MSI work and home laptops: you can find it all

In general, MSI has a clear division into working categories: office laptops, business class for those who want to save money and for those who are not used to counting them. There are also laptops for creative jobs. And don't forget about workstations for AutoCAD. At the same time, some series are no longer supported by the manufacturer, as they have been replaced by something more modern. For example, Prestige laptops instead of MSI P. Many of these oldies are still on active sale, but we will not focus on them, considering more relevant product lines.

MSI laptops of office and corporate level are divided into groups by price and positioning.

MSI Modern: mid-range work laptops and ultrabooks

Universal series of laptops and ultrabooks where MSI engineers have combined the visual style of MSI Creator laptops with the technical capabilities of the MSI Prestige business line. The end result is a pretty good and modern office/entertainment class laptop with long battery life, a good hardware, and a rugged MIL-STD-810-class body. Depending on the cost, the body can be either aluminium or plastic. Moreover, plastic is not always of the best quality, which literally attracts prints and dust. Of the additional features, there is usually Wi-Fi 6, keyboard backlight and USB ports with support for modern interfaces. Under the hood of almost every model, seriously balanced hardware is hidden such as a Core i5/Ryzen 5 CPU, 8/16 GB of RAM and an SSD up to 512 GB. Graphics cards are in most cases integrated, so this is not the best option for games.

MSI Modern Series Laptops

MSI Prestige : affordable business class

MSI Prestige is a stylish and minimalistic laptop line from MSI that is at the intersection of business class and creative laptops. Perfect for a wide variety of jobs – contact a client on Zoom, quickly design a promotional flyer, edit text for your company's web page, and more. Most products of this series combine a fairly powerful components with advanced tools for communication and data protection, and at the same time are equipped with high-quality screens with 100% coverage of the sRGB colour spectrum. The rear panel, when the screen is opened, plays the role of a small support, as in Asus Vivoobook laptops. The display opens up to 180 degrees if necessary. Bodies are most often made of aluminium (plastic is less common) and have MIL-STD-810 protection. In terms of hardware, everything is quite serious, since most modifications use Core i7-level chips, while modifications with Core i5 are in a clear minority. RTX 1650/2050/3050-level graphics cards are often found, which equalizes them with entry-level gaming laptops. Battery life can reach 12 – 16 hours. MSI Prestige models stand out from other business lines with a wide choice of colours, including white, black, dark blue and pink shades.

MSI Prestige Series Laptops

MSI Creator: powerful CalMAN certified laptops.

MSI Creator: portable workstations for designers, artists and photographers

MSI Creator is a family of beautiful, powerful and technically advanced laptops that are positioned as an alternative to powerful workstations for designers, artists, VFX artists, editors and game developers. They stand out due to the use of powerful hardware, high-quality displays and modern components. The hardware platform of the average MSI Creator looks as serious as possible and could be successfully used in advanced gaming devices. A perfectly normal for this series is a Core i7 CPU with a GeForce RTX 3080-level graphics card and 32/64 GB of RAM. All devices in this series are equipped with high-quality displays with increased resolution, extended colour rendering and high-quality factory colour calibration (Delta E<2) and optional CalMAN certification. Bodies often have MIL-STD-810 protection, and additional equipment is at a very high level.

MSI Creator Series Laptops

MSI Summit: flagship business ultrabooks for top managers

Under the flags of the Summit series, MSI produces high-performance, reliable business-class laptops. As they say in MSI, these are laptops for people who strive for excellence. They stand out due to powerful hardware, excellent displays and support for all the latest technologies (Wi-Fi 6E, PCI-E 4.0, Thunderbolt). They are often based on the Intel Evo platform and, unlike other business class models, can be equipped with discrete graphics cards of the GTX 1650 Ti level, which to some extent equates them to gaming laptops. In addition to classic laptops and ultrabooks, this series also includes transformers with 360-degree swivel touch displays.

