[rwp-review id=”0″]
MSI has always been pushing to get mobile gaming on a more grander scale and how. We’ve seen the Alienware add a “Gaming Amp” Unit with a dedicated desktop GPU hooked up to it, in hindsight it does seem like a novel idea however how this will translate in real time portability is another story. MSI’s GS30 Shadow plus Gaming Dock had me on edge. It’s a 13″ ultrabook that contained the software while the true hardware boost comes from the dock and combine the two and you’ll find yourself blazing gaming at 60fp full ultra. It’s a great idea especially if you’re going for LAN parties and what performance and unparalleled quality. All of this is indeed brilliant in practice if you overlook how heavy the dock can get to lunge around. That being said, the GS30 is MSI’s crack at changing the mobile gaming landscape.
Design
If it weren’t for the blazing shield of MSI, you wouldn’t guess this was a gaming laptop. Its small size and makes this an ultrabook and it’s pretty lightweight too. Part of this is due to MSI taking the guts out of the machine and slot in a simple Intel Iris Pro Graphics chip. The chasis is pretty with acentuated angles sharp on edges except on the front which softens it up. The keyboard has a white backlight and I can’t stress this enough, a well lit backlight makes a difference on style and I like that I can take the laptop in to work among a sea of Apple MacBooks and stand out. On the front is illuminated strips of light giving that MSI feel we’ve seen but since you can’t turn it off, it begs the question if MSI focused too much on form over function again. It’s fairly bare bones with the GS30’s laptop component and we’ll move on to why.
A Symbiotic relationship
What makes the GS30 shadow complete is the GamingDock. This heavy box can house a desktop grade graphics card. MSI has put in a 16-pin PCI express connector so you can become slightly more ambitious to put in your own GPU. Which I have to mention, the dock, on purchase is empty and you have to buy an external GPU to power it. To connect both, you’ll have to turn off the laptop and slide on top of the dock with a lever until it locks into place. The dock itself is easy to take apart and you can find yourself enough leg room to put in a Nvidia GTX Titan. The GamingDock also has a 2.1 speaker set up and 450 watt psu. On the outside you have ethernet connection and four USB 3.0 ports.
Specs
Laptop
CPU: 2.5GHz Intel Core i7-4870HQ (quad-core, 6MB cache, 3.7GHz with Turbo Boost)
Graphics: Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200
RAM: 16GB DDR3L (1600MHz)
Screen: 13.3-inch, 1,920 x 1,080 Full HD, anti-reflective
Storage: 128GB mSATA SSD x 2 RAID 0
Ports: Ethernet, HDMI, microphone jack, headphone jack
Connectivity: Intel 7260 dual band Wireless-AC, Bluetooth
Camera: 720p HD webcam
Weight: 1.2 kg
Size: 12.59 x 8.93 x 0.77 inches (W x D x H)
Gaming Dock
GPU capacity: PCIe x16 Slot for desktop graphics card
Graphics: MSI Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 GAMING 4G LE (Supplied for review, not included on purchase)
Sound: 2 x 5-watt speakers with 5-watt subwoofer
HDD Capacity: SATA slot for 3.5-inch HDD
Ports: 4 x USB 3.0, Ethernet, microphone jack, headphone jack
Weight: 9.2 kgs
Dimensions: 14.34 x 8 x 8.09 inches (W x D x H)
Straightforward, you can get the GS30 at a hefty investment of $1900, here’s the catch you can actually build a high end desktop rig for under that much which defeats the purpose of the GS30. However if a gamer is conscious about getting optimal performance on a budget, then they have to look into purchasing lower tier cards. Also not supplied are the external keyboard and mouse and it does become a bit awkward to use the laptop’s keyboard once mounted on the dock.
Performance
As they say the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The MSI GS30 laptop has Iris Pro graphics which will handle most things well since it can take a reasonable amount of punishment. I wouldn’t imagine most gamers running graphic intensive games on Intel but you can still run them and be able to play, just don’t expect 60fps at full HD.
Of course everything changes when you plug it in to the dock, GTA V ran beautifully on 60fps, considering it was running from a MSI GTX 980. It also reaffirms my belief that desktop graphics still rule the gaming landscape, but Esports are changing all things and we’re seeing mobile GPU’s catch up fast and cater to games that are popular to watch hence trying to find the right balance in creating systems that are between playable and portable.
Glaring Issues
The biggest issue right now with the GS30 GamingDock is that the screen turns off when you dock it together. You can always connect the dock to an external monitor via HDMI but not being able to keep the screen on while being connected would deter people without monitors to buy it. The docks’ speaker system is really loud but not necessarily clear and be prepared to get a paid of headphones, the dock’s noisy.
Battery
I assumed that not having a discrete GPU would give the GS30 some extra juice in terms of battery but unfortunately it scores very low. Just three and a half hours on moderate use, you’ll find yourself either keeping it on charge occasionally or just mounting it on the dock.
Extras
It’s something to be said that MSI has a bit of a bloatware problem with most of their software.
The unit I had, took time to clear startup only because of the number of apps that took time to load. With windows 8, the laptop’s bundled with a trial version of Norton and a few Xbox apps you won’t be playing anytime soon. The only apps worth keeping were the MSI super charger which lets you charge your phone when the unit is off but power is still running. I have this on my desktop and works fantastic. MSI has also included the Intel Iris control panel, game caster and MSI dragon which monitors system performance.
Final thoughts
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for new tech and the GS30 is proof of that. MSI still has a few things to sort out in terms of hardware. Gamers always had the issue of running great graphics on laptops that ended up becoming bulky. This solves part of the problem. By providing a way to get your lightweight laptop to power up to a PC, MSI has increased their offereing for the mobile gaming world. The GamingDock poses as an investment which you can upgrade over time. It’s either going to stand as a hit or mis with people. It’s noisy doesn’t sound as good as it should and the battery life of the GS30 is disappointing.
So should you buy it, that’s a good question and that comes down to what you want in a system.At the current price offereing, you can either get a great gaming laptop or even a better gaming desktop. The MSIGS30 Shadow with GamingDock is a great idea that’s ahead of its time but it will catch on eventually and I can see it being a strong case to push esports further.
