Hinge broke after using laptop upside down

Listen, I've not always been a paragon of common sense; I once managed to bend pins on not one but two CPUs when upgrading my then-partner's PC and my own—a two-for-one in sheer-faced idiocy, all within the space of an hour. So don't consider this me preaching from on high. But seriously, not everything you see on social media needs to be tried.

A case in point is something I had my attention reluctantly dragged towards by Wccftech: a Redditor who has broken their gaming laptop hinge by standing it upside down, per Instagram reel and video setups they'd seen. Whatever could go wrong?

Snapping, that's what. Laptops aren't usually designed to support resting on the top of the screen. "The other hinge," the Redditor says, "also broke but it snapped back in. This one does not."

Mind you, I'm not sure any of my pleas would have been listened to even if they were uttered beforehand. The Redditor explains:

"People on Reddit on my last post were saying that the hinges could break, but I didn’t really pay attention to that. Yeah it might be ggs and this laptop ain’t even mine."

The laptop is presumably an Asus TUF laptop of some kind, given it's on the Asus TUF subreddit. I use a TUF laptop every day, so seeing this gives me a particularly sharp pang of pain.

Anyways, I won't belabour the point given it's a simple one: try not to do things you're not supposed to with your expensive devices. And if you do, don't be surprised if it goes awry.

From gaming after homework and running AI workloads to rendering creative projects and running engineering physics simulations, the ROG Strix SCAR 18 is the system that can check every box on your back-to-school laptop wishlist when your coursework calls for a laptop that goes beyond the ordinary.

ROG knows that a computer is more than the components you throw into a chassis. What matters just as much as the choice of components is how you treat them and how they relate to other components in the system.

The ROG Strix SCAR 18 combines components that work in harmony to maximize the gaming experience. It offers a GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU and Intel® Core™ Ultra 9 290HX Plus and makes sure you can pull every frame possible out of the pairing by letting them draw up to a combined 320 watts. That's a massive power budget that ensures neither part is starving for power even while both are operating under the heavy load of gaming, and the system can dynamically shift power to the component that needs it most, with up to 200 watts to the CPU or 175 watts to the GPU. When it’s crunch time and you need to power through some heavy work — be it 3D rendering, an engineering simulation, or editing together an entire movie — where other laptops might slow to a crawl, it’s that power that’s going to let the ROG Strix SCAR 18 keep up with you.

With great power comes great heat, and 320 watts absolutely qualifies as great power in the laptop realm. To wrangle all the heat generated by its components, the ROG Strix SCAR 18 incorporates ROG Intelligent Cooling, leveraging decades of R&D in thermal management. The cooling solution is specifically tailored to handle the 320 watts of the ROG Strix SCAR 18 with liquid metal on both the CPU and GPU to pass heat to a massive, full-width vapor chamber and triple-fan cooling system that can keep the system running at peak speeds for the long haul.

If you've ever seen two laptops with the same components somehow performing in entirely different leagues, it was most likely the power budget or cooling (or both) making that difference. With that kind of cooling, your gaming sessions and rendering sessions will stay fast and smooth no matter how long they last.

ASUS' CPU choice is also crucial, as it ensures the system can feed the GPU plenty of data so it can keep spitting out frames at a rapid rate. The GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU has 24 GB of GDDR7 VRAM—more than any other gaming laptop GPU—giving it a massive frame buffer to fill even after accounting for 4K textures and ray-tracing, so ASUS's choice of the Intel® Core™ Ultra 9 290HX Plus is natural.

ROG has effectively ensured the GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU gets to run at full tilt and even pump out extra frames through DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation without the CPU holding it back. Those frames all need somewhere to go, though, and the ROG Strix SCAR 18's Nebula display is a match made in heaven.

The ROG Strix SCAR 18 fits an 18-inch Mini LED display with a 4K resolution and 240 Hz refresh rate, ready to deliver fluid and dagger-sharp visuals at competitive-gaming speeds. With NVIDIA® Reflex ensuring ultra-low latency, that GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU needs a display that can keep up. The 240Hz refresh rate is a good start, but ROG has gone a step further with ROG Nebula ELMB, which uses 40-zone backlight strobing to enhance motion clarity by 16x for ultra-crisp detail even in fast action without sacrificing brightness or variable refresh rate support.

The Mini LED tech also works wonderfully in tandem with the GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU's RT cores. Mini LED is known for its brightness, and the ROG Nebula HDR Mini LED panel achieves Display HDR 1000 certification with up to 1,600 nits of brightness and over 2,000 dimming zones to deliver stunning highlights and inky blacks for superb contrast. That's just the kind of display that will make the realistic ray-traced lighting coming from the GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU's RT cores look all the more stunning and lifelike. Beyond gaming, the visual quality of the display is a great match for creative applications from design and 3D modeling to video editing and beyond.

All of this technology comes together in the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 18, and it's ready to go in time for back-to-school season for the student who needs extreme computing performance. Naturally, it can handle all the typical coursework, letting you pull together research materials, chat with classmates about group projects using the FHD webcam, and draft up a paper in a flurry with its snappy keyboard. It goes much further with horsepower to train custom AI models, run engineering simulations, or render 4K video for school and game like a beast when schoolwork's done, making it an invaluable partner to students with heavy computing needs. With tool-less access to storage and memory, the ROG Strix SCAR 18 also provides an easy roadmap for upgrades down the line if your workloads need a bump in the future, so it’s a machine that can grow with your needs over the course of your education, not fall flat after a couple of semesters. While the top-of-the-line ROG Strix SCAR 18 is built to check all the boxes, it is far from the only tool in ASUS's arsenal and serves as a guide to the rest of the brand. The ROG Strix G16 and ROG Strix G18 borrow the same cohesive component integration while offering different configurations that may be better tailored to your specific needs.

You can find out more about the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 18 here, if you dare.

A user on X reported feeling pins and needles in their hands whenever they used their Dell XPS 9370 laptop. After investigation, it turns out, "I’ve worn through the palm rests, and now I’m just being stabbed by carbon fibers." Ouch.

That's according to user X user Parker Drouillard (via International Cyber Digest), who compares the feeling to being constantly hurt by a cactus. They tag Dell and say: "In hindsight, it is perhaps a bad design. How is this not a health hazard?"

Notably, the XSP 13 (from around 2018) black and white model appears to have a carbon fiber composite palm rest, which is the part that has been worn down from use. They have since put their finger under a microscope, showing off the flecks of what is reportedly carbon fiber embedded in their skin. The user also reports "severe issues" with their contact lenses and says it is "most probably irritation" from the carbon fiber. Again, ouch.

There is one peculiarity here, in that the video of the microscope has a 2019 time stamp on the bottom. Reverse image searching Drouillard's photos suggests they are original, so this might simply be a problem with the camera or microscope.

Carbon fiber is a dangerous material to work with when it splinters like this. It can further shatter or break when embedded in your skin, making it hard to remove; some types of carbon fiber have toxic coatings, and getting anything embedded in your skin makes you more susceptible to infections and rashes. And that's before mentioning the problems with ingesting carbon fiber, which you very easily could do if it sticks to your fingers.

For now, Drouillard has simply taped over the palm rests, though their comment section suggests using epoxy, urethane, or simply a "bunch of different stickers".

Carbon fiber is a fairly common building material for PC hardware. We've seen a Corsair mouse, a Keychron keyboard concept, an Asus mouse, and even an HP laptop made out of the stuff. This choice of material makes sense, so long as it is adequately treated; carbon fiber is very tough but also very light, which means an uber-lightweight mouse doesn't have to feel flimsy because of the material choice. There are measures that companies can, and likely do, take against traditional wear and tear when using a material like carbon fiber.

Dell has yet to respond to this complaint, and we don't know exactly how the laptop has been treated in the last decade, but it's definitely made me more cautious about the long-term effects of carbon fiber gear—especially if you like to hang onto your hardware for a long time.

The MSI Crosshair 16 Max HX E2W is in many ways the polar opposite of the other MSI laptop I recently tested, the Stealth 16 AI+ B3W. The latter is an ultra-expensive, sleek and subtle machine that limits its power for the sake of thermals, efficiency, and form factor. Not so with the Crosshair: it's a gaming laptop, and it knows it.

I could tell as much as soon as I unboxed it, thanks to its glossy—and I would later discover, RGB-lit—embossed MSI logo on the lid, plus the general thickness, key styling and so on. It's not particularly obnoxious and still has some subtlety to it, but it's not hiding the fact that it's a gaming laptop.

Nor does it hide this fact when it comes to performance, eking as much as it can out of the RTX 5070 GPU and Core Ultra 7 251HX processor, saying to hell with thermals and battery life. I can certainly respect that, but it has to deliver in other respects, too, including price. And in other respects this laptop is not quite so pretty.

