RTX 5080 gaming laptops are finally here, and my goodness are they expensive. A quick scroll of the listings (or a whole morning, in my case) reveals a litany of machines over $3,000, with some whoppers scraping the $5,000 mark. This MSI machine, however, bucks the trend by not only being cheaper than the rest at its usual MSRP, but turning up with a not-insignificant $225 discount at Best Buy.
My hardware overlord Dave James reviewed the MSI Vector 16 HX AI and came away very impressed with the power on offer. [[link]] I too stood in front of its substantial chassis, and both of us stroked our respective beards and agreed that while it wasn't the prettiest or slimmest machine, it's still an excellent bit of gaming hardware for the cash.
And that was at MSRP. With a discount? It's even better value. You get a 24-core (eight Performance, 16 Efficient) Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, a 240 Hz 16-inch IPS screen, and that all-important 175 W RTX 5080. Which is a properly [[link]] mean mobile GPU, as demonstrated by the performance graph below:
As you can see, the RTX 5080 in this particular machine is capable of outperforming the RTX 5090 in the Razer Blade 16—and that's the best laptop we've tested from this generation to date. The Blade is much pricier, too.
There are some downsides, of course. The chassis on the Vector is nowhere near as slim and svelte as the Blade. In fact, it's downright chonky, and a bit plasticky too. You're also missing out on the fabulous OLED screen of the Razer lappy, but it's worth mentioning that the 1600p IPS panel on offer here is perfectly decent, and plenty speedy to boot.
This is also the 16 GB model, which is a bit tight for a high-performance machine in 2025. Still, the RAM is upgradeable with a bit of fiddling, and you get to marvel at the cyberpunk-like copper heatsink inside that substantial frame.
Oh, and it's loud. Very loud, in Extreme mode at least. But Dave found that backing it down to Balanced mode in the included MSI Center software reigns in the fan noise without compromising too badly on the performance.
So, you do have to make some concessions for the price. Standing in front of one, though, beard in hand, reveals a genuine value proposition of a gaming laptop in a market that's currently stuffed with overpriced offerings.
And that makes the MSI Vector 16 HX AI a very clever buy. If you're in the market for a great RTX 5080 gaming laptop for as cheap as you can find one right now, you won't do any better than this.