The MSI Stealth 15M Gaming Laptop Review: A Balance of Power and Portability

When it comes to gaming laptops, power and portability are often at odds with each other. A laptop that can handle demanding games is usually bulky and heavy, making it difficult to carry around. However, the MSI Stealth 15M aims to bridge this gap by offering a slim and lightweight design that doesn't compromise on performance. But how well does it perform, and is it worth the price tag?

The processor in question is an Intel 11th gen laptop, which provides excellent single-core performance, making it a great choice for games that rely heavily on processing power. The RTX 2060 graphics, although limited by its lower 65-watt power limit, still delivers impressive results. However, this power limitation means that the Stealth 15M can't quite match the performance of cheaper 1660Ti machines. Despite this, it's worth noting that the 2060 model with the same specs as the Stealth 15M is $1500 US Don Newegg, which makes it a relatively expensive option.

Benchmarking the Stealth 15M revealed some interesting results. When compared to other laptops with the same tier GPU, such as the Zephyrus G14 and G15, the Stealth 15M fell short by around 10 FPS. However, when using the games benchmark tool with the highest setting preset, which seems more GPU-heavy, the Stealth 15M rises above its competitors. This suggests that while it may not be the most powerful laptop in its class, it can still hold its own.

Other benchmarking tools, such as Unigine's Heaven and Valley, showed similar results, with the Stealth 15M struggling to keep up with more powerful machines. However, 3DMark's Firestrike and Timespy tests revealed a slightly different story. In these tests, which evaluate system performance in a more comprehensive way, the Stealth 15M performed well, even surpassing some of its competitors.

The laptop's battery life was also put to the test, with the results showing that it didn't last as long as expected. This is likely due to the power-hungry graphics card and processor combination. However, the downside of this design choice means that memory upgrades become more complicated, if not impossible.

In terms of display, the Stealth 15M's 144Hz screen has a good response time, making it suitable for fast-paced games. However, its brightness, color gamut, and backlight bleed could be improved upon. This is likely due to the laptop's need for a thinner design, which can compromise on these aspects.

Another aspect of the Stealth 15M that's worth mentioning is its storage. The built-in SSD was relatively slow in sequential write speeds, but this shouldn't be too much of an issue unless you're using it as a desktop replacement. On the other hand, the MicroSD slot performed admirably, allowing for fast storage and data transfer.

Finally, let's talk about price. At $1500 US Don Newegg (approximately $2500 AUD), the Stealth 15M is certainly not cheap. While it may not offer the best performance in its class, it does provide a slim and lightweight design that's perfect for travel or everyday use. However, if you're looking for a more powerful laptop with similar specs, there are cheaper options available.

In conclusion, the MSI Stealth 15M gaming laptop is a complex device that offers both strengths and weaknesses. While it provides excellent single-core performance, its power limitation means it can't match more expensive models. The display could be improved, and battery life was not impressive. However, its compact design makes it suitable for travel or everyday use. If you're looking for a balance of power and portability, the Stealth 15M might be worth considering – but at this price point, you may want to look elsewhere for better value.

