MSI Stealth A16 AI+ A3XV Review – Slim, Sleek and Powerful Gaming Laptop with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPU tested

Portability and performance typically don’t go hand in hand with gaming laptops but MSI’s latest addition to their Stealth series gaming laptops bucks the trend as it is surprisingly light and svelte for what it has running under the hood.

Even at a glance, the new MSI Stealth A16 AI+ A3XV is a veritable checklist of what content creators or serious gamers would want in a portable gaming rig –  an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti laptop GPU paired with the latest AMD Ryzen AI 300 series CPU as well as a massive 16-inch OLED display. There’s even more than meets the eye as the laptop also supports Microsoft’s Copilot+ AI enhancements too.

MSI Malaysia loaned us a retail sample for field testing and after taking it for a whirl around the block, here’s our MSI Stealth A16 AI+ A3XV review where we share our thoughts on their latest AI-enhanced gaming portable.

MSI Stealth A16 AI+ A3XV review – Build and Design

In keeping with its designation, the MSI Stealth A16 AI+ A3XV has a chassis that features a surprisingly modest, understated matte black finish that won’t look out of place in a corporate setting with little of the gaudy RGB lighting you’d expect in a gaming laptop.

As gaming laptops go, the laptop is considered relatively slim at 21.65mm, which is a surprise seeing as it packs an NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti laptop graphics card along with the cooling array necessary to keep it working under heavy workloads. 

The laptop is also surprisingly light at 2.1kg too on account of the fact that the chassis itself makes liberal use of light but durable magnesium-aluminium alloy to save on weight without compromising on durability.

Much like the rest of the chassis, the top lid of our MSI Stealth A16 AI+ A3XV review sample is done up in a matte black finish with the MSI Dragonarmy logo subtly emblazoned in the centre quadrant. The top lid is also made of magnesium-aluminium alloy and proved to be sturdy without any flex or give even when prodded in the centre.

In terms of connectivity, our MSI Stealth A16 AI+ A3XV review unit comes well equipped with a comprehensive selection of ports. The left side of the laptop comes with a wired ethernet port, a HDMI 2.1 port and a USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 port while the right hosts an audio combo jack, a USB4 Type-C with Power Delivery 3.0 as well as DisplayPort support and Thunderbolt 4 connectivity.

You also get an additional USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 2 port as well as a DC-IN with a proprietary square charging port for the bundled charging brick. While a card reader would have been nice, it’s something easily solved with an external dongle though MSI doesn’t provide one with the laptop.

The underside hosts a series of rubber strips that elevate the base slightly for better air circulation and also features grilles that take up almost half of the available space for better airflow from MSI’s Cooler Boost 5 cooling array. Consisting of two heavy duty fans and seven heat pipes, the MSI Cooler Boost 5 cooling array is designed to keep the laptop cool in extended gaming sessions. Rounding things off are a pair of downwards facing grilles for the quad subwoofer array with two 2W subwoofers evenly split on each side.

Of note with the MSI Stealth A16 AI+ A3XV is its sturdy hinges that allow it to open fully flat at a 180-degree angle and are smooth enough to allow for one-handed use. Opening the laptop reveals a full-sized keyboard complete with numeric keypad, a generously sized touchpad and, oddly, a fingerprint reader inset just to the right of the touchpad.

Flanking the touchpad are a pair of upward firing Dynaudio-tuned 2W speakers. Combined with the downward firing quartet of subwoofers, the MSI Stealth A16 AI+ A3XV packs an impressive total of six speakers. Even better, the whole setup supports Hi-Res Audio content too.

The keyboard itself features per-key RGB backlighting that’s fully customisable to taste. The only quibble here is that the numeric keypad and direction keys are rather small which may deter those who are heavily reliant on a numeric keypad for their work though this isn’t a deal breaker by any means.

The keyboard also features a dedicated Copilot key to summon Microsoft’s AI assistant as needed with the laptop itself certified for Copilot+ which means that the laptop’s processor has an NPU with at least 40 TOPs to support AI operations with the  AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 CPU exceeding this minimum requirement with support for up to 50 TOPS.

The main draw here is its 16-inch QHD+ OLED display that not only offers up a 240Hz refresh rate but also features VESA DisplayHDR True Black 600 certification as well as 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut which makes it ideal for content creators who require accurate colour rendition. Up top, you get an FHD resolution webcam that also supports Windows Hello. For added privacy, the webcam also has a manual privacy shutter.

MSI hasn’t skimped on build quality here and the entire laptop looks and feels suitably premium in every way from the top lid all the way to the keyboard tray. While the charging brick is a bit on the heavy side, the laptop itself is considered relatively light and slim as gaming laptops go with a silhouette that’s compact enough to fit into most of the larger laptop backpacks.

