MSI GS70 2QE Stealth Pro Review

The only large trade-off in terms of specification that's been made due to the extremely thin chassis is that despite this being a 17in laptop, there's no optical drive. It's not a massive loss for most of us as optical disks are in decline in the face of online digital content, not to mention the fact that Windows 10 will be available and installed as an update download too. However, if you regularly chuck DVDs and Blu-rays into your laptop then this is likely to be a dealbreaker, especially as the GS70 2QE Stealth Pro has a large screen that's great for viewing movies.


There's also no express port, but thankfully the essentials are here, including HDMI and a duo of mini-DisplayPorts that support outputting to two external displays. There's also four USB 3.0 ports, an SD card reader and gold-plated audio minijacks. These are all located on the sides of the laptop, which may or may not be useful if you're planning on using the GS70 2QE Stealth Pro as a desktop replacement

As you'd expect at this price, the OS is installed on an SSD but the GS70 2QE Stealth Pro's trump card is the fact it's available with some crazy storage options - our review sample offers two Toshiba 256GB mSATA SSDs in RAID 0. The result is a particularly nippy experience that's every bit as quick as a PC in terms of applications loading and boot times and also one that blows any hard disk-based laptop out of the water.


There's a healthy 16GB of RAM - more than enough than you'll likely need during the GS70 2QE Stealth Pro's life span, and more than most desktop PCs are equipped with too - in fact, if you're keen to save some cash, you can check out versions of the GS70 2QE Stealth Pro that come with just 8GB of RAM and maybe even look at ditching one of the SSDs too.

The keyboard is supplied by SteelSeries and features highly configurable backlighting. The key stroke depth is fairly shallow, though, but is relatively responsive so it's likely to need a period of getting used to, rather than being something you'll loathe forever. Equally, the return key is split in half to reduce the height of the keyboard in general - again you'll likely get used to this but we can appreciate that for some this might be a step too far.

The touchpad is a one-piece affair with no dedicated buttons - instead the lower corners of the pad flex down to allow you to use these areas. You need a moderate amount of force to use them and the surfaces are still touch-sensitive too so we found several instances where we'd gone to press one of the buttons, only to find our mouse pointer had moved on-screen. Still, it's likely you'll be using a separate mouse anyway.


Speaking of separate mice, our particular model of the GS70 2QE Stealth Pro includes a rather useful Elite accessory pack. There's a protective case, a 17in rucksack, Steelseries Siberia V2 headset, gaming mouse, mouse mat and even a keyboard cover - probably worth over £100 on their own and the bags are of a high quality too. We'd be pretty chuffed if the GS70 2QE Stealth Pro landed in our stockings Christmas to find all that gear included too.