Pros: I've had this laptop for about 2 1/2 months now and feel that I've used it enough to have a really good sense of what it is capable of. I got it to replace a 4-year old budget gaming laptop and am quite pleased! I wasn't familiar with MSI but after doing a lot of research - learning about the latest specs, reading reviews, watching videos, etc. - I settled on this one. This is the Newegg exclusive version of this particular model. I'm a grad student and a moderate PC gamer, so it was important to me to find a laptop that is VR-ready, can handle quantitative data analysis programs, perform well on demanding games, and I also wanted to future-proof myself a bit for new titles. I settled on this machine because of the specs. The CPU and NVIDIA GTX 1070 GPU sold me but I also like that you can upgrade the RAM to 32GB. This was my first machine with 2 separate hard drives. The 256GB SSD is very fast and because it's small, I use that to run the operating system, main programs, and my favorite games. The 1TB HDD is strictly for storage. I do like having that distinction, plus having the 2 separate drives is what helps keep the cost lost. Performance is excellent. At first I felt like my GTX 1070 was underperforming but after researching and tweaking various of settings I think I've optimized performance. This thing can handle any game that you throw at it. I'm able to play all games on Max/Ultra settings and getting crazy high FPS with no lag or any other problems. The fans does a great job keeping the laptop cool during games and isn't annoyingly loud or anything. There have been a couple of moments where the body will become warm to the touch and when that happens I just hit the fan on the right (under the power button) to give the fan a boost. After a couple of minutes this will bring the temperature down to normal and then I can turn it off. That extra fan speed is loud, but the normal fan speed isn't too bad. It might also just be that I'm used to the fact that any gaming laptop will have some fan noise. This laptop is lighter and thinner than I expected. I think the 15.6" inch screen is an appropriate size and I do consider it portable but keep in mind the battery life will only last about 2 hours when not plugged in. If you are carrying this around every day then it might be a bit much but I don't mind tossing it in my backpack and taking it to campus or when I'm traveling. The screen itself is sharp and vivid.

Cons: It's not perfect out of the box - this laptop does need a little bit of work to get it set up properly. It came loaded with bloatware and had a couple of weird laggy moments where the computer screen froze and the cursor would move really slowly across the screen on it's own. When I first got the computer I used it for about a month thinking I'd just deal,. but then I reminded myself that a brand-new computer with this much power should not freeze, especially over something like light internet browsing. Doing a clean Windows 10 install fixed the bloatware and the freezing problem. This was my first time installing an operating system and it wasn't that difficult. Just search online and you will find many detailed walkthroughs and videos that show and explain each step and also tell you what programs to re-install to get the best performance and gaming experience. It comes with 16GB but that is expandable up to 32GB, so I have that on my list of things to do too to maximize this experience.

Overall Review: I took 1 star off because I did have to do a bit of research and spend quite a few hours playing around with settings in order to maximize performance. I recommend this laptop and have even considered getting a second one for my husband. However, I do think it's worth waiting until this item is on sale. This was a splurge for me - I got it at $1,649 with a $50 mail in rebate - but from what I understand it was discounted to $1,300-1,400 around BlackFriday/CyberMonday 2017 and even now it is on sale for $1,569 with a $50 mail in rebate. If you can grab it at $1,500 or lower, then this is a no-brainer because to get these specs anywhere else you would have to spend $1,700+