MSI - Stealth A16 AI+ -Copilot+PC- 16"240Hz QHD Ultra Thin Gaming Laptop- AMD Ryzen AI 9-365 with 32GB Memory-RTX 4070-1TB SSD - Core Black

Introduction MSI has been making laptops close to 15 years and they’ve become quite well known for their machines. Going in I’ve never owned a MSi laptop before so I was excited based on the history of machines they’ve released in the past. However I do have a MSi Claw… so… Yeah. What comes in the box? Out of the box you get the laptop, a power brick and a power cable, and inserts. When you open the laptop there’s always a sheet of paper or something that divides the screen and keyboard. It looks like MSi decided to use a screen cleaning cloth as its divider. If it indeed is a screen cleaner, that’s a nice touch. Minor wins I love it when Windows PC’s have Windows hello. If a laptop has a webcam, then Windows hello should be an option no questions asked. The Stealth A16 also has a fingerprint reader if you prefer to secure your laptop that way. Major wins The material and finish of the laptop is pretty top notch. I think it’s made from aluminum magnesium alloy. I absolutely hate it when you rest your palms on a laptop and it attracts fingerprints. This laptop does not have that problem whatsoever. I appreciate the fact that MSi didn’t include RGB lights all over the exterior. Sometimes you want to just use your gaming laptop at a café without it looking like a Christmas tree. The logo does not have lighting. The only place that has RGB lighting is on the keyboard. One a side not, I cannot figure out how to change the light pattern. Weird. Usage Once I installed my games launchers, I was able to test out a handful of games. The thing I noticed right away was the great contrast that the screen displayed. For a non-OLED screen, it had some pretty nice blacks. The refresh rate at 240hz is awesome. I did not see any ghosting and any sort of delay during my gaming session. I was excited to see what a 4070 RTX, 32 GBs of ram, and the new AMD Ryzen AI 300 could do. I performed a benchmark on a few games that I’m very familiar with, and I have to say that I was a bit underwhelmed. In most of the games, I saw a lower frames per second on every game that I tested. It wasn’t by a lot; we’re talking 5-7 fps, but for a Q4 2024 laptop; especially one with 32 gigs of ram, you think you would be a bump in performance, and not the other way around. This isn’t a deal breaker, just disappointing. The sound is really impressive. It’s probably one of the nicer sounding laptops that I’ve used. It has speakers on either side of the keyboard. MSi included their own launcher called the MSi center. It’s a nice little all in all place to play with settings, see your laptop’s “health,” and other bits of information. One of my favorite things to see from a laptop manufacturer is when they include a MUX switch. A MUX switch allows you to choose which GPU you want to use. Most if not all gamers prefer to use the discrete graphics card at all times. Some do like the hybrid, but for me, it’s all about using the 4070. This can be done on the MSi center. You can also overclock if you want but there’s inherent risk with that, so do so at your own peril. Another nice aspect of the laptop is that it doesn’t get super hot… but a little warm. I always set my laptop to use discrete graphics and run my games at ultra settings just to see if sounds like it’s about to sound like I’m at an airport runway. I hate to say it but when running games on ultra, it indeed sounds like a plane is about to take off. It’s not super loud, but you’ll probably want to wear headsets when playing. I wish the laptop had a 2nd USB-C port. Considering this is targeted at creative individuals, a micro SD slot would have been nice too. The battery life is pretty decent. I was able to make it through a gaming session on ultra settings for about a good 3 hours, and then watched a movie, and listened to music for a bit. I would say that the battery lasted about 5 hours I believe. The keys are larger than any other laptop I’ve seen, and that’s a good thing. It was comfortable to type on, and it even has a numpad array on it. You don’t see those on most laptop unless it’s a 17 inch or up. The track pad is large and on my test, it responded about 95% of the time. There would be the occasional missed input. For most people though, they’ll rarely to never use it unless you’re a control gamer, then it’s still a nice track pad. Overall I had a great time testing out the laptop. Minor issues One thing that bugs me is the proprietary charger that it comes with and how the port is on the side of the laptop. I really appreciate it when design engineers place the power port on the back of the laptop. This way the cord isn’t bending and it’s also a nice way to keep the layout clean. Primarily for People who haven’t upgraded their gaming laptop in roughly 4-5 years or are using a 2000 series Nvidia card or less and can’t play the most graphically demanding games. Probably not for People who are content with the laptop they currently have and can still play all their favorite games without issues. All in all MSi has made a laptop that not only performs well, but also looks great without the whole “look at me I have a gaming laptop” attention brought upon itself. There were a few weird engineering decisions like the proprietary power plug. I wish that it was a USB-C charger instead. All in all, I would recommend the MSi Stealth to anybody that wants a new gaming machine.

Laptop is fast with application. Mouse pad is very responsive. The AI software is convenient when switching to gaming. Battery is good without power adapter. Recommend to buy extra warranty w/ bestbuy if you can.

