Thoughts from owners of this BestBuy Edition - need advise

Hi folks:

I'm looking at spending < $1500 on getting a new laptop. I went to Best Buy and saw this laptop yesterday. But seeing a laptop in the store is different from being able to USE it and get to know if it's has what I need. (With BB, you can, if you're lucky, watch the looping video, or maybe browse the web if they have WiFi enabled.)

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/msi-15...-drive-aluminum-black/6211744.p?skuId=6211744

From what I saw the display was excellent, though I understand this is not really an IPS display 144hz. (not even sure if it's 120hz, I think so).

The key lighting was so dim. Believe it or not, lighting of keys is important because I work a lot in the dark at night. I understand you cannot illuminate individual keys. But I need to be able to SEE the keys clearly during the day and at night when I work.

Anyways, I guess my question is two fold:

1. I'm concerned about the "bestbuy-edition" because there's always something crippling or limiting with these "one-offs". I'm not a fan of BB at all (loathe them really). I'm concerned this is a red-headed step child edition and that ongoing off the shelf drivers and support will be limited. Is there a non-bestbuy edition that is available? Can you provide a model # so I can find it elsewhere.

2. I'm wondering if there's a better alternative out there, either something about to hit the market in the next couple weeks, or a related model that is better. My budget is really $1500. I'm a hobbyist gamer and mostly do digital art, graphics design, and know that a system like this will be adequate. I don't need 4k video, and I'm not a competitive gamer. I do play games (COD, Skyrim, MMOs) and need a discrete processor. But my biggest need is to ensure I can get some good photoshop computing power (brushes sometimes on m y current machine lag. I've an older i7 from about 6 years ago.

My ideal specs:

i7-8750h (or better)
16gb RAM (or better)
NVIDIA 1060 (or better)
IPS display with excellent color fidelity
Prefer M.2 SSD, perhaps a Thunderbolt port for highspeed storage of Large PS files.
State of the Art WiFi
Color keyboard with excellent illumination (would like programmability of lighting on individual keys.)

I don't care about battery life (I work stationary, but need to go mobile from time to time when meeting clients).

In many ways, my requirements aren't really that extreme.

But like many, I'm simply looking to get the most current, powerful, laptop I can get in today's dollars.

BB also has an MSI GS33. But the display was awful.

For those who love BB, I mean no offense. I've just not had a good experience with them. But they are really the only retailer left where you can see/touch product you might buy. I'm afraid to buy something without being able to give it a look first. $1,500 is a ton of money for me. I know for others who are affluent, it's chump change. But I worked hard to earn up this amount, and just want to get a good model.

I'm not "in the know" about the game rigs out there today. It doesn't look like HP/Dell/Lenovo really have anything. I've never bought a "gaming rig" before. I just need the horsepower for graphics design work and occassional gaming. And I don't want to buy this model only to find out its already out of date and in a week there's a refreshed model that just came out.

Thanks folks.

 

Honestly you can take that GS63 Stealth home.

It will fullfil absolutely every task you could imagine. I hope it's the 120TN panel version, since it's color coverage and overall image quality is better than the 144hz IPS versions.

 

If you don't need "thin and light", have you considered the Eluktronics MECH-15? It's $1050 (GTX 1060) or $1125 (GTX 1070, until September 30th) before OS, RAM and storage (which you can purchase through them or add yourself).
According to the review from @B0B, the default panel is 91% sRGB. If that's not enough, he explains how to change it for a 120 Hz, 100% sRGB / 87% NTSC / 89% AdobeRGB.
I know you said you wanted to be able to see it in person before purchasing but given the value proposition of this notebook in relation to your requirements I thought it was worth mentioning.
Hope this helps!

 

So what exacly is he going to do with the 7700HQ?

also it even says:

So not sure what you're talking about. Not a good deal for him at all.

 

He made no mention of the Factory panels NTSC, just the 91%sRGB that I tested via Spyder5.