MSI Crosshair 16 Max HX E2W features

The particular Crosshair 16 Max HX E2W that I tested came with an Intel Core Ultra 7 251HX, RTX 5070, and 16 GB of DDR5 RAM, but there are different versions. The ones I can currently spot online have a more powerful Core Ultra 9 290HX with 32 GB of DDR5, or the same 251HX CPU but an RTX 5060 and 32 GB of DDR5. All of those come with 1 TB of storage.

In the case of the 16 GB of RAM in the version I have, it is at least 2x8 GB of fast 6,400 MT/s memory, rather than a single stick of slow RAM. This presumably helps a bunch with CPU-intensive tasks, as I found the laptop to perform even better than some others with 'better' CPUs.

A big draw here is also the OLED panel, which is gorgeous. I'm not used to seeing OLEDs on such gamer-y gaming laptops, as I've only really seen them on gaming laptops that are going for 'sleek and refined', so it's a nice surprise to see such a great panel here. It's only 165 Hz, but it's a perfect match for the RTX 5070 mobile GPU inside the Crosshair.

At first I thought there weren't many ports on this laptop, but before long I found the rest hidden on the rear side and breathed a sigh of relief. I particularly like the inclusion of a Thunderbolt 4 port as well as a port for an Ethernet connection.

Getting to how it is to actually use the laptop, I don't have any real complaints but equally no specific praises. It's no behemoth, but it's hardly a slimline laptop, either, and its keys feel simply… fine. WASD keys are translucent and there is 24-zone RGB, again signalling to the world 'I am definitely a gaming laptop'. I do wish MSI had foregone the numpad to make things a little less cramped, though. The trackpad is quite small, but it is at least central, which is the correct choice (fight me).

The big downside is audio, just as was the case with the Stealth. However, in this case it's even worse. There's definite (but not catastrophically high) latency over the default audio device, but unlike with the Stealth I tested, this wasn't resolved by switching to a different USB-connected audio device.

As such, if you play games that really benefit from snappy and responsive audio such as shooters, and especially sensitive to a little audio delay, I'd steer clear unless and until MSI discovers what the problem is and how to fix it (the company is investigating). I tried disabling/uninstalling Nahimic as well as Norton antivirus to see if that helped, but doing the former proved difficult and the latter didn't resolve it.

The speakers themselves are nothing to write home about anyway. They're not the worst I've heard, but they've definitely got a little bit of that tinniness in them that you expect out of a lot of laptops or cheaper Bluetooth speakers.

MSI Crosshair 16 Max HX E2W performance

The Crosshair 16 Max HX E2W performs very well for an RTX 5070 laptop, often beating other similar lappies. MSI has clearly opted for a performance-oriented machine here, and it shows.

1080p gaming performance

This chart shows average and 1% low frame rate results in various tested games at 1080p resolution.

Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p RT Ultra)Baldur's Gate 3 (1080p Ultra)Black Myth: Wukong benchmarking tool (1080p High)F1 24 (1080p Ultra High)Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (1080p Ultra)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | RTX 5070

46

33

MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | RTX 5070 (115 W)

34

24

Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | RTX 5070 (85 W)

32

20

Framework 16 | RTX 5070

43

33

Lenovo LOQ 15 Gen10 | Nvidia RTX 5060 (115 W)

36

24

MSI Stealth 16 AI+| RTX 5080 (125 W)

55

32

015304560

Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p RT Ultra) Data

Product	Value
MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | RTX 5070	46 Avg FPS, 33 1% Low FPS
MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | RTX 5070 (115 W)	34 Avg FPS, 24 1% Low FPS
Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | RTX 5070 (85 W)	32 Avg FPS, 20 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 | RTX 5070	43 Avg FPS, 33 1% Low FPS
Lenovo LOQ 15 Gen10 | Nvidia RTX 5060 (115 W)	36 Avg FPS, 24 1% Low FPS
MSI Stealth 16 AI+| RTX 5080 (125 W)	55 Avg FPS, 32 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | RTX 5070

85

52

MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | RTX 5070 (115 W)

74

43

Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | RTX 5070 (85 W)

63

32

Framework 16 | RTX 5070

69

41

Lenovo LOQ 15 Gen10 | Nvidia RTX 5060 (115 W)

60

27

MSI Stealth 16 AI+| RTX 5080 (125 W)

68

39

0255075100

Baldur's Gate 3 (1080p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | RTX 5070	85 Avg FPS, 52 1% Low FPS
MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | RTX 5070 (115 W)	74 Avg FPS, 43 1% Low FPS
Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | RTX 5070 (85 W)	63 Avg FPS, 32 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 | RTX 5070	69 Avg FPS, 41 1% Low FPS
Lenovo LOQ 15 Gen10 | Nvidia RTX 5060 (115 W)	60 Avg FPS, 27 1% Low FPS
MSI Stealth 16 AI+| RTX 5080 (125 W)	68 Avg FPS, 39 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | RTX 5070

68

59

MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | RTX 5070 (115 W)

45

37

Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | RTX 5070 (85 W)

53

30

Framework 16 | RTX 5070

64

55

Lenovo LOQ 15 Gen10 | Nvidia RTX 5060 (115 W)

57

39

MSI Stealth 16 AI+| RTX 5080 (125 W)

73

47

020406080

Black Myth: Wukong benchmarking tool (1080p High) Data

Product	Value
MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | RTX 5070	68 Avg FPS, 59 1% Low FPS
MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | RTX 5070 (115 W)	45 Avg FPS, 37 1% Low FPS
Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | RTX 5070 (85 W)	53 Avg FPS, 30 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 | RTX 5070	64 Avg FPS, 55 1% Low FPS
Lenovo LOQ 15 Gen10 | Nvidia RTX 5060 (115 W)	57 Avg FPS, 39 1% Low FPS
MSI Stealth 16 AI+| RTX 5080 (125 W)	73 Avg FPS, 47 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | RTX 5070

83

57

MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | RTX 5070 (115 W)

62

55

Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | RTX 5070 (85 W)

60

34

Framework 16 | RTX 5070

75

58

Lenovo LOQ 15 Gen10 | Nvidia RTX 5060 (115 W)

65

34

MSI Stealth 16 AI+| RTX 5080 (125 W)

100

50

0255075100

F1 24 (1080p Ultra High) Data

Product	Value
MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | RTX 5070	83 Avg FPS, 57 1% Low FPS
MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | RTX 5070 (115 W)	62 Avg FPS, 55 1% Low FPS
Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | RTX 5070 (85 W)	60 Avg FPS, 34 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 | RTX 5070	75 Avg FPS, 58 1% Low FPS
Lenovo LOQ 15 Gen10 | Nvidia RTX 5060 (115 W)	65 Avg FPS, 34 1% Low FPS
MSI Stealth 16 AI+| RTX 5080 (125 W)	100 Avg FPS, 50 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | RTX 5070

87

54

MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | RTX 5070 (115 W)

83

64

Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | RTX 5070 (85 W)

66

20

Framework 16 | RTX 5070

82

51

Lenovo LOQ 15 Gen10 | Nvidia RTX 5060 (115 W)

63

46

MSI Stealth 16 AI+| RTX 5080 (125 W)

102

42

037.575112.5150

Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (1080p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | RTX 5070	87 Avg FPS, 54 1% Low FPS
MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | RTX 5070 (115 W)	83 Avg FPS, 64 1% Low FPS
Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | RTX 5070 (85 W)	66 Avg FPS, 20 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 | RTX 5070	82 Avg FPS, 51 1% Low FPS
Lenovo LOQ 15 Gen10 | Nvidia RTX 5060 (115 W)	63 Avg FPS, 46 1% Low FPS
MSI Stealth 16 AI+| RTX 5080 (125 W)	102 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS

The MSI Crosshair 16 Max performs incredibly well at 1080p, often beating other RTX 5070 laptops and almost keeping up with an (admittedly power-limited) RTX 5080 laptop.

