Msi Stealth 15M Review
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MSI’s Stealth 15M is a gaming laptop for people who’d prefer to keep their gaming habit a secret. Apart from the RGB-backlit keyboard and single-zone RGB RGB keys, the metal design of the Stealth 15M is striking. Except for the most simple tasks, it’s almost impossible to hear the fan whining. And the noise only increases with the use of demanding applications or games. Although you may not feel it, people around you will probably notice the noise if they are wearing headphones or headsets most of their time.
This laptop is noisy due to its constant heat and effort to stay cool. It can heat up more when crammed full of powerful components on a thin laptop, especially while gaming. Although it has an aluminum chassis, which helps diffuse heat, the laptop can be uncomfortable to touch even when fans make their best and loudest efforts to cool it down.
MSI’s GS66 Stealth goes after Razer’s Blade 15 Advanced. This Stealth 15M is designed to compete against the Razer Blade 15 Base, which I reviewed recently. This is MSI’s most close match to Razer when it comes to build quality and design. The 15M, unlike the GS66 has a cohesive build which doesn’t leave me doubting its durability. And it is astonishingly thin for a laptop gaming. Yet, for as much as I complained that Razer’s unibody design needs a shake-up, its $1,699 option simply offers more for your money. You get more ports including an HDMI 2.1 cable for 4K output at upto 120 frames/second, a larger trackpad and user-upgradeable RAM. The RTX3060 also has more power than MSI’s Stealth 15,M. The Blade 15 Base is almost a full pound heavier and a few millimeters thicker. However, these characteristics wouldn’t stop me buying if they were my only consideration.
Stealth 15M available in two color options: “carbon gray” and white
One of the more bold parts of this design is the grille.
Cons
MSI makes some of the most impressive premium gaming laptops around, but its lower-end machines can be a hit or miss, and the MSI Stealth 15M is certainly a miss.
An Intel Core i7-11375H processor with Nvidia GeForce RTX3060 graphic card and a strong performance keyboard are available for $1,649 in a light-weight chassis. The only problem is the short battery life. A display that even a low-end gaming notebook could beat, as well as loud speakers, are not options.
Although the MSI Stealth 15M is not as good as some of our top-rated gaming notebooks, it can be cheaper.
Pricing and Configuration Options for the Msi Stealth 15M
CPU: Intel Core i7-11375H GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Storage: 1TB SSD Display: 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080, 144Hz Size: 14.1 x 9.8 x 0.6 inches Weight: 3.7 pounds MSI doesn’t directly sell the MSI Stealth 15M model we reviewed, but you can get it configured the same way on XoticPC’s website. It is priced at $1,649. The package includes an Intel Core i7-11375H process, Nvidia GeForce RTX 305 GPU, 32GB memory, a 1TB storage and a 1080p screen with 144Hz.
If you’re looking for a model from Best Buy with the most similar configuration, there’s a $1,599 version with all of the same tech except only 16GB of RAM. There is a cheaper $1,399 model that drops down to an Nvidia GeForce 1660 Ti Max-Q GPU and a 512GB SSD.
For something less expensive, check out our list of best gaming laptops under $100.
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Price and availability
TechRadar has received the MSI Stealth 15M setup for review.
Intel Core i7-11375H 12MB cache, upto 5.16GHz boost Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX3060 and Intel Iris Xe GPUs RAM: 32GB DDR4 32200MHz Screen size: 15.6 inch FHD (1920×1080), IPS Level 144Hz 45%NTSC Size: 13.10 x 9.76 x 0.63inches (358 x 248 x 16.mm; W x D xH) Price: $1, RTX3060 RTX3060 RTX3060 RTX3060, 32GB RAM and a1TB SSD.
It’s probably mid-range. The Alienware Alienware 15 R4 will run you nearly $2,000 US. You can still find lower-cost options.
Our favorite Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, which comes with the same graphics, amount of storage, display resolution and refresh rate, only with an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS chip and 16GB RAM, is cheaper at $1,499 in the US. Based on our tests, the Zephyrus G14 performed better in demanding games.
If you’re looking for more screen real estate or memory, then the MSI Stealth 15M is the right choice.
Msi Stealth15M Reviews
The MSI Stealth 15M is a truly portable gaming laptop The insides of the gaming laptops look very similar. Stealth 15M comes with an RTX3060 Laptop GPU, and an Intel Core i7 11th Generation Core i7.
Nvidia now uses Max Q and Max P for mobile GPUs. They are now called a “Laptop Gpu” by the company, which makes perfect sense. Additionally, chip manufacturer gives laptop makers more control over the settings of the GPU. It’s been quite a while since I first tried the Stealth 15M. The performance was amazing for such a small device. But you will have to spend a lot to get it.
The specifications for the MSI Stealth 15M Leopard Leopard have I been testing are:
Model: MSI Stealth15M (A11UEK-010US).
Display: 15.6-inch FHD 144Hz (1920 x 1080)
Processor: 11th Gen Intel Core i7-11375H 3.3GHz (12M cache, 5.0GHz Max Turbo)
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU with 6GB GDDR6
Review: Msi Stealth15MA11Uek
David Mitchelson comments Product review:
It has been a long wait for the laptop manufacturer to bring their products up-to-date with Intel 11th Gen. processors. NVIDIA has had the mobile NVIDIA GPUs NVIDIA 2nd Gen. RTX for some time. But today we have an opportunity to finally review this combination.
