[rwp-review id=”0″]
It’s the end of 2015 and we’ve gotten our hands on a monster. The kind that MSI thinks, may just convince you that you don’t need a desktop anymore. Presenting the MSI GT80 Titan, a 18.4 inch behemoth gaming laptop with, wait for it, a mechanical keyboard. The GT80 was designed to give gamers portability and desktop performance, literally. Packed with a Intel Core i7, Dual SLI Nvidia GTX 980M graphics cards it’s really pushing how big can a laptop go. Not sure you can call this portable considering it’s weighing in at 4 and a half kilos.
The MSI Titan could be a nuclear powered laptop but for a start the looks alone give it away that it means business to attract attention. There’s dragon logos emblazoned on the back of the screen and just below the speaker. The red backlighting that gives the Titan a mean haze and while I reviewed it, attracted so many eyes that most people felt that their laptops paled in comparison. This being a dedicated gaming machine, the Titan is also equipped with dedicated buttons to max out fan speed, switch GPU modes and it also comes with swappable keys.
That keyboard’s no joke. MSI took the SteelSeries design language and added Cherry MX mechanical keys with replaceable WASD keycaps, a sensual pleasure for the fingertips, pun intended. Will we get to see mechanical keys on future gaming devices ? It’s unlikely but it’s good to dream right now. The reason for that being, and which it probably adds on to the MSI’s weight, the keyboard goes edge to edge and with no palm rest, MSI threw in a gel palm and backpack in because how else will you feel comfortable carrying and using the monster ?
With little space to put a trackpad, MSI pushed it right and can convert into a virtual number pad with outlined keys and it also doubles as a mouse but MSI should know gamers by now just use the mouse, it’s certainly not a gimmick by a long shot and it works.
MSI didn’t cut any corners, the mobile GPU, or rather two GPU’s are what makes the Titan tick for me. Two Geforce GTX 980M cards running in SLI configuration. The desktop class card has 2048 CUDA cores while the mobile GPU has 1,536 and in SLI, it should come as no surprise that you’re going to have no trouble running titles well up to the next few years. Benchmarks wise, let’s just say you’re going to be respectably playing at 4K at 50 fps, not a remarkable feat but remember this is a laptop.
MSI lets you upgrade the laptop too. The review unit came with wo Kingston 128GB M.2 SATA drives in RAID 0 format and it’s expandable too. There’s also slots for RAM, Blu Ray drive and 1 TB HDD. Now you think with all this heavy gear, the noise on this thing would be painful. Not so. The fans on the MSI GT80 Titan will run quietly but only start to pump up after a long gaming session and there’s even fan boost to speed up the fan’s to max rpm to cool the device, but boosting fans means you’re going to need better headphones.
Finally, here’s the thing about desktop class level laptops. They’re not exactly in the range of affordability for the mid class gaming rather they are for the enthusiast gamer who doesn’t need a PC. With that sort of thinking, most gamers in that bracket would already have a PC. The MSI GT80 Titan SLI will leave a dent in your wallet, approximately, $3,400 now that’s going to detract a few people from purchasing it but if you give it a chance, you’re getting the premium with desktop grade performance and mechanical keyboard.
