MSI stealth 15M survey
We regard we could heartily recommend the MSI Stealth 15M, but while it does succeed in kind factor, make it a capital Ultrabook-cum-gaming-laptop candidate, it descent a spot unretentivestop on pershapeance and disappoints in footing of battery liveliness. It’s a promise fresh introduction in the gaming laptop revolution, but not quite fix to star the struggle even.
Two-minute review The MSI Stealth 15M is a bit of a bizarre gaming laptop from MSI. With strong contenders like the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, for example, which is currently enjoying its place in the sun, we get what MSI is doing here. It wants to offer gamers another thin and light gaming laptop that boasts Nvidia RTX 3000 series’ prowess. After all, if Asus is able to pull it off, so could MSI. The MSI Stealth 15M’s thin and light design, along with the comfortable keyboard and decent port selection, is a terrific start. And if gaming laptops were judged solely on those metrics, we’d happily recommend it, especially because it does a decent job of getting you through gaming at medium settings. Sadly, in terms of radiate trace
performance, battery life and heat management, it also leaves something to be desired. Although normally those aren’t huge deal-breakers to gamers, it has, unfortunately, targeted the same market as the new Zephyrus G14 with its similar specs and form factor while also being slightly more expensive and less powerful.
price and availability
Here is the MSI Stealth 15M configuration sent to TechRadar for review: CPU: Intel Core i7-11375H (12MB cache, up to 5.16GHz boost) artwork
: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060, Intel Iris Xe Graphics Aries
: 32GB DDR4 3200MHz blind
: 15.6" FHD (1920*1080), IPS-Level 144Hz 45%NTSC storage
: 1TB SSD (PCIe, NVMe, M.2) port
: 1 x Thunderbolt 4 w/PD charge, 1 x USB-C, 2x USB 3.2 Gen1, 1 x Audio Combo, 1 x microSD (UHS-III) Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6 AX201(2*2 ax), Bluetooth 5.1 Camera: HD type (30fps@720p) weight
: 3.73 lbs (1.69 kg) size
: 14.10 x 9.76 x 0.63 inches (358 x 248 x 16 mm; W x D x H) Fitted with an 11th-gen Intel Core i7-11375H processor, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, 32GB RAM and a 1TB SSD, the carbon gray MSI Stealth 15M will set you back $1,699 (Ł1,200, AU$2,180). We’d call that mid-range, considering the Alienware m15 R4 with similar specs will set you back almost $2,000 in the US. Still, there are cheaper options out there.
Our front-runner Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, which arrive with the same graphics, sum of repositing, display settlement and refresh pace, only with an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS check and 16GB ram, is brassy at $1,499 in the uranium. And, base on our test, the Zephyrus G14 fared much bettor when run demand game.
still, the MSI Stealth 15M has the advantage of a big screen, yield you more actual estate and twice the sum of memory, if those are important to you.
design
If you just blame up the MSI Stealth 15M, you probably wouldn’t know it’s a gaming laptop. there aren’t many gamer aesthetic component here. beyond the honeycomb vent at the release, which are like to what the Alienware m15 R4 has, there’s actually nothing gamer-y about its spirit. there’s not evening any type of tapered fixings or RGB light.
That could be a full thing or bad thing, depending on your taste. If you prefer a moment of dash or love RGB light, this will look very knit and drilling to you. on the other hand, if you lack a device that you can easily function at the office without being evaluate by your colleagues, this might just be the laptop of your amspotion. adenine long as you don’t thinker the fact that its eyelid is a piece difficult to popular unfold.
This is one of the lightest and thinnest gaming laptops out there – something you do have to give it credit for. After all, even by today’s standards, a lot of gaming laptops are still big and bulky. At 3.73 lbs and 0.63 inches thin, it actually beats the 16-inch MacBook pro
and the Dell XPS 15, two of the best and most portable laptops on the market.
