MSI’s new Titan 18 HX laptop loves dragons, dragons, dragons

Over the last few years, it feels like gaming laptops have grown up a bit. They’ve become a bit broader in their appeal, a little less “futuristic jukebox” and a little more “boardroom bling.” But MSI just said nuts to all that and plastered their newest gaming laptop in dragons, presumably while blasting a Def Leppard album. Somewhere out there, Seto Kaiba is nodding in stoic approval.

The MSI Titan 18 HX Dragon Edition Norse Myth is a gaming laptop with a “hand-drawn” dragon motif on the lid, plus an inlaid “3D dragon and dragon ring” in the palm rest. MSI says that these artistic touches have a “metallic sheen, refined texture, and a flawless vintage-inspired finish.”

Okay, granted, this is all a bit ridiculous and over the top. But if you’re interested in a gaming laptop that truly goes all out, the Dragon Edition might just tickle your Skyrim-obsessed fancy. The design on the lid isn’t just printed onto plastic — it’s actually separate pieces of material creating that tricolor design. I can’t tell what type of material is being used for the effect, but it looks a little more resilient than your usual special edition.

The actual hardware doesn’t appear to be any different from the standard Titan 18 HX laptop, though calling this top-of-the-line machine “standard” might be doing it an injustice. You get the latest and greatest in gaming-grade parts, including an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor, a just-announced RTX 5090 graphics card, four (count ’em, FOUR!) M.2 SSD slots (only one of which is PCIe 5), and a max 96GB of DDR5 RAM.

It’s all outputting to an 18-inch 4K MiniLED IPS screen at up to 120Hz, with four standard speakers plus a pair of subwoofers. But the premium experience even extends to the keyboard, which is a “Cherry Mechanical” design with per-key RGB lighting “by SteelSeries.” (Geez, there’s a lot of co-branding on this thing.) You get a wide selection of ports, including double USB-C/Thunderbolt 5, double USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, HDMI 2.1 with up to 8K60 output, and a full-sized SD card reader.

MSI

Powering this giant is a 99.9 watt-hour battery — the largest you can legally take on a commercial plane — with a power adapter that can output 400 watts. (With that much heat and weight, it might also double as a panini press, but I don’t see that on the spec list.) Just make sure you don’t skip leg day if you want to travel with the Titan 18 HX, because it measures 32mm thick (about 1.25 inches) and weighs 3.6 kilograms (or just under 8 pounds).

How big of a hit can this dragon deliver to your wallet? Predictably, MSI didn’t say in its press materials. But the last version of the Titan 18 HX with previous-gen hardware went for $5,000 at the highest level. Allow that to inform your financial planning if you’re hoping to go for a draconic theme for your 2025 gaming setup.

If your budget won’t stretch that high, MSI also announced updates to its Raider, Vector, and Stealth gaming laptops, plus Venture and Venture Pro models if you prefer AMD’s all-in-one Ryzen approach.