MSI has announced the GT80 Titan gaming laptop, the first of its kind to have a mechanical keyboard. Built in collaboration with SteelSeries, the 18in GT80 Titan comes fully equipped with Cherry MX switches to deliver more consistent tactile feedback when typing and playing games, and has a single colour red backlight for low lighting conditions.

Unsurprisingly, its high-end specification gives it plenty of power. As well as the latest Core i7 processor (including up to Intel's brand new Broadwell processors) and up to 32GB of RAM, the GT80 Titan comes with a 2GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M graphics chip, a Full HD 1,920x1,080 matt panel display and several storage options. It weighs a hefty 4.5kg and measures a chunky 456x330x490mm.

“As the first of its kind, the MSI GT80 Titan takes a step into the future by integrating a proper mechanical keyboard with Cherry switches into the 18-inch mobile gaming beast," said Eric Kuo, VP of Global Sales & Marketing at MSI Notebook. "Apart from this, the GT80 Titan also features NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M graphics, Intel’s best and latest mobile CPU as well as our usual selection of carefully developed MSI gaming technologies."

The GT80 Titan also has five USB3 ports, an optical disc drive, an SD card reader, one HDMI output and two mini-DisplayPort 1.2 ports, microphone, headphone and S/PDIF ports, and has Killer DoubleShot Pro LAN and 802.11ac Wi-Fi support.

MSI also announced today the smaller 13.3in GS30 Shadow gaming laptop, which uses Iris Pro graphics, as well as a specially designed GamingDock for it. Weighing just 1.2kg and measuring 19.8mm high, the GS30 Shadow is much more of an ultraportable than the GT80 Titan, making it great for taking on the move, but that doesn't mean you'll have to put up with less detailed games when you get back home.

By inserting it into MSI's GamingDock peripheral, you'll be able to play games with the power of a discrete desktop graphics card. Users will be able to choose from any desktop graphics card they like to put inside the GamingDock, giving players the best of both worlds regardless of whether they're at home or out and about.

There's currently no word on when these laptops will be released, or how much they'll cost for that matter, but we'll be sure to bring you our final verdict as soon as we get our hands on review samples.