Pros: Bright, clear screen.
Fans (in loud, high speed mode) keep the laptop cool without a oversized laptop cooler.
Video card management works smartly once you figure out how to make the 970M run some graphics.
Key are comfortable to use (not where you always want them, but comfortable)
Very cool lighting effects.
The Intel graphics are MUCH better than expected.
The 970M renders really quickly in Blender. A one hour render on my old laptop took 4m:17s using the CPU (8 squares being rendered at once -- surprising, I thought I'd only get 6 with one core / two hyperthreads running the machine). The 970M rendered the same scene in 3m08s. I'll be splitting up animation for both the GPU and the CPU to chew on overnight.

Cons: Why is the delete button to the right of insert?
Took a LOT of work to get the trackpad to use two finger scroll including re-installing drivers.
I bought this after doing a search on new egg that included M.2 SSD, but the bios shows the 128GB SSD attached to SATA. The speed difference between SATA and M.2 is significant. I may crack open the case to verify what is really going on there. A SATA SSD somewhat erodes the bang for the buck I thought I was getting
Can't get Ubuntu Mate or Cinnamon to load for dual boot. Works just fine in a VM. I don't think that is specific to this laptop -- likely a UEFI issue (though I tried installation using Legacy Mode).

Other Thoughts: I'd recommend this product at this price if the SSD is M.2. Not if it is SATA. Also, the new ASUS ROG comes in at a similar price for the 17 inch model. I can't sit in my favorite chair with a 17 inch, so getting a 15.6 inch was important to me. If you're a casual gamer (not someone doing rendering or really hard core gaming) pay for a larger M.2 SSD instead of the 970M. Minecraft at highest settings does not max out the intel video "card". The Halo 3rd person game did not either. The free Tom Clancy game has not come out, yet, so I the jury is out on the 970M's capability there (I got this rig for Blender rendering, not really for games.)

Pros: Very good specs! Are you kidding me?
I7 6700
`16GB DDR 4
SSD 128 GB
970 GTX
1080P
Insane performance playing Black Ops III set on Ultra with no hiccups and also Assassins Creed Syndicate on Very High

Cons: Speakers not that loud
Major left side fan grinding sound. I will return it/.
Now the Fan is getting louder and the grinding is getting louder also. I did some research and it is pretty common in those laptops

Other Thoughts: Once I turned the laptop on it started to make a grinding sound on the left side of the laptop where the fan is.
I did not pay attention at it first that much but its getting louder and louder.
I decided to replace the original 128GB SSD with a 500GB Samsung EVO and also replaced the DVD drive with another HDD by Samsung.

Pros: Very nicely made, top notch performance, fast as can be with the SSD, sound is solid (not tinny at all), and it will not overheat. I ran Prime95 as a burn in for 7 hours in torture mode and the fans never went to full speed.

Cons: It has clearly been upgraded from an original Windows 8/8.1 install (giving you some minor driver hiccups and a "windows.old" file taking up some space initially). The fans can be pretty loud, but it takes alot to get them going. The keyboard lights can be dimmed/turned off, however it must be re-done with every restart.

The biggest problem has been a CD drive that isn't working right. I've been burning a dozen CDs and sometimes I have to cycle the CD tray 5+ times to be able to read the disc (one took north of a couple dozen tries). I've not had problems with these CDs in the car and they do eventually read, but it's a real pain. I'll have to look into replacing it through MSI.

Other Thoughts: I'd like to give it 5 stars, and I think it'll get there eventually, but it hasn't come out of the gate perfect.

