Pros: Very fast. Light

Cons: After several months, small light (bright) dots started to appear on my screen
Customer service website is a nightmare and no email contacts for US
The computer feels cheap
Cannot turn off the lighted band around the outside, bottom.
Fan seems to run more than expected and is noiser than I expected

Other Thoughts: Buy the extended warranty. My screen problems did not appear (or I didn't discern them) until after the usual warranty had expired.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Mark,
Sorry to hear about the issue you reported. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the product, please do not hesitate to contact us directly at email usreview@msi.com or contact our support toll free phone number at 888-447-6564 M-F 6am to 6pm pst. and we will be more than happy to assist you, thank you.

Thanks for choosing MSI

Best Regards,
MSI Review Team | usreview@msi.com

Pros: Super Fast and Light

Cons: Fan in a bit loud but not a problem because I put the base unit behind my monitors

Other Thoughts: Though this is laptop is being marketed for Gamers I find it the perfect solution for going back and forth from the office and traveling. For years I have been totting a desktop with a handle to and from the office and a super heavy Alien-ware laptop when I travel in order to get the graphics and speed I need tor 3D modeling. I bought two base units with graphics cards so now I can just take the lap top back and forth between home and the office. When I travel I take another small monitor that runs off USB to set up in the hotel room. There is no other way to run four monitors ( 40" 4k, 30" and two 24") off any other laptop.

Pros: -Great Dock (No problems)
-Nice Setup (Portable Laptop, its a great machine tbh)
-Compatible with a high end g card (Got myself a gtx 960 evga and it is beautiful)

Cons: -Noise (Laptop is noisy but I don't mind the regular fan sound) BUT
the gs30 fan started rattling (Off Axle,or something??) AND the dock is on solid ground....
-Nothing else, other than maybe price?

Other Thoughts: I understand that this is a great setup, but the laptop fan rattling sound appeared randomly (Never dropped, handled with utmost care). I paid 2300 for this machine it should not have an rattling fan 1 week in. Overall I am currently disappointed because the rattling is loud (not the originally loud fan, but a different noise).

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Jee-Hee,
Sorry to ehar about your issue. regarding your questions or concerns regarding the product, please do not hesitate to contact us directly at usreview@msi.com or by phone at 626-271-1004 m-f 6am to 6pm pst and we will be more than happy to assist you int he fan noise you're referrign to. thank you.

Thanks for choosing MSI

Best Regards,
MSI Review Team | usreview@msi.com

Pros: Small portable that performs very well for the size. This is the fastest laptop I've ever owned and still has room to be even faster. The dual SSD's can be upgraded to a higher IOPS counter parts. The processor and Iris graphics are good for regular use but I've never played any games on it however advanced Photoshop filters are almost real time compared to 45+ seconds on my old laptop. The keyboard feels nice to the touch.

Cons: The display is so thin that it makes it feel like its going to break but I rather be careful than make it heavier. The surface material feels nice but absorbs the oil from the hands and has to constantly be cleaned. The MSI Gaming badge and the shiny light around the case are annoying too.
After four months one of the SSD's on the laptop broke, ordered faster/bigger replacement drives but needed a Bios upgrade to recognize the drives. Apperantly the Bios on the machine was some sort of experimental version that wasn't even supposed to be installed in the first place. Had to send it back to MSI as an RMA with a turn around of 25 business days; have not received it back yet. I'm an IT professional, the process and turn around is just unacceptable for my career therefore unfortunately a deal breaker. Very disappointed.

Other Thoughts: The docking station has been fitted with:
- AMD FirePro W8100
- Seagate Hybrid 4TB 8GB MLC SSD as Cache
- x2 SAMSUNG SM951 M.2 256GB (SSD) - Never recognized by the Bios

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,
Please do not hesitate to contact us directly by email at ususersupport@msi.com or by phone at our toll free number 888-447-6564 M-F, 6AM to 6PM PST. Provide us with your question or concern you're have with our laptop and we will be more than happy to assist you.

Best Regards,
MSI Review Team | usreview@msi.com

Pros: Ok, so I am the proud 3rd owner of this machine in a one month period. Sold new on newegg, then returned, someone bought it open box and then sold it to me on the bay site. That right there goes to show you this laptop is not for everyone but it is for me. Let start with the pros.

