The MSI Crosshair 15 Rainbow Six Extraction Version involves us by means of a partnership between Ubisoft and MSI to craft a standout gaming laptop computer price your cash. It’s highly effective and ready to deal with trendy video games with ease, all whereas boasting design components impressed by Rainbow Six: Extraction.
Proper now, you’re in all probability pondering: “Rainbow Six Extraction? The sport that launched earlier this 12 months and was forgotten in a month?” Sure, that Rainbow Six Extraction. Now I wager you’re pondering: “Why would I buy a laptop computer that includes designs from a sport I don’t care about?” That’s completely truthful, however hear me out!
The Crosshair 15 does a superb job of balancing its design components with out making overt references to its supply materials. On high of that, the laptop computer is an absolute beast, boasting unbelievable gaming efficiency, a staggeringly vivid show and strong battery life. It’s not excellent, because of a dimmer-than-average show, thick bezels, and a few small keys, however past that, it’s a strong gaming laptop computer general.
MSI Crosshair 15 R6E value and configurations
Our assessment mannequin of the Crosshair 15, the B12UGZ, retails for $1849 at Newegg (opens in new tab). It comes with an Intel Core i7-12700H CPU, a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Cellular GPU with 8GB of VRAM, 16GB of RAM, 1TB of PCIe SSD storage, and a 15.6-inch 2560 x 1440-pixel QHD show with a 165Hz refresh price.
For those who’re on the lookout for a inexpensive mannequin, $1,499 is as low cost because the Crosshair 15 will get. The B12UEZ options the identical Core i7-12700H CPU, however drops right down to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Cellular GPU with 6GB of VRAM, 512GB of PCIe SSD storage, and a 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080-pixel show with a 144Hz refresh price.
The absolutely decked out model of the Crosshair 15 (B12UGSZ) prices $2,299 and comes with an Intel Core i9-12900H CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Cellular GPU with 8GB of VRAM, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of PCIe SSD storage, and a 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080-pixel show with a 360Hz refresh price.
MSI Crosshair 15 design
The Crosshair 15 is predicated on Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six: Extraction, and though the sport is way from nice, MSI did a superb job at encapsulating its aesthetic. I used to be apprehensive the laptop computer would boast tasteless references to the sport’s characters by means of stickers or plastering the phrases “Ubisoft” and “Rainbow Six: Extraction” far and wide. I’ve by no means been a fan of clothes or equipment that make the most of a preferred property in overt methods; it’s far cooler when the references are delicate and the designers give attention to making it look pure above all else. And fortunately, many of the laptop computer takes from the sport’s core design and makes use of it in cool methods.
The lid options sharp, delicate indents that hook up with a protruding plate on the center. This plate contains a grid map of New York Metropolis with the Rainbow Six: Extraction brand on the heart; when the laptop computer is on, that brand provides off a faint yellow glow. Lifting the lid reveals a packed deck, crammed to the brim with cool stuff to have a look at.
The deck contains a yellow-to-black gradient starting from the highest and ending close to the center, the place it then turns into largely black. It’s not removed from one thing I may mock-up in photoshop, and it’s the least intriguing facet of the laptop computer’s design. On the backside proper of the deck sits an indented yellow quadrilateral with grey squares on the backside and a black Rainbow Six: Extraction brand within the center. Inside it, there’s a little little bit of textual content that claims “Rainbow Exogenous Evaluation and Containment Crew,” which is fairly cool.
The trackpad is positioned slightly to the left of the middle, and in its upper-left nook are the phrases “REACT.” This might simply be seen as hip gamer lingo, however in actuality, it’s a reference to the group created to take care of the alien risk inside the sport. The trackpad can also be the one spot the place the title of the sport is featured, but it surely’s in tiny textual content on the backside left; you’ll by no means register it whereas utilizing the laptop computer.
The keyboard contains a distinctive gradient backlight divided into three colours. The highest two rows glow yellow, the center two blue, and the underside two inexperienced. The WASD keys have their very own clear yellow design that lights up as nicely, and the font on the keys screams “high-tech future.”
Flipping the laptop computer over reveals a collection of octagonal vents that makes up many of the backside, which appears to be the place the audio system and warmth exhausts relaxation. It as soon as once more channels that “futuristic” aesthetic, particularly since elements of the laptop computer’s internals are seen by means of these vents.
MSI Crosshair 15 R6E ports
The MSI Crosshair 15 R6E has an admirable choice of ports; it’s nothing mind-blowing (no Thunderbolt 3 or 4), but it surely’s greater than sufficient to be happy.
