The MSI GE66 Raider 10UG-211 has lots of decent components up its sleeve. In fact, it keeps MSI’s tradition of offering some of the best gaming laptops, at great prices. The company’s premium machines – and some entry-level ones – can sometimes outdo the competition on power and design, save for a few that fail to provide the complete package that is demanded of modern gaming laptops.
With the MSI GE66 Raider packing new tech and components, it looks like the company has managed to put together one of the best gaming powerhouses of the year. We’re particularly interested in the 10th generation Intel Core i7 processor, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD and Nvidia’s RTX 3070 graphics card.
This all comes at a price, though. A not-so-high price considering the hardware packed inside, but its out of the reach of many budget gamers. Also, that kind of specs will be an overkill for a lot of people. However, for the money, you’re getting an incredibly powerful gaming laptop in a gorgeous design.
MSI GE66 Raider 10UG-211 specs
Design
The MSI GE66 Raider is definitely a gaming laptop, and the designs says it all. However, unlike the MSI GE75 Raider, the Raider GE66 sports a minimalist design – not overly done, but rather a well flourished aesthetic that make it easily recognized as a gaming machine.
With the new components, you’re getting a new design – a sleek Titanium Blue finish, with angular shells at the bottom. Measuring 0.92 x 14.09 x 10.51 inches and weighing 5.25 pounds, this is neither a thin laptop, nor is it portable to compete with the Asus Zephyrus G15 but you can still tote it around.
The 15.6-inch 1080p screen is surrounded by 5mm bezels, with a screen-to-body ratio of 82%, which is fine for a gaming laptop. The screen boasts a 300Hz refresh rate, with close to 100% sRGB coverage, which results in vibrant color reproduction something you’ll appreciate when running modern games or productivity tasks that require good color reproduction.
The GE66 Raider packs Duo Wave speakers that are of a new design and offer decent sound, but you might need one of the best PC headsets for gaming.
Ports
Port selection is excellent, especially with the inclusion of two USB-C ports, and the available HDMI port supports 4K at 60fps (allegedly). Here are the available port options:
- Type-C USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 port
- Type-C USB 3.2 Gen 2 with DP 1.4
- Type-A USB 3.2 Gen 2
- 2 x Type-A USB 3.2 Gen 1
- HDMI 2.0
- Mini Display 1.4
- Audio combo jack
- RJ-45
- SD card reader
Wireless connectivity comes in way of Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210 and Bluetooth 5.2. Here is how you get online:
- Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210(2*2)
- Bluetooth 5.2
- Killer E3100 Gigabit Ethernet
Keyboard & Touchpad
As for the keyboard, it feels fine and has well-spaced keys. However, you might have to match this keyboard with one of the best gaming keyboards and a pointer that can match the best gaming mouse, because the keyboard here is just OK. The touchpad is just fine, and nothing special from what you find on mainstream laptops.
As with all 15-inch gaming laptops, the compact design and low actuation of the keys, it is possible to smush the buttons and mistype. There’s an LED bar at the front (MSI calls it Mystic Light) that looks cool, and the RGB effect overflows to the keyboard, giving you the ambient gaming feel.
Gaming & graphics Performance
We certainly don’t have any complaints with the MSI GE66 Raider’s performance, as it can keep up with most gaming and productivity demands. As you’d expect form a high-end laptop with a spec list (and price) that the MSI Raider comes with, this is an absolute beast when it comes to performance.
Our MSI GE66 Raider review unit comes with an RTX 3070 laptop GPU from Nvidia, and is currently one of the most powerful gaming GPUs you’ll find in a laptop.
At 1080p, the MSI GE66 Raider 10UG-211 gaming laptop can easily handle even the most demanding of games. Metro Exodus on Ultra settings scored an excellent 71.11 FPS, offering a visually stunning experience with butter-smooth play.
If you will be playing less demanding games, you can as well use the high refresh rates of the MSI GE66 Raider’s screen as well
This being an RTX card, ray tracing and DLSS support is included, and if you’re satisfied with playing at 1080p, it guarantees a great gaming experience that very few gaming laptops will be able to match.
Productivity performance
When not gaming, the spec we have here is also great for digital creatives. The 10th generation Intel Core i7-10870H processor on the MSI GE66 delivers solid performance, and the 32GB of RAM is going to be overkill for anyone buying this laptop to just play games on. However, for multitasking with numerous apps open at one – or playing games and streaming them live on Twitch, for instance – the MSI Raider stands out as an accomplished workstation.
Along with the built-in memory card reader and 1TB SSD storage, photographers and digital creatives will be impressed by the 100% Adobe RGB coverage that the screen provides. It makes colors to look bright, vibrant and most importantly of all, very accurate. It will not benefit digital creatives alone, though, games and movies look awesome on this screen as well.
Battery life
While the MSI Raider certainly excels in many areas, one area that it struggles to impress is battery life – and that may not come as much of a surprise.
With powerful components like the RTX 3070 graphics card, battery life is always going to be on the short side. The 94-Whr 4-cell battery pack will last not more than 2 hours when gaming, and around 5 to 6 hours on normal use – web browsing, listening to music and creating documents.
This is pretty poor for a laptop in this day and age, and it only means that you’re going to need this machine plugged in most of the time you’re using it. As a desktop replacement laptop, it’s a great choice, but if you seriously need a laptop to use on the go – this might not be it.
Bottom Line
The MSI GE66 Raider is one of MSI’s most improved gaming laptop to date. Both sheer graphical brilliance and productivity performance are immensely better.
MSI also took this opportunity at a refresh to fix the glaring issue of an all-too-familiar design, into something new and stylish. While the design isn’t very portable, we still welcome the almost essential features (beauty and power) – especially at this price point.
Once again, this may be one of the most egregiously priced laptops out there, but MSI has obviously gone into great depths to pack as much value into the Raider GE66, enough to make it worth your hard-earned cash. If you do end up shelling the thousand required for the MSI GE66 Raider 10UG-211, rest assured you’re taking home an excellent complete package.
Last update on 2024-06-30 at 15:11 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
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