Finally, a sleek gaming laptop I can take to the office (without sacrificing power)

The 2025 MSI Stealth 16

Above the keyboard is the 16-inch OLED display. At QuadHD+ (2,560 x 1,600 pixels) resolution, it’s not quite 4K, but it’s close enough — the screen still delivers impressive visual output. Colors are vibrant, the high resolution delivers detailed images, and the 240Hz refresh rate ensures smooth on-screen motion. 

Below is a list comparing MSI’s Stealth 16 with its predecessor, the Stealth A16 AI Plus, and the Dell Premium 16. You’ll notice that the newer model has better raw processing and rendering power than the others, indicating it excels at handling heavy workloads and rendering complex 3D graphics. 

There is a bit of a gap between the Stealth 16 and the A16 on PCMark 10, suggesting that the older model has better general performance; it’s able to hop between web pages and apps without much issue. However, I didn’t experience any slowdown. This laptop ran great everywhere.

Having Dell’s machine may seem random, but you need to understand that the Stealth 16 isn’t just a solid gaming computer. It’s also a powerful graphic design laptop, too. For testing, I installed Blender, a free 3D creation app, and edited images on Pixlr. I’m not much of an artist, but I did manage to create and render simple scenes starring Blender’s complex monkey model.

I had a similar experience with Pixlr, as I was able to edit 4K photographs without any major hiccups. The entire process went smoothly. MSI’s laptop is a powerhouse in almost every sense of the word. 

Also: I switched to the Dell 14 Premium for a week, and it makes even the XPS feel outdated

As powerful as the laptop may be, it has its limits. I ran multiple 4K YouTube livestreams as part of my usual 50-tab Chrome browser test. Everything ran fine when there were only three livestreams, although once I hit six, I noticed a slowdown. Livestreams were slow to load. It took a few seconds before the Stealth 16 could play the video as normal.

Staying cool

Heavy workloads do cause the Stealth 16 to heat up a bit, but high temperatures were never an issue. Heat vents are strategically placed above the keyboard, on the side of the laptop, and on the bottom, so your hands are never at risk of touching a hot keyboard. In fact, the keys stayed nice and cool the entire time. Unfortunately, this means you can’t place the computer on your lap; otherwise, your legs will be blasted by hot air. 

This ability to stay cool under duress is thanks to the Cooler Boost 5 cooling system, which consists of two large fans and five heat pipes directing hot air out through the vents. This system is also on the vastly more powerful MSI Raider 18 HX. 

is on sale at Best Buy for $2,030, which is a good price for a laptop with this kind of hardware. I recommend this device to anyone looking for an affordable gaming laptop that can also be used as a work machine. If you like this laptop but want to save some cash, its predecessor, the Stealth A16 AI+. It is a much more powerful gaming laptop that leaves every laptop I mentioned so far in the dust. I think it’s one of the best for the year. It is, however, very expensive; my review unit cost $3,200.