MSI Cyborg 15.6" A13VE-218US Black 2023

Snag the Cyborg near $460 and you're getting an RTX 4050 that lands in the top quarter of our gaming benchmarks inside a 1.98kg chassis. That's hard to beat. Just be ready for a plasticky build, a just-adequate screen, and a stingy 512GB SSD.

The MSI Cyborg A13VE-218US is a curious machine. On one hand, it packs an RTX 4050 and a 10-core i7-13620H into a 1.98kg chassis, and if you shop around you might snag it for as low as $460. On the other, it's a plastic shell with a middling 1080p/144Hz screen and a cramped 512GB SSD. The numbers tell a similar story: the GPU sits comfortably in the top quarter of our gaming laptop benchmarks, and its social proof score is a standout, ranking in the 90th percentile among gaming laptops. But build quality and display fall back to average territory, and the price spread is wild—from $460 to over $4000 depending on the vendor.

The RTX 4050 in the Cyborg is the real star. In our synthetic and gaming benchmarks, it lands in the top quarter of all laptop GPUs, which means smooth performance in esports titles at the full 144Hz and 60+ fps in AAA games with a few settings dialed down. The i7-13620H is no slouch either—it handles Premiere Pro and compile tasks without hiccups, and 16GB of DDR5-5200 keeps things snappy. You even get an upgrade path to 64GB, which is a nice bonus for a budget machine. Storage is the bottleneck; the 512GB NVMe drive fills up fast, but the slot is easy to access if you want to swap in a bigger drive.

The Cyborg's value hinges on where you shop. At the low end of its eye-popping $460-to-$4127 spread, you're getting a dedicated GPU gaming laptop for less than many Chromebooks. At the high end, you're overpaying; for that money you can get a far more premium ultrabook like the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i Aura Edition with a better screen and build. Shop carefully and you can walk away with a steal.

Against the fanless MacBook Air M5, the Cyborg is a plastic gaming tank with a real GPU, while the Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro and Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i offer gorgeous OLED screens but rely on integrated graphics that can't touch the RTX 4050 in games. The ASUS ProArt PX13 is a closer competitor, but its creator-focused display and typically higher price make it a different beast. For pure fps per dollar, the Cyborg is hard to beat when bought at the right price.

Skip this laptop if you demand a premium metal design or a high-res, color-accurate display. Creators who need a better screen for photo work will be frustrated, and the 512GB drive will have you constantly deleting games. Look at the ASUS ProArt PX13 or Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i Aura Edition for a more luxurious experience.

If you can stomach a plastic body and a small SSD, the MSI Cyborg A13VE-218US is a genuine budget gaming champion. Catch it under $500, and you've got a lightweight rig that runs circles around office laptops in any 3D workload. Its performance-per-dollar is some of the best we've seen, as long as you dodge the overpriced listings.