MSI GL65 10Sx review – looks a bit more evil, but packs a bit more power

Considering the hardware it offers, the MSI GL65 10Sx is one of the most budget-friendly gaming laptops money can buy. Currently, there are configurations, featuring the Core i7-10750H and an RTX 2070 that come at $1400, and this is with 16GB of RAM, 512GB NVMe SSD, and a 144Hz panel.

Ultimately, the GL65 10Sx is largely unchanged from the GL65 9SE, with the only changes under the bonnet being the 10th Gen Comet Lake-H processors and the Wi-Fi 6 support.

Of course, more and more people are interested in thin and light gaming machines, like the Lenovo Legion 7 (15), but thicker boys like this MSI device, offer more cooling capacity (in theory). This provides the headroom for a 115W version of the RTX 2060 (found in our unit), and we will compare how it deals against other lower-power devices.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/msi-gl65-leopard-10sx/

Contents


Specs Sheet

MSI GL65 Leopard 10Sx - 规格

  • AUO B156HAN08.4 (AUOAF90)
  • 颜色精度  3.3  3.4
  • HDD/SSD
  • 以至于 2000GB SSD + 以至于 1000GB HDD
  • M.2 槽
  • 1x 2280 PCIe NVMe 3.0 x4 
  • 内存
  • up to 64GB
  • 操作系统
  • Windows 10 Home, Windows 11 Home, No OS, Linux, Windows 10 Pro
  • 蓄电池
  • 41Wh, 6-cell, 51Wh, 6-cell, 51Wh, 6-cell
  • 车身材料
  • Plastic / Polycarbonate, Aluminum
  • 外形尺寸
  • 357 x 248 x 27.5 mm (14.06" x 9.76" x 1.08")
  • 重量
  • 2.30 kg (5.1 lbs)
  • 端口和连接性
  • 1x USB Type-C
  • 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps)
  • 3x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • HDMI
  • 4K@30Hz
  • 迷你显示接口
  • 读卡器
  • SD, SDHC, SDXC
  • 以太网LAN
  • GB Lan
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • 蓝牙
  • 5.1
  • 音频插孔
  • 1x Mic-in, 1x Headphone-out
  • 特点
  • 指纹识别器
  • 网络摄像机
  • HD (720p@30FPS)
  • 背光键盘
  • 麦克风
  • 扬声器
  • 2x 2W, Nahimic 3
  • 光驱
  • 安全锁槽

What’s in the box?

Inside the package, we found the mandatory paperwork, as well as a 230W power brick, and the device, itself.


Design and construction

Again, the GL65 comes with an aluminum lid and an all-plastic body. It weighs 2.30 kg and has a profile of 27.5mm. The device, itself is pretty sturdy if we have to be honest, and the only visual difference, when compared to the GL65 9SE, is the lid cover and its two stripes, making it appear a little more aggressive. It’s also safe to say that the base and the lid are absolute fingerprint magnets.

Speaking of the lid, you can easily open it with one hand. The hinges are placed in the corners, which helps with the force distribution, but on the other side, there is a bit of flex, when you twist the lid. Thankfully, we see narrow bezels to the sides and the top of the display, and the latter also houses the HD camera, that can take 720p 30fps videos.

Next, we move to the keyboard. As usual, it comes in two options, regarding the backlight – an all-Red and a Per-Key RGB one. The unit itself is comfortable for gaming with its relatively long travel and clicky feedback. It’s also good to see that there is a NumberPad section, but on the downside, it is placed too close to the Arrow keys, resulting in misclicks every once in a while. By the way, the laptop has two dedicated buttons, placed right next to the Power button. One of them opens the Dragon Center, while the other unleashes the full potential of the fans, making the laptop sound like you have opened a window in your car while driving at 100 MPH.

Thankfully, the keyboard deck has almost no flex when you push it, and we found the weakest point to be right between the space bar and the touchpad – where the plastic is extremely thin. As for the touchpad, we have a very good unit, whose accurate tracking pairs really well with the fast-refresh-rate display. It also has a couple of dedicated buttons, which are … okay.

And if you turn the laptop upside down, you will notice the huge ventilation grill, which covers pretty much the entire cooling solution, providing a nice look inside. Also, there are the speaker cutouts, while the heat is dissipated from two vents on the back and one on the left side of the device.

Ports

On the left side, you’ll see an RJ-45 connector, an HDMI connector, a Mini DisplayPort, a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2) port, and two audio jacks. Then, on the right, there is the power plug, an SD card reader, and two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports.


Disassembly, upgrade options, and maintenance

In order to open the get to all of the internals, you need to remove the back panel. It is held in place by 12 Phillips-head screws. Keep in mind that one of them has a “Factory seal”, which may or may not void your warranty in some regions. After you remove them, you’ll need a (preferably) plastic pry tool, or a guitar picks to pop the plate out of the chassis.

Inside, you’ll see 7 heat pipes, which despite looking thin, are quite beefy. So, four of them are cooling the GPU and its VRM modules and memory. Of them, one is cooling the CPU voltage regulators, while two others are cooling down, the CPU, itself. Interestingly, though, the heat sinks look quite narrow (although they are almost as thick as the laptop, itself. We’ll see how they manage the thermals of the device in the Temperature section of the review.

