Usually, when I get a laptop to review, it’s a powerful system designed to handle the latest and most demanding games at its best. This usually means that these devices are very expensive and will set you back a few thousand pounds, putting them in the same price range as many really powerful desktops. This is far from the case with the MSI GF63 Thin. The device is affordable and powered by an RTX 4050 and 12th Gen i5 CPU, which means that if you’re looking for smooth and fluid gaming, you’re primarily looking at 1080p gaming. When looking at this accurately, there isn’t a whole lot that the GF63 Thin doesn’t do well.
But before talking about performance, let me talk a little bit about the actual build quality of the laptop. Due to its lower price point, don’t expect to be wowed by the fancy metals and materials all over it. The chassis is a combination of metal and plastic, and while it doesn’t necessarily feel cheap, it doesn’t command a premium price either – as you’d expect from a sub-£800 gaming laptop. The display is a 15.6-inch FHD (1080p) panel clocked at a whopping 144Hz, and frankly, there’s nothing to disappoint here. I will say, however, that the bezels are thick and it feels like this laptop has a lot of empty space around the display, even though you can understand that the top of the panel is slightly wider to accommodate the webcam. As for the keyboard and trackpad, both are decently sized for the GF63 Thin’s shape and body.
One of my favorite parts about the way the GF63 Thin is designed is how anti-flamboyant it is. If it weren’t for the sizable vents on the sides of the chassis and the brightly backlit keyboard, you’d think this was just a productivity laptop, rather than one capable of running Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection or the F1 23. Oh, and before I forget, this The device is called “thin” for a very good reason as it is only 21.7mm wide and weighs just 1.86kg. I’m a little unsure about this because on the one hand, it’s a surprise to me that you managed to fit an RTX 40 series GPU into a body that should be so thin, but at the same time, it doesn’t really feel thin when you have the GF63 Thin in your hands Or light, it actually feels rather bulky and heavy.
In terms of hardware under the hood, the laptop also comes with up to 8GB of DDR4-3200 RAM with the option to expand it, and half a terabyte of SSD storage. For a laptop that’s built for productivity first, that’s going to be more than you really need, but for a gaming system, it does hold you back in a lot of situations. As for the battery size and how it handles in practice, thanks to the 52.4 Whrs battery you should be able to get seven hours of use on a single charge and significantly less when playing games unplugged – but that’s a lot for a gaming laptop field is not uncommon.
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No doubt you want to know how this device works in practice? There’s a reason I’m leaving this late, and it’s because, despite being a gaming laptop, the details don’t really matter. As I said before, the GF63 Thin is primarily built for 1080p gaming, so if you plan to explore anything beyond that a bit, this isn’t the laptop for you. Likewise, looking at the frame rate, playing at the most demanding graphics settings will find you’re lucky to crack the 60 fps headroom, but when you drop down to the lowest settings, you can explore the true extent of the 144Hz limit.
The RTX 4050 does a lot of the heavy lifting but the low storage, limited RAM and i5 processor does mean you won’t have the same freedom instead of going to the next price range and picking up an i7 with an RTX 4060 and so on . Finally, before moving on, I had some issues launching some games during the testing phase, Sniper Elite 5 worked like a charm, but Dirt 5 wouldn’t launch from the start. Of course this probably comes down to max storage and how it affects performance as after installing Uncharted, Atomic Heart, F1 23, Rollerdrome, Sniper Elite 5 and Dirt 5 the storage was overwhelmed and I couldn’t even finish the update for Atomic Heart .
The point is that this laptop has some real limitations, which are understandable for the price range it’s in. But just because it’s not the answer to portable PC gaming, doesn’t mean it doesn’t have several areas that I hope other laptops will look to for inspiration. Due to the less powerful hardware, the cooling solution is very efficient and the fan noise levels are kept to a minimum, which is really impressive.This actually makes the audio system great because you don’t needto play the headphones.
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One last note: connectivity. MSI is generally pretty good at creating laptops with a wide selection of ports, and with the GF63 Thin, that’s true again. Between three USB-As, one USB-C, an Ethernet port, a headphone jack and even a microphone jack, you have plenty of options to suit the needs of this entry-level gaming laptop.
All in all, for an entry-level device, the MSI GF63 Thin has nothing to complain about. At the same time, however, the laptop doesn’t stand out as a system that will stand the test of time well because it has clear limitations when it comes to gaming. If you’re looking for a productivity gadget that can dabble in video games occasionally, this is a solid choice, but if you plan on gaming more often, it’s wise to look for a more powerful system.
