CENTERFOLD
PERFORMANCE GEAR LAID BARE
MSI Titan 18 HX
THIS MIGHT BE—at least right now—the world’s most ridiculous laptop. It is insane—absolutely beyond comprehension. To put it bluntly, it starts at $5,500 just to get your foot in the door. To max out the spec, the price can go as high as $9,500. That’s just insanity in an 18-inch form factor.
Why the big cost? Simply put, MSI has crammed every single element it can into this thing. It’s got an Intel Core i9-
14900HX processor—basically the same as the desktop equivalent, minus 200Hz. There’s a full-fat RTX 4090 driving graphics performance, 64GB of DDR5 supporting it (which you can max out 192GB, if you so desire), and 4TB of PCIe 4.0 storage (with capacity for up to 24TB if you go for the ridiculous edition), all backed up by a wild 3,840x2,400 4K+ 120 Hz MiniLED IPS display. The fact that MSI has managed to cram as much as it has into this thing is otherworldly. It drives exceptional performance, and MSI has eked out every facet of that, thanks to the help of some incredibly well-built cooling. This is a gaming laptop that delivers, But then, for $5,500, it absolutely needed to. It’s not good value for money, that’s for sure, and it’s got some questionable aesthetic picks, but those aside, it’s still
impressive.