MSI Stealth 17 Studio Review

MSI Stealth 17 Studio
MSI Stealth 17 Studio

The MSI Stealth 17 Studio is a gem in the laptop world, efficiently serving both work and entertainment needs. Its elegant and sophisticated design creates a professional workspace with a white keyboard backlight and a quietly efficient cooling system, despite its powerful hardware and outstanding performance. As night falls, the MSI Stealth 17 transforms into a formidable gaming machine, with the keyboard lighting shifting to a rainbow effect, the fans accelerating, and ensuring a smooth gaming experience at nearly 100fps.

This design perfectly meets expectations: a laptop for creators, providing ample graphic power for fast, high-quality image and video processing. This power is also ready to serve during leisure time. MSI has skillfully combined a discreet appearance and slim design with an effective cooling system and unique lighting effects. The breakthrough Mini LED screen is the perfect highlight for both work and play. Our review will reveal the impressive performance and low noise level of the system, even when dealing with fast-moving images.

The MSI Stealth 17 Studio stands alone in the laptop market, with few direct competitors. Equipped with an Intel Core i9-13900H processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card, it competes with models like the Razer Blade 16, as well as high-end multimedia laptops from the previous year like the Gigabyte Aero 16 YE5. Remember to follow our detailed introduction to the MSI Stealth 17 Studio below for more information.

Pros

Cons

  • Loud and clear sound
  • Effective cooling
  • Large battery capacity
  • Smooth operation
  • High cost
  • Heavy machine weight

MSI Stealth 17 Studio Specs And Features

  • Model name: Stealth 17Studio A13VI-017US
  • Processor: Intel Core i9-13980HX
  • Graphics Coprocessor: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
  • Display: 17.3 inch QHD
  • Refresh Rate: 240Hz
  • RAM: 64GB DDR5
  • Operating System: Windows 11 Pro
  • Hard Drive: 2TB SSD
  • Webcam: 1080p
  • Ports: 1x USB 3.2 Type-C, 3 x USB-A 3.2, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x Headset (headphone and microphone combo), 1x RJ45 Ethernet port.
  • Wireless Connectivity: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi
  • Battery: 99.9 wHr
  • Dimensions: 15.65 x 11.16 x 0.82 inches
  • Weight: ‎6.2 pounds
  • Price: $4046.19

Design and Exterior

The MSI Stealth 17, with its sporty design in a strong and mysterious Core Black color, is sure to captivate you at first sight. A subtly elegant white-gray logo prominently displayed on the black lid creates a tremendously powerful impression, offering users a sense of class and an attractive style. With dimensions of 15.65 x 11.16 x 0.82 inches, the MSI Stealth 17 is considered a slim and portable laptop, packing the maximum configuration currently available in the 17-inch category, convenient for you to easily move and carry around.

The chassis is crafted from high-grade metal, weighing 6.20 lbs, coupled with a 99WH battery, allowing you to operate flexibly and use the device for an extended period without worrying about battery life. The manufacturer recommends using direct electricity to enable the machine to operate at maximum efficiency, ensuring the best experience for the user.

The MSI Stealth 17 is not just a powerful Studio Gaming laptop but also a symbol of luxury and personality. With advanced technology, sophisticated design, and the ability to meet all user requirements, this device promises to deliver excellent experiences in gaming, construction graphics, and daily tasks.

Performance

MSI Stealth 17 Studio Performance
MSI Stealth 17 Studio Performance

Equipped with the latest 13th Gen Intel CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090, the laptop delivers versatile and flawlessly smooth processing capabilities. You can rest assured without worrying about lag or the ability to use professional graphic software like Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere After Effects, or design and construction applications like AutoCAD 3D, 3DMaxs, Sketchup, etc.

Not only boasting impressive power, but the MSI Stealth 17 is also equipped with DDR5 5200MHz RAM (2 slots), which when used in Dual Channel, maximizes RAM bandwidth. In addition, the M.2 PCIe Gen4 SSD also has 2 slots, providing faster data transfer speeds than ever before, especially with SSD RAID technology (depending on the model).

With the MSI Stealth 17, you own not just a top-notch Studio Gaming laptop but also experience the most sublime and immersive moments in both the gaming world and creative work. This laptop promises to bring you the most authentic and fantastic experiences, accompanying you to overcome every challenge in both work and life.

Cooler Boost 5 is MSI’s exclusive cooling system, playing a crucial role in delivering superior performance for MSI 17 Stealth. Equipped with 2 fans, 4 heat exhausts, and 7 copper heat pipes, this system efficiently reduces the temperature for the CPU and GPU, even when playing the most demanding games. This ensures that the machine operates stably and at optimal performance, providing a smooth and uninterrupted experience when playing heavy-duty games.

Notably, MSI has for the first time applied Liquid Metal thermal grease technology to this computer (depending on the model). This technology enhances cooling efficiency and simultaneously reduces the operating temperature of the CPU and GPU. This ensures that the computer operates stably and does not overheat when facing high-demand tasks or during prolonged periods of use. Liquid Metal technology has improved the machine’s cooling performance and helped maintain optimal performance throughout its usage.

