MSI Stealth 16 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport A13V review: a fast, creative Ultrabook that goes the distance

The MSI Stealth 16 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport A13V is simply a premium portable workstation pitched astatine originative professionals that request thing that tin spell anyplace with them. This instrumentality offers a bully equilibrium of show and longevity successful a professional-looking and highly portable package.

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MSI Stealth 16 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport A13V: One-Minute Review

MSI has partnered with car institution Mercedes AMG connected a customized Stealth 16 Studio A13V laptop dubbed the Stealth 16 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport A13V. This sleek 16-inch ultra-portable is technically pitched astatine originative professionals, with workplace drivers and Windows 11 Pro, but it’s a blurry enactment astatine champion since MSI is besides blessed to boast astir it’s gaming prowess. 

There’s a 16-inch OLED surface with 4K solution up beforehand that volition enactment arsenic good for nonrecreational video and colour work, arsenic it volition for immersive single-player gaming. It is lone 60Hz susceptible however, truthful it won’t suit each play style, but afloat DCI-P3 colour and a agleam show is perfectly suited to originative ocular work. 

The instrumentality uses blimpish thermal plan powerfulness maximums to support value down to a full of 1.88kg. This besides means you’ll get tenable artillery beingness lasting up to 7 hours and 8 minutes, but it besides means that show doesn't lucifer the workstations that aren’t trying to support a slim and airy signifier factor. 

You’ll get 100 frames-per-second averages moving games astatine FullHD Ultra settings, but you’d decidedly privation to tally titles successful QHD oregon 4K successful bid to utilise the powerfulness connected connection from the Intel Core i9-13900H CPU and a 105W Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU. 

You tin get somewhat thicker gaming Ultrabooks with amended show for notably less, but you’ll mostly instrumentality a coagulated deed successful artillery life. This is simply a premium instrumentality for those that privation large show and the champion imaginable artillery beingness successful an highly portable and professional-looking package. 

MSI Stealth 16 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport A13V review: Price and availability

• Retails for $2,899 / £2,399 / AU $5,499
• Available present successful the US, UK and AU

The Stealth 16 Mercedes AMG Motorsport A13V is disposable present successful 1 main configuration for the US, UK and Australian regions. The recommended retail terms lands astatine $2,899 / £2,399 / AU $5,499 and comes with a bundle of exclusive merch' including a gaming mouse, mousepad, a dual USB, a pouch (for immoderate important things), and a cablegram necktie for either the powerfulness ceramic oregon your Lewis Hamilton-styled antheral bun. 

The terms is much costly than galore competitor's, with Razer and Asus some offering akin configurations for less. The MSI  Stealth 16 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport A13V does connection further artillery beingness implicit the competition, but you bash person to wage other for it. 

• Value score: 3.5 / 5

MSI Stealth 16 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport A13V: Specs

On the full this is simply a good balanced spec sheet. The 4K show whitethorn person been an contented if this was a dedicated gaming laptop (since it’s lone got a 60Hz refresh rate), but it’s perfectly suited to idiosyncratic wanting to usage it for originative work. 

The CPU is powerful, but lone draws 45W (unlike immoderate of the apical higher halfway 13th gen i9 chips) and it pairs nicely with the 105W Nvidia RTX 4070 GPU to connection powerfulness without wholly disregarding artillery life. 

The 32GB RAM allocation volition beryllium capable for galore nonrecreational workflows and the 2TB SSD is accelerated and expansive capable for a modern originative pro.  

A much elaborate specs database similar this:

MSI Stealth 16 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport A13V review: Design

• 4K OLED screen
• Powerful components
• Good battery

The Stealth 16 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport A13V is an ultra-portable 16-inch nonrecreational laptop with a discrete Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics paper and a 13th procreation Intel i9 processor. Usually having this overmuch powerfulness leads to laptops that are bulkier and person constricted artillery life, but the A13V has a generous 99.9Wh artillery and a 4.2lbs (1.88kg) full weight, truthful it’s designed to beryllium casual to enactment with connected the go. 

This portability absorption extends done the exterior design, offering a premium feeling magnesium-aluminum chassis that keeps the instrumentality rigid astatine conscionable 0.85 inches (2.2cm) and a powerfulness ceramic that isn’t arsenic ample arsenic you mightiness expect from a laptop this powerful. 

