen should you wish to run your games on something a big bigger than a 15 inch screen.

The finish of the MSI GF63 Gaming Laptop is really snazzy. The lid is made of what I am guessing to be a thin, yet sturdy alloy, which has a brushed finish, making it look really visually pleasing to the eye. The alloy prevents screen wobble and is attached to the plastic body on both ends of the laptop with 200mm hinges. The screen is exceptionally light, and can be flipped open using only one finger because of the Battery being positioned at the front of the GF63, giving you that perfect counterweight and comfort when opening and closing the lid.

Gaming in the Dark

The MSI GF63 comes standard with a Backlit Keyboard, which obviously Glows Red to match the MSI profile and the keys are relatively quiet when typing in a chat window with your mates, instead of a noisy mechanical click. The keys protrude roughly 2mm-3mm from the body of the laptop (I could not confirm due to me not having a veneer close by), but were also very comfortable to rest my fingers on during gameplay. The trackpad is positioned off-center to the left which helps you avoid those annoying accidental mouse shifts in an FPS or misclicks due to wrist-rest.

Finally, getting to the actual screen, you will notice that it is an IPS Matte Display, meaning that no matter from which direction you are looking at the screen, the image is always clearly visible, even at full rear tilt. Having briefly mentioned the internals, let’s take a look at what makes this little beauty tick!

Power for the Masses

The MSI GF63 Gaming Laptop is powered by an 8th Gen i7-8750H CPU and comes standard with 1TB of Storage Space. The onboard GPU, is the magnificent Nvidia 1050TI GTX, which runs most Next Generation gaming titles comfortably on Maximum Settings. I tested it out on Destiny 2, and was able to maintain roughly 45-50 Frames Per Second, even when running around during very crowded public events. I then ran some Benchmarks.

The MSI GF63 scored a very decent 3318 via PCMark and an impressive 5412 in that really graphically intense Fire Strike Test via 3DMark. Honestly, what more could you want from an “entry level” gaming laptop? You get super mobility, fantastic power and pure convenience with a dash of style all in one really neatly packed system.

Conclusion

It goes without saying that I had a stellar experience playing around with the MSI GF63 Gaming Laptop while doing my review. At the time of posting this article, Incredible Connection is selling these puppies for R19,999 or 199,990 Discovery Miles if you have them to spare. You can even get it on credit from them via Mobicred. Is it worth the price-tag? Heck yes. Since early days when I used to build my own rigs, I always prefered going with an MSI Motherboard, and yet again, I am not disappointed in what MSI has produced here with the GF63. It really is, as they say, “Bang for your Buck!”. I did mention that I do have a high end gaming laptop, but to be brutally honest, I would change over to the MSI GF63 anyday, purely for the convenience and weight, coupled with the power it offers a “gamer-on-the-go”.