MSI Stealth 15M Review: A Well-priced Gaming Laptop

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MSI Stealth 15M: At First Glance

When it comes to gaming laptops, MSI produces some of the most amazing premium gaming laptops we’ve seen. Also, with the increasing competition among laptop manufacturers to build lightweight and high-performing gaming laptops, MSI isn’t lagging behind.

On that note, the brand released the MSI Stealth 15M in 2021 to add to its lineup of lightweight gaming laptops. This laptop is not just lightweight, but it also offers high-end specifications such as an 11th-generation Intel Core i7 processor.

More impressively, the laptop comes at a decent starting price compared to other gaming laptops in its category. Precisely, when I published this review in November 2022, the MSI Stealth 15M had a starting price of $1,029.65.

Having discussed a few things about this gaming laptop, why not read on to know more?

MSI Stealth 15M: Design, Display, Ports, and Connectivity

From a design standpoint, you may not detect that the MSI Stealth 15M is a gaming laptop at first glance. This is because the laptop does not have those famous gaming laptops’ aesthetic features like a bulky build and red lines.

Instead, the MSI Stealth 15M comes in a sleek carbon gray chassis that is made of magnesium alloy. This build material makes the laptop look solid, gives it a smooth look, and also makes it fingerprint-resistant.

As a matter of fact, the MSI Stealth 15M is quite discreet and stylish. However, the lid of the laptop is bare except for a black MSI logo at the top.

Coming to the display, the MSI Stealth 15M has a 15.6-inch non-touch display. This display is surrounded by very slim bezels that give the laptop a much sleeker look from the inside.

Nonetheless, the bottom bezel is slightly thicker than the others as it features an “MSI” inscription. Similarly, the top bezel houses the laptop’s 720p HD webcam at the center.

Impressively, this webcam features an indicator light that tells you when it is active. Also, the picture quality of the webcam is decent but not great.

Regardless, it is ideal for casual video calls with family and friends. That being said, the MSI Stealth 15M’s 15.6-inch display offers an FHD (1920 x 1080) resolution.

Although not the best out there, this resolution allows the laptop’s display to deliver vibrant picture quality while gaming or watching movies. Gladly, the laptop’s display is made with an IPS (In-Plane Switching) panel.

Thanks to this IPS panel, the display offers wide viewing angles. Hence, even when watched at an extreme angle, images on the laptop’s display should be clear and vibrant.

To make things even better, MSI offers two refresh rate options for the MSI Stealth 15M’s display. Specifically, you can either buy the laptop with a 144 Hz or 240 Hz refresh rate display screen.

With either refresh rate option, the display will deliver smooth picture quality with minimal blur trails when rendering fast-motion content like racing games. However, expect the display with the 240 Hz refresh rate to deliver smoother images than the 144 Hz refresh rate display.

By the way, refresh rate is the amount of time per second a display is able to refresh images.

Moving on, the MSI Stealth 15M has solid hinges that hold the display screen and base together firmly. Speaking of the base, you will find a one-zone RGB lighting keyboard that gives off a chilly vibe on the base of the laptop.

The keys on this keyboard have a decent size and are nicely spaced. Also, the keys have a satisfying key travel that allows for a comfortable typing experience.

For your information, key travel is the distance between the resting position of a key to when it hits rock bottom. Below this impressive keyboard, you will find the MSI Stealth 15M’s super responsive touchpad with a smooth and well-sized surface.

Sadly, the speakers at the bottom of the laptop are nothing to write home about. To be more specific, the speakers produce poor sound quality and aren’t loud enough.

Hence, for an ideal audio experience on the MSI Stealth 15M, I suggest you use a headphone or external speakers.

Moving on, this gaming laptop offers a wide variety of ports. On the left side of the laptop, you will find the charging port and a microSD card reader.

There is also a 3.5mm headphone jack and a standard USB 3.2 Gen 1 port on the laptop’s left side. Meanwhile, on the right side, you’ll find one USB 4 Type-C port that supports Thunderbolt 4 and another USB 3.2 Gen 1 port.

