MSI aims for opulence and sheer luxury with the Mercedes

Aug 10, 2023

Va va vroom.

There's one thing that car aficionados and PC enthusiasts have in common: the need for speed! MSI and Mercedes-AMG Motorsport know this fact all too well, and as such, brings forth the collaboration we might not need, but definitely want, by introducing the Stealth 16 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport A13V laptop.

At first glance, it's beautiful. Gone are the days of garish plastics and obnoxious RGB to symbolise speed. The Stealth 16 brings subtle elegance thanks to an all-metal frame design and simple yet striking red accents appropriately placed at the bottom rear of the chassis with the stealth logo cleverly embedded between the gradient-like checkerboard flags. MSI FTW, it most likely suggests.

Move on to the main body and you will find the checkerboard flag aesthetic carries over to the space bar and webcam area, while the edges hold finer details such as textured grooves doubling as speaker grills. To my eye these closely resembles a carbon front grill variation of a Mercedes AMG GT-S. Brilliant.

Oh, and if you’re looking for logos, there are aplenty; a signature AMG badge etched out at the bottom front of the chassis, an MSI x Mercedes-AMG Motorsport collaborative logo dead centre at the bottom of the laptop display chin, as well as on the top frame that reveals itself when closed. Finally, there's yet another MSI / Mercedes logo featured at the bottom-left corner of the frame when turned around on its back.

The spec sheet reveals that MSI ramps up specification. As such, the Stealth 16 offers solid performance and plenty of I/O to boot, making it a well-rounded affair. First off, the OLED display features a 16:10, 3840 x 2400 resolution at 60Hz, and while gamers won't like the omission of a high-refresh-rate display option, creatives and business users will surely appreciate its crispy clean visual experience.

What's more, it features an exclusive Dynaudio six-speaker system to match, which the company says mirrors the Burmester premium audio experience found in Mercedes AMG cars, providing unparalleled audio quality and performance. I can hear that engine roaring already.

Moving on, the laptop can be powered with the latest Intel Core i9-13900H processors married with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 laptop GPU with 8GB of GDDR6 RAM. The CPU holds 14 cores with a max turbo boost frequency of 5.4GHz on a single core, while the GPU is rated to handle up to 1,980MHz boost clock speeds at 105W maximum graphics power with dynamic boost turned on. Best plug this beast in the wall.

Rounding off, it has a dual-channel memory configuration that supports 64GB of DDR5 RAM at 5,200MT/s. Storage is handled by two expandable M.2 PCIe Gen 4 slots, so capacity ought not to be an issue.

Running through I/O ports, you get one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, a single Thunderbolt 4 Type-C port with PD Charging capabilities, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, a Micro SD card reader, an HDMI 2.1 port for external display support, and a single RJ-45 port for 2.5G Ethernet.

Let's not forget the Steel Series-made keyboard that features per-key lighting and more importantly a power button that reads ‘start engine,’ appropriately distinguished in grey. All that tech in a 355.8 x 259.7 x 19.95mm frame that weighs 1.88kg. Impressive.

The Stealth 16 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport A13V laptop has yet to receive any pricing or availability, but I know one thing, it's on my wishlist.