MSI Stealth 14 Studio (2023) – Review

The Stealth 14 Studio is part of the ultra-portable gaming laptops that MSI has introduced, but do not judge it on its size. Sure, the laptop may disappear in your bag easily, but when it is time to play, it will be ready to perform. The redesign has also worked in its favor, as it looks sleeker, smaller and offers better portability. While it is not cheap and battery life is a miss, it does not give you any complaints in terms of performance.

Design and features

The latest entry in the Stealth Series, the Stealth 14 Studio is a beefed-up and slimmed down version of the Stealth 15M that was introduced in 2021. A 15-inch model had been introduced in 2022 with some tweaks, but this revision comes with bigger changes. It is lighter, smaller and more portable and offers a bigger battery, a drastically improved screen and a stylish new design.

The fact that it has a 14-inch display may seem as a downgrade, but it is not the case because it comes with a 16:10 ratio, offering you more vertical space and is a lot more vibrant and brighter. The base model comes with a Full HD screen that has a refresh rate of 165Hz, or you can also upgrade it to QHD for a display that offers a 1600p resolution and a refresh rate of 240Hz.

The smaller screen also makes the laptop considerably more portable. MSI has also been able to shave off sound ounces, as the weight has now dropped to 3.75 pounds, which is a 6% decline from the previous version. The laptop now measures 12.4 x 9.69 x 0.75 inches, making it easy to fit into a bag.

Performance

Even though it is smaller in size, the Stealth 14 Studio is able to offer a much better performance for both content creation and gaming. It comes with an Intel Core i7-13700H processor that goes all the way to 5GHz for offering higher frame rates in-game. The 14 cores are divided between eight efficiency and six performance cores to ensure that processor power is not split with background tasks.

There is also an Nvidia RTX 4050, or RTX 4060 graphics card included, depending on which model you get and memory also varies at 6GB and 8GB. You also get a 1TB SSD when you upgrade the graphics card.

The chassis

There have been some major changes made to the chassis in this year’s model. The last two laptops had been quite sturdy, but their matte and dark finishes started looking messy quickly because they picked up fingerprints. This time around, MSI has made the switch to a magnesium-aluminum alloy, available in black or white, and it is lightweight, solid and mostly smudge-resistant.

The laptop looks fantastic and it also has RGB lighting, with the keyboard the major showcase. MSI partnered with SteelSeries for delivering its per-key programming and lighting effects.