MSI Summit Series Laptops

MSI W : Powerful workstations with NVIDIA Quadro graphics cards

A line of powerful portable stations, rare for the world of laptops, equipped with Intel Core i9 CPUs, an impressive supply of RAM and professional NVIDIA Quadro graphics cards. All MSI W devices are designed with professional applications that require high GPU performance. It can be 3D modeling, architectural design, engineering modeling, data analysis, etc. Frequent attributes of the W-series models are a high-end 4K display and a serious level of protection in the style of corporate laptops. In order not to limit the user, some MSI W stations use a combination of a fast SSD and a capacious HDD, and the built-in RAID controller can manage this bundle.

MSI gaming laptops: how to figure them out

The brand portfolio includes more than 10 lines of gaming laptops.

Although MSI has always focused on gamers, its lineup is extremely confusing. We simply cannot explain such a huge number of series similar to each other, in which even sellers in stores and IT bloggers get confused. To our delight, we counted over 10 series. And this is not taking into account the Vector series that has not yet appeared on the market. It seems that the company's marketers tried to segment laptops as much as possible by cost and version of the graphics card, therefore, within the same series, there are practically no laptops, for instance, with the RTX 3060 and RTX 3080. According to MSI, these are different types that should not be mixed. Therefore, we will move from the simplest gaming laptops to advanced variants.

MSI Thin/Cyborg: entry-level gaming laptops

Entry-level gaming laptops most often equipped with Core i5-level CPUs and entry-level NVIDIA GPUs: GTX 1650/1660, RTX 2060, RTX 3050/3050 Ti/ 3060, etc. Initially, the Thin series was positioned as perhaps the thinnest gaming laptop in the world, then the Thin models relegated to secondary roles. To return the attention of potential buyers in 2023, the MSI Cyborg series, similar in spirit and components, was announced with a slightly more modern design and GeForce RTX 4000 series graphics cards.

MSI GF Thin / Cyborg Series Laptops

MSI Alpha/Bravo: affordable laptops based on AMD Ryzen platform

Until 2019, the gaming laptop market was dominated by Intel CPUs. In 2019, AMD rolled out the Zen platform and the ice broke. One of the first AMD gaming laptops was the Alpha and Bravo series. As usual, MSI took a ready-made chassis from the Pulse series, added optional RGB backlight as an alternative to red backlight, and instead of NVIDIA used discrete solutions from Radeon – RX 5600M, RX 6500M, etc. In terms of performance, this is an entry-level option, designed for games with minimum or medium graphics settings. As for the difference between the Alpha and Bravo models, it is minimal: in the first one you can find a keyboard made by SteelSeries and a KILLER LAN controller, Bravo uses components of a simpler level.

MSI Katana/Sword: mid-range gaming laptops designed by Tsuyoshi Nagano

In the internal hierarchy of the brand, the Katana and Sword laptops are approximately on the same level as the Alpha/Bravo and Thin/Cyborg models, but they bypass them due to a wider choice of hardware configurations. For example, here you can find both a relatively modest laptop with Core i5 and GeForce RTX 3050, and a much more serious player with Core i7 and RTX 3070. The former are suitable for playing at minimum and medium graphic settings, more serious modifications with RTX 3070 make it possible to play at maximum speed without noticeable FPS drops. But the most common is the average option. Displays are most often built using IPS technology and overclocked to 144 Hz, although in general they are not of high quality. The differences between Katana and Sword are purely visual: the former are usually white with blue backlight keyboards, while the latter are black with red backlight.

MSI Katana / Sword Series Laptops

MSI Pulse: mid-range gaming models with RTX 4070-level graphics cards and red backlight

If you put MSI Pulse, MSI Thin and Crosshair laptops in front of a stranger, and then leave it for three days, they will never figure out how these products differ. This is understandable, because MSI often used a trick, driving the same chassis and the same keyboards of SteelSeries from one series to another, changing only the models of CPUs and graphics cards. Therefore, from a technical point of view, MSI Pulse almost completely repeats the previously mentioned series. But the hardware is more powerful: the CPU is not lower than the Core i7, the graphics card is at least RTX 3060, more often RTX 3070 or 4070. The amount of RAM can reach 32 GB, and the role of the main drive is usually played by a fast and capacious 1024 GB M.2 SSD. With such a components, you can count on an average of 50 – 60 FPS with medium or high graphics settings. Thanks to modern components and minimalistic design, such laptops can also be useful for artists, designers, animators and other representatives of the creative industry.

