Beautiful 16" Beast Laptop With an RTX4070

Publish date: 2024-07-04

MSI Stealth 16 Studio

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The MSI Stealth 16 Studio is a beautiful creator-focused laptop with powerful specs. This is one of the best thin and light laptops with impressive performance and a great selection of IO.

Key FeaturesSpecificationsProsConsBuy This Product MSI Stealth 16 Studio Shop at Best Buy

We got our first glimpse of the MSI Stealth 16 Studio (A13Vx) at CES 2023 a few months ago, where we got a quick hands-on demo. Even then, we were impressed with its sleek design and awarded it our MUO Best in CES award. A few months later, we have an engineering sample ready to review.

The MSI Stealth 16 Studio targets creative professionals who need a high-performance machine to run demanding applications. With up to a 13th Gen Intel Core i9 processor and up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 graphics, this laptop can easily handle complex tasks like video editing, 3D rendering, and graphic design.

The Stealth 16 Studio features a range of connectivity options, including Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, and USB-C ports, and features Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. Its powerful hardware, beautiful design, and excellent port selection make it a great choice not only for creators but also for gamers and anyone who wants a powerful, lightweight, and portable laptop without sacrificing screen size or connectivity.

Design

The laptop is available in two colors: Pure White, or Star Blue. On the base of the rear, there is an elegant Stealth logo printed against a shiny mirror-like material. It is very reminiscent of the Lincoln logo found on its premium SUVs.

Additionally, the Stealth 16 Studio A13V is built to last, with a durable Magnesium-Aluminum Alloy chassis that is ultra-light at just 1.99kg (4.39lbs) and ultra-slim at 19.95mm (0.79 inches), making it easy to take on the go.

The MSI Stealth 16 Studio A13V features Steel Series per-key RGB lighting. You have several presets to choose from, including reactive keys when pressed. Within its app, you can individually customize the keys even further.

The larger smooth trackpad takes up nearly the entire height between the bottom space below the keyboard deck and provides precise control for gaming and productivity tasks.

More impressively, the Studio 16 Studio has a powerful 6-speaker surround sound setup by Dynaudio, delivering high-quality audio for an immersive gaming and entertainment experience.

That said, despite these being very nice speakers, they can still be quickly drowned out by the sound of its fans when running intensive tasks or gaming. You'll likely still want to use a good pair of noise-canceling headphones with the Studio 16 once the fans kick in.

Connectivity

The MSI Stealth 16 Studio (A13Vx) offers an impressive selection of I/O ports to accommodate various needs. On the laptop's left side, you will find Ethernet, a full-size HDMI port, a Thunderbolt 4 Type-C port, and a microSD card reader.

On the right side are two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, a 3.5 mm audio jack, and a DC-in jack. The Thunderbolt 4 Type-C port provides fast data transfer speeds and allows for connecting to external displays.

The full-size HDMI port is a valuable addition for those who need to connect to a monitor or TV without a dongle. That said, creators would have probably appreciated a full-size SD card reader instead of the microSD one found. This would be more convenient for quickly transferring files from cameras and most other professional recording devices which still use the full-size format. Despite this, the selection of I/O ports on the Stealth 16 Studio (A13Vx) is well-rounded and accommodates various needs.

The MSI Stealth 16 Studio supports PD (Power Delivery) charging, allowing faster charge speeds over USB-C without needing to use the default charger. The Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports on the laptop support 100W PD Charging, with a charging rate of 20V@5A. This is convenient when you want to quickly charge or use the laptop plugged in, but want to use a smaller and more portable charger when on the go. It won't be able to sustain full workloads without depleting your battery. Still, provided you aren't doing GPU-intensive tasks for extended periods of time, it's great to have this charging option.

MUX Switch

The Stealth 16 also features a MUX switch which allows you to toggle between the dedicated GPU and integrated graphics manually, providing greater control over the laptop's performance and power consumption. Additionally, MUX setups typically deliver superior performance compared to laptops that route the GPU's output through the integrated graphics, as they allow the GPU's output to be routed directly to the panel.

This can be great high-performance hardware for demanding applications such as gaming and video editing while also offering the flexibility to switch to integrated graphics for more power-efficient use cases.

Cooling

The MSI Stealth 16 Studio manages to strike a good balance between performance and portability. With a thickness of just under 20mm, it is hard to imagine it much thinner, given its powerful hardware. Nevertheless, it does not compromise on cooling with Cooler Boost 5, which allows the laptop to maintain excellent thermals even under heavy loads without any noticeable thermal throttling.