1600p (native) gaming performance

This chart shows average and 1% low frame rate results in various tested games at 1600p (native) resolution

Cyberpunk 2077 (Native res. RT Ultra)Baldur's Gate 3 (Native res. Ultra)Black Myth: Wukong benchmarking tool (Native res. High)F1 24 (Native res. Ultra High)Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (Native res. Ultra)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | RTX 5070 (115 W)

26

19

MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | RTX 5070 (115 W)

9

2

Framework 16 | RTX 5070

18

8

Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | RTX 5070 (85 W)

12

5

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)

34

22

010203040

Cyberpunk 2077 (Native res. RT Ultra) Data

Product	Value
MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | RTX 5070 (115 W)	26 Avg FPS, 19 1% Low FPS
MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | RTX 5070 (115 W)	9 Avg FPS, 2 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 | RTX 5070	18 Avg FPS, 8 1% Low FPS
Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | RTX 5070 (85 W)	12 Avg FPS, 5 1% Low FPS
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)	34 Avg FPS, 22 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | RTX 5070 (115 W)

79

51

MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | RTX 5070 (115 W)

65

39

Framework 16 | RTX 5070

67

37

Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | RTX 5070 (85 W)

54

33

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)

67

39

020406080

Baldur's Gate 3 (Native res. Ultra) Data

Product	Value
MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | RTX 5070 (115 W)	79 Avg FPS, 51 1% Low FPS
MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | RTX 5070 (115 W)	65 Avg FPS, 39 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 | RTX 5070	67 Avg FPS, 37 1% Low FPS
Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | RTX 5070 (85 W)	54 Avg FPS, 33 1% Low FPS
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)	67 Avg FPS, 39 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | RTX 5070 (115 W)

66

57

MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | RTX 5070 (115 W)

94

69

Framework 16 | RTX 5070

72

62

Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | RTX 5070 (85 W)

57

49

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)

57

49

0255075100

Black Myth: Wukong benchmarking tool (Native res. High) Data

Product	Value
MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | RTX 5070 (115 W)	66 Avg FPS, 57 1% Low FPS
MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | RTX 5070 (115 W)	94 Avg FPS, 69 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 | RTX 5070	72 Avg FPS, 62 1% Low FPS
Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | RTX 5070 (85 W)	57 Avg FPS, 49 1% Low FPS
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)	57 Avg FPS, 49 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | RTX 5070 (115 W)

47

37

MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | RTX 5070 (115 W)

35

29

Framework 16 | RTX 5070

41

32

Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | RTX 5070 (85 W)

34

18

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)

62

43

020406080

F1 24 (Native res. Ultra High) Data

Product	Value
MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | RTX 5070 (115 W)	47 Avg FPS, 37 1% Low FPS
MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | RTX 5070 (115 W)	35 Avg FPS, 29 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 | RTX 5070	41 Avg FPS, 32 1% Low FPS
Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | RTX 5070 (85 W)	34 Avg FPS, 18 1% Low FPS
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)	62 Avg FPS, 43 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | RTX 5070 (115 W)

59

41

MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | RTX 5070 (115 W)

53

31

Framework 16 | RTX 5070

54

39

Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | RTX 5070 (85 W)

45

17

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)

74

48

020406080

Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (Native res. Ultra) Data

Product	Value
MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | RTX 5070 (115 W)	59 Avg FPS, 41 1% Low FPS
MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | RTX 5070 (115 W)	53 Avg FPS, 31 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 | RTX 5070	54 Avg FPS, 39 1% Low FPS
Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | RTX 5070 (85 W)	45 Avg FPS, 17 1% Low FPS
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)	74 Avg FPS, 48 1% Low FPS

The Corsshair 16 Max does very well at native res, offering playable frame rates in almost all of these games. In most of them, it leads other RTX 5070 gaming laptops. (Note the MSI Stealth listed here has an RTX 5080 that is power-limited compared to some other RTX 5080 laptops.)

At both 1080p and 1600p (native), the MSI performs better than other RTX 5070 mobile laptops and even comes close to the (power-limited) Stealth with RTX 5080 mobile. This is more so the case at 1080p where things are less GPU-bound and the CPU can have more of an effect, but it's still great at native.

Real-world gaming performance

This chart shows average and 1% low frame rate results in various tested games at 1600p resolution with Quality upscaling enabled, and frame gen where applicable

Cyberpunk 2077 (Native res. RT Ultra + upscaling (quality), 2x FG)Black Myth: Wukong benchmarking tool (Native res. High + upscaling (quality, 67%))F1 24 (Native res. Ultra High + upscaling (quality), 2x FG)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | RTX 5070 (115 W)

80

51

MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | RTX 5070 (115 W)

27

18

Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | RTX 5070 (85 W)

58

35

Framework 16 | RTX 5070

75

58

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)

97

53

0255075100

Cyberpunk 2077 (Native res. RT Ultra + upscaling (quality), 2x FG) Data

Product	Value
MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | RTX 5070 (115 W)	80 Avg FPS, 51 1% Low FPS
MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | RTX 5070 (115 W)	27 Avg FPS, 18 1% Low FPS
Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | RTX 5070 (85 W)	58 Avg FPS, 35 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 | RTX 5070	75 Avg FPS, 58 1% Low FPS
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)	97 Avg FPS, 53 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | RTX 5070 (115 W)

75

64

MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | RTX 5070 (115 W)

94

69

Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | RTX 5070 (85 W)

57

49

Framework 16 | RTX 5070

72

62

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)

87

74

0255075100

Black Myth: Wukong benchmarking tool (Native res. High + upscaling (quality, 67%)) Data

Product	Value
MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | RTX 5070 (115 W)	75 Avg FPS, 64 1% Low FPS
MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | RTX 5070 (115 W)	94 Avg FPS, 69 1% Low FPS
Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | RTX 5070 (85 W)	57 Avg FPS, 49 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 | RTX 5070	72 Avg FPS, 62 1% Low FPS
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)	87 Avg FPS, 74 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | RTX 5070 (115 W)

118

82

Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | RTX 5070 (85 W)

52

42

Framework 16 | RTX 5070

92

70

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)

147

56

037.575112.5150

F1 24 (Native res. Ultra High + upscaling (quality), 2x FG) Data

Product	Value
MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | RTX 5070 (115 W)	118 Avg FPS, 82 1% Low FPS
MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | RTX 5070 (115 W)	N/A
Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | RTX 5070 (85 W)	52 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 | RTX 5070	92 Avg FPS, 70 1% Low FPS
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)	147 Avg FPS, 56 1% Low FPS

Again, the MSI Crosshair 16 Max performs well. With upscaling and/or frame gen, expect smooth frame rates even in pretty demanding games at native resolution on max settings. (Note the MSI Stealth listed here has an RTX 5080 that is power-limited compared to some other RTX 5080 laptops.)

When upscaling and/or frame gen is enabled, even pretty demanding games become smoothly playable at native res on max settings. Saying this, you might still want to drop your settings a little just to reduce any latency incurred by frame gen, as higher starting frame rates improve this.

I'd say this laptop is ideal for gaming on high (but not max) settings at 1600p with upscaling and, in some games, frame gen. That will be how to make the best use of the 165 Hz refresh rate on offer here.

Interestingly, this one seems to perform even better in most games than the previous MSI Crosshair we tested, the Crosshair 16 HX AI (2025), which has the same GPU and a more powerful Core Ultra 9 275HX processor. That could be due to driver improvements over the past year plus the fact that this new one gets hotter, ie, allows for a bit of extra performance at the top.

System performance

The laptops are here tested against intensive benchmarks that mostly test the CPU, but also the GPU, for productivity tasks.

7zip 24.07Cinebench 2024Blender 4.2.0 (junkshop)Procyon

Decompressing (GIPS)

MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | Core Ultra 7 251HX | RTX 5070 (115 W)

120.254

135.177

MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | Core Ultra 9 275HX | RTX 5070 (115 W)

121.787

130.822

Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | Ryzen AI 7 350 | RTX 5070 (85 W)

77.91

87.77

Framework 16 | Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 | RTX 5070

108.822

128.355

Lenovo LOQ 15 Gen10 | Ryzen 7 250 | RTX 5060 (115 W)

65.22

105.78

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (125 W)

105.399

98.828

037.575112.5150

7zip 24.07 Data

Product	Value
MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | Core Ultra 7 251HX | RTX 5070 (115 W)	120.254 Compressing (GIPS), 135.177 Decompressing (GIPS)
MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | Core Ultra 9 275HX | RTX 5070 (115 W)	121.787 Compressing (GIPS), 130.822 Decompressing (GIPS)
Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | Ryzen AI 7 350 | RTX 5070 (85 W)	77.91 Compressing (GIPS), 87.77 Decompressing (GIPS)
Framework 16 | Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 | RTX 5070	108.822 Compressing (GIPS), 128.355 Decompressing (GIPS)
Lenovo LOQ 15 Gen10 | Ryzen 7 250 | RTX 5060 (115 W)	65.22 Compressing (GIPS), 105.78 Decompressing (GIPS)
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (125 W)	105.399 Compressing (GIPS), 98.828 Decompressing (GIPS)

Multi-core index score

Single-core index score

MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | Core Ultra 7 251HX | RTX 5070 (115 W)

1638

129

MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | Core Ultra 9 275HX | RTX 5070 (115 W)

1320

134

Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | Ryzen AI 7 350 | RTX 5070 (85 W)

800

78

Framework 16 | Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 | RTX 5070

1158

105

Lenovo LOQ 15 Gen10 | Ryzen 7 250 | RTX 5060 (115 W)

