First Look: MSI Launches Biggest (and Smartest) Laptop Touchpad Ever

Who expected the humble touchpad to be a Computex 2023 star? At its laptop press event, MSI showcased its commitment to innovate new features in some of its existing product lines. One of the more notable additions is the recently launched Smart Touchpad on its aptly named premium gaming laptop, the Raider GE78 HX Smart Touchpad.

We’ve seen some touch-based LED interfaces embedded in touchpads before, most notably on some rival Asus machines, but the Smart Touchpad is kicking it up to a whole other level. Not only is the full touch surface much larger than most (MSI calls it the largest ever on a laptop), but you'll find an array of digital commands and shortcuts at your fingertips. Read on for details, and check out the photos of the layout as you go.

Introducing the Smart Touchpad

The wide view of all this: The Smart Touchpad allows swift on-pad access to frequently used functions with a single tap, alongside customizable instant-access functions.

(Credit: John Burek)

Look no further than our photos here for the types of commands you will find on the digital grid. You have quick buttons for the camera, recording, files, key lighting, and Bluetooth, among others. These are located right next to the touchpad, rather than needing to move your hands up to the function row. Additionally, available macro buttons (the M1 to M5 ones) can be customized with different inputs.

(Credit: John Burek)

You can toggle all of these buttons off, or the entire touchpad area, with the persistent touch buttons on the right side. If you turn just the grid off, the space will be given back to the touchpad. With the buttons active, you'll see a fairly standard amount of touchpad space, but turning them off makes this touchpad truly titanic, with plenty of room. In this form, it is the largest touchpad we've ever seen on a laptop, for sure.

As mentioned, we became pretty familiar with this general concept through the touchpad LED number pads seen on a selection of competing Asus laptops. The Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16, in addition to the second display, has a touchpad toggle for this. Those were largely limited to numpad functionality, though, which is still a fine way to add one when you're out of physical space. This is a much more complex integration.

(Credit: John Burek)

While not everyone will have a use for all these shortcuts (at least, not enough to justify it as their main reason to purchase this laptop), it's pretty cool in practice, and looks like it works as intended. More than that, it's a key differentiator; it seems particularly useful to power users and multi-taskers, especially if you're a streamer or content creator who wants to keep your broadcast or workflow running smoothly.

On the software front, MSI has also leveraged the potential of generative AI by integrating the Microsoft Edge version of the AI Artist app into its laptops, offering a more intuitive and faster way of generating photo-realistic images without the risk of data leakage, particularly for creators.

Oh, This Raider Laptop is No Slouch, Either

This advanced touchpad doesn’t exist in a vacuum, of course, and it’s attached here to the Raider GE78 HX Smart Touchpad, as mentioned. The model is named thus because the MSI Raider GE78 exists outside of this Smart Touchpad version; we first published a hands-on from CES earlier this year.

(Credit: John Burek)

That earlier model features a traditional touchpad, so as the name suggests, you’ll need this model at hand for the Smart Touchpad. The core additions that made the other model noteworthy, though, are here too. That primarily includes Intel 13th Gen “Raptor Lake” processors and Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 40 Series GPUs.

The Raider GE78 HX Smart Touchpad can pack up to a Core i9-13980HX CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU, 32GB of memory, a 2TB SSD, and a 17-inch QHD+ (2,560-by-1,600-pixel) resolution display.

(Credit: John Burek)

If you’d like to combine gaming chops like those with the versatility of the Smart Touchpad, this may be the gaming system you’ve been waiting for. It will launch online in June, and you can pre-order a top-end model with the above-listed specs now for $2,699.