Ultimately, whether or not the MSI Stealth 15M is worth considering depends on your specific needs and preferences. If you're willing to compromise on performance for a slim and lightweight design, then it's definitely worth looking into. However, if you need raw power and are willing to sacrifice some portability, there are better options available.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enThe MSI Stealth 15M is a thinner and lightergaming laptop that still manages to pack insome good specs despite its smaller size.So what sort of compromises have been madein order to get away with this?I’ll show you in this detailed review.It’s got a clean all aluminium design, I’vegot the carbon gray finish here, but there’salso a pure white version too.The Stealth weighs around 1.65kg or 3.6lb,or 2.12kg 4.7lb with the 150 watt power brickand cables included.It’s on the slimmer side for a 15 inch gaminglaptop with these specs at under 1.6cm thick,making it quite portable.Considering that this thing is advertisedas a gaming laptop, it’s pretty importantthat we check out the screen.My model has a 1080p 144Hz screen, but thereare also 60Hz and 240Hz options too.There’s no G-Sync, no way of disabling optimus,and no dynamic boost here.The laptop’s management software, MSI DragonCenter, gives us the option of enabling ordisabling panel overdrive.I wasn’t actually seeing a difference inresponse time with it enabled or disabledthough.I’ve measured the average gray to gray screenresponse time at 6.2ms, so below the 6.9 thatwe’d like to see for a 144Hz panel, a goodresult, though there was some overshoot insome transitions.There’s a link in the description if youneed an explanation on these numbers.Here’s how it compares against others, sonot super impressive, but I’ve definitelyhad plenty of slower 144Hz laptops too.I’ve tested the screen with the Spyder 5,and got 61% of sRGB, 43% of NTSC, 45% of AdobeRGBand 45% of DCI-P3, so on the lower side, I’dwant more for content creation.Brightness wasn’t great either, below the300 nits or so that I like to see with a lower750:1 contrast ratio.Backlight bleed also had some issues, witha glow patch down the bottom left in my unit,but this will always vary between units.There’s a 720p camera above the screen inthe center, no Windows Hello face unlock supportthough.This is what the camera and microphone lookand sound like, this is what it sounds liketo type on the keyboard, and this is whatit sounds like if we set the fan to full speed,so you can still hear me ok over the fan noise.The keyboard has a single zone of RGB backlightingwith limited effects, and you can cycle throughthem all or disable lighting with the F8 shortcutkey.All keys and secondary functions are illuminated,but there’s no key brightness control.I had no problems typing with the keyboard,here’s how it sounds to give you an ideaof what to expect.The power button is part of the keyboard onthe top right, but accidental presses don’tput it to sleep, you have to hold it for anythingto happen.There are also some air vents behind the keyboardjust below the screen.The precision touchpad clicks down anywhereand works fine, though it felt a little small.MSI usually uses wider touchpads, but that’snot the case here.Maybe I’ve just been spoilt.Fingerprints and dirt aren’t too obviouson the matte interior, but it’s easy toclean with a microfiber cloth as it’s asmooth surface.On the left there’s an air exhaust vent,the power input, MicroSD card slot, USB 3.2Gen1 Type-A port, and 3.5mm audio combo jack.The right has a Type-C Thunderbolt 4 portwith DisplayPort output, second USB 3.2 Gen1Type-A port, HDMI 2.0 output, and there’san air exhaust vent over on this side too.Both the HDMI and Type-C ports connect directlyto the Intel Xe and not Nvidia, so VR isn’tpossible.The Type-C port can be used to charge thelaptop.The back has air exhaust vents towards thecorners, while the front just has an indentin the center for getting your finger in toopen the lid.Opening the lid with one finger is easy, andthe screen goes the full 180 degrees backfor sharing, which is further aided by theF12 shortcut key which can be used to flipthe screen around.There’s some flex to both the chassis andlid, but it’s not too bad considering thethinner size and not something I noticed duringnormal use.Underneath has plenty of air ventilation holestowards the back half.Getting inside was fairly easy after removing13 phillips head screws.Once inside we can see that the motherboardis upside down, like some of MSI’s othermodels such as the GS66.We’ve only got access to the single M.2storage slot, WiFi card, and battery downthe front.If you want to access the two memory slotsyou’ll need to disconnect the motherboardand take it out, a more involved process.The speakers are found on the left and rightsides towards the front.I thought they sounded average, minimal bass,a bit tinny, and some