812

101

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (125 W)

1221

124

05001,0001,5002,000

Cinebench 2024 Data

Product	Value
MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | Core Ultra 7 251HX | RTX 5070 (115 W)	1638 Multi-core index score, 129 Single-core index score
MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | Core Ultra 9 275HX | RTX 5070 (115 W)	1320 Multi-core index score, 134 Single-core index score
Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | Ryzen AI 7 350 | RTX 5070 (85 W)	800 Multi-core index score, 78 Single-core index score
Framework 16 | Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 | RTX 5070	1158 Multi-core index score, 105 Single-core index score
Lenovo LOQ 15 Gen10 | Ryzen 7 250 | RTX 5060 (115 W)	812 Multi-core index score, 101 Single-core index score
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (125 W)	1221 Multi-core index score, 124 Single-core index score

CPU (samples/min)

GPU (samples/min)

MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | Core Ultra 7 251HX | RTX 5070 (115 W)

112.66

1046.74

MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | Core Ultra 9 275HX | RTX 5070 (115 W)

108.15

1028.98

Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | Ryzen AI 7 350 | RTX 5070 (85 W)

65.55

1017.59

Framework 16 | Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 | RTX 5070

93.15

1026.08

Lenovo LOQ 15 Gen10 | Ryzen 7 250 | RTX 5060 (115 W)

62.87

1014.05

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (125 W)

79.43

1691.37

05001,0001,5002,000

Blender 4.2.0 (junkshop) Data

Product	Value
MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | Core Ultra 7 251HX | RTX 5070 (115 W)	112.66 CPU (samples/min), 1046.74 GPU (samples/min)
MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | Core Ultra 9 275HX | RTX 5070 (115 W)	108.15 CPU (samples/min), 1028.98 GPU (samples/min)
Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | Ryzen AI 7 350 | RTX 5070 (85 W)	65.55 CPU (samples/min), 1017.59 GPU (samples/min)
Framework 16 | Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 | RTX 5070	93.15 CPU (samples/min), 1026.08 GPU (samples/min)
Lenovo LOQ 15 Gen10 | Ryzen 7 250 | RTX 5060 (115 W)	62.87 CPU (samples/min), 1014.05 GPU (samples/min)
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (125 W)	79.43 CPU (samples/min), 1691.37 GPU (samples/min)

Overall index score

Duration (Sec)

Sec/image

MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | Core Ultra 7 251HX | RTX 5070 (115 W)

1750

57.12

3.57

MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | Core Ultra 9 275HX | RTX 5070 (115 W)

1508

66.27

4.14

Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | Ryzen AI 7 350 | RTX 5070 (85 W)

1418

70.52

4.41

Framework 16 | Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 | RTX 5070

1789

55.9

3.49

Lenovo LOQ 15 Gen10 | Ryzen 7 250 | RTX 5060 (115 W)

1490

67.11

4.2

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (125 W)

2472

40.44

2.53

07501,5002,2503,000

Procyon Data

Product	Value
MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | Core Ultra 7 251HX | RTX 5070 (115 W)	1750 Overall index score, 57.12 Duration (Sec), 3.57 Sec/image
MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | Core Ultra 9 275HX | RTX 5070 (115 W)	1508 Overall index score, 66.27 Duration (Sec), 4.14 Sec/image
Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | Ryzen AI 7 350 | RTX 5070 (85 W)	1418 Overall index score, 70.52 Duration (Sec), 4.41 Sec/image
Framework 16 | Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 | RTX 5070	1789 Overall index score, 55.9 Duration (Sec), 3.49 Sec/image
Lenovo LOQ 15 Gen10 | Ryzen 7 250 | RTX 5060 (115 W)	1490 Overall index score, 67.11 Duration (Sec), 4.2 Sec/image
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (125 W)	2472 Overall index score, 40.44 Duration (Sec), 2.53 Sec/image

The Intel Core Ultra 7 251HX in the MSI Crosshair 16 Max is better for productivity tasks than a lot of other RTX 5070 laptops

Much as with this laptop's gaming performance, its productivity performance is impressive. When allowed to run so hot, the Intel chip here can plough through tasks such as decompression and other multi-core-heavy tasks.

MSI Crosshair 16 Max HX E2W thermals

Real-world gaming temperatures

Gaming temperature results recorded during multiple Metro Exodus EE runs

Gaming temperatures

Avg CPU (°C)

Max CPU (°C)

Avg GPU (°C)

Max GPU (°C)

MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | Core Ultra 7 251HX | RTX 5070 (115 W)

91

104

81

84

MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | Core Ultra 9 275HX | RTX 5070 (115 W)

55

98

28

69

Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | Ryzen AI 7 350 | RTX 5070 (85 W)

55

87

57

71

Framework 16 | Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 | RTX 5070

65

73

68

71

Lenovo LOQ 15 Gen10 | Ryzen 7 250 | RTX 5060 (115 W)

58

71

59

72

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (125 W)

92

100

81

87

037.575112.5150

Gaming temperatures Data

Product	Value
MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W) | Core Ultra 7 251HX | RTX 5070 (115 W)	91 Avg CPU (°C), 104 Max CPU (°C), 81 Avg GPU (°C), 84 Max GPU (°C)
MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI) | Core Ultra 9 275HX | RTX 5070 (115 W)	55 Avg CPU (°C), 98 Max CPU (°C), 28 Avg GPU (°C), 69 Max GPU (°C)
Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot | Ryzen AI 7 350 | RTX 5070 (85 W)	55 Avg CPU (°C), 87 Max CPU (°C), 57 Avg GPU (°C), 71 Max GPU (°C)
Framework 16 | Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 | RTX 5070	65 Avg CPU (°C), 73 Max CPU (°C), 68 Avg GPU (°C), 71 Max GPU (°C)
Lenovo LOQ 15 Gen10 | Ryzen 7 250 | RTX 5060 (115 W)	58 Avg CPU (°C), 71 Max CPU (°C), 59 Avg GPU (°C), 72 Max GPU (°C)
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (125 W)	92 Avg CPU (°C), 100 Max CPU (°C), 81 Avg GPU (°C), 87 Max GPU (°C)

The MSI Crosshair 16 Max does run very hot on Extreme Performance mode (and, as an aside, still pretty damn hot in Balanced mode). That's especially the case for its Core Ultra 7 251HX CPU.

This laptop is indeed particularly toasty. This obviously helps in the performance department, but don't expect it to win any efficiency medals. 104 °C for the max CPU temp is hot, as is 84 °C for the GPU, though the new MSI Stealth runs a little hotter on that front.

That being said, during all my time gaming, I didn't notice my fingers getting too hot on WASD, and given the performance is so good, I doubt the high temps indicate too much throttling.

The Crosshair can get pretty loud in Extreme Performance mode, which these benchmarks were taken in. However, as with the new Stealth, this Crosshair's fans don't sound grating at all. You just get a pleasant, loud whoosh. Though it will make it difficult to hear your game through the speakers if you're opting for built-in audio.

MSI Crosshair 16 Max HX E2W aesthetics

I don't have a ton of praise for the way this laptop looks, unfortunately. It's not awful, just not my particular cup of tea. There's a splash of the old-fashioned, angular, gamer-y look to it, but it only leans kind of half-heartedly in that direction, which ultimately means it looks a little confused about what it wants to be overall.

You're getting some funky RGB lighting on the keys, including a translucent WASD if that's your jam, and you're also getting the logo on the lid which lights up and a particularly angular design on the underside, but the rest of the chassis is plain. To be honest, I'd rather it leaned in one direction or the other: gamer-y, or subtle. Still, it's far from an outrageous design and doesn't offend my aesthetic sensibilities too much.

MSI Crosshair 16 Max HX E2W software

The main bloatware on this laptop is Norton antivirus, which I'd personally promptly uninstall just because Microsoft Defender is fine and Norton, in my historical opinion, can be a bit of a pain.

Apart from that, you get MSI Center to control all the settings such as lighting and performance modes. You can install a bunch more modules to fiddle with different settings if you wish, but I just stuck with those and the default system info and options pages. It runs well and isn't too difficult to navigate once you get used to it, but it definitely feels like a 'set it and leave it' kind of software that you don't need to load up very often.

MSI Crosshair 16 Max HX E2W battery life

Battery life

Testing how long the battery lasts in Balanced mode, medium brightness, Wi-Fi disconnected, in the PCMark 10 gaming battery life test.

