Review after 200 hours: MSI Thin 15.6 inch FHD 144Hz Gaming Laptop Intel Core i5-13420H NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 - 16GB DDR4 512GB SSD Gray (2024)

I am a light gamer and have been using various Macbooks as my daily drivers for several years.

Firstly, the display is..... meh. 144Hz is kind of neat whilst gaming however compared to better displays this MSI laptop looks washed out and flat to my eyes.

The build quality is acceptable. I've read that MSI has improved a lot of recent as their machines used to be much more flimsy.

The audio is a weak C- compared to something like a 2022 Macbook pro. It sounds fairly loud however it is not at all impressive. Voice seems pretty off whilst listening to media.

THERMALS SUCK. Like, really. One fan and the heatsinks as you can see online are very weak. Honestly it feels pathetic. That said, I have enjoyed numerous hours of gaming on it. However it was horribly hot to the touch. Yes, I had it more than adequately lifted from behind. With basic browsing (no CPU usage detected beyond 3 percent or whatever STILL yields fans engaged. Even after tweaking power mode to not utilize more than 25% of the CPU! Even after disabling the 3050 gpu!! TO me, this is unacceptable. In 2025 a $750 laptop should be able to remain silent whilst browsing the web.

Performance & gaming is quite good @ 1080p. I really enjoy gaming on it however I do wonder about its longevity given how damn hot it gets.

The keyboard is decent, nothing exceptional. But highly usable and not horrible.

I like the USB-C 3.2 port. I like the full size HDMI port. I also like that it's on the back (HDMI). I like the headphone port.

I like that it has a spare 2.5'' SATA HDD/SSD port free. I like that it can be upgraded to 32GB/64GB of RAM.

If I were considering buying this laptop at (close) to retail I would probably wait and buy something for $300+. The thermals are actually concerning to me. Plus, why would anyone buy a laptop that is going to have fans on 24/7 even during light computing?

The ONLY reason I got this laptop was due to finding it at 50% of market value on FB MP. I couldn't help but to jump all over it.