wrist rest vibrationat full volume.My measurement tool wasn’t reporting themas super loud, but my ears were hurting atmax volume, and the latencymon results weren’tgreat.The Stealth 15M is powered by a 52Wh battery.I’ve tested it with keyboard lighting off,background apps disabled and screen at 50%brightness.It only lasted for almost 4 and a half hoursin the YouTube playback test, a lower result,and then a little over an hour in gaming,somewhat average.Let’s check out thermals next.The MSI Dragon Center software lets us pickbetween different performance modes, whichfrom lowest to highest are silent, balancedand extreme performance.Extreme performance mode lets you overclockthe GPU, but no overclock was applied by default,so I haven’t tested with one.You can also enable cooler boost mode here,which sets the fan to max speed.We can also enable user mode for some fancustomization.After just a few days of testing, cooler boostrandomly decided to stop working.I’m not sure what the issue was, but I hadto manually uninstall the dragon center softwareand reinstall it in order to fix it.Here’s what MSI shows the cooling solutionas looking like, I didn’t film myself itas I didn’t take the whole thing apart toget to it.The idle temperatures down the bottom werefine.Stress tests were done with the Aida64 CPUstress test with stress CPU only checked andthe Heaven GPU benchmark at max settings runat the same time, while gaming was testedplaying Watch Dogs 2.The CPU was thermal throttling with the stresstests running, but only in the lower silentand balanced modes as the fans run quieterhere.With extreme mode though, throttling was removed,and enabling cooler boost further loweredtemperatures, but at the expense of fan noise,as you’ll hear shortly.These are the clock speeds during the sametests just shown.Despite thermals improving for the CPU inextreme mode, interestingly the processorperformance actually lowers now, however theGPU clock speeds increase with extreme mode.All is revealed when looking at the powerlimits.The Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q seems to be cappedto 30 watts in order to counter the slowerfans in silent and balanced modes.As a result, there’s less performance, andmany GPU bound games were playing noticeablybad.With extreme mode the GPU is able to run upto 65 watts, however with the stress testat least, it seems that the CPU power limitlowers from 35 watts to 28 watts with extrememode.Now it’s worth noting that MSI are aboutto refresh this gaming laptop already withIntel’s new 11th gen H35 processors andNvidia RTX 3060 graphics.I don’t think there will be too much differenceon the CPU side, the processors will justhave a little higher power limit at 35 watts.Technically the 1185G7 in this machine hasa 28 watt TDP on paper, but as we saw earlierin some workloads it could exceed this.Anyway considering that those temperaturescould be brought under control with extrememode, it does appear that there is thermalheadroom available with those H35 processors,so there might be a little CPU boost owingto that.Here’s how CPU only performance looks inCinebench with the GPU now idle.The results were basically the same regardlessof the performance mode in use, both for singleand multicore scores, so it would seem thatthe processor isn’t limited in a CPU onlyworkload.This is how it stacks up against other laptops.What I found most interesting was that themulticore score was basically the same asthe Ryzen 7 4700U in the Acer Swift 3 justbelow it, as that’s an 8 core 8 thread part.The 5700U is about to launch though, whichwill change this.At idle the middle of the keyboard was inthe mid 30s, so a little warmer than usualbut not an issue you’ll notice.With the stress tests running in silent itgets around 10 degrees warmer in the center,so a little warm to the touch in the middlenow.Balanced mode was much the same, makes senseas the internals were basically the same.Extreme mode was warmer now despite the fansrunning louder and internals running cooleras a result of the higher GPU power limit.The back is quite hot, but you shouldn’tneed to touch there, so it's not a practicalproblem.With the fan at full speed it’s much coolernow, still warm, but a significant improvement.Let’s have a listen to the fan noise.The fan was still audible when idling in silentmode.It was louder with the stress tests running,but still not too loud, then just a littlelouder stepping up to balanced mode.Extreme mode was a little louder still, thencooler boost or max fan was significantlyworse.Personally, I think this is a great thing,as it gives you the option of setting thefan speed that you like.If you’re comfortable with more noise youcan take advantage of lower temperatures.In any case it’s much better than beingforced one way or the other.User choice is always best.Now let’s check out how well the Stealth15M performs in games and see how it