COMPUTEX is a place where brands usually show off their most insane products, even if those insane products won’t ever see the light of day. That’s not the case with MSI and their new Titan 18 HX Dragon Edition Norse Myth laptop. Aside from a name that’s quite a mouthful, this laptop’s claim to fame is being as expensive as a down payment for a car, or even a modest home. And even though it’s 50K shy of being a cool half a million pesos, MSI already sold 10 of them in the Philippines, with 5 more on the way as we speak. Now that’s insane.
MSI Titan 18 HX Dragon Edition Norse Myth hands-on: Design and display
If it wasn’t obvious, the MSI Titan 18 HX Dragon Edition is based on the brand’s massive 18-inch Titan 18 laptop. Pictures don’t do the laptop’s size justice–this is MASSIVE, and will easily fill up the space of a regular desk.
The special edition variant of MSI’s top-end gaming laptop gets an embossed dragon design at the back, complete with an RGB eye.
The front of the laptop gets a dragon medallion at the wrist-rest, near the haptic trackpad.
Since the MSI Titan 18 HX Dragon Edition is the best of the best as far as MSI’s laptop offerings go, the brand has spared no expense on its components. Aside from the haptic trackpad (probably the best we’ve ever used so far), the laptop also comes sporting a unique Cherry MX Ultra-Low Profile mechanical keyboard with per-key RGB lighting. The display is a feast for the eyes, thanks to its 4K resolution, as well as its Mini LED tech and 120Hz refresh rate.
The laptop also has a six-speaker system and sound provided by DynaAudio. It’s one of the best-sounding laptops we’ve tried so far this year.
MSI Titan 18 HX Dragon Edition Norse Myth hands-on: Performance and internals
What makes this laptop stand out is the hardware that’s in its gigantic chassis. The MSI Titan 18 HX Dragon Edition Norse Myth has a top-of-the-line Intel Core Ultra 9 processor 285HX inside of it, paired with 96GB(!) of DDR5-6400 memory, as well as 2TB of NVMe PCIe Gen5 SSD storage, and 2TB of NVMe PCIe Gen4 SSD storage.The laptop also has a laptop version of NVIDIA’s RTX 5090 GPU inside of it.
Let’s go back to the laptop’s SSD storage. This is one of the few laptops in the world that uses the new storage standard, and MSI built dedicated heatpipes for it to draw off the heat generated by such a high-performing component. Total power draw for this laptop is pegged at 270 watts since the CPU draws in 95W of power while the GPU pulls in 175W.
Speaking of heat, with all the top-tier stuff inside this laptop, we were expecting this thing to be toasty to the touch. That wasn’t the case, though–MSI really thought about heat management for this laptop, and temperatures while running Furmark, probably the most punishing PC benchmark known to man, were manageable. Really impressive stuff.
MSI Titan 18 HX Dragon Edition Norse Myth Hands-on: Wrap-up and Conclusions
The MSI Titan 18 HX Dragon Edition Norse Myth is a beast of a laptop, boasting immense processing power, lightning-fast RAM, blazing storage speeds, and a premium design that makes it one of the most formidable gaming laptops on the market.
But is it worth its steep Php 421,995 price tag (promo price)? Likely not for most, as savvy PC gamers could build a more powerful desktop for less. However, practicality isn’t the point—this laptop is crafted for those who demand the absolute pinnacle of gaming laptops, regardless of cost.