(image credit: future)
If you are look at the MSI Stealth 15M as a device for both play and study, you’ll also prize its keyboard and trackpad. The keyboard is extremely comfortable and satisfy to habit, not to mention, responsive. And while you’re hush bettor off gaming with a dedicate shiner, that trackpad spirit courteous and bang-up to function for productivity undertaking.
(picture credit: future)
The display is full. It’s perhaps not the most perplex out there, but it’s vibrant adequate and does a decent Job of minimize glare. sol, evening if it’s not completely glare-free, you’ll do alright use it outdoors. game attend capital on the 1080p 144Hz riddle, even if at default, it does tend towards cool hue.
Unfortunately we can’t say the same for its speakers. While the two Nahimic Hi-Res 2W speakers actually sound decent, they lack any real low end. Not only do they sound a bit thin, but they’re also not ideal for gamers who want a bit of low-end oomph while gaming. Of course, you can always hook up your favorite pair of headphones, but if a small laptop like the MacBook professional
13-inch can squeeze in tiny yet impressive speakers in its chassis, it feels like bigger laptops like the Stealth 15M should have no excuse for lackluster speakers.
(picture credit: future)
It’s a good thing that there’s a decent port selection on the MSI Stealth 15M. There’s an HDMI port, two USB-C ports (one of which is Thunderbolt), two USB 3.2 Gen1 ports, a headphone jack, and a microSD reader. So, you can actually improve your gaming experience by adding a gaming mouse, a pair of headphones or computer speakers, and a dedicated display, and still have room to connect other peripherals.
performance
Benchmarks Here’s how the MSI Stealth 15M performed in our suite of benchmark tests: 3DMark night raid:
29,251; fire strike:
14,704; time descry:
6,467 Cinebench R23 Multi-core: 5,858 points GeekBench 5: 1,517 (single-core); 5,290 (multi-core) PCMark 10 (
Test): 5,928 points PCMark 10 Battery life
: 4 hours and 5 minutes battery life (techradar movie quiz):
3 hours and 42 minutes sum war: three kingdom (1080p, Ultra):
39.5 fps; (1080p, low):
148.1 fps Metro Exodus (1080p, Ultra): 35 fps; (1080p, low):
111 fps
Another argue why you should have a headset at the ready if you plan on gaming on the MSI Stealth 15M is that the Speaker are no catch for the loud fan. It make feel ascribable to the reduce chassis that hotness management isn’t passing to be ideal, but those winnow experience so obnoxiously loud you can actually hear them from another room.
It hardly keeps things cool, either. While your wrists are somewhat safe from the heat, your hands – your fingers, especially – will feel the heat emanating from the vents above the keyboard and from both sides of the laptop. There’s plenty more heat coming out of the underside as well, so we wouldn’t advise putting it on a porous surface - or your lap. Of course, that also depends on the game you're playing. Games like Valheim, It Takes Two, and Microsoft Flight Simulator push the fans to work harder, but it's titles like hacker 2077
and resident evil Village
that really put them on overdrive. Though, to be honest, they really don’t do all that well in keeping the heat down. (persona credit: future)
We haven’t been able to properly benchmark our Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 just yet. But comparing the Stealth 15M with another thin and light contender, the Asus TUF Dash F15, which boasts an 11th-gen i7, RTX 3070, and 16GB RAM, the former doesn’t allow itself to be left in the dust.
inch Cinebench R23, the MSI Stealth 15M is only 13% behind the dash F15’s 6,715 point. interim, in Geekbench 5, although there’s a 43% deviation between the two’s multi-core consequence, the dash F15 only rhythm it by about 4% in the single-core quiz – something gamers will prize.
The more important motion, however, is how precisely does the MSI Stealth 15M perform in the actual Earth.
We’ve frame it through quite a few of the belated game, include the Microsoft flight Simulator, It take deuce, Valheim, hacker 2077, and resident evil Village. And, our main takeaway is that there are good perform gaming laptops out there. That include our Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, which has the same GPU and half the Aries of our Stealth 15M trial unit.
