A few years ago, manufacturers of gaming laptops became hostages to the limits they set. They say the device for gamers should look terribly futuristic, sparkle like the dashboard of a starship from Star Trek. And all this goodness must certainly be painted in red and black, as if a typical video game fan cannot stand other shades. In 2017-2018, the ice broke, brands became bolder, and laptops for gamers of an unconventional format appeared on store shelves. One such laptop is the MSI Thin, the thinnest gaming laptop of its generation.


Since then, the slogan of the series has remained unchanged — the most advanced hardware on the market is hidden inside an elegant almost ultrabook case. Accordingly, almost every representative of this family is an extremely serious gaming machine that claims to replace a desktop computer. The power of the 16-thread Core i7, which is in the average MSI Thin, is redundant by the standards of modern games and its reserve will last another 5 years for sure. If you don't plan to look that far, check out the slightly simpler builds with the tenth-generation Core i5 optimal for gaming. A 512 GB SSD should be enough for the main collection of games, then the user is free to install an additional M.2 SSD at least 4 TB. Well, an additional RAM slot allows you to expand the laptop's RAM up to 64 GB.

However, the reason for pride is almost always the graphics card. In models of previous generations, NVIDIA RTX 2060/2070 was most often installed, in 2021 they were replaced by much more powerful RTX 3060/3070, which immediately after the release in retail were in terrible short supply. These models were created with 4K in mind, so the usual Full HD resolution is a joke to them. These cards will pass the next five-year cycle of nextgen games without any problems.

Given the high status and price tags of the MSI Thin line, it would be strange not to see things familiar to this brand, such as a pumped audio path, a SteelSeries gaming keyboard with individual backlit keys, a dedicated LAN controller, and a gaming display with a refresh rate of 144 – 240 Hz. As for appearance, MSI is now striving for unification, so the 2021 Thin models are similar to other new products — MSI Alpha and Bravo: the same strict grey plastic case, an island-style keyboard with bright backlighting and a brushed aluminium cover with a glowing red dragon as a logo.