MSI GF63 - is it my best option for price?

I am looking for a 15" laptop mainly for HD video editing and animation projects. I need a minimum of GTX 1050 (4GB) graphics, but don't want to go much higher as it will compromise battery life. Battery life is very important as I will be travelling with the laptop and making documentaries on the road. Also weight is very important, so need something as light as possible, so this rules out heavy gaming laptops. Other criteria that would be nice is something that could be upgraded to 32gb ram.

Lastly, my budget is £1000 or under.

The MSI GF63 looks to tick all of these boxes. Problem is hard drive is not SSD, but I have spare SSD drives at home - so wonder how easy it is to upgrade the Hard drive on this laptop?

Also it ships with only 8GB ram - but it indicates in the specs that it has 2 slots. But so many laptops seem to ship these with the ram soldered to the board - so not sure if there are any nasty surprises with the MSI?

I notice it is for sale now in the USA and UK on Newegg:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...4154939&cm_re=msi_gf63-_-34-154-939-_-Product


https://www.newegg.com/global/uk/Pr...4154939&cm_re=msi_gf63-_-34-154-939-_-Product

Problem is there are no reviews yet. What do people think?

 

I wish they put something bigger than its 52whr battery. That could be an issue for you based on your needs?

 

If you want battery life - look elsewhere. The laptop you are looking at is likely to only live for about 3 hours without being plugged in.

 

I thought the battery life would be similar to the XPS 15 9560 with the 3 cell 56wh battery? Users of the XPS 15 3 cell battery seem to report around 6 hours. The MSI uses a newer processor, which is claimed to have efficiency benefits over the previous generation.

But realistically what other options do I have within my budget for light and powerful 15" laptops? There are plenty of heavy gaming machines that would be suitable, but weight is one area where I won't compromise.

The only other option I can see within my budget is a used / refurbished XPS 15 from Dell outlet or Ebay. But I really would prefer new and this is likely to be previous generation processors.

What do people suggest?

 

Take a look at this: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/recoil-II-15/

It's the best value for money for it's specs considering it has a 1050ti and a i7 8750H for less than £1000. It's screen covers 72% of NTSC and is therefore much more colour accurate than the GF63. If you don't buy windows with your machine (saves you £90) and get a Windows license off ebay for £5, you can configure it with 500GB sata ssd and 16 GB of RAM for only £978.

Battery life will not be great with this machine - I'd expect between 3-4 hours doing basic productivity tasks with the screen at 50% brightness. You could get a laptop battery bank from Amazon (see below) which would easily extend your battery life to over 10 hours:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Poweradd-P...531480074&sr=1-7&keywords=laptop+battery+bank
https://www.amazon.co.uk/MAXOAK-Cap...531480074&sr=1-9&keywords=laptop+battery+bank

 

It has the same processor as the MSI, but the better screen is a selling point. But what about build quality? The MSI uses aluminium . I have never heard of the RECOIL II so wonder about build quality and warranty?

Also what weight is the RECOIL II? I can't see this listed.

It does look attractive on paper, but the battery is even smaller than the MSI at 46Wh. I take your point about getting an external battery bank, but this defeats the object of having a compact laptop.

 

MSI's BIOSes are tuned towards pefromance with no regard as to power efficiency - hence why even their 6-cell battery devices barely get 4 hours whereas other OEMs can make such a battery last for 7-8.

EDIT: Also, Aluminium can still be cheap and bend like cardboard - and it's not what people refer to when they talk about build quality. We are talking about the PCB layout, component quality, soldering job and etc. The chassis durability is pretty meaningless in most cases. I've very rarely seen a laptop break due to the chassis being broken.

 

Warranties: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/warranty/. More stuff about PCS: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/why-buy/ and https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/about-us/

Reviews of the Recoil II
https://www.bit-tech.net/reviews/tech/laptops/pc-specialist-recoil-ii-review/1/



http://www.technomadica.com/2018/05/11/illegear-onyx-i7-1060-dark-dazzler/

 

Thanks for the links. Considering it's a custom build, I can't understand why they don't offer a higher capacity battery? You think they would be able to offer something around 100wh like the Dell xps 15.

 

Takes up too much space. The 97whr battery in the XPS forgoes its 2.5” storage capability. Which I’m all for!

Gaming laptops are starting to tip their storage scales into m.2 only and offering a bigger battery such as the GS65. But we’re 1 or 2 SKUs away before it’s more common.