I wasn’t specially inspired via the final 14-inch gaming laptop I reviewed. The performance from the Gigabyte P34W v5 turned into respectable, however it changed into allow down with the aid of a collection of troubles, consisting of a bland design, terrible thermal performance, and a subpar keyboard and trackpad. So I reached out to MSI to peer if their modern 14-inch gaming machine, the GS40 Phantom 6QE, is a virtually higher option.

The hardware in the GS40 Phantom is properly-rounded but won't pull any surprises both. It’s loaded up with a 14-inch 1080p display, an Intel Skylake Core i7-6700HQ CPU, a GeForce GTX 970M discrete portraits card, sixteen GB of RAM, and a mixture of a 128 GB SSD with a 1 TB difficult drive. It also packs the today's connectivity, which includes a USB Type-C port carrying Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3.1 gen 2.

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The Phantom isn’t a flagship gaming pc, however it does consist of a reachable list of different functions, which includes Killer DoubleShot Pro networking, a SteelSeries keyboard, and a brushed aluminium chassis. All of that is to be had for a decent fee of $1,599, without a configuration options to be had.

The element to the GS40 Phantom that I changed into maximum impressed with is the layout. Having used gaming laptops from Alienware and Gigabyte previously, among others, the understated design to MSI’s 14-inch pc is appreciated. Yes, there are still some elements of ‘gamer’ style to this computer, which include diverse contours on the computer’s lid and around the keyboard, but it’s far less than you’d get from some other over-the-pinnacle designs.

Despite the understated design, MSI has succeeded in giving this moderately luxurious pc a top class appearance and experience. Both the laptop’s lid and the keyboard surround are crafted from brushed black aluminium, which is visually appealing and a moderate fingerprint magnet. There are a few regions of plastic, although it’s confined enough to not detract from the otherwise incredible metallic chassis.

MSI has additionally carried out a splendid activity of no longer making this pc only a black slab of materials. The majority of this laptop is black metal or plastic, however there are a few mild purple highlights observed around the layout that deliver it a bit of lots needed interest. The brilliant crimson rim across the trackpad is in particular best, as is the enormously diffused crimson backlighting to the keyboard that’s barely seen in herbal light.

The design of the GS40 Phantom 6QE isn’t best although. MSI has made no try and make this pc notably thin or mild: at 22.8mm thick and 1.6 kg heavy, it’s quite average for this length and class of tool. That’s not to mention the 6QE is terrible in this appreciate – it’s across the identical weight as a 13-inch MacBook Pro – but it’s not as compact or transportable as a few pinnacle-end gaming laptops of a similar length.

There are pretty giant bezels across the 14-inch show as properly. Measuring in at 16mm or higher on all facets, MSI ought to have with ease suit a bigger show in this chassis. Luckily the display is matte-finished, in preference to sleek, which notably reduces reflections and cuts down on accidental fingerprints.

The GS40 Phantom comes with a normal selection of ports for a gaming pc. On the left aspect you’ll discover Ethernet, a proprietary energy connector for the 150W power brick, a USB three.zero port, an SD card slot, and 3.5mm audio jacks for headphones and a microphone. On the proper is a HDMI 1.four port, a USB three.0 port, and a unmarried USB Type-C port that offers Thunderbolt three and USB three.1 gen 2.

Like with the Gigabyte P34W v5 and the brand new Dell XPS thirteen, the inclusion of Thunderbolt 3 is awesome for some of motives. It provides 40 Gbps of bandwidth, that's sufficient for more than one 4K 60 Hz presentations or multiple extraordinarily fast external drives. It additionally supports USB 3.1 gen 2 for 10 Gbps connections and energy delivery via a longtime protocol, and the reversible USB Type-C port is the destiny of USB connections.

On the again of the GS40 you’ll discover large vents, each with fans for the CPU and GPU respectively. The GPU additionally gets a 2d vent along the proper-hand facet, as its higher TDP requires more cooling. The again panel functions a mini-DisplayPort 1.2 connector as properly, that's in a handy place for those who is probably docking the GS40 into an outside display.