This is MSI’s thinnest gaming laptop, the Stealth 15M, and it’s still very capable
in games despite the thinner and lighter design.
I ran out of time to do my full review on it, I’m actually currently taking some Christmas
holidays, but MSI have brought me back by sponsoring this video so that I can show you
all the highlights!
The Stealth 15M has a black metal finish on both the interior and lid, and the build quality
still feels good despite the thinner size, there’s not much flex to the chassis.
It’s just 17mm thin, or a little over 0.6 inches, and it weighs less when compared to
most other 15 inch gaming laptops too, making it easier to travel with.
It fits easily into MSI’s included backpack, which you get bundled with the laptop when
buying in Australia using the links below the video.
An area where thinner more portable gaming laptops like this one really shine this year
is in CPU performance, as Intel’s 12th gen processors just objectively offer a big leap
compared to what was available last year.
I’ve got Intel’s Core i7-1280P here, which is a 14 core 20 thread part with 6 P cores
and 8 E cores.
Just last year, the best CPU you could get from Intel in a thinner portable laptop design
like this was a quad core from either the U or H35 series.
Actually for some reason I think the year before that with 10th gen they did offer a
6 core U series part, and then the core count got lower with 11th gen…
But I digress.
The point is you can get way more CPU power these days with 12th gen as a result of Intel’s
new hybrid design.
Multicore performance was an area where I criticized the Stealth 15M last year, but
now just a year later, 12th gen gets us a 132% higher score in Cinebench - more than
double the performance in the same laptop just a year later, crazy stuff.
This year’s Stealth 15M is even ahead of Apple’s current gen MacBook Pro 16.
They’re both actually quite similar in size, but the MacBook almost costs double the money
in my country.
Despite the thinner design, this laptop still has Nvidia’s RTX 3060 graphics inside, which
is a great mid-range option for gaming.
The tradeoff is of course a lower GPU power limit compared to thicker laptops, but even
so, it’s still running above 60 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 at high settings, and we’re not even
using features like DLSS or FSR here to further boost performance.
It’s very close to the Legion Slim 7i just below it, which not only has a higher GPU
power limit, but also a higher tier H series CPU and a MUX switch, so the Stealth is holding
up well comparatively.
This year’s thicker gaming laptops with full powered RTX 3060s were anywhere from
6 to up to 18% faster, in the case of MSI’s Vector GP66, but that’s the thing, those
laptops are thicker, bigger, heavier, and just less portable.
If we compare this year’s Stealth 15M against the last gen model with 11th gen CPU and RTX
2060 graphics, we’re looking at a nice 54% improvement in Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
Not bad at all considering the laptop is still otherwise about the same size.
In my experience, thinner gaming laptops are usually limited to soldered memory, because
in such a thin machine there’s just less physical space to fit memory sticks.
Fortunately that’s not the case here, there are two DDR4 memory sticks here, but with
a flipped motherboard there’s a bit more work involved to access them.
It’s got an RGB keyboard with three different highlighted areas.
The colors can’t be changed, but it’s got 3 levels of brightness and all keys and
secondary functions get lit up.
The key presses are a little shallow feeling, but that’s just going to be a limit of the
thinner design, but I still liked typing on it, and the smooth touchpad felt nice and
accurate to click with.
The left side has an air exhaust vent, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port, and a 3.5mm audio combo
jack, while the right has two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports, a second USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A
port, a HDMI 2.0 output, and there's an air exhaust on this side too.
There's no MUX switch, but the front Type-C port offers DisplayPort output, which bypasses
optimus and connects directly to the Nvidia RTX 3060 graphics, meaning higher FPS in games
is possible if you connect an external screen.
The 1TB PCIe Gen 4 M.2 SSD performs a bit better compared to a top-end Gen 3 drive.
Just like all of MSI's other gaming laptops, there's almost an endless amount of customization
possible through their advanced BIOS, which is something that most other laptops simply
do not offer.
It’s basically a dream for anyone that wants to tweak or tune their laptop.
I could see this being perfect for someone that wants a thin and portable 15 inch gaming
laptop to take to school or work, but also might want to do some gaming.
If you are after portability, then there are even smaller 13 or 14 inch gaming laptops
out there, but as tech gets smaller it tends to also get more expensive too.
And personally, I think playing games on a bigger 15 inch screen just looks better.
It’s personal preference, but I think it’s a great sweet spot as you get plenty of viewable
screen space without making the laptop body too big.
It’s using the same 1080p 144Hz screen as last year’s model, so the color gamut isn’t
anything special.
You don’t really notice when just playing games though, at least I can’t say that
I was paying it any attention when playing, but people doing content creation work would
want something better.
MSI also has their Stealth GS66 gaming laptop, which is a bit thicker compared to the Stealth
15M here, but it’s also available with higher tier CPUs and GPUs for even more performance.
Not to mention more screen options and a bigger battery.
If you’ve made it this far then chances are you’re interested in a thinner, lighter
gaming laptop.
If you want to find out more about the Stealth 15M then check out those sponsored links below
the video, or if you want something more powerful like their GS66 then check out my full review
video over here next.
Otherwise MSI recently refreshed their best mid-range gaming laptop with an OLED screen,
and you can find out more about that one in this video!