MSI Titan 18 HX AI Review: The Ultimate Gaming Laptop

The MSI Titan is not for nan faint of heart—it ne'er has been. It’s an 18-inch behemoth, fitting into that “desktop replacement” people of gaming laptop. This 1 successful peculiar is meant for PC gamers who want not conscionable apical capacity but besides immoderate bling.

You’ll beryllium hard-pressed to find a gaming laptop pinch this galore high-end features. With a mini-LED display, a mechanical keyboard, and an invisible haptic touchpad, there's nary different 18-inch gaming laptop for illustration it, and that intends a flashy value too.

Big and Beautiful

The MSI Titan is massive. It’s 1.26 inches heavy astatine its largest constituent and weighs astir 8 pounds. You publication that right. Eight full pounds. Gaming laptops aren’t known for being peculiarly portable, particularly ones pinch 18-inch screens, but nan MSI Titan HX is almost a afloat lb heavier than nan Razer Blade 18.

It’s hefty and good crafted, though, arsenic you’d dream for successful a laptop northbound of $5,000. It’s not a azygous portion of machined aluminum for illustration nan Razer Blade 18, but nan magnesium-aluminum alloy chassis feels sturdy. The MSI Titan HX uses a thermal support connected nan back, making nan laptop larger but besides providing a protrusion for other ventilation and ports. MSI keeps it reasonably minimalist pinch nan all-black interior and metallic trim, particularly compared to older versions of this laptop. The invisible touchpad makes this consciousness moreover much modern. And yet, some nan Razer Blade 18 and Alienware 18 Area-51 are much savvy designs successful my book.

In nan rear, you’ll find nan powerfulness jack, nan HDMI 2.1 port, and nan Ethernet. Next to immoderate monolithic vents, you’ll find 3 USB-A 3.2. Gen2 ports connected nan side, on pinch nan 2 Thunderbolt 5 ports, nan SD paper slot, and a headphone jack. That’s conscionable astir each larboard you tin imagine, but nan Thunderbolt 5 ports are nan absorbing part.

Intel sent maine respective Thunderbolt 5 accessories to show conscionable really overmuch bandwidth nan caller spec provides. I group up 2 32-inch 4K 240-Hz OLED gaming monitors, each powered done a azygous USB-C cable. It’s magical seeing those 2 high-refresh-rate monitors being daisy-chained together, contempt their 240-Hz refresh rates. In nan past, Thunderbolt 4 ports were constricted to 2 4K monitors astatine 60 Hz.

Even if you don’t person 2 costly gaming monitors to link to, nan MSI Titan 18 HX has a really coagulated mini-LED show onboard. It tin deed 414 nits of brightness successful SDR and astir double that successful HDR. That’s not rather arsenic bully arsenic nan OLED gaming monitors retired there, but it’s surely agleam capable to announcement nan quality successful HDR. The colour saturation is awesome too.

You want that 4K solution erstwhile it's dispersed crossed 18 inches of screen, moreover if you whitethorn not ever want to play games astatine that autochthonal resolution. It’s incredibly sharp. This really is nan champion surface you tin get connected an 18-inch laptop correct now, arsenic OLED isn't communal successful this larger surface size yet. MSI besides offers an IPS type of this panel, arsenic good arsenic a lower-resolution 2,560 x 1,600 240-Hz IPS option.

Unfortunately, nan speakers and webcam aren’t arsenic premium. The 1080p camera is noisy, and nan six-speaker audio strategy is mediocre. The speakers are almost irrelevant fixed really large nan instrumentality sound is, astatine slightest erstwhile it comes to gaming.

Tricks Up Its Sleeve

The keyboard is unsocial and an absolute joyousness to type and crippled on. It’s a Cherry MX low-profile mechanical keyboard that feels chunky and tactile. It’s dissimilar immoderate laptop I’ve ever typed connected successful that sense, capturing nan consciousness of a mechanical keyboard correct connected your laptop. My only title is that nan galore keys are not mechanical, specified arsenic nan arrow keys, nan number pad, and nan usability row. Once you notice, it’s a small jarring.