MSI GF63 Thin

May 30, 2024

Usually, when I get my hands on a laptop for review, it's a powerful system built to handle the latest and most demanding games at their best. This often means that the devices are very expensive and will set you back a few thousand pounds, putting them in the same price bracket as a lot of truly capable desktops. For the MSI GF63 Thin, this is far from the case. This device is affordably priced, powered by an RTX 4050 and a 12th Gen i5 CPU, meaning you're mostly aiming for 1080p gaming, if you're looking for a fluid and smooth gameplay experience. When looking at precisely this, there isn't a whole lot that the GF63 Thin does poorly.

But before talking about performance, let me touch a little on the actual build quality of the laptop. Due to its lower price point, don't expect to be wowed by fancy feeling metals and materials across the body. The chassis is a combination of metal and plastic, and while it doesn't feel necessarily cheap, it doesn't come across as premium either - as you expect for a gaming laptop sub £800. The display is a 15.6-inch FHD (1080p) panel that clocks up to 144Hz, and frankly there's not a lot to be disappointed about here. I will say however, that the bezel is quite thick and it feels as though there is a lot of empty space around the display of this laptop, even if you can understand the top of the panel being slightly wider to accommodate a webcam. As for the keyboard and the trackpad, both are well sized and suit the shape and body of the GF63 Thin.

One of my favourite parts about the way that the GF63 Thin is designed is how counter-flamboyant it is. If it wasn't for the rather large vents on the side of the chassis and the brightly backlit keyboard, you would probably assume that this is just a productivity laptop, not something capable of running Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection or F1 23. Oh, and before I forget, there's a very good reason why this device is called "Thin", and that's because its width clocks in at just 21.7 mm and weighs only 1.86 kgs. I'm a little bit unsure about this, as one hand, managing to get an RTX 40 Series GPU into a body that is supposed to be so thin blows my mind, but at the same time, when you have the GF63 Thin in your hands, it doesn't really feel thin or light, it actually feels rather bulky and heavy.

In terms of the hardware under the hood, this laptop also comes with up to 8GB of DDR4-3200 RAM, with options to expand this, as well as half a terabyte of SSD storage. For a laptop that is built for productivity first and foremost, this would be more than you would really ever need, but for a gaming system, it does hold you back on many occasions. As for the battery size and how that handles in practice, thanks to the 52.4 Whrs battery you should be able to get a good seven hours of use on one charge, and significantly less when gaming without being connected to the mains - but this is hardly uncommon for the gaming laptop sector.

You're no doubt wondering how this device works in practice? There's a reason why I've left this so late, and it's because, despite being a gaming laptop, the specifics of this aren't actually important. I've said previously that the GF63 Thin is built predominantly for 1080p gaming, so if you intend to even marginally explore anything beyond this, this isn't the laptop for you. Likewise, looking at frame rates, playing on the most demanding graphical settings will see you being lucky to crack the 60 fps margin, but when you reduce to the lowest settings, you can explore the true extent of the 144Hz limit.

The RTX 4050 does a lot of heavy lifting, but the low storage space, limited RAM, and i5 processor do mean that you won't have the same freedom with how you experience games than if you were to go to the next price bracket and pick up an i7 with an RTX 4060 and so forth. Lastly, before moving on from this point, I had a few issues during the testing phase with booting up some games, with Sniper Elite 5 working like a charm, but Dirt 5 never managing to boot in the first place. Granted, this could be down to the maxed out storage space and how that affected performance, as after installing, Uncharted, Atomic Heart, F1 23, Rollerdrome, Sniper Elite 5, and Dirt 5, the storage was so overwhelmed that I couldn't even complete an update for Atomic Heart.

The point is that this laptop has some real limits to it, which is understandable for the price range that it sits in. But just because it isn't the answer to portable PC gaming, doesn't mean that it doesn't have a few areas that I wish other laptops would look to for inspiration. By having less powerful hardware, the cooling solution is so effective that fan noise levels are at a bare minimum, which is really impressive. This by effect allows the audio systems to excel, as you don't need to play with headphones when using this laptop.

As a final point: connectivity. MSI is usually very good at creating laptops with a broad selection of ports, and with the GF63 Thin, this once again holds true. Between three USB-As, one USB-C, an Ethernet port, a headphone jack, and even a microphone jack, you have plenty of options for whatever you would need this entry level gaming laptop to do.

All in all, for an entry level device, there isn't much to complain about with the MSI GF63 Thin. Yet at the same time, this laptop doesn't stand out like a system that will survive the test of time particularly well, as it has clear limits on the gaming front. If you're looking for a productivity gadget that can very occasionally dabble in video games, then this is a good option, but if you intend to game more frequently, it would be wise to look for a more capable system.

1080p gaming at a very affordable price point.

You must be logged in to comment. If you are not yet a member - join now!