On the left facet you’ll discover a Kind-A USB 3.2 and Kind-A USB 2.0.
On the precise, there’s one other Kind-A USB 3.2, a Kind-C USB 3.2, a 4K 60Hz HDMI port, an RJ45 Ethernet port and an audio jack.
MSI Crosshair 15 R6E show
The MSI Crosshair 15 R6E’s 15.6-inch, 2560 x 1440-pixel QHD show is an absolute stunner, presenting a staggering diploma of colour accuracy, a 165Hz refresh price and beautiful 2K decision. Its brightness is on the weaker facet and its bezels may undoubtedly be thinner, however this show remains to be nothing to scoff at.
I booted up the trailer for The Unhealthy Guys and was instantly blown away by how vivid the Crosshair 15’s show is. From the very first shot, the place Wolf and Snake crash by means of a skyscraper window carrying boatloads of money, I puzzled if my eyes have been deceiving me. “There’s no approach this show may very well be this stunning,” I assumed. The colours boasted monumental depth with out showing overpowering, strained, or inaccurate. I moved to my MSI MPG Artymis 343CQR show to check the 2 photographs, and the outcomes weren’t remotely shut. The Crosshair 15 R6E completely blew my monitor out of the water in vividness. I’m now having an existential disaster realizing how underwhelming my major monitor is.
I performed Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered at 2560 x 1440 decision and was shocked by the orange glow of New York Metropolis. Swinging between the reflections of ray-traced skyscraper home windows, doing a backflip mid-air, and touchdown on a rooftop was superbly clean because of the panel’s 165Hz refresh price.
Unsurprisingly, the MSI Crosshair 15 R6E completely demolished our colour exams, reproducing 116.6% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut. This utterly outshines its rivals, with the Asus ROG Strix G15 (76.7%), the Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 (83.6%), and the Lenovo Legion 5 Professional (82%) performing far beneath it. It’s additionally nicely past the mainstream gaming laptop computer common of 68.2%
The MSI Crosshair 15 did nowhere close to as nicely in brightness, managing a mean of solely 300 nits. This solely outclasses the Strix G15 (280 nits), however is significantly dimmer than the class common (338 nits), the Zephyrus M16 (450 nits) and the Legion 5 Professional (472 nits).
MSI Crosshair 15 R6E audio
The Crosshair 15 commits the last word sin in laptop computer audio design: bottom-facing audio system. This ensures that the audio goes to sound worse, however admittedly, the Crosshair 15 nonetheless does a fairly good job providing clear, loud audio that would simply fill a room.
Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered is greatest performed with headphones, however the Crosshair 15’s speaker system was satisfying sufficient throughout my exams. Peter’s fixed babbling, the sounds of metropolis streets, and the euphoric noise your web-slinger makes as you hop from constructing to constructing was all introduced with an pleasing crispness. Refined background sounds sometimes get misplaced, however for essentially the most half, these bottom-facing audio system barely exceeded my expectations.
I listened to 30/90 from tick, tick… BOOM! and was impressed at how the laptop computer’s bottom-facing audio system introduced the monitor’s highs and lows. Andrew Garfield’s voice was loud and clear alongside his piano-rock melody, and even because the monitor escalated in chaos, it remained crisp. Backside-facing audio system often don’t carry out too nicely, and whereas the Crosshair can generally be slightly raspy in response to heavy noise, it nonetheless sounded surprisingly strong.
It’s nowhere close to the standard of a correct exterior speaker or a headset, so if you happen to plan to get misplaced in lengthy gaming classes, we advocate a pair of the greatest laptop audio system or one of many greatest gaming headsets.
MSI Crosshair 15 R6E gaming and graphics
The Crosshair 15 is filled with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Cellular GPU with 8GB of VRAM, providing greater than sufficient energy to play trendy video games at excessive body charges. Even when set at Extremely graphics settings, it ran every thing we threw at it with out subject. I booted up Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, modified the settings to very excessive at 2K decision, and managed to remain at round 75 frames per second (fps) whereas swinging throughout New York Metropolis. I stored all of these settings however turned ray tracing to Very Excessive and the frames dipped right down to 48 fps, but it surely actually regarded beautiful.
In our benchmarks, the Crosshair 15 performed Murderer’s Creed Valhalla at 78 fps at 1080p on Extremely. It is a little higher than the mainstream gaming laptop computer common (74fps) and the Zephyrus M16 (72fps).
