Verdict
It might not have the majuscule screen or the most style , but the MSI Vector 17 HX ( 2024 ) gaming laptop give you a outstanding gambling spec for the money without any serious compromises .
Pros
Cons
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Introduction
In the last six calendar month I ’ve watch a range of gaming laptop computer with the cardinal selling point of a bigger blind , different presentation technology or a newfangled form constituent . It almost makes the latest MSI Vector 17 HX finger refreshfully straightforward .
Sure , this 17 - in laptop has its share of cause of death features , from its cooling system to its AI - drive systems management , but more than anything it ’s focused on giving you the maximal gaming operation for your budget .
plainly put , there ’s just no pussyfooting with the novel Vector 17 . It ’s large , it ’s bulky and it get obnoxiously loud . It ’s all about the frame rates , not the excogitation delicacy . But if you ’re look for tranquil gameplay at high detail options , it promises to push things as far as potential on whatever specification you may afford , potentially offering you better value than some of its more processed and elegant rivals .
Design and keyboard
MSI ’s previous is what I might describe in technological terms as a bit of a chunky monkey . The 380x298 millimetre footprint is going to track a healthy chunk of any screen background , and it ’s most 3 cm deep in position .
bear the 3 kg bod and 592 GB mightiness supply in a backpack and your spine and shoulders are n’t going to thank you for it . Bar the aluminium lid , the expression is overweight on the plastic .
Yet there are some nice touch here and there , including a scalloped mid - plane section at the rear of the whole , a subtle color effect on the hinges and the big rubberized spacers at the bottom that run to keep the consistency still on the desk while also allowing room for the volcano to do their work .
The power , 2.5 Gb Ethernet and HDMI ports are all out of the manner at the nates , hold open both sides clear if you ’re plug away into a desktop frame-up , and there ’s also a USB 3.2 Gen 2 port there with DisplayPort bread and butter , giving you the choice of dual or even triplex - screen output while you ’re there .
There ’s still more connectivity on either side , withUSB 3.2 Gen 2 Type - Cand Type - A ports on the rightfulness , plus a single USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A. On the left - hand side , you ’ll find a full - sized SD card slot , a headset mariner and aThunderbolt 4port . On top of all that , the MSI Vector 17 HX is one of the few gaming laptops we ’ve tested with establish - inWi - Fi 7 , not to remark Bluetooth 5.4 .
The thickness of the shape mean that your workforce sit down at an exalted position while you ’re typing , but the palm eternal rest are big enough to give you plenty of reenforcement . The keyboard , meanwhile , feels huge , stretch most of the way across the surface of the laptop , with the main QWERTY layout taking most of that space and the numeric pad pretty squeezed into a small section on the correct - hand side .
This means there ’s mass of way and no indigence to cramp the Shift and Ctrl keys , cursor keys or spacebar , though I find the stead of the Function shift on the right slightly awkward .
To balance this , I rather like the fully lucid style of the WASD keycaps , which allow more of the RGB backlighting to shine through . There ’s a similar magic trick on the pointer , with their oversized , semi - unintelligible legends .
As for the feel of the keyboard , it ’s very good indeed , with ample travel and some good , tactile feedback when you tap down on the key and then release . It ’s nimble and responsive for gambling , but also great to typewrite on . And while the touchpad is n’t as roomy as some plus - sized touchpads we ’ve run across recently , it ’s suave , accurate and well - comport , partially because medal and hang back thumb are n’t constantly come into touch with the Earth’s surface . You ’ll still desire a computer mouse for serious gaming , but it ’s fine for navigate Windows when you ’re not .
Gaming laptops be given to lag behind concern and mainstream consumer laptop computer on sustainability , and MSI makes no specific claims about this big , power - hungry system . That said , the packaging is almost whole recyclable cardboard , with no plastic foam cut-in in sight .
Screen and sound
I ’ve been spoilt by a run of bet on laptops with superbOLEDandMini LEDscreens , so it says a lot that the IPS covert on the Vector 17 did n’t hit me as a immense drib down in quality .
In fact , carrying out test with a colorimeter show that this is a beneficial screen , covering 99.7 % of the sRGB gamut and 98.5 % of DCI - P3 , with a maximum luminance of 492.7 nits .
The 2560 x 1600p resolution looks pin - sharp , and you get fantastical levels of detail . The crowing issue with it is that fatal level are too in high spirits , meaning a significantly lower contrast ratio than on the OLED and Mini LED competition , though in 24-hour interval - to - day use blacks still look pretty non-white and contrast levels face surprisingly comely . Colour truth is n’t brainy , with an mean Delta eastward of 3.34 , but that ’s still sound enough for anything bar coloring material - decisive photograph and telecasting work .
Subjectively , the display solve well across a mountain chain of entertainment . It ’s burnished and punchy when watching 4 K television , and while there ’s no HDR financial backing as such , videos still down with vividness . It ’s a similar history with games , and the 240Hz refresh rate afford you reach for high frame rate in older , less demanding championship or eSports game .
There ’s more ripe news on the audio front . The MSI Vector 17 HX has two 2W utterer and no fancy branded sound tech , yet it still produces a surprisingly big sound with adequate stereo system mental imagery , first-class clarity and enough boom and thunder to bring your games to spirit . For really precise positioning you ’ll still want a honorable brace of headphones , but for fooling gambling or watching Netflix that wo n’t be a necessity at all .
Performance
With an Intel Core i9 - 14900HX and 32 Gbit ofDDR5RAM there ’s no style that the MSI Vector 17 HX was ever going to be slow , and so it proves with scores across the world-wide carrying out and productiveness benchmark that equal the fastest microcomputer around .