compareswith other laptops.I’ve tested Battlefield 5 in campaign modeat ultra settings, and the Stealth is highlightedin red.The results are on the lower side, in partdue to the 65 watt 2060 graphics, though theZephyrus G15 with the same power GPU was closerto 70 FPS in the same test, but with a morepowerful 8 core processor.As we saw earlier, CPU performance is actuallylost in extreme performance mode to boostthe GPU, so that could be resulting in thelower 1% low.These are the results from Far Cry 5 withultra settings in the built in benchmark.The Stealth 15M wasn’t doing great herefor a laptop with 2060 graphics, but it wasstill near 70 FPS even with the ultra settingpreset, so it’s not like it’s not goingto be playable or anything.That said, still around 10 FPS lower thanthe Zephyrus G14 and G15 with same tier GPU,likely due to the processor difference, asthis is a game I’ve noticed to be more processordependent than others.Shadow of the Tomb Raider was also testedwith the games benchmark tool with the highestsetting preset.This test seems to be more GPU heavy, so theStealth rises up a few levels, and is nowjust 1 FPS ahead of the Zephyrus G15 withthe same tier GPU, despite the processor difference.Now for the benchmarking tools, I’ve testedHeaven, Valley, and Superposition from Unigine,as well as Firestrike, Timespy and Port Royalfrom 3DMark, just pause the video if you wanta detailed look at these results.I’ve used Adobe Premiere to export one ofmy laptop review videos at 4K.Lower times are better here, and the Stealth15M was on the lower side, perhaps due tothe power limited quad core processor.I’ve also tested Premiere but with the Pugetsystems benchmark, and this tests for morethings like live playback rather than justexport times.Higher scores are better now, and again theStealth 15M was still lower than most.Adobe Photoshop was a bit better comparativelyin this same selection of laptops, very closeto the Prestige 14 just above it with thesame processor, which makes sense as thisis more of a processor heavy test.DaVinci Resolve on the other hand tends tobe more GPU heavy.That said, it wasn’t scoring as well asthe 2060 Max-Q with same wattage in the ASUSZephyrus G14 at 561 points, though that doesalso have an 8 core processor.I’ve also tested SPECviewperf which testsout various professional 3D workloads.I’ve used Crystal disk mark to test thestorage.The 512gb NVMe M.2 SSD was doing alright forthe reads, but half the sequential speed whenit came to writes.As an Intel 11th gen laptop, PCIe Gen 4 shouldalso be supported if you want to upgrade toa faster SSD.The MicroSD slot was doing great, basicallymaxing out my card, and the card clicks inand sits most of the way into the laptop.Finally let’s discuss price, you can checkthe links in the description for updated prices,as these will change over time.At the time of recording the 2060 model withthe same specs I’ve tested is $1500 USDon Newegg.You could definitely get a better performinglaptop with more power and a better screenfor less money, say the Lenovo Legion 5 forexample, so it really comes down to how muchyou value the smaller and thinner size.Here in Australia we’re looking at $2500AUD, or $500 more for the newer H35 and RTX3060 Max-Q model.As MSI are about to upgrade this model tothe Intel 11th gen H35 processors and NvidiaRTX 3060 graphics, performance results withthat hardware could vary a little to whatwe’ve seen in this review, but pretty mucheverything else should still apply.So with all of that in mind, let’s concludeby looking at both the good and the bad tohelp you decide if the MSI Stealth 15M gaminglaptop is worth considering.The 11th gen processor is performing quitewell, particularly in terms of single coreperformance, as Tiger Lake does quite wellthere.Intel 11th gen also means we get PCIe gen4 and Thunderbolt 4, so it’s good to havesome nice modern standards.The RTX 2060 graphics does do alright, butit is limited by that lower 65 watt powerlimit, so it can get beaten by cheaper 1660Ti machines.The response time of the screen was quitegood for a 144Hz gaming laptop, but the brightness,colour gamut and backlight bleed could bebetter.The battery life wasn’t great either, andthe upside down motherboard makes memory upgradesa more involved process.I’m guessing it just must be a necessityto get it as thin as it is.It’s a bit strange that there appears tobe space for a second M.2 slot that’s wasted,that could have otherwise been a larger battery.Overall, I think the Stealth 15M is a bitpricey.It’s really only worth considering if youreally want a smaller and lighter machine.Perhaps for travel, if that’s ever allowedagain.Let me know what you thought about MSI’sStealth 15M gaming laptop down in the comments,and leave a like on the video if it was useful.Finally of course if you’re new to the channelthen don’t forget to subscribe for futurelaptop reviews like this one.\n"