MSI Stealth 14 Unboxing

Preface

There aren't many 14-inch all-around laptop choices.

• The ThinkBook 14 has good texture, but its build quality is poor, and the power delivery/performance is also subpar.
• The Tianxuan Air has powerful performance release, but it feels very plasticky and cheap-looking.

Moreover, neither of these can have its memory expanded. Originally, the Tianxuan Air's chassis/mold (模具) was nearly perfect, but the inability to expand memory is still a bit frustrating—32GB really isn't enough.

So, after constantly surfing the web, I discovered this niche machine from MSI. Its memory is expandable, but it only has one SSD slot...

Also, MSI's gaming laptops seem to belong to a relatively niche business line, and their scheduling and optimization are not very good (though they are reportedly quite customizable, allowing you to tinker with them yourself. But do people really enjoy tweaking and tinkering with their own machines?)

Packaging

The packaging of the Shadow 14 (绝影14) is incredibly bulky—clearly in a different weight class compared to other laptops.

I feel like it's even heavier than the previous Winged Dragon 15 Pro (翼龙15Pro).

There's another layer wrapped inside 😂

You think that's it? How naive—there's yet another layer inside 😂

This Intel logo looks pretty cool.

This white box is the actual one you need to unbox 😂

Unboxing

What is a premium brand (tactical lean-back)

The packaging exudes a sense of premium feel (and the pricing is indeed premium too)

This cardboard box is incredibly thick, and the opening method is very unique. Anyway, it's just different from other computers, very un-eco-friendly 😂

Accessories

It's actually the manual and charger.

But this charger is seriously a big brick.

It's much larger and heavier than the one for the ASUS TUF Gaming A15 (华硕天选Air).

Truly terrifying.

No wonder the box was so heavy!

Laptop

This bag also looks quite premium, pretty thick.

A-side (cover), the model I chose is the panda color scheme.

Opening the lid!

This keyboard protective cloth is a very soft velvet fabric. I feel like it can be used to wipe the screen, so I got a bonus—it's the Apple cloth that sells for several thousand yuan (just kidding)! 😃

The so-called panda color scheme.

Means the A-side (cover) and D-side (bottom) are white, while the B-side (display) and C-side (keyboard area) are both black.

The look is okay, but this sticker on the C-side is a bit of a letdown...

D-side (bottom).

Pretty standard.

Hardware Information

As per tradition, let's jump straight to screenshots.

Hardware Information from Tuban Toolbox

The SSD is from Samsung, which is quite rare

The memory is a single 16G stick, with another slot available for easy expansion

The only downside is there is only one M2 interface

Solid-State Drive Information (固态信息)

Power-on hours and read/write counts are normal

Solid State Drive Speed Test

Pretty good performance level

Stress Test

Welcome to the much-anticipated stress test phase.

Single CPU Stress Test

Single CPU stress test, 100W, 88°C, with multiple instances of hitting the power limit and throttling

GPU Stress Test

GPU stress test, 90W, similar to the previous TUF Gaming Air 4060

Dual Stress Test

The power distribution during the dual stress test is a bit awkward. The CPU is only getting 34W, while the GPU is maxed out at 90W. This power management would be acceptable if it were the 8845 processor, but the Ultra9 processor doesn't perform strongly at this power level, which could become a bottleneck affecting frame rates.

Benchmarking

Now it's time for the benchmarking segment.

3DMark

As usual, the Timespy score is slightly lower than the Tianxuan Air for the GPU, but the CPU score doesn't fall behind compared to the AI 9 HX 370, though the real-world experience may vary...

Master Lu (娱乐大师)

The CPU benchmark score in Master Lu is much lower compared to the AI 9 HX 370.

Summary

That's a wrap for the 2024 laptop unboxing posts! Next up, I might find time to write a brief recap of 2024 (it's already March 2025, haha!).

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The MSI Stealth 14 is in an awkward position. As an all-rounder, it's not light enough at 1.8kg, getting easily outclassed by the Tianxuan Air's 1.4kg.

As a gaming laptop, its performance release isn't quite sufficient, especially since the CPU is paired with the first-generation Ultra, which can be a bit challenging to handle during a dual-stress test.

However, I've heard that MSI's BIOS has high customization potential, so perhaps you could tinker and tune it yourself.