MSI Stealth A16 AI+ A3XV review – Performance and Benchmarks

Belying its slim dimensions the MSI Stealth A16 AI+ A3XV is armed to the teeth with an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor rated for up to 50 TOPS off its NPU paired with 32GB LPDDR5X RAM and a generous 2TB SSD along with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti laptop graphics. Here’s how it stacks up on paper:

Price	RM14,799
Display	16-inch QHD+ (2,560 x 1,600 pixels), 240Hz refresh rate, VESA DisplayHDR TrueBlack 600 Certified, 100% DCI-P3
Processor	AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 CPU with up to 50 NPU TOPS (up to 80 AI tops)
OS	Windows 11 Home
Graphics	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti laptop GPU (up to 992 AI TOPS) / AMD Radeon 890M
Memory	32GB LPDDR5X 7,500 MHZ RAM / 2 TB NVMe PCIe Gen 4 SSD
Battery	4-cell 99.9Whrs w/ 240W charging brick
Size/Weight	355.8 x 259.7 x 21.65mm / 2.1kg

This beefy array of hardware lends the MSI Stealth A16 AI+ A3XV in tandem with its colour-calibrated 100% DCI-P3 OLED display makes it an ideal choice for content creators who typically require  the pixel crunching performance to render video or edit photos and a display that is able to render accurate colours onscreen. 

Naturally, what’s good for the goose is also good for the gander and its performance in tandem with the high 240Hz refresh rate of its display also make it ideal for gamers too. Even better, its portability and up to 992 AI TOPS means that the laptop is also a viable option for AI related tasks especially for edge-based Small Language Models (SLMs) which are typically used for semi-creative related tasks like summarising meetings, cleaning up written text and the like.

In terms of synthetic benchmarks, the MSI Stealth A16 AI+ A3XV when set to Extreme Performance mode in the MSI Center laptop management app scored the following:

 

3D Mark Speed Way	3,982
3D Mark Solar Bay	66,656
3D Mark Steel Nomad	3,541
3D Mark Steel Nomad Light	16,044
3D Mark Port Royal	9,191
3D Mark Time Spy Extreme	7,239
3D Mark Time Spy	13,156
Geekbench 6 Single Core	2,861
Geekbench 6 Multi Core	15,004
Geekbench 6 OpenCL	146,314
Geekbench 6 Vulkan	134,022
Geekbench AI CPU (CPU, quantised, OpenVino)	15,377
Geekbench AI GPU (CPU, quantised, ONNX)	7,551
Cinebench 2024 CPU (Multi core)	1,210
Cinebench 2024 GPU (Single Core)	114 x10.64 MP ratio
PCMark 10 Work 3.0 Extended	10,873
PCMark 8 Battery Life (Work)	3 hours 48 mins
Cyberpunk 2077 (Ray Tracing: Overdrive)	98.54fps (Average)
Black Myth Wukong (High)	102fps (Average)
Monster Hunter Wilds (High)	93.94fps (Average)

In terms of overall performance, our MSI Stealth A16 AI+ A3XV review sample did not disappoint with impressive benchmarks across the board for single, multicore, as well as graphics and AI performance when set in Extreme Performance mode via the MSI Center app. Of note here is that the MSI Center also includes an MSI AI Engine that offers real time optimised settings for audio and system performance rather than having to tinker with them every time for specific scenarios.

In Cyberpunk 2077, it was able to tackle the highest graphics setting – Ray Tracing: Overdrive at native resolution and still managed to deliver a respectable 98.54fps. In Black Myth Wukong on high settings on native resolution, the laptop was able to serve up an impressive 102fps while the latest Monster Hunter Wilds yielded an equally impressive 93.94fps on high settings. In Call of Duty: Warzone, it did a sterling job across several back-to-back matches without any noticeable throttling. 

The 16-inch QHD+ OLED display proved to be smooth and vibrant in equal measure even with intensive action like multiple firefights, zombies and more occurring onscreen. When undertaking actual tasks like video editing in CapCut, it breezed through transition-heavy edits without a hitch. The speakers are of note, offering loud and surprisingly rich sound for both gaming and casual music listening alike.

While the dream of playing Call of Duty Warzone on your lap on the go is indeed possible, it’s also not advisable – the thin nature of its design and the hefty hardware shoehorned within the laptop tends to run hot, especially so in Extreme Performance mode.

When under intensive workloads, the CPU maxes out at a toasty 91.38°C and the GPU at up to 86.63°C with the top portion of the keyboard and much of the rear portion and underside becoming hot to the touch. You can likely dial this down to more manageable levels if you avoid gaming, stick purely to paperwork and web browsing and dial it down to lower performance settings.

In terms of battery life, the 99Whr battery is one of the largest that can be crammed into a laptop and is able to offer about an hour plus worth of gaming which is still quite a feat seeing the laptop’s size and weight. For more conventional productivity related tasks, it is able to eke out about four or so hours at average brightness though you can likely get longer battery life if you dial down the screen brightness even more and stick to purely paperwork.

In PCMark 8’s work battery life benchmark, the MSI Stealth A16 AI+ A3XV managed to get 3 hours and 48 minutes which should get you through a good chunk of paperwork.

Should you buy the MSI Stealth A16 AI+ A3XV?

The MSI Stealth A16 AI+ A3XV is a remarkably light yet powerful gaming laptop, capable of tackling the latest titles and intensive content creation with ease. It can run hot under heavy workloads, but that’s expected given the high-performance hardware inside.

If you want one of the most portable and powerful gaming laptops available – and budget isn’t a concern – this is an easy recommendation.

MSI Stealth A16 AI+ A3XV review sample courtesy of MSI Malaysia. For more details please visit https://my.msi.com/Laptop/Stealth-A16-AI-Plus-A3XWX/shopnow