Stealth 15M, currently under consideration. This laptop can be found in MSI’s low-mid-range portfolio. The unit has come in with Intel 10th Gen Intel 1660 Ti/RTX2060 variations, however today it will marry the 11th Gen Intel 10th Gen Intel and RTX 3060.
In addition to the brand new CPU, GPU, 16GB DDR4 and 1GB M.2 SDRAM are available. All sounds good right? Let’s take a look at how the results stack up.
MSI Stealth 15M. Designed in urban style, this new Stealth 15M 15 inch gaming laptop features a Carbon Gray or Pure White design. The Stealth 15M is powered by an 11th Gen. Intel Core(tm), i7 processor, and NVIDIA GeForce(tm), 3060 Laptop GPU. It perfectly balances portability with performance. The Stealth 15M supports the Cooler Boost 5 and 0.1 mm fan blades. This allows gamers to quickly complete daily tasks and games.
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Introduction, Specifications and Pricing
MSI has had the “Stealth” brand as part of its gaming laptops for many years. More recently, it has become a marquee brand for its lightweight gaming platform. There are several Stealth 15M SKUs available. They range from the Tiger Lake-U platform in 2020 to this year’s Tiger Lake H35. One of the three newly released SKUs is the model that was sent to review. It features Core i7-11375H (a 35W variant of Tiger Lake-U’s 5.16GHz boost clock) and the Core i7-11375H.
MSI developed custom cooling solutions for the Stealth 15M based upon their long-standing work in GPU market. Cooler Boost 5 utilizes six heat pipes as well two high performance fans. It efficiently controls heat dissipation of both the 11375H GPU, and the RTX3060 GPU.
VIEW GALLERY – 43 IMAGES Further specifications on the Stealth15M display a FullHD IPS Panel, 15.6 inch diagonal, with a 144Hz refresh speed. It mate with an RTX3060 laptop GPU, which offers 3840 shaders 120TMU and 48 ROPS. It comes with 6GB VRAM, which is dedicated to the Stealth15M.
Mystic Light drives the single-zone, 84 key RGB board. This also includes anti-ghosting. Nahimic 3 boosts Hi-Res audio up to a pair two-watt speakers. The storage and memory side of things was handled by our SKU with 2x8GB DDR4 3200. It was stored on a Kingston single 1TB NVMe.
The Intel Wi-Fi 6 chipset includes BT 5.1 Support. MSI comes with a USB dongle that can be used for wired LAN. There are two USB 3.2 Gen 1 connectors, one Thunderbolt 4 Port that can charge 100W, and 1x USB-C, which is pushed to the USB 3.2 Gen 2 port with 8K DisplayPort. MicroSD, HDMI, and 3.5mm audio-out complete connectivity.
Dimensions come in at 14.1 x 9.7 inches at 0.6 inches thick. Weighing 3.7 pounds
How Does It Perform?
Here’s the crux of it all: gaming performance. Intel markets these notebooks as being design for “High” settings, so I opted for that preset in every game that offered it. As this is an RTX RTX card I manually activated ray tracing in all games that enabled it, but not by default. These cases I chose the lowest setting. I used DLSS whenever possible, using the default setting for this preset. As much as possible, I always used the in game benchmark. In those cases, I created a segment of repeatable and representative gameplay.
As laptops are more rare for us here at MMORPG to review, we don’t usually have comparable models that I could test against. I bought additional games in order to create a suite similar to the one I used at IGN. You can read my Origin EVO15S review, which includes the mobile RTX3080 Chip. Here is Damien’s review as well as my desktop RTX 3060 review, which you can see how it compares to this GPU.
Looking at these results, it’s clear that MSI and Intel’s promises of excellent 1080p performance at High settings bear fruit. Metro Exodus is the only exception to this rule. The Stealth 15M delivers an average frame rate of more than 60 FPS. However, a few minor tweaks may be enough to push it above that limit. While these numbers aren’t as impressive as those of the desktop RTX 3060 (which is expected), it can be expected. It doesn’t matter if these games look and perform great. Some games even had enough headroom to go ultra, while maintaining a reasonable frame rate above 60 FPS.
In order to evaluate the quality of my content creation, I also used Adobe Suite. The dedicated GPU shines here and makes it easier to capture video and speed up editing. Although color accuracy may be an issue for some, it is not a major problem for most users. The RTX3060 processor and the high-speed CPU offer significant improvements over the standard ultrabook.
Other benefits include faster loading times, video editing and a larger NVMe SATA SSD. The drive supports PCIe Gen 3 speeds, even though the chipset doesn’t support them. The drive performs well in comparison to SATA SSDs, but it has a slow speed and is not fast enough for NVMes. Compared to a drive like the 970 EVO Plus , it falls short in overall speed, but for gaming performs almost identically to those faster drives. Because it is cost effective, this drive can be upgrade easily in the future.
What Should I Do With The Msi Stealth15M?
The MSI Stealth 15M gaming laptop is decent. It packs excellent performance and a pleasant typing experience. The display quality is poor and the battery life of the device is limited by its small and lightweight form factor. The Stealth 15M looks less attractive than other 2016 gaming laptops like Dell’s G15 Ryzen.
MSI’s Stealth 15M should be your first choice. If it is on sale, it will likely cost less than the cheaper alternatives. Because of the weighty power brick, this laptop can prove cumbersome.
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.Msi Stealth 15M Review