MSI’s special edition Titan 18HX gaming laptop is incredibly over the top

Strolling through the halls of MSI’s 40th anniversary exhibition after a long week of Computex was a real treat; an ode to four decades of powerful hardware, creative designs, and one of the PC gaming industry’s longest-serving titans.

Speaking of Titans, it was the special Dragon Edition Draco Epic Titan 18HX that held my attention the most on the show floor; this beastly beauty packs some serious punch with an Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 laptop GPU with 24GB GDDR7 memory.

However, it’s as much a work of art as it is a gaming device. Inspired by the constellation Draco, which represents the mythical dragon defeated by Heracles in Greek mythology, MSI’s 40th anniversary special edition laptop is emblazoned with a gorgeously textured metallic blue-grey dragon surrounded by golden constellations.

How much is that dragon in the window?

Of course, the Dragon Edition Draco Epic Titan 18HX has a lot going for it beyond design and a powerful CPU / GPU combination. I didn’t get the chance to try any games on the device, but by specs alone, it’ll likely offer an exceptional gaming experience.

Its 18-inch UHD+ Mini LED display features a 240Hz refresh rate for smooth and vibrant visuals, and its vapor chamber cooler with a dedicated PCIe Gen5 SSD cooling pipe should keep the clamshell calm and collected even in longer play sessions.

As well as that aforementioned RGB haptic touchpad, there’s also the Cherry mechanical per-key RGV gaming keyboard — featuring a Copilot key if you’re part of the small minority who actually want one of these, let alone on a gaming laptop.

If this all sounds as great to you as it did to me, I regret to inform you that it’s, in all likelihood, out of your price range.

While MSI has yet to confirm pricing, the laptop’s maximalist design alone will likely lead to a significant price hike versus the standard Titan 18HX, which already clocks in at a prohibitive starting price of $4,999.99 / £4,379.98. Add to that the nature of this special edition laptop as well as the included mouse, mouse mat, packaging and collectors coins, and I’d be surprised if it costs any less than $7,500 / £7,000.

If your pockets are deep and you’re as enamoured with this loud and proud laptop as I am, more power to ya. I think I’ll focus on saving for the new MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ in the meantime.