Then, in terms of upgradability, there are two RAM SODIMM slots, stacked above each other, and they support up to 64GB of DDR4 memory. Storage-wise, you can put an M.2 PCIe/SATA drive, while the big gap on the left is reserved for the 2.5″ SATA drive.

Last, but not least, there is the 51Wh battery pack. It is easy to remove, but sadly it looks too small for a laptop of this caliber.


Display quality

MSI GL65 10Sx has a 144Hz IPS panel, model number AUO B156HAN08.4 (AUOAF90). Its diagonal is 15.6″ (39.62 cm), and the resolution 1920 х 1080 pixels. The screen ratio is 16:9, and we are looking at a pixel density of – 142 ppi, and a pitch of 0.18 х 0.18 mm. The screen turns into Retina when viewed at distance equal to or greater than 60cm (24″) (from this distance one’s eye stops differentiating the separate pixels, and it is normal for looking at a laptop).

It has comfortable viewing angles. We offer images at 45° to evaluate image quality.

The measured maximum brightness of 258 nits in the middle of the screen and 255 nits as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of 6%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 6880K – slightly colder than the optimal for the sRGB standard of 6500K.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. In other words, the leakage of light from the light source.

Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work. The contrast ratio is not bad – 1000:1.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people in HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows MSI GL65 10Sx’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 53% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of MSI GL65 10Sx with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale, and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.


PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

The light coming from MSI GL65 10Sx’s screen doesn’t flicker at any brightness level. Thankfully, this enables you to play for extended periods of time, without the risk of further damaging your eyes and brain.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Conclusion

MSI GL65 10Sx’s 144Hz IPS panel has a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, decent contrast ratio, and doesn’t flicker at any brightness level. However, it covers only 53% of the sRGB gamut, which is something uncommon for a 144Hz panel.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for MSI GL65 10Sx configurations with 15.6″ FHD IPS AUO B156HAN08.4 (AUOAF90).

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

除了获得高效和健康友好的配置文件,购买LaptopMedia的产品,您还可以支持我们实验室的发展,我们在实验室测试设备,以产生最客观的评论。

办公室工作

Office Work应该主要由那些花大部分时间看文本、表格或仅仅是浏览的用户使用。该配置文件旨在通过保持平坦的伽玛曲线(2.20)、本机色温和精确的色彩来提供更好的清晰度。

设计与游戏

本资料针对专业处理色彩的设计师,以及游戏和电影。设计与游戏》将显示面板发挥到了极致,使其在白点D65的网页和高清电视的sRGB IEC61966-2-1标准中尽可能准确。

卫生保健

Health-Guard消除了有害的脉宽调制(PWM),并减少了影响我们的眼睛和身体的负蓝光。 由于它是针对每个面板量身定制的,因此可以保持色彩在视觉上的准确性。 Health-Guard模拟纸张,因此大大减轻了眼睛的压力。

以33%的折扣获得所有3份资料


Sound

MSI GL65 10Sx’s speakers have a decent quality. However, the low, mid, and high tones all have some deviations in clarity.


Drivers

You can download all of the latest drivers and utilities for this notebook from here: https://www.msi.com/Laptop/support/GL65-Leopard-10SX

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits, and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. This notebook’s 51Wh battery delivers 6 hours and 13 minutes of Web browsing, and 6 hours and 36 minutes of video playback.


CPU options

This device can currently be found with the Core i5-10300H or the Core i7-10750H.

MSI GL65 Leopard 10Sx CPU的变体

在这里,你可以看到市场上[系列]机型的CPU之间的大致比较。这样你就可以自己决定哪一个[系列]型号是最划算的。

注:图表显示的是最便宜的不同CPU配置,所以你应该通过点击笔记本的名称/CPU来检查这些笔记本的其他规格是什么。


GPU options

Whereas the graphics cards of choice include the GTX 1650, GTX 1650 Ti, GTX 1660 Ti, and the ray-tracing enabled options – the RTX 2060, and the RTX 2070.

MSI GL65 Leopard 10Sx GPU的变体

在这里,你可以看到市场上[系列]型号的GPU之间的大致比较。这样你就可以自己决定哪一个[系列]型号是最划算的。

注:图表显示的是最便宜的不同GPU配置,所以你应该通过点击笔记本的名称/GPU来检查这些笔记本的其他规格是什么。


Gaming tests

Far Cry 5Full HD, Normal (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
MSI GL65 10Sx81 fps80 fps75 fps
MSI GL65 9SE84 fps82 fps78 fps

rise-of-the-tomb-raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider (2016)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)Full HD, MAX (Check settings)
MSI GL65 10Sx104 fps73 fps49 fps
MSI GL65 9SE110 fps69 fps47 fps

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon WildlandsFull HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
MSI GL65 10Sx66 fps61 fps48 fps
MSI GL65 9SE66 fps61 fps48 fps

Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Highest (Check settings)
MSI GL65 10Sx75 fps73 fps56 fps
MSI GL65 9SE74 fps72 fps55 fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

Intel Core i5-10300H (45W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
MSI GL65 10Sx4.19 GHz (B+68%) @ 79°C4.13 GHz (B+65%) @ 94°C3.76 GHz (B+50%) @ 95°C
HP Envy 15 (15-ep0000)4.02 GHz (B+61%) @ 87°C3.52 GHz (B+41%) @ 76°C3.56 GHz (B+42%) @ 82°C
Lenovo Ideapad Creator 5 (15)4.11 GHz (B+64%) @ 91°C3.99 GHz (B+60%) @ 94°C3.67 GHz (B+45%) @ 94°C
Dell XPS 17 97003.83 GHz (B+53%) @ 94°C3.59 GHz (B+44%) @ 95°C3.31 GHz (B+32%) @ 89°C
Dell XPS 15 95003.43 GHz (B+38%) @ 85°C3.34 GHz (B+34%) @ 97°C3.34 GHz (B+34%) @ 99°C
Dell G3 15 35003.70 GHz (B+48%) @ 97°C3.53 GHz (B+41%) @ 97°C3.32 GHz (B+33%) @ 95°C
Lenovo Ideapad Gaming 3i (15)4.00 GHz (B+60%) @ 94°C3.76 GHz (B+50%) @ 94°C3.57 GHz (B+43%) @ 94°C
Acer Predator Triton 300 (PT315-52)3.35 GHz (B+34%) @ 72°C3.33 GHz (B+33%) @ 79°C3.31 GHz (B+32%) @ 84°C

On the bright side, we’ve just seen the highest clock on a Core i5-10300H in Prime95 – 4.19 GHz average on all cores. However, despite the strong start and finish, the 95C end temperature kind of takes away from the sense of glory.

Real-life gaming

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min + fan boost)
MSI GL65 10Sx1805 MHz @ 75°C1794 MHz @ 78°C1802 MHz @ 76°C
Dell G7 17 77001468 MHz @ 72°C1440 MHz @ 77°C1450 MHz @ 75°C
Dell G7 17 77901432 MHz @ 73°C1462 MHz @ 73°C
MSI GF65 Thin 10Sx1434 MHz @ 84°C1421 MHz @ 86°C
Acer Predator Helios 300 (PH315-53)1506 MHz @ 77°C1457 MHz @ 82°C1671 MHz @ 76°C
MSI GL65 9SE1590 MHz @ 71°C1588 MHz @ 73°C1590 MHz @ 68°C
ASUS ROG Zephyrus M GU5021454 MHz @ 76°C1394 MHz @ 85°C
MSI GS65 Stealth 8SE1305 MHz @ 77°C1267 MHz @ 80°C
Lenovo Legion Y7401526 MHz @ 70°C1499 MHz @ 74°C

You can see that his notebook’s 115W TGP completely annihilates everything else we’ve tested when it comes to core clocks. On the downside, the laptop runs its fans at a very high RPM, which makes them sound extremely loud. One of the reasons for that is their small size. And as you can see, turning the fan boost on doesn’t really make that much of a difference.

Gaming comfort

As we said, the laptop is extremely loud during gaming, and we found the keyboard to run pretty warmly as well. Thankfully, the bottom panel remained cool throughout both tests, mainly thanks to the huge ventilation grill.


Verdict

We feel we have to start with that – the Core i5-10300H will definitely bottleneck the RTX 2060 at low settings, and at some games – even at medium. However, the potent GPU pulls the entire system ahead, once we are dealing with a smaller amount of fps, and the true power, provided by the 115W TGP shines away.

Regardless of the processor choice, however, keep in mind, you are getting a very loud device. Its rather small fans are blowing a ton of air, but at the expense of noise, and a bit of heat on the base.

Thankfully, though, there are two RAM SODIMM slots, supporting up to 64GB of DDR4 memory. You will also find a 2.5-inch SATA drive bay, an M.2 NVMe drive slot, an SD card reader, and a ton of I/O connectors. As for the battery life – well you will get about 6 hours and 13 minutes of Web browsing and a bit more than 6 hours and a half of video playback.

MSI GL65 10Sx’s 144Hz IPS panel (AUO B156HAN08.4 (AUOAF90)) has a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, decent contrast ratio, and doesn’t flicker at any brightness level. However, it covers only 53% of the sRGB gamut, which is something uncommon for a 144Hz panel.

So if you want a more all-around experience, the Acer Predator helios 300 (PH315-53) is definitely a great choice, as is the HP Omen 15 (15-ek0000). With that said, the MSI GL65 10Sx is not a bad device. It’s just that a couple of factors prevent it from being a top-notch option.

Pros

  • Exceptional performance
  • Great I/O connectivity with an SD card reader
  • Optional Per-key RGB backlight
  • Lack of PWM (AUO B156HAN08.4)
  • Up to 64GB of DDR4 memory


Cons

  • Quite bulky for 2020
  • Very loud during gaming
  • Covers only 51% of sRGB (AUO B156HAN08.4)

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/msi-gl65-leopard-10sx/

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