The MSI GF63 Thin is inexpensive, handles everyday eSports and mainstream gaming at mid-range settings, has a decent keyboard and a slim, light design. Rival products are better in many ways, but if you enjoy gaming at the end of the day following a day at the office, this is well worth the purchase. The keyboard has no numeric keypad and the backlight is single-zone red rather than RGB LED. It’s not flashy, but when tested it proves to be a surprisingly capable piece of hardware. The buttons are fast and reasonably crisp, and can withstand the rigours of mainstream gaming.
The MSI averaged 24 fps when playing Cyberpunk 2077 on the Ultra setting, and ran at 41 fps on the Medium setting. This is a playable level, but well behind the competition; Far Cry New Dawn ran at an average of 55fps at Ultra quality, while other laptops regularly hit 80fps. The other laptops were tested with more powerful graphics cards, but we have to say that the GF63’s RTX 3050 is not even the fastest example of this GPU: the 3DMark Night Raid test scored 26,661 points, while a full-powered RTX 3050 would have 30,000 scores in excess of 30,000 points. You should expect that pace from the cheapest Dell and Acer laptops, but that’s because those rigs run RTX 3050 GPUs at 80W and 75W.
The chassis strength was average, with some twisting flex when gripping the corners. There was also obvious movement when pressing on the palm rest and surrounding area. The lid also flexed, but there were no ripples on the screen when the back was pressed, and the display seemed reasonably well protected.14.13 x 9.99 x 0.85 in (358.9 x 253.7 x 21.6 mm, WDH) and 4.1 lb (1.86 kg) GF63 Thin is the Acer Nitro 5 (14.19 x 10.67 x 1.06 in / 5. 51 lbs), slimmer and lighter than the 51 lbs), Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 (14.16 x 10.49 x 0.86 in / 5.1 lbs) and HP Victus 15 (14.09 x 10.0 x 0.92 in / 5.04 lbs), which is almost the same size but lighter.
The GTX 1650 is aimed at more casual games, but can play very demanding games at low settings; Cyberpunk 2077 recommends almost medium settings at 1920 x 1080 and, of course, as the GTX 1650 does not support ray tracing Raytracing was not performed. Frame rates hovered between 35 and 60 frames per second, usually at the lower end of this range. Most situations were playable, albeit not super smooth, and it is in gunfights where a frame rate below 60 frames hurts the most. My usual weapon of choice is a pistol, but I eventually switched to a shotgun because of the loss of accuracy.
With its 15.6-inch screen and reasonably small bezel, the MSI GF63 Thin looks like many expensive gaming laptops. Sure, the keyboard backlighting may be fixed red rather than RGB, but everything you’d expect from a gaming laptop is present and accounted for.