In fact , the MSI place faster results in Geekbench 6 and PC Mark 10 than theRazer Blade 16 , theAsus ROG Strix Scar 18and theAcer Predator Helios 18 – all phenomenally speedy laptops . It repeated the same trick in Cinebench R23 ’s multi - core test , and send the eminent scores I ’ve seen in Blender ’s CPU rendering benchmarks . Whatever you require to do with a laptop computer , this thing is fast enough to do it .
However , there ’s a slight imbalance here when it comes to gambling , as my test model splashes out on Intel ’s fastest CPU , but harness thing back a number on the GPU by give-up the ghost for Nvidia ’s RTX 4070 . This is still a powerful GPU , capable of running Returnal at 95fps at Ultra preferences and a QHD resolve , or Cyberpunk 2077 at 53fps at Ultra circumstance and QHD .
There ’s not enough index to black market AAA statute title at QHD or native closure withray tracingeffects maxed out – you ’re looking at just 23.33fps at 1600p or 26.34fps at QHD . However , DLSS 3can do a lot to help there , take Cyberpunk 2077 to 54fps at RT Ultra options at 1600p or 73.5fps if you enable frame generation .
you may purchase the MSI Vector 17 HX with an RTX 4080 with 12 GB of GDDR6 RAM for an extra £ 500 , and if I were going to compromise on the CPU or GPU when purchase a play laptop computer , I ’d take the striking on the former every clock time . However , there ’s no dubiousness that this motorcar is labour the RTX 4070 about as far as it can go , and that it ’s going to be firm enough for many gamers , especially with DLSS 3 wrench on .
These are salutary figures for a laptop computer of this spec , but they come with an hearable downside . At nonpayment preferences this is a noisy laptop computer running anything beyond the most introductory productivity apps , and when you embark on gaming , it just gets noisier . At peaks I measure legal degree of over 58dBA ; that ’s what I ’d expect from a desktop PC , or even a desk fan running at top pep pill rather than a gaming laptop computer . Family appendage coming into the room comment on it , and they ’re used to hearing gamy - performance gaming laptop computer in action . You might require to punch some headphones in just to swim the racket out .
The MSI Vector 17 uses a 1 TB Samsung SSD for storage , and it ’s pretty speedy strain successive read / write speeding of 7094MB / sec and 5210.05MB / sec in our tests . It ’ll easily keep up with innovative game , and you wo n’t be left with long loading time either .
Software
Otherwise , the key shaft that MSI provides is its MSI Centre utility . This overcompensate lighting , a range of functioning scenario , nosology , battery care and more , though it ’s not always easy to find specific features within the app ’s different element parts . For instance , I spent years try on to find a style to force the battery to charge to 100 % for testing , and in the terminal I found the relevant preferences under System Diagnosis rather than General preferences or User Scenario .
User Scenario is where you ’ll find the main functioning management feature of speech , with a choice of four main profiles plus the default AI Smart Auto profile , which apparently uses AI to work out what you ’re doing and go for the right clock and fan speeds and power preferences automatically . It ’s effective but , as noted above , noisy , so you might want to tack down to the Silent setting if you ’re get to mainstream productivity apps for the next few hours . Extreme performance mode can be dependable for a few surplus FPS in some games , but you ’ll have to live with high stochasticity stage while it ’s turned on . Generally speak , I ’m not sure it ’s worth it .
Battery life
This form of stipulation takes its toll on barrage fire spirit , so it ’s no surprisal that the MSI Vector 17 HX deliver a somewhat miserable performance when it comes to barrage benchmarks . Even with a 90Whr battery , it survived just under two and a half hours in the PC Mark 10 Modern Office battery test .
In actual manipulation , I was lucky to get more than a couple of hours of light use away from the mains , especially with the brightness pushed up past the halfway score . On the positive side , the monolithic 330W adapter gets it rouse back up relatively fast . Even a 30 - minute recharge was enough to see it reach 29 % .
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Should you buy it?
With the MSI Vector 17 HX ( 2024 ) , you ’re engender one of 2024 ’s fast mobile processors and enough performance to run AAA games at a decent lick .
If your budget allows , you might require to prioritise a faster RTX 4080 GPU , or even take care at clothe more to get a in high spirits - end OLED or mini - lead screenland . TheRazer Blade 16 ( 2024)is a good option .
Final Thoughts
The MSI Vector 17 HX ( 2024 ) has a batch hold up for it . You ’re getting a lot of CPU HP , a GPU that ’s tight enough to run many games at 1440p , a good QHD+ projection screen , fast storage and plenty of RAM .
It ’s no match for theAsus ROG Strix Scar 18or theAcer Predator Helios 18 in terms of graphics performance , but then it ’s also considerably punk – we ’re let the cat out of the bag an extra £ 1000 or more remaining in the bank . Sure , it ’s big , bulky and obnoxiously loud , but the Vector 17 gives you gamy all - round execution at a price you might just about afford . tick off out ourBest Gaming Laptopguide for even more options .
Trusted Score
How we test
Every laptop computer we review goes through a serial publication of uniform checks designed to gauge fundamental things including build calibre , performance , silver screen quality and battery life .
These let in schematic synthetical benchmarks and scripted tests , plus a serial of real - world checks , such as how well it runs pop apps .
FAQs
Yes , the MSI Vector 17 HX ( 2024 ) is a great laptop for gambling , with the RTX 4070 artwork buffalo chip enable it to play any secret plan in Full HD or Quad HD .
Our tests present it to last 2 and a half hours while run productivity apps . Expect the barrage to drop even further when playing games .
Test Data
Full Specs