MSI Pulse Series Laptops
MSI Titan GT77HX: the flagship laptop for cybersport and creative jobs.

MSI Stealth: Stylish gaming laptops with powerful hardware

In the Stealth series, MSI produces thin, light and stylish laptops that are easily mistaken for business class devices. And only things like the SteelSeries keyboard with zonal RGB backlight give them out. MSI GS Stealth is able to satisfy any wishlist that gamers put for a gaming laptop, whether it's a 240Hz display, DDR5 RAM or high-quality sound system. The main competitors of the Stealth series are Asus ROG Zephyrus, Gigabyte Aero, Acer Triton and Razer Blade laptops. The body of a typical Stealth usually hides the latest version of the top-end Core i7 or Core i9 chip, a GeForce RTX 3080 or 4080 class graphics card, and the amount of RAM can be up to 64 GB. Although, most often there are variations with 32 GB of RAM. The quality of the displays and the level of additional equipment is approximately the same as the flagship MSI Summit laptops.

MSI GS Stealth Series Laptops

MSI Leopard: high quality laptops for experienced gamers

Representatives of the Leopard family belong to the premium segment, above which are only elite MSI Raider and Titan laptops. The level of hardware is approximately the same as MSI Stealth laptops, with the difference that the body of Leopards is not so thin due to the more powerful Cooler Boost cooling system. The most popular components combination is a Core i7 CPU, a GeForce RTX 3070/3080 graphics card, and 16/32 GB of RAM. In addition, almost all Leopards are equipped with gaming keyboards from the Swedish brand Steel Series, LAN controllers and high-end gaming displays with a refresh rate of 144 – 240 Hz and fast response times. In terms of price and performance, this is the best gaming option, as cheaper laptops will have to make compromises, and you will have to pay extra for the flagship Raider and Titan models, as is often the case with products for enthusiasts.

MSI Raider: laptops for enthusiasts

As you already know, MSI's range is full of laptops that can satisfy the needs of a wide variety of gamers. But when a customer appears on the doorstep of the store asking "I need something special", they are sent to the stand with the Raiders. These are somewhat special laptops that use literally the most powerful and advanced hardware on the market. Looking for a 16-core Core i9? Here you are. Need an RTX 3080 Ti graphics card? Easily! Need a gigantic amount of RAM to work in AutoCAD? Then how about 64 GB of DDR5 memory overclocked to 5600 MHz? The displays keep up, offering the user 2K resolution, 240Hz refresh rate, 2 – 3 ms response time and 100% coverage of the DCI P3 colour space. In terms of components, the typical MSI Raider takes the best of other series (such as the keyboard from SteelSeries) adding stylish ARGB body backlight.

MSI GE Raider Series Laptops

MSI Titan: one of the most powerful gaming laptops on the market

The MSI Titan family is the most powerful laptops for hardcore gamers looking for an alternative to their top gaming PC. The average Titan delivers 60 FPS at maximum graphics settings in almost any modern high-level game, and its equipment is in no way inferior to the luxurious MSI Summit ultrabooks. We won't go into details so as not to stretch the text, but if there is a new technological trend in the market, then be sure that this thing has already been introduced into the new Titan. At the same time, the hardware is one step higher than that of MSI Raider devices: instead of the RTX 4080 graphics card, the RTX 4090 with 16 GB of video memory can be installed in the Titan, the top Core i9 acts as a CPU, and the amount of RAM can reach 128 GB. So that all this goodness does not overheat in the cramped laptop body, MSI engineers are constantly working on improving cooling systems and optimizing the number of heat pipes.