Exclusive | Leak reveals upcoming MSI gaming laptop in flesh, likely to be powered by the Core i9-10980HK and RTX 3080 Mobile

MSI will make its presence felt at CES 2021 with its MSIology event on January 13 during which the company is expected to announce refreshes to its lineup of gaming and content creator laptops. With NVIDIA also putting up a show to announce RTX 30 Mobile Ampere parts, we expect several MSI laptops to be powered by these new GPUs.

While we wait in anticipation for MSIology, we have managed to source the first look of a new MSI laptop that we expect to be unveiled during the event. Specifics of the laptop are still not known, but the design seems to indicate that we could be looking at a possible MSI GE66-esque device.

Our sources have provided us with a first look of an upcoming MSI laptop in the flesh along with a few concept drawings. Right off the bat, we see a lot of resemblance to the 2020 MSI GE66 Raider including the presence of an RGB light strip in the bottom frame.

A closer look at the concepts even indicates a similar port selection as the GE66. We also get to see a dedicated numeric keypad gauging by the concept drawings, which leads us to believe that this SKU could be a larger GE66 Raider variant — a "GE76 Raider", perhaps?

The drawings offer several other clues as well. For instance, the official trailer for MSIology (embedded below) shows a new Dragon design and iconography of ancient Babylonian folklore. True to the trailer's theme, these drawings also seem to show Mesopotamian cuneiform on the lid and a new Dragon iconography also on the lid and on the palmrest area.

The specifications of this laptop are still at large, but we can surely hazard a few informed guesses. For one, we get to hear that there will no Intel Tiger Lake-H offerings yet. Therefore, we expect the GE76 or whatever this SKU is called to be powered by Intel Comet Lake offerings.

The other likelidhood is that the "GE76" will feature the highest NVIDIA mobile offering available. The 2020 GE66, for instance, came equipped with the Core i9-10980HK and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super. With Ampere mobile slated to be announced around the same time as MSI's event, an RTX 3080 Mobile GPU inside is almost certain. In fact, a leak appeared last month on Chinese site ITHome listing several "GE76 Raider" SKUs powered by the Core i9-10980HK and RTX 3080 Mobile.

Though the leaked live image and concepts do indicate we could be seeing a new design and upgraded internals, we advise to take this information with pinch of salt. There's a possibility what we are seeing here could have been a very early concept that may or may not make it to launch.

In any case, we should know more at the company's MSIology CES 2021 event on Jan 13 8 AM PT. The event can be livestreamed on YouTube here and more information will be made available on the MSIology site. Of course, we will bring you the complete coverage as well, so stay tuned.