Gaming - WOOOOW with 980 GTX on dock,, read other
Lightweight - it is almost too light.
CPU - the 4870HQ is 90% of the 3770k of the desktop it is replacing. I have been very happy.
2xM.2 ssd's - Pro and a con, MSI put two mid level ssd's in here I will be replacing. It's fast as is, but I feel a single crucial or Samsung is equal on the IOPS side. I have 2 crucials on the way since I feel they are better for RAID.
Powered USB 3.0 port - These are iffy on laptops and not always as "powered" as they claim to be. The one on right does everything I want when plugged in. Important to me.
Backlit keyboard
Screen - Pro and a con. Inside, it is just barely bright enough to be perfectly usable. Outside, I was surprised it was still usable, the matte does a decent job, but its still too dark. Aside from this the quality is excellent.
Wifi - The 7260 in here gets better range than the 7260 I have in a tablet. Windows 8 cut off hotspot support, not the machines fault, found that out later, with a workaround)
The Dock - 4 powered USB 3.0 ports, audio out (just the 1 audio out is a con to me, have a usb sound card on the way for my home stereo so can use digital out.) and mic, and gigabit killer lan. Inside I have installed a GTX 980 and a 4TB hdd. I basically now have a desktop when Im at home. I got a 2 hdd dock, stereo, lan, 2tb usb drive and I keep adding stuff. I have a monitor, keyboard, mouse and USB hub, extended to across the room at my desk. So Im actually typing this about 15 feet away from the laptop. Everything has worked flawlessly. When I have to go out on a call, I just shut it down, pop it out and put the laptop in my bag. I really have a blazing fast laptop on the go - minus the graphics which I don't need when WORKING!!!
Iris Pro - I was surprised at how well this Intel HD GPU performed. I actually played a successful round of BF4 multiplayer on low low. And it can handle my cheesier games well too. While Ill rarely need that, its nice having and it definitely is good enough so that all windows related graphics and animations are smooth.

external power supply - longest cord ever,, love it. its like 12 feet or better.

Cons: Hot, Fan noise, Low battery.

Literally the only major cons, and yes they are much talked about and deserved. This 4870hq is no joke, and is rated for high thermals. It doesn't slow throttle when it gets hot, just keeps going. Which, is why the fan is the way the fan is. The fan is 6000 rpm. It can get noisy. It doesn't bother me much personally, but its probably the main reason most don't like this machine. That and the battery. I mentioned this thing was light before. Wow, Im not kidding. My left hand has a tendency to lock up on me when I grip certain things, but not this. It is LIGHT. my 10" tablet is noticeably heavier. this is like 2lbs less than average laptop its size, and im talking new laptops. This is cool, but in my opinion, where they erred. If it was a little heavier, you could have more battery, more copper heatsink, and maybe even 4 DDR3 or a standard 2.5" drive. But its almost like they had 2 different people in charge of designing this thing.
The only other con for me is the front light strip and the case badge.
With the low battery, why add extra power drain, and why add it at all really? Is this built for kids or adults? I feel like the target audience for this would be professionals who game in their free time. So, the strip was just dumb. Also, the case badge adds a more teenagey feel, but it is just a thick metal sticker and can be removed, though I just hadn't got to it yet. Would have been nicer if would have come on the side to add yourself later.
Dock design - wasn't really made to use the actual laptop while docked and definitely requires a screen and external keyboard mouse setup. Supposedly they will fix this with a bios update, but whats the point? It would be too awkward to use.
For me Im happy with this as I use it like a desktop anyway. Currently have a 23" 144hz monitor and a 46" tv hooked up to it at home. Works like a champ.
Laptop Speakers - Pro and con. They aren't loud and work only a desk due to position, however if you crank them up via software, they still sound fine and don't crack. Basically, they underpowered these so they would last longer.
Dock Speakers - Pro and a con. They arent gonna provide you bass on any level you will appreciate, but they are loud and sound fine otherwise.