The Crosshair 15 performed Grand Theft Auto V on Very Excessive settings at 1080p and managed to hit 113 fps, which is much better than the 85 fps class common. It’s additionally an enormous enchancment over the Legion 5 Professional (84fps) and the Strix G15 (98fps).
The Crosshair 15 carried out nicely in Purple Useless Redemption 2, though it didn’t make it to the highest of its competitors, touchdown at 67 fps. The Strix G15 has it beat with a barely higher 70 fps, but it surely did higher than the Legion 5 Professional (66 fps), Zephyrus M16 (60 fps), and the class common (58 fps)
The Crosshair 15 ran Borderlands 3 at 82 fps, which is a slight enchancment over the Legion Professional 5 (80 fps) and the Strix G15 (79 fps). Nonetheless, all three sailed previous the Zephyrus M16 (73 fps) and the class common (66 fps).
The Crosshair 15 additionally crushed its competitors within the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark, hitting 92 fps at 1080p. That is an enchancment of the class common (73 fps), superior to the Legion 5 Professional (80 fps), Zephyrus M16 (82 fps) and Strix G15 (88 fps).
Operating the Far Cry New Daybreak check, the Crosshair 15 hit 94 fps, which is equivalent to the Zephyrus M16 (94 fps). Nonetheless, each did higher than the Strix G15 (81 fps). It’s also far larger than the class common (83fps).
MSI Crosshair 15 R6E keyboard and touchpad
The Crosshair 15’s keyboard sacrifices bigger keys for extra of them. The rightmost finish of the keyboard contains a numpad, num lock, plus, minus and extra. Nonetheless, the keyboard is slightly laborious to get accustomed to because of the weird measurement of sure keys.
Proper-shift is half the width of what I’m used to, and the spot the place it will usually lengthen outwards is occupied by the up key. Every directional key’s equally tiny, which makes it tough to make the most of them with out by chance mispressing. I’ll sometimes use the directional keys to maneuver between sentences whereas writing, however I’ve by chance gone up or down many instances as a substitute, leading to me deleting or typing in locations I didn’t intend to.
In the course of the 10fastfingers.com typing check, I managed a mean of 114 phrases per minute with an accuracy of 96%. On my mechanical keyboard, I hit 129 phrases per minute and 100% accuracy shortly afterwards. Though these outcomes are fairly completely different, I truly felt fairly snug typing on the Crosshair 15. The keys are on the smaller facet, however I used to be shortly capable of alter, regardless that I nonetheless want the right-shift and directional keys have been rather a lot bigger.
The trackpad is fairly responsive and feels clean whereas dragging my finger throughout it, however since it is a gaming laptop computer, I can’t think about anybody would use it for high-intensity duties. The Crosshair 15 even comes with a mouse and mousepad, so there’s actually no excuse to not plug it in when gaming.
MSI Crosshair 15 R6E efficiency
The Crosshair 15 is packing an Intel Core i7-12700H CPU, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of PCIe SSD storage. That is greater than sufficient energy to deal with any variety of duties without delay, whether or not you’re opening 50 Google Chrome tabs, utilizing YouTube, Twitch, Google Docs and Sheets on the identical time, or having fun with a movie whereas tons of processes proceed within the background. It’s an absolute beast, primed for a few of the largest and baddest video games.
On the Geekbench 5.4 general efficiency check, the Crosshair 15 crushed it with a multi-core rating of 10,578. That is significantly larger than the mainstream gaming laptop computer common (7,396) and the Legion 5 Professional (7,342). Nonetheless, it scored nowhere close to the Zephyrus M16’s 11,225.
The MSI Crosshair 15 transformed a 4K video to 1080p decision utilizing the HandBrake app in 6 minutes and 44 seconds. This is a wonderful time, simply barely surpassing the Legion 5 Professional (7:06), the Strix G15 (6:57), and the Zephyrus M16 (7:05). This efficiency can also be considerably higher than the mainstream gaming laptop computer common of 8 minutes and 22 seconds.
Sadly, the Crosshair 15 carried out nowhere close to as nicely in our storage check, duplicating 25GB of multimedia recordsdata in 37 seconds for a 728.2 megabytes per second (MBps) switch price. Whereas it is a higher rating than the Strix G15 (340.7 MBps), it’s a downgrade from the Legion 5 Professional (832.7 MBps) and the Zephyrus M16 (1,871 MBps). It’s additionally fairly a bit worse than the mainstream gaming laptop computer common of 784 MBps.