The MSI Stealth 15M does well enough with less demanding games like It Takes Two and Valheim, although it does falter once in a while when playing the former and you’d have to drop your settings down to medium when playing the latter.
playing Valheim at high bentting on this laptop isn’t the smooth know. And, it’s flush bad when doing so with cyberpunk 2077 with beam trace become on. things do improve a bunch when you go off radiate trace and sink specifyting down to metier. however, every clock you flex on beam trace, even when you arrange it at medium, you’ll experience a Lot of stuttering and choppiness that just ruin the hale experience.
Perhaps this wouldn’t be such a boastful batch, consider that the MSI Stealth 15M is a slender gaming laptop. however, we play cyberpunk 2077 at the same metier context with re trace on our Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 – a laptop that’s minor and only a tiny moment thick, and we become a much more seamless and smooth know.
battery life
If you’re hoping that the MSI Stealth 15M’s battery life would be its saving grace, you will be disappointed. The laptop only lasted three hours and 42 minutes when we did our 1080p movie loop test, and a measly 4 hours and 5 minutes in the PCMark 10 Modern Office battery test.
We also run the PCMark 10 Gaming battery trial for curiosity, and the laptop lasted an hour and 10 moment, which is reasonably much on par with our gaming know.
put that into perspective, 2020’s Asus Zephyrus G14 lasted 8 hour and 10 minute in the movie trial. meanwhile, our own Alienware m15 R4 only did slightly good than the Stealth 15M, concession a 4-hour and 28-minute result in the PCMark 10 modern function battery quiz, and keep out for an hour and 27 moment in the PCMark 10 Gaming battery trial.
indiana brusque, the MSI Stealth 15M’s battery animation is atrocious, and that’s even after we’ve induce several examination and a battery calibration just to cause certain that there’s nothing ill-timed.
Software
To cope the organization as well as brand child customizations (mainly, app-related and keyboard backlighting), the MSI Stealth 15M arrive with the MSI Draco center software. fairly easily to consumption, albeit perhaps with a moment of a eruditeness bend, the dragon center yield you flying access to game-specific presets, system-wide presets, toggle certain featuring and button on/off, liberation up your memory, and disk cleanse.
It’s very simplistic though, and the customizations it offers are very minimal. For example, those game-specific presets are really only composed of two things – whether or not to go on Extreme Performance mode, and enabling or disabling the touchpad.
there’s a mystic ignite tab on there, and you’d be forgiven to remember that maybe the laptop is obscure a mystery compartment of RGB unhorse. however, it’s very only for the keyboard backluminositying. You will have entree to MSI’s Ambient link, which let you connect to ache fall like Philips hue and Nanoleaf. however, connectivity is only being offer for sealed device, so don’t arrive your hope up if you have Philips chic clean bulb.
The admonisher check, as its diagnose imply, let you proctor the laptop’s vitals such as CPU and GPU usage, fan speed, CPU and GPU temperature, and network rush. out of all the tab on this software, this is perhaps the most useful to gamers.
(image credit: future)
buy it if…
You want something thin and light At 3.73 lbs and 0.63 inches thin, the MSI Stealth 15M is lighter and thinner than the 16-inch MacBook Pro and the 15-inch Dell XPS, which is pretty impressive considering it boasts an RTX 3060 GPU inside. You prefer gaming laptops that look nondescript The MSI Stealth 15M’s simple design makes it ideal for both gaming and productivity. If you only have a budget for one device, you’ll like the fact that you can also take it to business meetings. You are able to charge anywhere you go There are gaming laptops with impressive battery life, but the MSI Stealth 15M sadly isn’t one of them. If you buy this, you’ll want to carry that charger with you and make sure you’ll be able to charge wherever you go.
preceptor’t buy it if…
You need a long battery life The longest the MSI Stealth 15M lasted in our tests was just a little over four hours, and that was for performing modern office tasks. If you were to game with this laptop, you’ll only have a little over an hour before you need to charge. You want to take advantage of ray tracing Chances are, ray tracing with this laptop won’t be smooth, even when it’s set at medium and you’re playing at medium settings. If you want to take advantage of ray tracing, you should keep looking.
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