The MSI Stealth A16 is the first gaming laptop I’ve used that can legitimately double as a portable daily use PC. In most cases, high end gaming laptops are either bulky or have a short battery life. Usually both. But here’s a gaming powerhouse that offers over 8+ hours of battery life in a thin and portable body. Not only that, but even at full speed the fans are as quiet as a whisper and are not even audible in general use. The Stealth A16 defies the general shortcomings of gaming laptops and I’m so happy to be here for it. I’ve heard good things about MSI laptops before and now I can see why. This is a well built machine. It’s reasonably light at about 4.5lbs with a rigid body and a stylish, if not demure appearance. The Steelseries keyboard has excellent tactile feedback and is spaced well enough to not feel cramped. There’s even a compact numbers pad, which I’m a fan of because I work with numbers often. With a large 99.9Whr battery I’m surprised it all fits in a 16” body, but even with a large trackpad and top facing speakers, MSI made it work. It’s a good looking laptop, but outside of the colorful keyboard lights, nothing screams “gaming” at all. The Stealth moniker essentially means “sleeper” which the A16 definitely lives up to. It blends in at the office but can handle demanding games. Like that turbo BMW your friend's brother had. It was smoothly playing Cyberpunk 2077, Diablo IV, Forza Motorsport, and Black Myth: WuKong at 2560x1600@60hz and externally at 3440x1440@60hz HDR with high graphic settings and low levels of ray tracing. If I were competitively gaming I would drop the resolution to 1080p and take advantage of the internal monitor’s 240hz refresh speed, but 60hz is just fine for 2K graphics in solo play. In the Stealth A16+ you get a high end gaming and media PC in an unassuming body. It not only blends in at the office, but with over 8+ hours of battery life it can even act the part. More details below, but if you’re a gamer, designer, editor, or just want one laptop that can essentially do it all, the MSI Stealth A16+ just might be what you’re looking for. GAMING I tested out the gaming ability by playing Cyberpunk 2077, Diablo IV, Black Myth: Wukong, and the newest Forza Motorsport. I played using the internal 2560x1600@240hz LED display by itself, and also added an external 34” HDR ultrawide monitor playing at 3440x1440@100hz to see how it could handle a larger screen with HDR. With high end graphic settings on all games and playing at full native resolution, every game played smoothly and stable. I was even able to play some games with medium and low levels of ray tracing on, which was a nice surprise. The keyboard offers excellent tactile feedback that’s between clicky and softclick. The touchpad is precise and as sensitive as you want it to be. The sound is outstanding for a laptop. You’re obviously not going to get bass, but you will get loud and clear speakers with an open dimensional soundstage and natural vocals. What’s rare is that even when you’re gaming and the fans are at full blast, the fans are so quiet that you can actually hear how good the speakers are. That’s right folks, a gaming laptop that you don’t need to wear headphones for just to drown out the fan noise. It’s even quieter than some next gen game consoles and at 240 watts, comes with a similar sized power supply. There’s obviously other gaming laptops that are just as fast, if not faster, but there’s very few that offer it all in a truly portable body with fans this quiet and “all day” battery life. DAILY USE Like a cheetah in an open field. Office Suite, Adobe Suite, Zoom/Teams meetings, cloud sharing, Salesforce, web browsing, photo editing, 4k video editing, this laptop handles most regular and high end projects with ease. The anti-glare matte LED screen is sharp and bright. There’s an OLED screen that’s available, but the LED does a great job with bright contrast and even backlighting with no fear of image ghosting. The 16” screen is an excellent compromise between size and portability and the hinge opens extremely wide for some reason. With the screen closed the body is slightly thicker than a deck of cards which keeps it practical for office and school use. It easily fits in a backpack, briefcase, or messenger bag and it feels rugged enough to stand up to travel abuse. But what really makes this an ideal laptop is how long the battery lasts. It’s advertised as having a 10-11 hour battery and I have regularly gone over 8+ hours on a single charge. The Stealth A16 also includes some of the best laptop speakers I’ve heard. Sound comes by way of Dynaudio and they certainly live up to their high end audio reputation. They’re loud and crisp with an open and detailed soundstage and a nice tonality. And unlike most gaming laptops, the fans are so quiet you can actually hear how good the speakers are. I also greatly appreciate the number pad. If you type a lot of numbers, you know. DESIGN Excellent fit and finish. The body has a nice rigidity that makes it feel like a premium product. The display is stiff but the hinge opens smoothly. There’s no flex when I one hand the body or type forcefully. Outside of the colorfully lit Steelseries keyboard and large power brick, you’d be hard pressed to think this is a high end gaming PC. It looks at home in the corporate boardroom with the power to edit 4k videos on the fly and run demanding games when needed. And it’s not ports galore, but it offers a headphone/line-in port, HDMI 2.1 port, 2x USB-A 3.2 ports, USB-C port, and a RJ45 ethernet port. The bottom does get scorchingly hot when gaming and the fans are running at full speed, but that’s a given for all laptops. When not gaming, it stays cool enough to use on your lap and won’t heat up your room. OVERALL MSI paired the graphic processing of a NVIDIA RTX4070 GPU with the power efficiency of an AMD Ryzen AI9-365 and put it in a portable body that lasts “all day”. This isn’t just a high end gaming or media laptop, but one true laptop that could replace them all. The performance, battery life, and portability are outstanding and it’s genuinely remarkable to see a product defy all of the weaknesses that usually come with the category. For daily use, work, gaming, and just about anything, I highly recommend the MSI Stealth A16. Outstanding job MSI! PROS - Genuine do-it-all laptop - Snappy operation - Long battery life - 32GB DDR5 RAM - NVIDIA RTX 4070 GPU - Whisper quiet fans - Bright 2560x1600 @240hz anti-glare mini-LED screen - 240 watt power adapter - Loud and clear Dynaudio speakers - Great for gaming, design, and 4k video editing - Relatively thin - Perfect balance of size and portability - Sturdy body - Tight fit and finish - Steelseries keyboard solid tactile feel - Number Pad - Keyboard types well - Precise and sensitive touchpad - High end gaming in a regular laptop body - RJ45 port - Headphone port - Spare M.2 slot - CoPilot Ai voice assistant is promising CONS - Screen is not HDR capable - Bottom gets very hot - Fingerprint sensor works instantly or not at all