Most expensive laptop in South Africa

The MSI Titan 18 HX A14VI is the most expensive new laptop available in South African stores in November 2024.

MyBroadband scoured the catalogues of major online electronics and computing shops to find the most expensive laptop on the market.

Our search included Amazon.co.za, Dreamware Tech, Evetech, First Shop, Rebel Tech, Takealot, Titan Ice, and Wootware, as well as the online divisions of physical retailers like Game, Makro, Incredible, and iStore.

We identified three top contenders for the title of most expensive laptop — a top-spec custom-built Apple MacBook M3 Max, the MSI Titan GT77 HX 13V, and the MSI Titan 18 HX A14VI.

These were selling for between R100,000 and R150,000 from prominent stores.

The two former models were both released last year and have been replaced by newer versions with lower entry-level storage configurations, making them more affordable.

At one point in the lifecycle of certain products — like laptops — an older model may also be more expensive than the newer iteration due to scarcity, particularly if it had one standout feature that goes missing with a revision.

The Titan 18 was the only model released in 2024 and it had the highest entry-level price of the three, which we figured made it most worthy of the most expensive new laptop title.

The best-configured model available online at the time of publication was selling on Evetech for R129,999, marked down from R149,999.

While the main benefit of a laptop is that it is easily portable and can be used on the go, the Titan 18 can also be a desktop replacement for those that will primarily be using it in one location.

The laptop is truly premium from top to bottom and according to YouTube laptop reviewer Jarrod’sTech is “built like a tank.”

While its exterior material is made from a strong but lightweight magnesium-aluminum alloy, the high-performance components packed inside means it tips the scale at a hefty 3.6kg.

The weight is easily forgivable considering its top-of-the-line hardware across the board, starting with Intel’s most powerful laptop processor — the Core i9-14900HX.

This powerful CPU boasts 24 cores and 32 threads with 36MB cache, and boost clock speeds up to 5.80GHz.

Evetech’s top-specced model also featured 128GB of DDR5 RAM coming from four 32GB sticks. This can be upgraded to 192GB with four 48GB sticks.

For exceptional gaming performance, MSI has fitted the Titan 18 with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 with 16GB of GDDR6 graphics memory.

Users are also unlikely to find themselves deleting and redownloading games frequently as the most expensive configuration features an 8TB NVMe SSD, providing ample space for modern titles taking up 100GB to 200GB.

The Titan’s 18-inch MiniLED screen is also a standout feature, not only for its immense 18 inches of real estate.

It supports a 4K resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio, 1,000 nits brightness, and 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut.

The latter means it is also highly suited to content creators like photographers and editors, who need accurate colour grading.

More gamer-focused goodies

However, there is no doubt that this laptop is primarily aimed at gamers.

The keyboard features custom mechanical Steelseries Cherry ultra-low switches for most of the keys typically used for gaming and typing.

There is also no shortage of customisable RGB lighting.

In addition to under-keyboard lighting, the haptic trackpad and MSI logo on the lid also sport RGB backlighting.

All of this can be configured to your preference with MSI’s software.

As a testament to its incredible power, the MSI Titan 18 comes with a 400W adapter.

That can supply over four times the typical power draw of high-end thin and light laptops and about twice the power needed by entry-level gaming laptops.

It is also slightly higher than the maximum power draw of the recently launched PS5 Pro, which is rated for 390W.

For those periods when you won’t be plugged in, the laptop features a 99.9Wh battery pack, the biggest capacity allowed for transporting on a commercial airline.

Below are the specifications and images of the MSI Titan 18 HX A14VI, the most expensive new laptop in South Africa in 2024.

MSI Titan 18