The Mercedes branding is muted capable to beryllium palatable for those that are indifferent to the partnership, and determination aren't immoderate outlandish plan tweaks since the astir notable changes are cosmetic golf-ball-dimples added to the edges and rear vents, and a chequered emblem effect connected the abstraction bar. 

The keyboard is simply a tenable membrane-based setup with capable question to beryllium comfy to benignant connected and quiescent capable to enactment successful communal spaces. It does inactive see MSI’s coveted RGB per-key backlighting array truthful you tin customize however you privation your keyboard to look. 

MSI utilized Mercedes' audio constituent shaper Burmester to nutrient the talker array for the laptop and the 6 talker array sounds large for media playback. This is, of course, complimented by the 4K OLED show with Vesa DisplayHDR 600 colour and brightness certification to marque it an exceptionally appealing instrumentality to ticker (and create) audio-visual contented on. 

The instrumentality comes with a 1080p webcam that tin manually beryllium shuttered and an infra-red camera for speedy Windows Hello sign-in. It’s besides got the different modular concern diagnostic of a fingerprint scholar and offers a wide scope of ports and interface options for a modern laptop.   

• Design score: 4.5 / 5

MSI Stealth 16 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport A13V review: Performance

• Balanced workstation performance
• Fast interface options

An Intel Core i9-13900H CPU and a 105W Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU is simply a beauteous almighty strategy configuration that’s susceptible of awesome originative performance. The CPU isn’t the astir almighty disposable connected a laptop today, outpaced by Intel’s unlocked 13th gen i9 and i7 processors (which person much show cores) and AMD’s Ryzen 9 7940HS, but it is inactive precise competent and volition beryllium susceptible of handling demanding workloads. 

The aforesaid could beryllium said astir the 105W RTX 4070, which is outperformed by systems consenting to divert further powerfulness to the graphical capabilities, but which inactive offers respectable framework rates of astir 100 fps connected modern titles utilizing 1080p settings. This level of GPU output offers adjacent to 60% amended show than an Apple MacBook Pro 16 and the Stealth 16’s little wattage GPU is capable to support up with a 140W RTX 4070 connected a Razer Blade 14 for astir synthetic benchmarks.

This show volition driblet backmost with much accordant loads since higher powered 4070 GPUs offered 5% to 8% higher framerates crossed gaming benchmarks, but it’s not arsenic large a quality arsenic you mightiness expect. 

The SSD manages work speeds of 6473MB/s and constitute speeds of 4707MB/s which isn't precisely breaking records, but it is the latest spec of PCIe interior drive, meaning transferring ample files tin hap amazingly quickly. Combine that with Wi-Fi 6E oregon the nonstop Gigabit ethernet transportation and you’ve got a setup that tin determination contented arsenic speedy arsenic anything. 

• Performance score: 4 / 5

MSI Stealth 16 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport A13V review: Battery life

• 7 hr 8 infinitesimal enactment lifespan 
• 6 hr 36 infinitesimal movie playback
• Sub 2 hr gaming lifespan

Battery beingness is 1 of the main drawcards of the Stealth 16 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport A13V. Sure it’s not the astir 20 hours you’ll get connected a MacBook Pro 16, but it’s a heap much than the 4-ish hours you’ll get from a modular gaming laptop.

We got a precise tenable people of 7 hours and 8 minutes of airy enactment utilizing PCMark 8 Home artillery benchmark, which translates into 6 hours and 36 minutes for 1080p movie playback.

You should expect these lifespans to driblet to nether 2 hours erstwhile engaging the GPU, truthful if you request to bash aggravated enactment we wouldn’t urge leaving the charger behind. 

• Battery beingness score: 3.5 / 5

Should you bargain the MSI Stealth 16 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport A13V?

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How I tested the MSI Stealth 16 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport A13V

• I tested it utilizing some benchmark tests and video crippled benchmarks
• I stress-tested the artillery utilizing the TechRadar movie test

I ran the MSI Stealth 16 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport A13V done our modular suite of benchmarks to get a consciousness for the laptop's highest show and to spot however it compares with the champion connected the market.

In summation to our modular suite of testing, I besides tested the instrumentality utilizing it for a time of enactment to spot however it fares erstwhile typing, web browsing, moving and for airy photograph and video editing tasks. 

The surface was analysed utilizing TechRadar's modular movie trial and was compared against different screens moving modular web browsing and movie editing software. 

The artillery beingness was benchmarked with 2 tests to simulate antithetic artillery beingness scenarios.

Read much astir how we trial laptops and desktops.

First reviewed September 2023