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There is no doubt that MSI have been releasing some of the most exciting, feature-laden laptops in the last 24 months. Today we take a look at the new GS60 6QE which incorporates a Intel Core i7 6700HQ Skylake processor, 16GB of DDR4 memory, Nvidia GTX970m, M.2 SSD and 4K Ultra HD panel. MSI have managed to cram all this tasty hardware into a chassis that measures only 20mm at the thickest point.
MSI have been hitting a lot of headlines this year, and rightly so – their GT80 Titan for instance was a truly remarkable desktop replacement (review HERE) that didn't just include two Nvidia GTX980m GPU's in SLi, but it was the first laptop to incorporate a proper, fully fledged mechanical keyboard.
Even at £3,000+ MSI GT80 Titan sales were that good many retailers couldn't get stock in fast enough to meet demand – it was sold out for many months. The MSI GS60 6QE we are analysing today doesn't have quite the same price of admission – a retail price set around the £1,500 mark.
Overclockers UK will have stock available in the coming weeks over HERE. We have also heard that a later revision, priced differently, will ship with a 6GB GTX970m installed, rather than the 3GB version inside our review sample.
MSI GS60 6QE Specification:
- Product Code: GS60 6QE(Ghost Pro 4K)-036UK
- OS: Windows 10 (64 bit)
- CPU: Intel® Core™ i7 Skylake-6700HQ (2.6GHz – 3.5GHz)
- Display: 15.6″ UHD, (3840*2160) 4K PLS Wide View Angle
- Memory Supplied: 2 x 8GB DDR4
- Memory Speed: 2133 mHz
- Max Memory Support: 32GB (2 Slots)
- Graphics Chipset: NVIDIA GeForce GTX970M (3GB)
- Storage: 1 x 256GB M.2 SSD + 1TB 7200RPM
- Keyboard Type: SteelSeries FULL back lit keyboard with SteelSeries Engine
- Audio: – Audio Sound by Dynaudio, Support 7.1 channel SPDIF output, Exclusive Audio Boost technology, Nahimic sound, ESS SABRE HiFi audio DAC technology
- LAN: Killer Gb LAN with Killer Shield
- Wireless: Killer ac
- Bluetooth: V4.1
- Webcam: HD type (30fps@1080p)
- Security: Kensington Lock
- Battery: 6-Cell Li-Polymer
- Dimension: 390 x 266 x 20.05mm
- Weight: 2kg(w/ battery)
- Warranty : 2 YR's Collect & Return (1 YR Global)
What about the yellow issues of the previous Ghost Pros?
Is this the same 4k panel as used in the earlier 2015 model?
If so it’s a total no go.
How does this compare with the Dell XPS 15? That’s now available with a 960M.
I’m thinking a 960M isn’t bad, as eGPUs should now finally be an option – and you’ll even be able to get mobile ones. So e.g. upcoming 990M is a portable package. Or obviously full blown deskptop graphics in a larger unit.
Different panel http://www.kitguru.net/laptops/jon-martindale/msi-gs60-ghost-pro-confirmed-60hz-at-4k/
Thanks, yellow issue still seems to exist though. Kitguru haven’t even reported on that? Mustard yellow’s have been a major issue with the 4k panel. Seems they only fixed the refresh rate. Any details on the FHD screen?
How is the battery life on this notebook now?
Tell me some figures with wifi on, 50% brightness and backlit keyboard off also running on eco mode.
Just for school work.
Thanks
Didnt see any issues with our sample, hence no mention of the issue.
Thanks for the review! But i got one question. Is the HMDI Port 1.4b or 2.0? The review says 1.4b but both Skylake and Maxwell are capable of HDMI 2.0
I have a problem, if I game with the power cable in the wifi looses connection, however if I game on battery it stays connected, any ideas? If tried changing power management settings etc
Can anyone who bought from OCuk actually confirm the monitor is 60 Hz? I’ve read the KitGuru article where MSI said all there 4K monitors are 60 Hz but the people at OCuk seem to think they’re still at 48 Hz. Would love to know for sure
Can someone confirm the size and type of M.2 SSD drive onboard? I would consider swapping that out with an adapter to use a larger mSATA if possible.
Yes, I know performance might not be as good but 128/256Gb is far too small.
Why can’t it come with the 2TB Samsung M9T laptop drive? If the laptop supports a regular 9.5mm thick drive, it can work. But MSI and Asus never offers this drive in their laptops from the factory.
Page 18, temps; Why not run software that will cause more power consumption and thus test the cooling system harder? For instance running Seti@home on the CPU cores and on the GPU at the same time, so full utilization on all CPU cores and mostly fully utilized GPU all at the same time. This way you can see if the cooling system really can take care of the heat and not cause throttling. Then try it in a slightly warmer room, like 27 celsius with the same scenario. The heat expels out the back of the laptop, not the sides?
I wonder if the GS40 Skylake laptop’s cooling system can move as much heat as this GS60.
The screen is matte and not reflective?
Thanks
-because a 2Tb SSD would DOUBLE the cost of the machine, that’s why. Who will buy a gaming laptop that costs $4000?? The few people who desperately want a 2Tb SSD for storage are perfectly capable of replacing it with an aftermarket drive.
A Samsung M9T 2TB HARD DRIVE. Mechanical hard drive. Costs maybe $40 more than a 1TB hard drive for a laptop. This could be in the laptop along with the m.2 SSD.
Yes the 4K screen is 60Hz, I just got the MSi GS60 6QE-054US model a few days ago, and let me just say “It is Glourious!”, and way beyond my expectations, build quality is excellent, and the entire body of the Laptop top and bottom is made from magnesium (one reason why its so light and pricy). In Cinebench render multi cpu test it runs only 12% slower than my stock i7 4770K. Ghost=7.22 4770K=8.2. Very impressive machine, I recomend every one to check it out in the store if you get the chance. Happy Gaming! I’m off to Tomb Raider land =)
don’t get it. you compared the battery life from the gs60 with the gs40 which has a 8060mAh battery. and you said, that the gs60 can reach a bettery life of almost 6hours. with the same hareware inside, the battery life of the gs 40 should be much better than the gs60 ones! but all other reviews werde sad about the gs60 battery life and get only 4,5h hours from the gs40. so whom should i believe?
I’m considering buying this laptop from the Microsoft Store as a “signature edition”, no bloatware. Is there any essential software I would be missing from MSI?
I’ve seen some conflicting reports on battery life. How has the battery held up over the past two months? Any changes?
Great review – this is my first time on kitguru and I will be coming back often!
Kitguru’s GS40 preview mentioned that they received a “halfway house laptop” which I interpreted as a pre-production laptop.
The GS40 they were sent had:
1) a higher clocked cpu
2) a not yet finalized cooling system
3) a configuration that won’t be available (16gb ram with 128gb ssd)
4) a larger battery that may not make it to retail sale (see quote)
“One difference we observed is that GS60 has a 4150mAh/47.31Wh battery while the smaller GS40 has an 8060mAh/61.25Wh battery. That goes against all expectation and it will be interesting to see whether the larger battery makes it to retail sale.”
That being said, I have also read the lower battery life claims on other sites. Some people believe it is due to old drivers. Hopefully that is the case and we can stick to kitguru’s numbers.
Hey thanks for the reply! MSI really need to be clearer with their marketing, two major UK retailers didn’t have any idea when I asked. I ended up putting it off and bought a broadwell Gigabyte P35W during black friday that I’m really happy with. Glad you’re enjoying the gs60! 🙂
Please, would you tell me the adobe RGB gamut? Thanks!