Additionally, there is also an HDMI port and display port on the right side of the MSI Stealth 15M. For wireless connectivity, this gaming laptop supports Bluetooth 5.1 and Wi-Fi 6 802.11ax.

When it comes to the dimension and weight, the MSI Stealth 15M measures 358 x 248 x 15.95 mm (W x D x H) and weighs 1690 g. Comparatively, this laptop is way lighter and slimmer than one of its closest competitors, the Legion Y730 15.

Precisely, the Legion Y730 15 weighs 2200 g and measures 361.4 x 267 x 19.9 – 22.4 mm (W x D x H).

In conclusion, the MSI Stealth 15M offers a sleek design that doesn’t scream “gaming laptop.” Furthermore, the laptop features an impressive 15.6-inch display with wide viewing angles and FHD resolution.

As a result, I will rate the MSI Stealth 15M a nine out of ten in this design review section.

MSI Stealth 15M: Processor (CPU) Performance

The MSI Stealth 15M features a quad-core Intel Core i7-1185G processor. This processor is an 11th-generation processor with four cores and a cache memory of 12 MB.

The processor also has a base frequency of 3.0 GHz and a maximum frequency of 4.80 GHz. In terms of performance, this processor is powerful enough to handle most computing tasks and run most applications.

Hence, the MSI Stealth 15M shouldn’t have problems performing intensive tasks like video editing and running high-end gaming. In order to verify the laptop’s processing power, let us discuss its performance on the Geekbench 5.3 benchmark test.

In case you don’t know, Geekbench 5.3 is a cross-platform benchmark test that measures the overall performance of a computer’s CPU. Furthermore, a high score on this test equates to good processor performance.

So, according to the test results, the MSI Stealth 15M had 5,363 points. Impressively, this score is higher than the category average of 5,833 points.

Not just that, the laptop’s score beats that of the Acer Predator Triton 300SE, which uses an Intel Core i7-11375H processor. Specifically, this Acer gaming laptop scored 5,234 points on the Geekbench 5.3 benchmark test.

To conclude this section, I will be rating the MSI Stealth 15M a nine out of ten.

MSI Stealth 15M: Memory (RAM) Performance

To start with, the MSI Stealth 15M comes with two RAM slots and offers a standard memory of 16 GB 3200 MHz DDR4 RAM. However, thanks to the multiple RAM slots, you can upgrade the laptop’s memory to the maximum capacity of 64 GB RAM.

Basically, each RAM slot can take a maximum capacity of 32 GB. Nonetheless, the standard 16 GB RAM included in the MSI Stealth 15M should be enough for most people.

To give more details, the laptop should be able to perform efficiently and run most high-end games with 16 GB RAM. As a matter of fact, the laptop shouldn’t have any problem multitasking with this amount of memory.

Speaking of which, the MSI Stealth 15M will be able to run about 30+ Chrome tabs simultaneously, with five of the tabs streaming videos on YouTube without lagging. In fact, switching between the tabs should be lag-free for the laptop.

To further evaluate the MSI Stealth 15M’s performance with 16 GB RAM, let us discuss its result in a PCMark 8 test. For clarity, PCMark 8 is a benchmark test that measures the performance of a computer’s memory when handling day-to-day productivity tasks like word processing.

Furthermore, the higher the score on this test, the better the performance of the computer’s memory. According to the PCMark 8 test results, the MSI Stealth 15M scored 5,001 points, which is higher than some laptops in its category.

However, the laptop was outperformed by the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE. Specifically; the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE scored 5,080 points in the PCMark 8 test.

Due to that, I rate the MSI Stealth 15M an eight out of ten in this memory review section.

MSI Stealth 15M: Storage Options and Performance

The MSI Stealth 15M offers an M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD and a maximum storage capacity of 1 TB. Although a maximum storage capacity of 1 GB should be enough for a regular laptop, it is pretty limited for a gaming laptop.

This is due to the fact that most high-end games nowadays require a large amount of storage space before installation. On a positive note, the MSI Stealth 15M comes with a microSD card reader for storage expansion.