Pros: -Ports spread out intelligently, USB ports not stacked together.
-Fantastic size and weight. I was expecting it to be bulkier and heavier
-Really very beautiful keyboard
-Fantastic cooling system. This is the main reason I bought the laptop
-MSI system utility software "Dragon Gaming Center" is very well done and responsive/intuitive. I'm happy it's not clunky and it doesn't use much memory to operate, very lightweight. I hate system tools that are too heavy. No complaints over any system tools.
-Not missing any 'standard' bells/whistles like adequate bluetooth, webcam, backlit keyboard, ports. Ready for anything.
-Very good audio system. I had to play with the audio settings a bit for improvement, but the 'Nahimic' audio software is good enough and it allows for multiple profiles. In my opinion 17inch laptops allow for much better sound but this is a great system for a 15 inch system.
-No wifi connectivity issues whatsoever

Cons: -First thing any new owner should do is open up device settings and update all the drivers each hardware component. It's no big surprise, but highly necessary. I could see some less tech savy people really disappointed or frustrated with the issues. My issues were audio/display drivers specifically. Once drivers updated I had no problems.

-I personally don't like the texture used for the touchpad. It has vertical 'lines' on it that I suppose help orient your finger but I prefer a perfectly flat touchpad. As far as I'm concerned, why didn't MSI just use sandpaper.
-I wish it wasn't shipped with Norton Antivirus but not unexpected. No other bloatware at least.
-Large annoying ugly sticker that leaves annoying sticky residue on palm of laptop when you take it off. You'll be picking at it for days until you get it all off.

Other Thoughts: I buy a new laptop for about 2,000$ when a new Intel generation comes out and never have I felt like I received so much in return for my money. The MSI software is more than capable and lightweight and no hardware has been left out. I'm left with a nice lightweight beautiful laptop that's up for any task it seems

Pros: Design 10/10: Slick and fancy. Doesn't look cheep. The keyboard is stunning and easy to change the led colors via button with already programmed presets. Aluminum leaves finger prints as to be expected but looks so sick when polished. which it comes with a cloth to do so.

Hardware 10/10: Maybe I am just saying this cause I got a great deal on it during Black Friday Sales, but this thing is packed with everything it says it has. And seems to run relatively cool when you don't have too many hands on the keyboard. Runs every game I play on the highest settings.

Software6/10: Nothing really felt like it was installed properly. Please see cons to see why I did not give this PC a 5/5 eggs

Cons: Maybe this is just cause I am used to building my own PC desktops that I am not used to this, but this thing on a software front was annoying to get right.

Bloatware: It comes bloated with software that I don't want. There are app that are just there to download or pay for other apps. "get skype" example or "get office." Yeah they are small in size but why the hell would I need that. If I want a program I will download or buy it myself.

MSI Apps: They also installed about 6 or 7 MSI exclusive apps that all start when the computer comes on. It seems to make things slow. I have come to like a few of them (the one for checking temps and changing screen "trucolor" or something) quite nice. But I would prefer to choose them instead of just getting a comp full of start up apps.

Nvidia Experience: The version of Nvidia they have preinstalled refuses to connect to Nvidia and to even update. I had to complete uninstall and then reinstall. Worked fine afterward.

Norton: I don't really like norton and it wasn't really easy to remove. I uninstalled it yet it kept extensions on chrome that took a bit to remove. No big deal but then I installed avast and for some odd reason it kept acting like norton was my antivirsus and didn't do scans properly or let the windows fireware run. I would literally click turn on and nothing would happen. Like i didn't click at all. Idk how this got fixed. 2 days after everything happen above it just started working.

Warranty: To get the warranty you have to do a little questionare about past experience with PCs and also how you feel about this one. How would I know how this computer is? I just turned it on. I have no idea how good it is. Also I had to do the question thing two times with slightly different questions but not different enough to warrant two. One time when I set up the MSI warranty account and one when I registered the PC I purchased. I would of rather just start using my PC instead of being prompted to do this 15 min quiz.

These things were minorly annoying for me but I have enjoyed my PC thus far. I really wrote this for the designer.

Pros: Fast, all the parts are very high end
Good for the price
Aestetically pleaasing

Cons: The drivers are a living nightmare. I installed updates all in order and when i restarted they were all broken and i couldn't use the mouse and the keyboard was acting up, lots of programs crashing at startup. This was an issue and i kept reinstalling drivers until it just worked. This took about a week.

Other Thoughts: Well my p button sticks and I can barely use it, is there a way to contact them about this and perhaps get this repaired?