BIOS, not enough settings for my taste, especially considering this is a gaming laptop... I would have liked to have been able to manipulate how many CPU cores or if Turbo boost is enabled.
It did have XHCI and EHCI options for USB 3.0 though which I liked and don't see often.
The USB 3.0 setup is flawless, all works as should.

Other Thoughts: Ok, so I payed in total 1600 for the laptop, dock and a 980, all used. At this price, everything is totally worthwhile and I am very very happy with my purchase. At this weight and battery life and all, it could have easily been made into an 11" laptop, which I would have preferred. or a 13" with more weight and customization options, but this is ok.
Im looking forward to buying a 3rd gen version of this item. More sata ports for sure, I hate my 4tb is lonely without a mirror raid so I have to manually back it up now.
I think at 1699 with no gpu, is way overpriced. In the end this is a laptop with a very easy to implement pci express connector on it. That's complicated for me and you but not for them. I hope MSI is able to sell all of these and push out future models. For me this is ideal, but I know I fit a small demographic.

And in case you were curious about gaming... I am going from a 3770k with 670 GPU on a desktop to this laptop/dock with a 980.
WOOOOOW.
I didn't realize that you could play bf4 on ultra at 144hz with zero stutter or fps lag or whatever. Its amazing. It's rare to see it drop below 100 fps The only difference between using this and my desktop is that this is better! Im actually using the same keyboard mouse and monitor I have been for years, at the same desk. Wow its nice.

One last good note. Undervolting. I found out something new with this CPU. Undervolting is not actually gonna save you battery life. The CPU performance is determined by Power Draw. Meaning, it will crank up to max on all cores as long as it is under a set TDP of 47W. So when you undervolt, it seems to compensate for this and so all clocks just go higher when at full load. Basically, you wont save battery by undervolting, but you will get a boost in performance. You can only save battery life by lowering the max clock rate or lowering max cpu performance with windows settings. Btw, half of this CPU is still pretty awesome for a laptop.

So in the end, if you are the type of person who carries a tablet or small laptop to compensate for your lack of desktop that you mainly use,, this is for you.
I rarely use it undocked and I am very happy when I do, though I hate knowing I cant do it for long. At the same time, I have a powerbank that can charge a laptop I carry with me too, so there are always workarounds.

Pros: The MSI GS30 Shadow represents exactly what we have always wanted since AGP/PCI-E graphics cards became common and laptop CPUs became powerful: a simple dock that lets a powerful graphics card connect to a capable, lightweight laptop for gaming. One computer to rule them all.

The pros are pretty obvious:
* Very lightweight laptop.
* Very fast quad core i7 CPU with Iris Pro graphics
* 16 GB of fast DDR
* 256 RAID 0 M.2 SSDs that I have clocked at 900MBps Read and 800MBps write in Windows 10 Preview
* Full speed PCI-E 16x interface to a full size graphics card
* Additional "internal" hdd storage inside the dock.
* USB 3.0 in the dock
* Great keyboard keys and layout with good travel and feel
* Nice highish pixel density full HD display at around 165 ppi.
* When the bottom is opened, it is fully upgradable. Larger faster M.2 PCI-E storage can be added up to 1TB RAID 0 and faster / different memory can be added if desired. As well as dismounting the CPU/IGP heatsink and adding a better TIM.
* Design isn't crazy, but looks cool.
* Cooling system really does keep the heat away from your typing fingers

To sum up, this is the only laptop on the market with 16GB of RAM that is less than 3lbs, and on top of that it has one of the fastest CPUs in any laptop, even against the new crop of Broadwells. This is basically a no-compromise solution. Could they have used the 4720 instead of the 4870? Sure, but they didn't and that gives you the Iris Pro for when you want to fire up a game while mobile.

Cons: IMO there is only one huge drawback to this notebook that was unexpected: the trackpad is just awful. After having clean installed Windows 10 on the laptop I was unable to set certain gesture settings on it like two finger tap and scroll, etc. So I made the huge mistake of installing the Elan driver for it. Oh my, the trackpad is basically unusable now with horrible movement lag, multiple presses required to get it to register a click. Coming from a MacBook Pro, you will basically just reject this trackpad and always bring an external mouse with you. Based on this experience, I think you have two options: 1, deal with having no gestures and a decent trackpad that tracks your motions well, or have gestures but the worst finger tracking and tap detection I have ever seen in my life. In my opinion, this HAS to get fixed. As a workaround, the laptop has Bluetooth 4.0, making it compatible with Logitech's new Master series mice that work with their proprietary dongle or Bluetooth 4.0. I have high hopes for this!