Besides, you can always purchase an external hard drive for more storage space. In terms of storage performance, let us discuss the CrystalDiskMark 5.2 test results of the MSI Stealth 15M.

Briefly, the CrystalDiskMark 5.2 is a benchmark test tool used to evaluate the read and write speed of a computer’s storage drive. While read speed means how fast a storage device can open a file, write speed means how fast it can save a file.

Moreover, according to the CrystalDiskMark 5.2 benchmark test, a high “MBps” denotes a faster read or write speed. Hence, based on the test result, MSI Stealth 15M has a sequential read speed of 2,242 MBps and a sequential write speed of 1,918 MBps.

In comparison, this MSI Stealth 15M laptop offers a faster read and write speed than the Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 11e, which also uses M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD. Precisely, the Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 11e records a 922 MBps read speed and a 948 MBps write speed, according to the CrystalDiskMark 5.2 benchmark test.

Hence, I will conclude this section by rating the MSI Stealth 15M a nine out of ten.

MSI Stealth 15M: Graphics Card Performance

As expected from a gaming laptop, the MSI Stealth 15M comes with a dedicated graphics card – it features the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q. This graphics card has a base and a boost frequency of 1140 MHz and 1335 MHz, respectively.

Additionally, the graphics card offers an impressive 6 GB GDDR6 dedicated VRAM. Hence, unlike integrated GPUs, this laptop’s graphics card doesn’t have to share the system memory with the PC to perform graphics-related tasks.

Moreover, with a dedicated VRAM as high as 6 GB, the GPU should be able to run most high-end video games. For example, with this graphics card, the MSI Stealth 15M should deliver a frame rate of 71 fps while playing Red Dead Redemption 2.

The laptop should also be able to render 78 fps (frame per second) while running Horizon Zero Dawn. To further evaluate the graphics performance of the MSI Stealth 15M, let us talk about its result in the 3DMark Ice Storm test.

In case you are wondering, the 3DMark Ice Storm is a benchmark test that measures the 3D and 2D graphics rendering abilities of a computer. To give more details, a high score on this graphics test equates to good graphics performance.

Impressively, according to the test results, the MSI Stealth 15M scored an average of 11,626 points. Comparatively, the ASUS ROG GL753VE scored only 7531 points on the test with its dedicated NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics card.

All things considered, the MSI Stealth 15M deserves a nine out of ten rating in this section.

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MSI Stealth 15M: Battery Life and Performance

The MSI Stealth 15M is powered by a 3-cell 52 Wh battery. Unfortunately, MSI did not include the expected battery life of this laptop.

However, gaming laptops are known for having short battery life. So, I did not expect so much from the MSI Stealth 15M in terms of battery life.

Disappointingly, I was right. To be precise, the laptop lasted 3 hours and 41 minutes on a battery rundown test that involved continuously surfing the internet with a Wi-Fi connection.

To make things worse, this battery life doesn’t match the category average of 6 hours and 37 minutes. Also, the laptop’s battery life is poor compared to most of its competitors, like the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE.

Specifically, the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE recorded a battery life of 6 hours and 41 minutes on the same battery rundown test.

Thus, I will offer the MSI Stealth 15M a rating of seven out of ten in this section due to its poor battery performance.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

The MSI Stealth 15M is a well-priced gaming laptop with a solid overall performance and a sleek look. This laptop offers a comfortable RGB lighting keyboard, an impressive 15.6-inch FHD display, and a decent port selection.

Moreover, the laptop also comes with a powerful 11th-generation Core i7 processor that is capable of handling most computing tasks. Also, the MSI Stealth 15M has two memory slots and supports a maximum memory capacity of 64 GB.

Besides, this laptop also offers a super-fast SSD and a high-end dedicated GPU that can run most title AAA games. However, the battery life of the laptop is a huge flaw, as well as its built-in speakers.

Nonetheless, if you can cope with these flaws, the MSI Stealth 15M is a powerful gaming laptop that is worth every penny.

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