Stealth A16 AI+ 16” 240Hz QHD+ OLED Gaming Laptop: AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, NVIDIA Geforce RTX 5080, 32GB DDR5, 2TB NVMe SSD, Wi-Fi 7, Win 11 Home :Core Black A3XWIG-076US

I have a 5-year-old MSI Stealth that I love (gen 12 Intel and RTX 2060), but it was quite literally falling apart, despite the fact it still works flawlessly. Time to give that one to the kid for college. Prior to this one I had a Razer Blade I also loved.I did my research and settled on a new Razer Blade 16, but it was sold out and I thought I'd wait. In that time I continued to read reviews and apparently the build quality isn't the same as my old Blade. My research led me back to the MSI Stealth, but I'm skeptical of AMD CPUs (even the new Razer was AMD). I've used dozens of AMD CPUS over the past 30 years and the failure rate is astounding... they just run hot and die... I have three dead ones stacked up on my workbench now. I've NEVER had an Intel CPU die... not once, and I've worked with thousands. Pretty much every laptop maker has elected against current gen Intel CPUs, so we'll see how time treats this one. Maybe this time will be different, right?With that said, I thought I'd point out some pros and cons with this model compared to my last model:Pros- Number pad. I guess with the 16-inch over the 15, there's now room for it on the keyboard. I don't need it and didn't miss it on my 15-inch, but I like it and will use it.- VERY easy to pop off the bottom to maintain/upgrade.- Audio sounds way better.- Still slim and boring on the outside with none of the flashy alien spaceship crap of other gaming/power laptops. I have to be able to still be a professional when I'm working on the go with this thing, and looking ridiculous just isn't an option.Cons- I did my research and every search and video i could find said this model has a second SSD slot. Take note, THERE IS NOT A SECOND SSD SLOT on the Stealth A16 AI+ A3XWJG (see attached photo)! I almost wrapped it up and sent it back over this, but I concluded I'll just upgrade to a larger single drive later. A microSD card reader would have made me happy in lieu of this caveat, but oh well.- AMD being the problem here again, the memory is soldered on the motherboard and it's not possible to upgrade. I typically don't upgrade the memory so that's ok, but I have had memory fail on computers before. I'm now forced to rely on the warranty in the event the memory fails resulting in a complete system failure. I'm very leery of this, especially on a $4,000+ machine. There was also no warranty sticker on the bottom covering any of the screws... am I screwed if there's an issue? Praying for no issues... I shouldn't have to is my point.- Glossy display. I'm not sure why these are becoming common again. The thing's a mirror and reflects everything. Simple daylight will blind you. And nearly impossible to keep clean. I much prefer the matte screens of old, but not a deal breaker.- One less USB port. Not a deal breaker. I bought a docking station for when I need more.- Power cable shape and/or location. It's darn near the center on the right side and sticks straight out... into every right-handed person's mouse hand. Either move it to the rear of the right side, move t to the left side, or angle the cord again.- The software didn't work out of the box. I was getting 5-minute boot times (Windows was clearly looking for something and couldn't find it) and audio driver conflicts that prevented the audio from working. I removed all the partitions from the SSD and did a clean install... works flawlessly now.- The MSI BIOS is limited and minimal. Toggles and options you'd expect in the BIOS are on the software-side in MSI Center; like the toggle for which graphic chip to use, etc. I don't like being locked into that app because it's slow, glitchy and archaic, but it's ok.- The backlit keys are very dim compared to my old model, which was bright. I also don't like how there's only one button to cycles through the brightness options. I liked the old up and down buttons.One of the least exciting upgrades I've ever made. There are always some tradeoffs, but I felt like I was losing more than I was gaining this time around. I could care less about all the AI crap, which is just a marketing gimmick for a tool I didn't ask for and won't use. Overall, a nice machine and I'll see how it holds up for the next few years.

Nice piece of machinery! Great laptop and MSI always purs out a good product. I do have a little bit of buyers remorse because its great to have a 5070ti but sucks to play on a 16" screen