PCMark 10

MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W)

72

MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI)

101

Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot

109

Framework 16

131

Lenovo LOQ 15 Gen10

89

MSI Stealth 16 AI+

104

037.575112.5150

PCMark 10 Data

Product	Value
MSI Crosshair 16 Max (E2W)	72
MSI Crosshair 16 HX (AI)	101
Gigabyte Aero X16 Copilot	109
Framework 16	131
Lenovo LOQ 15 Gen10	89
MSI Stealth 16 AI+	104

The MSI Crosshair 16 Max perhaps unsurprisingly doesn't do very well when it comes to battery life. It seems oriented around eking out as much performance as possible from its CPU and GPU, without much care for efficiency.

You probably already expected this given the laptop ekes out as much performance as it can from its components, not to mention that it runs mighty hot, but battery life is not great. This isn't a laptop for those of you who primarily want to game while out and about using battery power, but for short sessions or light work it's fine unplugged.

The RTX 5080-boasting MSI Stealth laptop I tested has a 90 Wh battery and lasted for 104 minutes in a gaming battery life benchmark, whereas this one has an 80 Wh battery and lasted for just 72 minutes. That's 31% less time up and running, and less than a bunch of other RTX 5070 laptops we've tested.

MSI Crosshair 16 Max HX E2W Value

You're looking at about $2,600 for the 32 GB version of this—$2,000 on offer—and I can't see the 16 GB version that I tried for sale anywhere. Looking at some of the best deals on gaming laptops right now, that $2,600 is pretty expensive for an RTX 5070 machine.

On the one hand, this isn't a corner-cutting machine, as you're getting a lovely OLED panel and some very convincing performance that pushes the CPU and GPU as far as possible. But on the other hand, even $2,000 on sale is a lot for an RTX 5070 machine, even during a memory shortage. You can often pick similar but non-OLED gaming laptops up for well under $1,500 on sale.

As such, unless and until there are bigger discounts on it, I don't think the price tag fits what's on offer. If the normal retail price were a couple hundred lower and the discount price was a couple hundred lower, too, I would consider it for the OLED panel and great performance.

But as it stands, it's a tough sell, especially if you want any kind of battery or thermal efficiency, or just a laptop that looks a little more dashing. Not to mention one that doesn't suffer from audio latency issues. Considering performance alone it's a great machine, but the price is not quite right.

Blade 18 2026 - steal turns into steal of the century

One Redditor has seemingly got the PC hardware deal of the year by paying €2,433 (around $2,800) for a Razer laptop that currently sells for €6,600 (just under $7,700). Gaming laptops may be pricey right now, thanks to the memory crisis, but that would be a steal even pre-memory crisis. All they had to do was get incredibly lucky.

As posted by iiT2 over on the GamingLaptops subreddit, a European buyer bought a Blade 18, with 32 GB of memory, a 1 TB SSD, an RTX 5080, and an Intel Ultra 9 290 HX Plus. A mighty machine, but modest in comparison to what they were accidentally sent: A Razer Blade 18 with an RTX 5090, the same Intel chip, a 2 TB SSD, and 64 GB of memory. I put this new configuration together on Razer's website and found out the memory upgrade alone costs an extra €900 (around $1,050) more than the price they actually paid.

The user says, "I‘m done. I used up my luck for this timeline," and given they could have almost purchased three of their original configs for the price of the new one, I'm inclined to agree.

The Razer label and invoice do seem to match with both the machine and the original receipt, so that implies whoever labelled this rig at the Razer factory simply labelled it wrong. That means, inevitably, this would likely have gotten into the hands of some buyer somewhere. Just don't count on it happening again. This is an exceedingly rare mistake on Razer's part.

And what a laptop it is. We at PC Gamer are big fans of what Razer is putting out right now in the gaming laptop space. The most recent Razer Blade 16 got an 86% in our review, with our Andy saying, "It's still one of the best gaming laptops money can buy, but the massive price tag throws me for a loop."

We also really liked last year's Razer Blade 14, with its upgraded chassis, gorgeous display, and solid battery life. Razer Blade laptops are pretty expensive, even considering the memory crisis, but their build quality and design are undeniably solid. Plus, they're gorgeous to behold.

We don't technically know if the Redditor will get to keep this laptop, but given it seems to have been sent due to a mislabelling by the vendor selling it, I certainly wouldn't want to give it back. We also don't know if the original vendor would be aware of their mistake, unless informed.

One look at our roundup of the best gaming laptop deals will show you that gaming laptops are in a pretty poor place right now. Around $2400 will get you an RTX 5080 and 16 GB of memory, on sale, and that's because memory, storage, and even GPUs are on the rise price-wise, and unlikely to fall for some time. Luckily, iiT2 now has enough gaming horsepower to wait until the whole thing blows over.

Which means that, alongside 20 Grace CPU cores in the custom Arm-based chip, they've also got 6144 RTX Blackwell GPU cores to play with. And that means RTX 5070-like gaming performance, at least on paper.

And in practice, each was demonstrated to be capable of running modern games at high frame rates. Exactly how high was kept under wraps, unfortunately, although it was mentioned that frame generation was in use for each.

So, I wasn't able to do any benchmarking of my own, or dig into the settings menus to find out exactly what sort of DLSS/FG combination I was dealing with. Still, 007 First Light, Arc Raiders, Borderlands 4, and F1 25 were all running without a hitch, which is apparently indicative of the smooth sailing Nvidia has experienced with Microsoft's Prism translation layer.

I asked about any unforeseen emulation issues, but nope, apparently all is well in the land of Windows-on-Arm and Nvidia chips. As for the laptops themselves, I took a few notes based on my brief time playing with them at the booth.

First off, lets talk about the one I really want to take home. The Asus ProArt P14 looks and feels, for all intents and purposes, like the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14—and that's a very good thing indeed. It's got a milled aluminium chassis that feels robust (yet slim in the hand), a crisp keyboard, and a beautifully vivid OLED panel.

I had a brief run around in Arc Raiders on this particular lappy, and immediately wanted to squirrel it back to my hotel room for a proper gaming session.

14-inch laptops are the perfect size for taking on the road, and the relative lack of weight compared to the beefier (and much older) Blade 15 Advanced in my backpack made me yearn for the little P14 instead.

Proper gaming performance, too? It appears so, although Arc Raiders is far from the most demanding of test games. Still, while I'm not so confident in my abilities as to guess exactly what frame rate or settings combo this machine was running at, I will say it felt like 100 fps+. Ah, go on then. Probably High to Ultra settings. If I was pushed. Maybe.

Special mention should also be given to the Dell XPS 16 Creator Edition. Yes, I associate Dell laptops with being dull as well, but this new XPS model feels excellent, and it's rather handsome, too. The keyboard is as tight as a drum, the OLED display looks great, and it wasn't making a whole lot of noise while I ripped and teared my way through Doom: The Dark Ages.

It feels like a civilised machine I'd be happy to sling in my bag, at least on this first impression. Both of these laptops look like the sort of thing you might expect to see in a business meeting, but the gaming ability of the RTX Spark SOC squeezed into their slim and light chassis designs is plain to see.

Every laptop showdown, even one as brief as this, is likely to come up with an also-ran that doesn't quite cut the mustard—and for me, this comes in the form of the new Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra. In a room full of sublime competition, the chassis looks and feels... tired, while the Mini LED screen wasn't particularly enticing to behold. It was trundling away in the corner of the room running World of Tanks, and didn't garner "oohs" and "ahhs" in the same way as the rest.

Despite the hardware inside, something about it says "old fashioned" to me. It's funny how we judge these things in an instant, but there we are. I'm prepared to change my mind if we get one in for review (I'm incredibly tired and cranky after a long day at the show, after all), but I get the feeling it's going to cost lots of money—without looking and feeling as good as its premium competition.

Ah, now I've gone and done it. I've mentioned the price. Or rather, prices. The Nvidia reps around me refused to be drawn in on exact figures for these Spark-infused machines, especially as some of the models on display had a loadout of 128 GB of RAM. Ludicrous amounts, I think you'll agree, which will almost certainly be sold for ludicrous amounts of cash. For all that local AI stuff you'll be doing, naturally.

Personally, the lesser-seen optimist living in the middle of my cold, brutal heart is still hoping for 16 GB or 32 GB variants of the Asus and Dell laptops for somewhat-reasonable figures—as more slim and light, gaming-capable machines to choose from is always a good thing.

Looking at the state of gaming laptop prices at the moment, though, I think said optimist will probably be let down once more. It was a nice day out, at least. Anyone fancy buying me a bratwurst?

If there were ever a laptop design to be right "up my alley", as we brits like to say, it would be this one. That's because it makes its sacrifices in exactly the right places to deliver something genuinely portable, sleek, elegant, and satisfying to use both for gaming and work.

The MSI 'Stealth' laptop looks to have been reimagined along these MacBook or Razer Blade-esque lines—and successfully so—featuring a giant touchpad, thin aluminium form factor, subtle upward-facing speakers, and a spacious screen.