Cooler Boost 5 is a thermal solution designed by MSI that utilizes dual fans and several heat pipes to help dissipate heat generated by the laptop's components, such as the CPU and GPU. The Shared-Pipe design of the heat pipes allows for more efficient cooling, as heat is transferred from both the CPU and GPU to the cooling system.

This design helps improve the laptop's thermal capability under extreme loads, such as when gaming or performing demanding tasks. With Cooler Boost 5, the Stealth 16 Studio is able to maintain lower temperatures and higher performance during intensive tasks, ensuring a smooth and stable experience.

When the laptop is flipped over, you can see that nearly half of its bottom panel is vented.

In contrast, the Razer Blade 17 we recently reviewed, only has three significantly smaller vents for its fans. MSI's design, coupled with the raised feet, allows cool air to flow in from the bottom and exit through the fans located on the back, which are also directed toward the bottom of the screen. This cooling system is efficient and effective in keeping the laptop's internal temperature in check.

After extended periods of heavy use, the laptop can still get hot to the touch, especially above the function keys where the heat is being exhausted, as well as the right side of the trackpad. There is also a good amount of warmth near the WASD keys, so if you are gaming with the built-in keyboard, it's noticeable.

Display

Similar to many of MSI's other lineups, the Stealth 16 Studio features a 16:10 display, which MSI calls the "Golden aspect ratio". The display is available in two variants: a UHD+ (3840 x 2400) with a 120Hz refresh rate, or a QHD+ (2560 x 1600) with a 240Hz refresh rate. Both display choices offer 100% DCI-P3 (Typ.), IPS-level panel technology. The first is a 4K option best suited for creative work, while the second, with the higher refresh rate, is better for gaming. Our review model came with the QHD+ display, which we suspect most users will prefer.

Bezels are thinnest on the display's sides, with a larger plastic bottom that features the MSI logo. MSI has added a slight lip to its top bezel, which houses its IR FHD webcam (30fps@1080p). This portion has a smooth plastic finish which contrasts nicely against the rest of the laptop's bezels.

With its 16:10 aspect ratio, a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels, and 240Hz refresh rate, this gives you plenty of screen real estate to work with, a high enough resolution to ensure images and text are crisp and crisp clear and is great for smooth gameplay. The display offers deep blacks and vibrant colors. Additionally, the display covers 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, making it ideal for color-sensitive work like video editing and color grading.

Webcam

While not necessarily impressive, the IR FHD webcam is above average for this category. It's not particularly sharp, nor does it have the best contrast. It handles low-light environments well and adjusts its exposure automatically when faces are detected. A physical shutter that can be manually closed for additional security is located above the webcam.

Security Features

The MSI Stealth 16 Studio (A13Vx) laptop includes several security features that provide peace of mind for users. The laptop includes a fingerprint reader allowing users to authenticate their identity with a touch.

Windows Hello is also a convenient and secure way to sign in to the laptop, using facial recognition or fingerprint authentication to access the system. This eliminates the need for passwords and can make it harder for unauthorized users to access the device. Unlike some of MSI's business laptops though, Tobii Aware is not supported on the 16 Studio.

Benchmarks

Compared to previous gen hardware, MSI says we can expect up to 30% faster performance for the CPU and up to a 50% boost in performance for the GPU.

These improvements will be particularly noticeable in demanding applications such as video editing, 3D rendering, and gaming, making the 2023 models of the MSI Stealth 16 Studio (A13Vx) an even more powerful and versatile choice for users who need better export times or higher FPS.

Cinebench R23

Cinebench R23 is a benchmark test that measures the performance of a computer's CPU using a multi-core rendering test and a single-core rendering test. The scores in the "Multi" column represent the performance of the CPU when using all available cores, while the scores in the "Single" column represent the performance of the CPU when using only one core. Overall, these scores give a general idea of how these laptops might perform in real-world scenarios requiring heavy or light CPU usage.

Based on these scores, we can see that the MSI Stealth 16 Studio has the highest multi-core performance, followed by the MSI Creator Z16P. This means these laptops are better suited for tasks requiring heavy CPU usage, such as video rendering, compiling code, or running virtual machines.

In terms of single-core performance, the MSI Stealth 16 Studio is again the top performer, followed by the MSI Creator Z16P. This indicates that these laptops are better suited for tasks primarily using a single core, such as web browsing, word processing, or other tasks that don't require heavy CPU usage.