MSI Crosshair 15 R6E battery life
The MSI Crosshair 15 R6E’s battery is fairly environment friendly; it’s nothing mind-blowing, however it’s decently above our common. On the Laptop computer Magazine battery check, which includes steady internet browsing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits, the Crosshair 15 lasted 7 hours and three minutes. That is fairly a bit larger than the mainstream gaming laptop computer common (4 hours and half-hour), and though the laptop computer doesn’t final that lengthy, it’s admittedly fairly good.
It additionally did a fairly nice job towards rivals, beating out the Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 (6:34) and the Lenovo Legion 5 Professional (6:16). Nonetheless, it’s utterly outclassed by the Asus ROG Strix G15 Benefit Version’s staggering 10 hours and 32 minutes of battery life.
MSI Crosshair 15 R6E warmth
The MSI Crosshair 15 R6E can get fairly toasty when gaming. Nonetheless, in our non-gaming exams, which concerned taking part in a 1080p video for quarter-hour, the underside averaged at 86 levels Fahrenheit. Even at its hottest level, that solely went as much as 89.5, which remains to be beneath our 95-degree consolation threshold.
However it is a complete completely different beast in our gaming exams, and that time, you’ll need it nowhere close to your lap. The underside hits 102.5 levels Fahrenheit, which isn’t too excessive above our 95-degree consolation threshold, however on the laptop computer’s hottest level, that quantity skyrockets to 119.5 levels. Fortunately, even whereas gaming, the touchpad was stored at a cool 76 levels.
I booted up Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered to check how sizzling this factor may run. Plain and easy, there’s no approach you’ll be able to comfortably sport on this factor with out equipment. A lot of the keyboard runs pink sizzling, and it’s not excellent to press any of the keys. We advocate buying one of many greatest PC controllers or greatest gaming keyboards to alleviate this subject.
MSI Crosshair 15 R6E webcam
The MSI Crosshair 15 R6E webcam is as fuzzy as any 720p laptop computer digital camera. Images look grainy and video isn’t a lot better. It’ll get the job completed if it’s essential to seem on digital camera in a rush, however in case you are an aspiring Twitch streamer or seem in frequent enterprise conferences, we extremely advocate looking at our greatest webcams web page.
MSI Crosshair 15 R6E software program and guarantee
The Crosshair 15 comes Home windows 11 prepared and options the anticipated assortment of apps from Microsoft along with MSI’s full suite of purposes. It additionally comes with Nahimic, a program by Steelseries that permits customers to tweak and customise the laptop computer’s speaker system.
MSI Heart is the laptop computer’s main software program that grants you entry to the entire firm’s providers in a single place. This app exhibits how a lot of your CPU and GPU you’re utilizing, together with particulars on remaining cupboard space, fan speeds, CPU temperature, GPU temperature, and extra. You may as well make the most of MSI Restoration, Gaming Mode, Basic Settings, Person Situation, Sensible Precedence, System Prognosis, Recreation Highlights, MSI Companion, Sensible Picture Finder, and Wi-Fi Evaluation.
With Person Situation, system efficiency will be altered between excessive efficiency, balanced, silent and tremendous battery relying on what you’re doing. However Recreation Mode might be essentially the most helpful function for gamers, as it may well alter that system efficiency, key backlight and show colours relying on what you’re taking part in, whether or not it’s Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, Murderer’s Creed Valhalla, or extra.
You may as well activate the Home windows Key, Swap Key, WebCam, Show OverDrive, Crosshair Show, HDR, Show Energy Saver and USB Energy Share from the Basic Settings part. There’s additionally the MSI App Participant, which permits the person to emulate a cell gadget (particularly Android) to obtain apps and play video games.
The Crosshair 15 comes with a one-year restricted guarantee. See how MSI carried out on our Tech Assist Showdown and Finest and Worst Manufacturers rating.
Backside line
The MSI Crosshair 15 R6E is an absolute powerhouse. Its glorious gaming efficiency and strong battery life are greater than sufficient to make it worthwhile, however the laptop computer’s staggering colour depth is what actually sells it for me. I can by no means take a look at my very own monitor the identical approach once more.
Nonetheless, that very same show just isn’t as vibrant as we’d prefer it to be. Different points embody some small keys, thick bezels, and a sizzling underside whereas gaming. Regardless, the Crosshair 15 is a good gaming laptop computer that’s completely well worth the value of entry.
