The battle for the title of "world's thinnest and lightest" in the gaming notebook arena continues with MSI's latest release, the GS70. Available in two configurations, the GS70 20D-002US has a starting price of $1,999.99 and the GS70 20D-001US has a starting price of $1,799.99. Both measure just 0.85 inches thin and weigh 5.73 pounds.
Based on the list of specs, the only difference between the two models is what they offer in terms of storage. The 002US version has a Super RAID configuration spanning two 128 GB SSDs in RAID 0 and a 1 TB HDD. The 001US model merely offers one 128 GB SSD and one 750 GB HDD (7200RPM). All other hardware features are identical.
That said, the new GS70 series sports a 17.3 inch Full HD Anti-Reflective display backed by Intel's Core i7-4700HQ "Haswell" processor (2.4 GHZ, 3.4 GHz) with 6 MB of cache, and Nvidia's GeForce GTX 765M GPU with 2 GB of GDDR5 VRAM. The laptop also has 16 GB of DDR3L memory at 1600 MHz driving Microsoft's Windows 8 platform.
The laptop doesn't have an optical drive, but an SD card reader is provided for additional storage. Wireless connectivity is handled by Killer E2200 Game Networking providing Wireless N and Bluetooth. There are also a handful of I/O ports including four USB 3.0, one HDMI 1.4, two mDP, SPDIF output and a microphone/headphone combo.
The laptop's audio is powered Creative's Sound Blaster Cinema, two speakers and an integrated subwoofer capable of delivering the quality of 5.1 surround sound. There's also a 720p HD webcam mounted above the display for making video calls with Skype, taking profile pictures and whatnot. A 6-cell battery powers this portable performance PC.
Additional features highlighting this new laptop include a SteelSeries full color backlit keyboard with Anti-Ghosting keys, and a dual-fan cooling design that pulls heat from the top side of the laptop and dissipates heat at a 45 degree upward angle. Nvidia's GPU supports up to three displays (HDMI x1, mDP x2), thus widening the gaming field and increasing productivity.
"The MSI GS70 sets a new mark for gaming rigs," said Brian Choi, Senior Product Manager at Nvidia. "With the super-fast and super-efficient GeForce GTX 765M GPU on board, MSI is able to offer the thinnest chassis ever seen in the gaming segment."
Both configurations are available now.