Looking at the data, it is clear that when the MSI Stealth 16 Studio is unplugged, there is a significant decrease in its multi-core score. Specifically, the score drops from 19805 when plugged in, to 9633 when unplugged. This represents a decrease of around 51%, a very significant drop. It is worth noting that other laptops on the list also experience a substantial decrease in performance when unplugged, but the drop seen in the MSI Stealth 16 Studio is one of the worst offenders. For example, the MSI Creator Z16P sees a drop of around 42%, while the Razer Blade 17 (2022) sees a drop of about 28%.

It is possible that the significant drop in performance when unplugged is due to the review unit being a pre-production unit. However, regardless of the cause, potential buyers need to be aware of this significant decrease in performance when using the laptop on battery power.

PCMark10

The PCMark10 benchmark measures a system's performance in various tasks, such as web browsing, productivity, and digital content creation. Based on the scores, we can see that the MSI Stealth 16 Studio isn't far off from the desktop MSI Aegis RS. The MSI Aegis RS performs the best in all three categories, while the MSI Stealth 16 Studio is second in essentials and productivity but falls behind in digital content creation.

The Razer Blade 17 (2022) falls behind the others, particularly in productivity and digital content creation tasks. These benchmark results suggest that the MSI Stealth 16 Studio is a strong performer in everyday tasks and can handle demanding workloads such as digital content creation.

Puget Davinci Resolve and Photoshop

PugetBench for DaVinci Resolve is a benchmarking tool used to measure hardware performance when running DaVinci Resolve, a professional video editing software.

The scores provided are the overall scores for the benchmark and the scores for specific tasks such as 4K playback, GPU rendering, and Fusion rendering.

Looking at the scores, the MSI Aegis RS is the highest performer with a score of 1630, followed closely by the MSI Stealth 16 Studio at 1520, and the MSI Creator Z16P at 1493. The Razer Blade 17 (2022) falls behind with a score of 1347.

It's impressive how close the performance of the MSI Stealth 16 Studio is to a full desktop with high-performance components such as the Intel i7-12700KF and NVIDIA RTX 3070. Additionally, the Stealth 16 performs slightly better than the Creator Z16P, which has the older Intel i9-12900H and Nvidia RTX 3080TI, which highlights the improvements of this year's NVIDIA RTX GPUS.

This was our first time running Puget's Photoshop benchmark, so we do not have any other devices to compare this to.

3DMark Fire Strike and TimeSpy

3DMark Fire Strike is a benchmark test measuring a system's gaming and graphical rendering performance. The scores are calculated based on the computer's ability to perform complex graphical tasks, such as rendering high-resolution textures and lighting effects.

Looking at the scores, the MSI Stealth 16 Studio slightly trails with a score of 23,328, with the Razer Blade 17 holding the lead with a score of 24,173, despite having the older Intel i9-12900H and NVIDIA RTX 3070Ti.

It's worth noting that benchmark scores do not always translate directly to real-world performance, and other factors such as thermals, power consumption, and driver optimizations can impact overall performance. However, these scores can provide a good indication of a system's capabilities when it comes to gaming and graphical workloads.

Real World Gaming

We ran several tests at 2K resolution with max settings presets applied for our games.

Atomic Heart: 67fps average.

Batman Arkham Knight: 143fps minimum; 205 average; 274 maximum.

Overwatch 2: 105 to 125fps average.

Battery Life

According to MSI, the Stealth 16 Studio (A13Vx) has a battery life of up to 8 hours. It's worth noting that this laptop is equipped with a sizeable 99.9Wh battery, which is the maximum allowed for air travel, so it should be able to provide a decent amount of usage time before needing to be recharged.

During our testing, we evaluated the battery life of the MSI Stealth 16 Studio (A13Vx) while performing various tasks. We found that while web browsing, watching videos, and performing light productivity tasks, the battery could last for approximately 6 to 6.5 hours on a single charge, with the screen brightness set at around 50%. However, users looking to prolong the battery life to over 7 hours will need to reduce the screen brightness and limit the amount of CPU and GPU-intensive tasks they perform on the laptop.

Picturesque Portable Power for a Premium Price

The Stealth 16 Studio is a beautiful, powerful, and portable machine that looks to impress. Its latest 13th Gen Intel processors, NVIDIA RTX graphics, and MUX switch feature provide excellent performance for creators and gamers. The laptop's sleek and slim design is also paired with an excellent selection of full-size ports, a great display, and impressive benchmarks.

However, its premium features and design also come with a high price tag, making it a more expensive option than MSI's more budget-friendly Raider or Crosshair lineups. Nonetheless, for those willing to invest in a premium, portable and high-performance laptop, the MSI Stealth 16 Studio (A13Vx) is an excellent choice that delivers on both power and design.

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