The second thing I want to talk about as a "con" is actually to dispel this myth that the laptop is loud. It isn't, not even by a long shot. Being an older guy, I remember the jet engine gaming laptops of the 90s, and this is no where near that loud. If you use the laptop in a silent room you will hear the fans. My 4970K OC 4.6Ghz tower is louder than this if you put your face up to it like you do with a laptop. If you use it in an office, unless it is going full blast, you won't. Also, be sure to utilize Windows 10's feature to prevent the CPU from going over say 75% utilization. This seems like a good breaking point between the fan going full blast. You can set this as the battery profile and let it go full blast when doing gaming.

So, to iterate out all the cons:
* The trackpad is from hell and I hate it
* The fan is noisy if you are used to very low noise.
* The speakers on the front are a nice addition in a pinch, but are very hard to orient for actual stereo sound. Basically useless other than playing music for the room like a boom box.
* The buid quality is good, but not as good as the Apple line of laptops. There's a little flex in the body and lots of air gaps unlike the machined aluminum style of most laptops these days.
* The screen has some bleed from the backlight, only really noticeable when watching dark movies on the internal screen. Irritating, but maybe it's a screen lottery.
* The battery life for me is about 5 hours taking notes on battery saver mode and CPU throttled to 75% and ALL the Windows 10 battery sucker garbage turned off (Photo whatever and anti-malware whatever)

Other Thoughts: So this is it, the future is here. You can have a two and a half pound ultra fast laptop that you can take notes in in class, come home and slap on your dock and play games on it. I got between 120 and 200 FPS playing Call of Duty Black Ops II Zombies on an older GTX 770. All the Blizzard games play at +60FPS as well.

There's also significant modding potential here for you makers out there. Some people are putting in water cooling systems in the dock for a water cooled video card.

Not listed as cons are a few quirks which are to be expected. For example, I couldn't get into the BIOS using a keyboard plugged into the dock, had to plug it into the laptop or use the laptop keyboard. No big deal. Also you have to shut down Windows to switch from dock to portable or back. Small price to pay for me considering Windows 10 boots in like 5 seconds, but waiting on Steam and other stuff to start back up after logging in can be tiresome.

Ultimately, this is a good buy. The only reason I took off an egg is that horrid Elan track pad. For pity's sake MSI, please switch to synaptics!!!!

Pros: Small portable that performs very well for the size. This is the fastest laptop I've ever owned and still has room to be even faster. The dual SSD's can be upgraded to a higher IOPS counter parts. The processor and Iris graphics are good for regular use but I've never played any games on it however advanced Photoshop filters are almost real time compared to 45+ seconds on my old laptop. The keyboard feels nice to the touch.

Cons: The display is so thin that it makes it feel like its going to break but I rather be careful than make it heavier. The surface material feels nice but absorbs the oil from the hands and has to constantly be cleaned. The MSI Gaming badge and the shiny light around the case are annoying too.

Other Thoughts: The docking station has been fitted with:
- AMD FirePro W8100
- Seagate Hybrid 4TB 8GB MLC SSD as Cache

Pros: I gave this 5 eggs because the laptop itself is excellent. I put an MSI GTX 980 in it and have been extremely pleased with its performance for gaming. Crysis, Civilization 5, World of Warcraft, The Witcher, many others -- all of them are performing fabulously at their highest settings. With the NVIDIA GeForce Experience software, it'll set up any game with its optimal settings, which is pretty much "max everything".

Cons: My main complaint with this whole experience has been the utter lack of responsiveness from MSI about how I can get just a second dock -- even if they were to tell me "no, it can't be done" at least that would be SOMETHING, even if that answer is perplexing in its own right.