It's not just a looker, though, as MSI has crammed an RTX 5080 mobile GPU into it, making for genuine high-end performance. It has, however, had to be power-limited to play nicely with the slim chassis, meaning you're not getting quite the performance you could get out of a chunkier laptop for the same very expensive price or cheaper.

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ B3W Features

After powering on the laptop for the first time, I was immediately impressed by how it feels to use. The trackpad doesn't require much force to press but just enough so you're not accidentally pressing it, and it has a very satisfying click. I didn't have many problems with accidentally moving the cursor while typing because of the size of the trackpad, but it did happen occasionally.

'Satisfying' is also the word I'd use to describe the pleasantly tactile chiclet keyboard. This keyboard has four-zone RGB that I set to solid white to match the classy look.

There's also a decent selection of ports on the Stealth, including two Thunderbolt 4, a HDMI, and even an Ethernet port. This, I found to be particularly impressive given the sleek form factor.

Sleek, that is, and very shiny thanks to its 240 Hz OLED. It's of the 16:10 variety, too, which is the best kind as it gives you plenty of space for browsing and so on. I'd say 16-inch with a 16:10 aspect ratio is pretty much ideal for a laptop, especially one like this that's also slim and portable. The OLED panel itself is fantastic, too, with plenty of contrast thanks to the true blacks and vibrant colours. And of course the smooth 240 Hz certainly doesn't hurt in those games that can push frame rates up that high.

Specs-wise, this particular version gives you only the choice of the Core Ultra 9 386H for the processor, but you can choose between an RTX 5070, 5070 Ti, or 5080 version. The latter two come with 32 GB of DDR5 RAM, but the RTX 5070 version comes with just 16 GB. All configs except for one 2 TB version comes with 1 TB of storage.

The version I tested has 1 TB of storage, 32 GB of DDR5-5600 memory, and an RTX 5080 mobile. The RTX 5080 here has a big asterisk: it's a nerfed—ie, power-limited—version of the GPU. With a max draw of just 125 W, that's 50 W less juice than you get with a full-fat RTX 5080 mobile like the one in the Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10, the current best high-performance gaming laptop. That's a sacrifice made to keep things so slim, as is the choice of CPU which sacrifices some top-end compute performance for efficiency.

So far so good, but there is one area that unfortunately rains all over the parade, and that's audio. The problem isn't the sound quality or volume, as things are great in both these respects—clear, punchy (though not as bassy as standalone speakers, of course), and plenty loud.

The problem is latency and glitching, though mainly the former. Initially the speakers would spit every now and then, but that seemed to clear up after using the laptop for a while. I'm not sure why that is, given I had Windows update paused, but whatever the reason, I was glad when it stopped.

The persistent problem was poor audio latency. There is a delay between my in-game action (such as shooting) and the sound coming through. It's about the same level of delay as I experience using Bluetooth earphones without any low-latency mode enabled. It only happens over the default audio device, not when I plug in a new USB device like my earphones with USB-C DAC.

That leads me to believe it might be a problem with the default audio device drivers, and after checking various (x) discussions (x) online it seems like the problem could be with Nahimic, however I cannot confirm this. I can say that I tried different methods to disable and uninstall the drivers, which didn't work, and I also uninstalled the Norton antivirus that comes bundled with the laptop just to see if that was the issue, but that didn't resolve it. MSI says it is looking into the issue, but so far I haven't heard any results of this investigation.

To be clear, using the speakers is fine for listening to music and for playing casual, non-shooter games, but for playing shooters the latency is definitely noticeable, meaning a separate USB audio device might be necessary. Though saying that, when testing a different MSI laptop, even switching to a different device didn't resolve the latency, though it strangely did with the Stealth.

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ B3W Performance

Given the high-end components sitting inside this MSI Stealth 16 AI+ B3W, it was never going to fail at churning out frames. You'd have to severely throttle an RTX 5080 laptop GPU for it to be unable to deliver playable performance. But for the Stealth's price tag we want more than just 'playable', so let's see how it does.

1080p gaming performance

This chart shows average and 1% low frame rate results in various tested games at 1080p resolution

Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p RT Ultra)Baldur's Gate 3 (1080p Ultra)Black Myth: Wukong benchmarking tool (1080p High)F1 24 (1080p Ultra High)Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (1080p Ultra)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)

55

32

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | RTX 5080 (135 W)

52

39

Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | RTX 5080 (175 W)

68

38

Framework 16 | RTX 5070

43

33

020406080

Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p RT Ultra) Data

Product	Value
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)	55 Avg FPS, 32 1% Low FPS
Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | RTX 5080 (135 W)	52 Avg FPS, 39 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | RTX 5080 (175 W)	68 Avg FPS, 38 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 | RTX 5070	43 Avg FPS, 33 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)

68

39

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | RTX 5080 (135 W)

78

43

Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | RTX 5080 (175 W)

96

55

Framework 16 | RTX 5070

69

41

0255075100

Baldur's Gate 3 (1080p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)	68 Avg FPS, 39 1% Low FPS
Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | RTX 5080 (135 W)	78 Avg FPS, 43 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | RTX 5080 (175 W)	96 Avg FPS, 55 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 | RTX 5070	69 Avg FPS, 41 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)

73

47

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | RTX 5080 (135 W)

102

83

Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | RTX 5080 (175 W)

99

84

Framework 16 | RTX 5070

64

55

037.575112.5150

Black Myth: Wukong benchmarking tool (1080p High) Data

Product	Value
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)	73 Avg FPS, 47 1% Low FPS
Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | RTX 5080 (135 W)	102 Avg FPS, 83 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | RTX 5080 (175 W)	99 Avg FPS, 84 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 | RTX 5070	64 Avg FPS, 55 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)

100

50

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | RTX 5080 (135 W)

101

76

Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | RTX 5080 (175 W)

126

51

Framework 16 | RTX 5070

75

58

037.575112.5150

F1 24 (1080p Ultra High) Data

Product	Value
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)	100 Avg FPS, 50 1% Low FPS
Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | RTX 5080 (135 W)	101 Avg FPS, 76 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | RTX 5080 (175 W)	126 Avg FPS, 51 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 | RTX 5070	75 Avg FPS, 58 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)

102

42

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | RTX 5080 (135 W)

102

53

Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | RTX 5080 (175 W)

140

72

Framework 16 | RTX 5070

82

51

037.575112.5150

Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (1080p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)	102 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS
Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | RTX 5080 (135 W)	102 Avg FPS, 53 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | RTX 5080 (175 W)	140 Avg FPS, 72 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 | RTX 5070	82 Avg FPS, 51 1% Low FPS

The MSI Stealth 16 AI+ sits between RTX 5070 and full-fat (175 W) RTX 5080 gaming laptops in 1080p performance.

1600p (native) gaming performance

This chart shows average and 1% low frame rate results in various tested games at 1600p (native) resolution

Cyberpunk 2077 (Native res. RT Ultra)Baldur's Gate 3 (Native res. Ultra)Black Myth: Wukong benchmarking tool (Native res. High)F1 24 (Native res. Ultra High)Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (Native res. Ultra)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)

34

22

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | RTX 5080 (135 W)

31

24

Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | RTX 5080 (175 W)

40

28

Framework 16 | RTX 5070

18

8

010203040

Cyberpunk 2077 (Native res. RT Ultra) Data

Product	Value
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)	34 Avg FPS, 22 1% Low FPS
Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | RTX 5080 (135 W)	31 Avg FPS, 24 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | RTX 5080 (175 W)	40 Avg FPS, 28 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 | RTX 5070	18 Avg FPS, 8 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)

67

39

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | RTX 5080 (135 W)

80

46

Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | RTX 5080 (175 W)

96

42

Framework 16 | RTX 5070

67

37

0255075100

Baldur's Gate 3 (Native res. Ultra) Data

Product	Value
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)	67 Avg FPS, 39 1% Low FPS
Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | RTX 5080 (135 W)	80 Avg FPS, 46 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | RTX 5080 (175 W)	96 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 | RTX 5070	67 Avg FPS, 37 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)

57

49

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | RTX 5080 (135 W)

75

66

Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | RTX 5080 (175 W)

111

80

Framework 16 | RTX 5070

72

62

037.575112.5150

Black Myth: Wukong benchmarking tool (Native res. High) Data

Product	Value
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)	57 Avg FPS, 49 1% Low FPS
Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | RTX 5080 (135 W)	75 Avg FPS, 66 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | RTX 5080 (175 W)	111 Avg FPS, 80 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 | RTX 5070	72 Avg FPS, 62 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)

62

43

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | RTX 5080 (135 W)

63

53

Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | RTX 5080 (175 W)

77

55

Framework 16 | RTX 5070

41

32

020406080

F1 24 (Native res. Ultra High) Data

Product	Value
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)	62 Avg FPS, 43 1% Low FPS
Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | RTX 5080 (135 W)	63 Avg FPS, 53 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | RTX 5080 (175 W)	77 Avg FPS, 55 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 | RTX 5070	41 Avg FPS, 32 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)

74

48

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | RTX 5080 (135 W)

68

46

Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | RTX 5080 (175 W)

96

65

Framework 16 | RTX 5070

54

39

0255075100

Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (Native res. Ultra) Data

Product	Value
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)	74 Avg FPS, 48 1% Low FPS
Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | RTX 5080 (135 W)	68 Avg FPS, 46 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | RTX 5080 (175 W)	96 Avg FPS, 65 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 | RTX 5070	54 Avg FPS, 39 1% Low FPS

As is the case at 1080p, at 1600p the MSI Stealth 16 AI+ sits between an RTX 5070 laptop and a full-fat (175 W) RTX 5080 laptop in its gaming performance.

