Latest news with #MSITitan
Forbes
11-06-2025
- Forbes
Maingear's New ‘Desktop Replacement' Ultima 18 Gaming Laptop Is No Joke
Ultima 18 I recently watched Victor Lucas' review of the MSI Titan 18 HX AI, an $8,000 gaming laptop for people with deep pockets and a penchant for financial self-destruction, I'm assuming. The machine features an 18-inch 4K display, as well as a mobile GeForce RTX 5090, an Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX, and is outfitted with enough hardware bells and whistles to earn it 'desktop replacement' status, as well as a price that could make a grown man cry (shoutout to My Retro Life for this gem). Well, it's rather fitting that premium system integrator Maingear is now getting in on the portable powerhouse action with a potential rival product they're dubbing the Ultima 18--not that Ultima--which starts at a much more reasonable $3,599, although the price will naturally balloon depending on which specific components you want installed, or if you choose to pay for a 'boost,' which doubles the RAM and SSD capacity for non-customized pre-configurations. Speaking of, here is a rough spec run-down: Ultima 18 Back in 2024, I reviewed Maingear's comparable ML-17 gaming laptop and thought it was excellent. Admittedly, with a screen measuring 17.3 inches, the ML-17's display is notably smaller than the new Ultima 18, and the ML-17 is also much lighter, coming in at 7.25 pounds, whereas the Ultima 18 purportedly weighs over a pound more. Like the ML-17, Maingear is touting the Ultima 18 as something you can easily slip into your backpack, but your backpack better be, uh, big? Squats are a health inclusion in any strength-training routine, by the way. Sure, the Ultima 18 is a heavier beast, but on top of the larger display, you're additionally getting the latest top-tier internals, notably a 50-series mobile GPU and a cutting-edge Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU. That's on top of whatever amount of RAM you decide to include, and I also dig the option for so many extra M.2 NVMe SSDs. There's even a valuable PCIe Gen 5 slot for one of those newfangled faster drives. The battery here is pretty standard fare for these types of laptops, and you likely won't be getting more than two-ish hours on a single charge while playing games on relatively demanding settings, at least judging from my experience with the ML-17. However, I'm sure most people will be keeping this kind of device plugged in when gaming--hotel room Cyberpunk 2077 for the win. Honestly, I wouldn't plug this laptop into an outlet on an airplane, simply for fear of throttling the damn engines. A new 330W charger is packed in with the Ultima 18, and it does support USB-C charging for power emergencies. Ultima 18 I'm very interested to see how loud this thing gets when firing on all cylinders, and how toasty the metal chassis feels during intense gaming sessions, but 18 inches of 4K display real estate is undeniably compelling. A mobile 5090 doesn't sound too shabby either, and Maingear's signature understated design looks to be present. If the company's impressive track record is any indication, I wouldn't be surprised if they have another performance and aesthetic winner on their hands, but we'll know for sure once reviews begin popping up. Will this replace your (or my) desktop, I wonder? At least it's not $8,000. For that cost, a laptop better replace my existential anxiety with permanent, unbridled joy. That's how happiness works, yeah? You can buy it? The Ultima 18 is available to purchase today on Maingear's website.
WIRED
02-06-2025
- Business
- WIRED
MSI Titan 18 HX (2025) Review: The RTX 5090, Unbound
The MSI Titan is not for the faint of heart—it never has been. It's an 18-inch behemoth, fitting into that 'desktop replacement' class of gaming laptop. This one in particular is meant for PC gamers who don't just want top performance, but also some bling. You'll be hard-pressed to find a gaming laptop with this many high-end features. With a Mini-LED display, a mechanical keyboard, and an invisible haptic touchpad, there's no other 18-inch gaming laptop like it, and that means a flashy price, too. Big and Beautiful The MSI Titan is massive. It's 1.26 inches thick at its largest point and weighs nearly eight pounds. You read that right. Eight whole pounds. Gaming laptops aren't known for being particularly portable, especially ones with 18-inch screens, but the MSI Titan HX is almost a full pound heavier than the Razer Blade 18. It's hefty and well-crafted, though, as you'd hope for in a laptop north of $5,000. It's not a single piece of machined aluminum like the Razer Blade 18, but the magnesium-aluminum alloy chassis feels sturdy. The MSI Titan HX uses a thermal shelf on the back, making the laptop larger, but providing a protrusion for extra ventilation and ports. MSI keeps it fairly minimalist with the all-black interior and silver trim, especially compared to older versions of this laptop. The invisible touchpad makes this feel even more modern. And yet, both the Razer Blade 18 and Alienware 18 Area-51 are more savvy designs in my book. In the rear, you'll find the power jack, the HDMI 2.1 port, and the Ethernet. Next to some massive vents, you'll find three USB-A 3.2. Gen2 ports on the side, along with the two Thunderbolt 5 ports, the SD card slot, and a headphone jack. That's just about every port you can imagine, but the Thunderbolt 5 ports are the interesting part. Intel sent me several Thunderbolt 5 accessories to demonstrate just how much bandwidth the new spec provides. I set up two 32-inch 4K 240-Hz OLED gaming monitors, all powered through a single USB-C cable. It's magical seeing those two high-refresh-rate monitors being daisy-chained together, despite their 240-Hz refresh rates. In the past, Thunderbolt 4 ports were limited to two 4K monitors at 60 Hz. Even if you don't have two expensive gaming monitors to connect to, the MSI Titan 18 HX has a really solid Mini-LED display onboard. It can hit 414 nits of brightness in SDR and around double that in HDR. That's not quite as good as the OLED gaming monitors out there, but it's certainly bright enough to notice the difference in HDR. The color saturation is great too. You want that 4K resolution when it's spread across 18 inches of screen, even if you may not always want to play games at that native resolution. It's incredibly sharp. This really is the best screen you can get on an 18-inch laptop right now, as OLED isn't common in this larger screen size yet. MSI also offers an IPS version of this panel, as well as a lower-resolution 2560 x 1600 240-Hz IPS option. Unfortunately, the speakers and webcam aren't as premium. The 1080p camera is noisy, and the six-speaker audio system is mediocre. The speakers are almost irrelevant given how loud the fan noise is, at least when it comes to gaming. Tricks Up Its Sleeve Photograph: Luke Larsen The keyboard is unique and an absolute joy to type and game on. It's a Cherry MX low-profile mechanical keyboard that feels chunky and tactile. It's unlike any laptop I've ever typed on in that sense, capturing the feel of a mechanical keyboard right on your laptop. My only complaint is that the many keys are not mechanical, such as the arrow keys, the number pad, and the function row. Once you notice, it's a little jarring.
