MSI Stealth 16 Studio (A13V) – Top 5 Pros and Cons
The line between gaming and business/workstation laptops is becoming incredibly thin, as the same hardware that helps you render videos and model 3D objects can push frames in games like a madman. MSI is gearing up its Stealth series of notebooks in 2023, offering several versions. Here we have the Stealth 16 Studio, a device that’s literally a portable studio, as it has the performance, the display options, and the flair to get you the respect you deserve as a creator. With that said, today’s machine doesn’t go easy on the budget by any stretch of the imagination, however, it’s worth it considering everything you’re getting. Today we’ll show you some of it, but to get the full picture, our full in-depth review will be linked as well.
Today we’re presenting you with LaptopMedia’s top 5 picks about the MSI Stealth 16 Studio (A13V).
MSI Stealth 16 Studio (A13V): Full Specs / In-depth Review
4 reasons to BUY the MSI Stealth 16 Studio (A13V)
1. Design and build quality
The Stealth laptop lives up to its name, with an incognito full metal chassis. It’s an aluminum-magnesium alloy, which is light and durable. The lid and base do have significant resistance to twists, however, both flex just a tiny bit. Twisting the base also gives a slight squeak, which isn’t ideal, however, it doesn’t happen in day-to-day use, so you won’t hear it most of the time. The whole surface of the base and the lid is matte, while a metal part on the backside remains glossy. The logo on the back of the lid is both visible and stealthy at the same time.
On the sides, the I/O is one of the fullest that we’ve seen, with one USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 2) port, one Type-C port of the same speed, a Thunderbolt 4 port, an HDMI 2.1 connector, a LAN port, one MicroSD card reader, and a 3.5 mm audio jack. The laptop includes a six-speaker setup, with two units on the base, while the four others are found on the bottom panel.
2. Display quality
The display selection offers several 16:10 IPS panels with a high refresh rate. We tested a QHD+ model with a 165Hz refresh rate, excellent viewing angles, and a peak brightness of 557 nits. It also fully covers the sRGB and DCI-P3 color gamuts, providing crispy and punchy images for both content creation as well as consumption, as movies and shows look exceptional on it. The laptop is very quick as well, with a 7 ms response time, so even gaming is doable and recommended.
The colors can get incredibly accurate as well, as with our Design and Gaming profile the dE value is lowered to 0.6. This is in the DCI-P3 color space. Here are the results of our test with both the stock settings (left) and with our profile applied (right).
Buy our profiles
Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for MSI Stealth 16 Studio (A13V) configuration with 16.0″ AUO B160QAN02.3 (AUO26A9) (2560×1600) IPS.
*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].
Read more about the profiles HERE.
In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.
Office Work
Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.
Design and Gaming
This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.
Health-Guard
Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.
Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount
3. Performance
The performance that comes out of the Core i7-13700H and the RTX 4070 is fantastic, considering the more portable nature of the laptop. The Core i7 scores better than any other Core i7 from previous years while delivering pretty much the same benchmark scores as the Core i5-13500HX, a 55W chip with the same 14 cores and 20 threads.
The RTX 4070, running at 105W delivers more performance than the 150W RTX 3070 Ti in both the Razer Blade 17 and the Acer Nitro 5, so the performance is more than enough for gaming at QHD.
4. Upgradeability
The upgradeability of the machine is fantastic, with two SODIMM slots for DDR5 memory, as well as two M.2 slots for Gen 4 SSDs, which are easily accessible by popping the bottom panel open.
Here’s our teardown video of the MSI Stealth 16 Studio, which shows you how to do it.
1 reason NOT to buy the MSI Stealth 16 Studio (A13V)
1. Keyboard
If we had to find any qualms about the laptop, the keyboard lacks the long key travel that would really put it up there in terms of being a business/gaming hybrid. Still, the unit is full-sized and has a per-key RGB backlight. On the base, you can also find the touchpad, which is incredibly responsive as well as the fingerprint reader.