At both 1080p and 1600p (native) resolution, the power-limited RTX 5080 in the Stealth 16 AI+ tends to churn out more frames than an RTX 5070 mobile but fewer frames than an unrestricted RTX 5080 mobile. There are exceptions in my testing, though these are most likely due to the CPUs in the different laptops I compared the Stealth to. If you play mainly CPU-intensive games, you might do better with a HX chip (and a thicker laptop) rather than an H one like this.

Real-world gaming performance

This chart shows average and 1% low frame rate results in various tested games at 1600p resolution with Quality upscaling enabled, and frame gen where applicable

Cyberpunk 2077 (Native res. RT Ultra + upscaling (quality), 2x FG)Black Myth: Wukong benchmarking tool (Native res. High + upscaling (quality, 67%))F1 24 (Native res. Ultra High + upscaling (quality), 2x FG)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)

97

53

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | RTX 5080 (135 W)

95

79

Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | RTX 5080 (175 W)

124

83

Framework 16 | RTX 5070

75

58

037.575112.5150

Cyberpunk 2077 (Native res. RT Ultra + upscaling (quality), 2x FG) Data

Product	Value
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)	97 Avg FPS, 53 1% Low FPS
Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | RTX 5080 (135 W)	95 Avg FPS, 79 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | RTX 5080 (175 W)	124 Avg FPS, 83 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 | RTX 5070	75 Avg FPS, 58 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)

87

74

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | RTX 5080 (135 W)

84

72

Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | RTX 5080 (175 W)

111

80

Framework 16 | RTX 5070

72

62

037.575112.5150

Black Myth: Wukong benchmarking tool (Native res. High + upscaling (quality, 67%)) Data

Product	Value
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)	87 Avg FPS, 74 1% Low FPS
Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | RTX 5080 (135 W)	84 Avg FPS, 72 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | RTX 5080 (175 W)	111 Avg FPS, 80 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 | RTX 5070	72 Avg FPS, 62 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)

147

56

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | RTX 5080 (135 W)

144

125

Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | RTX 5080 (175 W)

184

91

Framework 16 | RTX 5070

92

70

050100150200

F1 24 (Native res. Ultra High + upscaling (quality), 2x FG) Data

Product	Value
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | RTX 5080 (125 W)	147 Avg FPS, 56 1% Low FPS
Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | RTX 5080 (135 W)	144 Avg FPS, 125 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | RTX 5080 (175 W)	184 Avg FPS, 91 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 | RTX 5070	92 Avg FPS, 70 1% Low FPS

Again, the MSI Stealth 16 AI+ sits somewhere between an RTX 5070 and full-fat RTX 5080 gaming laptop, although with upscaling and frame gen enabled, it seems to sit a little closer to the latter.

In terms of real-world gaming performance, ie, performance with upscaling and/or frame gen enabled, this laptop performs very well, running not too far behind a laptop with the full-fat RTX 5080 mobile. In terms of actual frame rates, in most games expect well above 60 fps on ultra settings, with ray tracing enabled, at native resolution.

And of course expect even better than this when you lower your game settings down below max, as this will net you frame rates high enough to make good use of that 240 Hz refresh rate. Not to mention lower latency, too, because frame gen does better in terms of latency when the starting frame rate is higher.

Extreme vs Balanced mode

Comparing gaming performance, frequency, and temps for Extreme Performance (+ Apex) mode vs Balanced mode.

Versus Comparison Data

Attribute	MSI Stealth 16 AI+	MSI Stealth 16 AI+ (Balanced mode)
3DMark Time Spy Extreme	8646	7238
Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (1080p Ultra)	102	89
Gaming temperatures	92	83
GPU stats	2079	1607

MSI Stealth 16 AI+MSI Stealth 16 AI+ (Balanced mode)

VS

MSI Stealth 16 AI+MSI Stealth 16 AI+ (Balanced mode)

3DMark Time Spy Extreme (Overall index score)

+19%8,646

7,238

Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (1080p Ultra) (Avg FPS)

+15%102

89

Gaming temperatures (Avg CPU (°C))

+11%92

83

GPU stats (Avg GPU freq. (MHz))

+29%2,079

1,607

Putting the laptop into Balanced mode cuts down the GPU frequency and CPU temps, but does cost 15–20% performance in-game.

While the above tests were done with the laptop in Extreme Performance mode, I also tried out the laptop in Balanced mode, which limits frequencies and temps a little and keeps the fans quieter. If you're playing graphically intensive games, I really wouldn't recommend this as the drop in performance is quite significant. It drops frame rates by about 15–20%, turning it more decidedly into something like an RTX 5070 machine, and the fan noise reduction isn't really worth that. But for less demanding games where you don't need that extra 15+%, it's a good shout.

I also tried disabling the 'Apex Mode' which pushes things to the max, even above the 'Extreme Performance' defaults, but I found there to be little in it, just a 1-3% decrease in performance and basically no change in max temps, just 1 °C lower for the GPU.

Overall, I'm pretty impressed with how this Stealth performs given its sleek form factor and pleasant-sounding fans (they do get loud, just not in an obnoxious way). You're getting better performance than an RTX 5070 laptop in a form factor that's usually reserved for more mid-range and less thermally expulsive internals. If you want the best performance possible from a high-end machine, this isn't it, but if you're willing to sacrifice a little for the sleek design, it's stellar.

System performance

The laptops are here tested against intensive benchmarks that mostly test the CPU, but also the GPU, for productivity tasks.

7zip 24.07Cinebench 2024Blender 4.2.0 (junkshop)Procyon

Compressing (GIPS)

Decompressing (GIPS)

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | Intel Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (125 W)

105.399

98.828

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | Intel Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (135 W)

117.88

100.88

Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX | RTX 5080 (175 W)

162.454

184.259

Framework 16 | AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 | RTX 5070

108.822

128.355

050100150200

7zip 24.07 Data

Product	Value
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | Intel Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (125 W)	105.399 Compressing (GIPS), 98.828 Decompressing (GIPS)
Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | Intel Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (135 W)	117.88 Compressing (GIPS), 100.88 Decompressing (GIPS)
Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX | RTX 5080 (175 W)	162.454 Compressing (GIPS), 184.259 Decompressing (GIPS)
Framework 16 | AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 | RTX 5070	108.822 Compressing (GIPS), 128.355 Decompressing (GIPS)

Multi-core index score

Single-core index score

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | Intel Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (125 W)

1221

124

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | Intel Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (135 W)

1215

124

Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX | RTX 5080 (175 W)

2039

138

Framework 16 | AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 | RTX 5070

1158

105

07501,5002,2503,000

Cinebench 2024 Data

Product	Value
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | Intel Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (125 W)	1221 Multi-core index score, 124 Single-core index score
Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | Intel Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (135 W)	1215 Multi-core index score, 124 Single-core index score
Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX | RTX 5080 (175 W)	2039 Multi-core index score, 138 Single-core index score
Framework 16 | AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 | RTX 5070	1158 Multi-core index score, 105 Single-core index score

CPU (samples/min)

GPU (samples/min)

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | Intel Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (125 W)

79.43

1691.37

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | Intel Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (135 W)

85.5

1642.33

Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX | RTX 5080 (175 W)

156.29

1883.93

Framework 16 | AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 | RTX 5070

93.15

1026.08

05001,0001,5002,000

Blender 4.2.0 (junkshop) Data

Product	Value
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | Intel Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (125 W)	79.43 CPU (samples/min), 1691.37 GPU (samples/min)
Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | Intel Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (135 W)	85.5 CPU (samples/min), 1642.33 GPU (samples/min)
Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX | RTX 5080 (175 W)	156.29 CPU (samples/min), 1883.93 GPU (samples/min)
Framework 16 | AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 | RTX 5070	93.15 CPU (samples/min), 1026.08 GPU (samples/min)

Overall index score

Duration (Sec)

Sec/image

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | Intel Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (125 W)

2472

40.44

2.53

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | Intel Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (135 W)

2464

40.57

2.53

Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX | RTX 5080 (175 W)

2853

35.05

2.19

Framework 16 | AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 | RTX 5070

1789

55.9

3.49

07501,5002,2503,000

Procyon Data

Product	Value
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | Intel Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (125 W)	2472 Overall index score, 40.44 Duration (Sec), 2.53 Sec/image
Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | Intel Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (135 W)	2464 Overall index score, 40.57 Duration (Sec), 2.53 Sec/image
Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX | RTX 5080 (175 W)	2853 Overall index score, 35.05 Duration (Sec), 2.19 Sec/image
Framework 16 | AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 | RTX 5070	1789 Overall index score, 55.9 Duration (Sec), 3.49 Sec/image

The MSI Stealth 16 AI+ keeps up with similar laptops for productivity, though struggles to match the chops of a 175 W RTX 5080 and more powerful Core Ultra 9 275HX.