Display & Audio

MSI Stealth 17 Studio Display
MSI Stealth 17 Studio Display

The QHD screen of the MSI Stealth 17 is truly a work of art with its premium MiniLED IPS panel. The 100% DCI-P3 color gamut coverage produces true-to-life and vibrant colors, bringing liveliness and sharpness to every minute detail. The high contrast ratio and color accuracy make the color spectrum appear more vivid and precise than ever before. The 240Hz refresh rate also smoothens screen navigation, reducing screen tearing and enhancing the refresh rate.

The MSI Stealth 17’s display reaches 1000 NITS and boasts DisplayHDR 1000, offering a superior color display capability compared to other products in the same segment. This ensures you will have astonishing visual experiences, whether working in high-end graphic design or delving into the gaming world. The device is also equipped with an FHD 1080P camera supporting FaceID (depending on the model), allowing easy Windows login without any additional actions. This convenience saves time and offers a more straightforward, secure, and user-friendly computer experience.

Another standout feature of the MSI Stealth 17 is its premium surround sound system from Dynaudio™. Equipped with 6 specially designed speakers, including 4 pairs of woofers that eliminate vibration and two Treble speakers, this laptop delivers a powerful, vivid, and clear audio experience. Thanks to this surround sound system, users can enjoy music, watch movies, or play games with outstanding sound quality, creating an exceptional entertainment experience on the laptop.

Keyboard and Touchpad

MSI Stealth 17 Studio Keyboard and Touchpad
MSI Stealth 17 Studio Keyboard and Touchpad

The MSI Stealth 17 Studio gaming laptop is equipped with a standard Fullsize keyboard. The keys are spaciously and sensibly arranged, with deep travel and good responsiveness, providing an extremely comfortable typing experience.

Users can also adjust the backlight to suit their usage. During the day, you can use the keys with a white background, and at night, it switches to a rainbow effect.

Regarding the Touchpad, it is neatly centered with high sensitivity and smoothness, making mouse movements fluid and effortless. However, if you’re gaming, I believe you might need to equip an external keyboard and mouse for a better and more precise experience.

Ports

MSI Stealth 17 Studio Ports
MSI Stealth 17 Studio Ports

The Stealth 17 Studio laptop has been designed to meet all the connectivity needs of users through a range of versatile and diverse I/O ports:

  • On the left side, you will find 2 USB 3.2 ports equipped to ensure quick and efficient data transfer speeds. Additionally, there is a 3.5mm Audio™ jack port for you to conveniently enjoy music or use headphones.
  • Turning to the right side, there are 2 USB TypeC ports integrated with support for both Thunderbolt™4 and DisplayPort, offering diverse and flexible connectivity options. Moreover, an SD card reader slot is also available, making it easy for you to access and share data from memory cards.
  • At the back of the device, there is 1 Killer LAN RJ45 Gigabit port ensuring a stable and high-speed network. Furthermore, there is 1 HDMI port and 1 DC-in port conveniently for charging. All ports are strategically arranged, not causing any obstruction during your use.

Webcam

The Full HD webcam of this laptop operates effectively, particularly impressive with its rapid adaptation to unstable or poor lighting conditions. However, a notable limitation is the continuous and apparent image noise. While not perfect, within the scope of a laptop, this camera provides good quality, sufficient for high-quality video calls with moderate bandwidth requirements. It delivers sharp images under good lighting conditions.

Other hardware features of this laptop include a convenient mechanical cover and an additional infrared camera for face recognition login, enhancing security and user convenience.

A standout feature is the microphone’s sound quality. Regardless of distance, the microphone maintains a consistent volume level and capably captures voices from various directions without issue. Additionally, the sound is natural, with only a slight metallic resonance, enhancing the user experience in online meetings or recordings.

Battery

Before the first BIOS update, the battery life of the MSI Stealth 17 barely exceeded three hours in the WiFi test, which was conducted under the condition of reduced screen brightness.

However, surprisingly, after the update, the MSI Stealth 17 proved its significant ability to optimize energy consumption when operating on battery power. We witnessed an impressive increase in battery life, exceeding five hours not only during Full HD video playback but also in the WiFi test, where the device continuously accessed websites every minute. This is particularly noteworthy considering that the processing performance of the device was maintained at a high level. This achievement is remarkable, especially in the context of sustained high device performance.

In battery performance tests with the Witcher 3 game, the MSI Stealth 17 impressively outperformed its competitors. However, it’s worth noting that this was achieved under conditions where graphic performance was minimized to just 3 frames per second. For this reason, we advise against using the device for high-performance tasks such as gaming or editing images and videos when operating solely on battery power.

As for the “Super Battery” mode, the results were not as expected. Despite its promising name, the battery life in the WiFi test did not surpass the five-hour mark. We can hope that subsequent software updates will bring significant improvements, fully unleashing the potential of the “Super Battery” mode.

Conclusion

The MSI Stealth 17 Studio, despite its relatively high price tag, offers a powerful configuration that justifies the cost. Equipped with premium components like the Core i9-13900H, 64GB of DDR5 RAM at 5200Mhz, a 4TB M.2 NVMe SSD, and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card, coupled with various other smart features, it indeed represents value for money. Thus, in this article, Mega has provided a detailed review of the MSI Stealth 17 Studio gaming laptop. We hope the insights shared in this article will be beneficial for you in your journey to choosing a high-quality gaming laptop.

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