To clear the air, let’s point out what is obvious: The GE66 Raider looks absolutely nothing like its predecessor, the GE65 Raider. Instead, the new gaming notebook is clearly mimicking the design of another notebook, the GT76 Titan. Which explains why the back of the notebook resembles the rear design of a Lamborghini or Porsche supercar.
The same can also be said for the placement of the ports of the GE66 Raider. Thanks to the wider and sturdier back, MSI is able to place most of the major ports and outputs directly into the spine. Including the LAN port, HDMI port, and the power port that resides to the far right.
One thing that sets the GE66 Raider apart from any other MSI gaming notebook – aesthetically, anyway – is the acrylic LED bar located at the edge of its base. Truth be told, it’s a pretty looking piece of LED and the best part is that you can customise the colour options via MSI’s Dragon Centre software. Moving on, the GE66 Raider’s 15.6-inch IPS panel is identical to the one found on the GS66 Stealth. It’s got the Full HD resolution, the same 1ms response time, and yes, it also has that same 300Hz maximum refresh rate. Making it the second gaming notebook in MSI’s arsenal to possess the feature.
Another feature that the GE66 Raider possesses – as does the GS66 Stealth – is the new Cooler Boost 5 cooling technology that has the unenviable task of keeping both the CPU and GPU of the notebook cool, be it when it’s idle or pulling double duty running a program at full speed. That brings us nicely to the subject of hardware. Again, like the GS66 Stealth, the GE66 Raider houses the latest 10th generation Intel H-series CPU, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPU, and the same 99.9WHr battery that MSI says can dish out eight hours on average on a single charge. That said, the brand did make it a point to also tell us that like all notebook batteries, your mileage may vary, depending on how you use it.
Like the GS66 Stealth once again, MSI said that the GE66 Raider will be coming later this year. While the pricing and exact availability was not specified, it’s likely that this notebook will launch around the same time as the GS66 Stealth and also be comparatively cheaper than its thin and light brethren, to boot. Oh, there’s also a limited edition variant of the GE66 Raider with a custom skin, designed by famed concept artist, Colie Wurtz, and honestly, the skin bright orange theme is jawdropping.