Productivity-wise, the story is very much the same. It's a high-end laptop, but the CPU that MSI has opted for compromises in raw horsepower to keep things light and efficient enough for the slim design.

The Core Ultra 9 257HX in the Legion 7i Pro Gen10 runs rings around the Core Ultra 9 386H in this laptop in some benchmarks (Cinebench an 7Zip) and performs just moderately better in the rest. The Stealth's Intel chip does outperform the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 in the Framework 16, though. It's far from a bad chip, just know that you can get better if you're willing to opt for a chunkier and potentially louder laptop.

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ B3W Thermals

Real-world gaming temperatures

Gaming temperature results recorded during multiple Metro Exodus EE runs

Gaming temperatures

Avg CPU (°C)

Max CPU (°C)

Avg GPU (°C)

Max GPU (°C)

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | Intel Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (125 W)

92

100

81

87

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | Intel Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (135 W)

72

98

69

77

Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX | RTX 5080 (175 W)

94

105

74

79

Framework 16 | AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 | RTX 5070

65

73

68

71

037.575112.5150

Gaming temperatures Data

Product	Value
MSI Stealth 16 AI+ | Intel Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (125 W)	92 Avg CPU (°C), 100 Max CPU (°C), 81 Avg GPU (°C), 87 Max GPU (°C)
Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) | Intel Core Ultra 9 386H | RTX 5080 (135 W)	72 Avg CPU (°C), 98 Max CPU (°C), 69 Avg GPU (°C), 77 Max GPU (°C)
Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10 | Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX | RTX 5080 (175 W)	94 Avg CPU (°C), 105 Max CPU (°C), 74 Avg GPU (°C), 79 Max GPU (°C)
Framework 16 | AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 | RTX 5070	65 Avg CPU (°C), 73 Max CPU (°C), 68 Avg GPU (°C), 71 Max GPU (°C)

The CPU in the MSI Stealth 16 AI+ runs pretty hot, but that's par for the course for an Intel chip. The GPU, however, runs notably hotter than other laptops we've tested. It stays well within safe limits, though.

Both the Intel processor and the Nvidia GPU in the Stealth 16 AI+ B3W can get pretty toasty, whether gaming or doing productivity tasks. That being said, I've definitely seen some Intel chips get hotter. The GPU, on the other hand, reaches higher max temps than others I've seen, but still stays under 90 °C and well within safe limits.

Importantly, the underside of the laptop doesn't get too hot other than right at the back near the screen, behind the stand-off ridge. If you position the laptop right, you can keep that part from touching your legs when you have it on your lap, but if you don't get it right, be prepared to feel the burn. Ditto touching above the Function keys, which gets very hot while the rest of the keyboard area stays just warm.

And when it comes to the fans, these are fantastic (ba dum tsh). They get loud when they're working hard, but no louder than other gaming PCs I've heard when pushing things to the max. The difference here is they have nary a semblance of whine to them, just a pleasant whoosh, like a desk fan on a warm summer's day.

Turning the performance profile down to Balanced, the same timbre is maintained but things obviously get a little quieter. It's not night-and-day, though, and as I said previously, I'd rather get the extra frames. Only if I'm trying to hear audio out of the speakers would I lower things down to Balanced—with headphones on that have a good seal around them, the fans on Extreme Performance mode aren't audible while gaming anyway.

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ B3W Aesthetics

I was immediately surprised by just how sleek and subtle the Stealth 16 AI+ B3W is. MSI's choice here makes for exactly my cup of tea because I like my laptops to be ones I'm not afraid to take out at a cafe or around less gamer-accepting folk (you know the ones).

The 'Stealth' in its name, then, for me means it can fly somewhat under the radar as a gaming machine when I'm out and about (assuming I have the RGB turned off), but reveal its true gaming power when I get home. And in this sense it definitely succeeds, even given the power limitation caveat mentioned in the section above.

It might seem a little greedy of me, given how well it delivers on the understated, professional look, but I think it could have potentially leaned even further in this direction. For instance, it could have got rid of the subtle embossed pattern on the lid entirely, like how Asus does with its TUF A14, another laptop I love.

That being said, the MSI is almost all the way there, and I really can't complain. Subtle metal styling and a giant trackpad just does it for me.

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ B3W Software

MSI's software is nothing to write home about, but it's fine. Just fine, nothing more, nothing less. I like that you get to choose which modules to install, so you can only keep what you need running. For me, that was just the RGB lighting control and performance mode selections. The interface is clean, if not very aesthetically pleasing. It's not the most intuitive to navigate given the different add-on module sections/names, but once you get used to it it's (you guessed it) fine.

Other than that, the laptop came with Norton installed, which is worth uninstalling, in my opinion. I don't see much need for anything other than Microsoft Defender these days, and if I were going to have another antivirus on there I'd go for ESET, but that's a personal choice. Norton let me uninstall it pretty easily, at any rate.

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ B3W Battery life

Battery life

Testing how long the battery lasts in Balanced mode, medium brightness, Wi-Fi disconnected, in the PCMark 10 gaming battery life test.

PCMark 10

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026)

117

Framework 16

131

Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10

73

MSI Stealth 16 AI+

104

037.575112.5150

Battery life (minutes)

PCMark 10 Data

Product	Value
Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026)	117
Framework 16	131
Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10	73
MSI Stealth 16 AI+	104

The MSI Stealth 16 AI+ lasts a fair amount of time thanks to its efficient processor while in balanced mode and its RTX 5080's lower TDP. It doesn't quite keep up with some other laptops like the Framework 16, however.

Battery life is really helped out by the relatively efficient Panther Lake CPU here. I didn't run out of battery during a workday when in Balanced mode, and in the PCMark 10 battery life test, it fared a lot better than the Legion 7i Pro Gen10 when set to Balanced mode, showing the benefit of the power-limited GPU and more efficiency-focused CPU.

Saying that, it didn't last as long as the HX 370-touting Framework 16, though that is probably due to the GPU rather than the CPU. In all, though, almost two hours of gameplay is a good result, and shows another benefit of the thermal and efficiency focus here.

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ B3W Value

It's hard to know what exactly to compare this laptop with. On the one hand, it could be compared to chunky gaming powerhouses like the Lenovo Legion 7i Pro Gen10. On the other hand, it could be compared to something like the similarly sleek and luxurious Razer Blade.

The best laptop for comparison right now, however, is probably the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026). Our Andy reviewed that laptop recently, and it shares the same CPU and GPU, although there's slightly less of a power nerf to the RTX 5080 in that laptop (it runs at up to 135 W unless fully manually unlocked to 160 W, compared to 125 W with the MSI).

The configuration with 32 GB of RAM (not tested by us) can be found for $4,400 at Best Buy right now, which is $400 more expensive than the Stealth. But given the high price, that's just an extra 10%, making the two in roughly the same ballpark. And I have to agree with Andy's sentiment here that it's not straightforward to square such a whopper price tag against the likes of cheaper but more performant high-end laptops like the Legion Pro 7i. At the time of writing, you can pick up an RTX 5080 version of that laptop for just over $3,500.

It would be a close call but I might spend the extra $500 on the MSI for its slim chassis and premium, satisfying keyboard and trackpad, plus its fancy OLED. There is, however, a big 'but'. And that is the audio issue I mentioned earlier.

I pretty much only ever use a USB audio device, but if I wanted to play shooters on the laptop using the default audio device, I'd be hesitant to spend so much on this laptop without a fix for the audio latency from MSI. As such, I can't recommend it as clearly as I otherwise would. Certainly not for $4,000.

However, if you're like me and only ever use USB headphones/earphones when you load up shooters and other games that benefit from snappy audio, and if you're happy sacrificing a little performance for portability and a 'fine out in public' aesthetic, it's worth it. Well, for 2026 prices, at least.