Technical support directed me to Sales, but both email to ussales@msi.com and calling their phone number are met with stone cold silence. Since I've made it clear that I just want to give them more of my money, it is perplexing to me that this has been so extremely difficult.

It is also frustrating to me that though it has upgradable SSDs, you can't actually order it that way. This means you have to get the system with the SSDs you don't want and go through the hassle of installing new ones and then putting the OS on. That's a bunch of time and effort for something you should be able to get pre-configured.

As for the laptop itself, my only real complaints around the dock are that it is pretty much as ugly a box as it appears to be in pictures (though it does have some nice red LED highlights), and that the fan noise is a bit loud. Since as a dock it is obviously meant to sit on top of a desk rather than hidden further away where the noise could be less of an issue, a little more work could be done to improve the fan noise issue.

Other Thoughts: I haven't really used the laptop much at all off the dock, and not ever for gaming off the dock, so I can't speak as to its performance there.

It is peculiar to me that MSI recommends a 500W power supply for the GTX 980, but the dock only comes with 450W. I don't claim to understand all of the electrical implications though (since the laptop also has its own independent power) and it's been rock solid for me.

Pros: Portability when I need it; monster when I want it. I'm a full time student that works a full time job. I can take my laptop to work and school due to it's small stature and do what it need it to do battery power is good too since it's not having to power a video card. The intel iris 5200 is actually able to perform quite well on it's own if I wanted to play a game in my spare time on the run. You can get 3-4.5 hours of use out of the laptop without charging it. When I purchased mine, it came with a 30 month factory warranty.

After work and school are over and I want to play a game, dock it and my superclocked 960gtx kicks in and I can play every game I own on ultra settings in 1080. (that's all my monitor supports)

The anti glare screen is awesome you can use this thing outside in day light without too much of an eye strain. (There are better screens out there but this one is decent.)

Back lighting on keys is so-so, iv'e seen better and it's not a dealbreaker for me by any means, it works.

Touchpad is really well put together.

Keys on the keyboard are precise.

The dock is approximately the size of a mens shoe box, the speakers in the dock are meh.

The laptop is charged while docked if anyone is wondering.

Cons: A little more bloat-ware than I'd care to have but that's easily resolvable.

Other Thoughts: Very happy with my purchase. In my view this is a monster laptop that leaves upgrades available for at least a few years pci X isn't going anywhere for the foreseeable future adding value.

I bought this to replace a laptop that died, I feel like it replaced my desktop also. And now I don't have to worry about upgrading my tower.

Pros: I personally have my dock hooked up to an Ultrawidehd monitor (3440x1440 res) with an overclock asus 980 in it. I cannot be any happier with the performances I have seen, Even with that Huge resolution and Ultra settings I am seeing 80-100 FPS In Battle Field 4, World of Warcraft runs quite well on just the Ultrabook itself with medium settings I am getting about 60 FPS just questing and is completely playable through raids.

Cons: Light Bar around the outside isn't adjustable (not to my knowledge)
Battery life is about 2.5 hours if you are just workiing, be nice to see 4+ hours but thats asking alot from a huge processor Under an hour if gaming.
The huge processor runs hot! Avg temps in BF4 with Ultra settings is 86c
The processor fan is quite loud when playing games
The heat issues are only when gaming and runs simple games quite well with little heat.
.

Other Thoughts: MSI has really outdone themselves on this one, This is coming from a Alienware M18 R2 Owner, Being able to have an ultrabook for on the go and work that can play any game on lower settings, and than being able to dock it into a FULL desktop with a FULL desktop gpu, full monitor, full keyboard and mouse is simply amazing, The dock also has a storage bay in it as well.

Here is What I say could of been done better or maybe optional,
IPS Screen is great But would like to see 1440 res
Better Cooling with Reduction in noise
More onboard memory 220gb (Maybe 500gb)

This is a concept that people have been trying to do for years, so Its awesome that MSI has finally come out with such a great product and I am excited to see what comes next, As far as if anyone is debating between the Alienware with the Amplifier, I would say go with MSI all the way UNLESS you just have to have the 970m or the 980m for TRUE on the go gaming, and you get the Alienware with the 4870hq processor!!