MSI Stealth 18 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport answers that age-old question: What would a luxury sports car look like as a gaming laptop?

MSI is no stranger to automotive crossovers. Last year the company debuted the Stealth 16 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport, though it sadly never made it to the North American market. This year, MSI has updated the Stealth 16 with improved specs, alongside an 18-inch model which will be available state-side for the first time.

As you may expect, the Stealth 18 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport has a ton of Mercedes-Benz and AMG Motorsport branding. Between the logos on the top cover, underside, along the sides, and above the keyboard you definitely can’t forget which laptop you’re using.

But the bit that really put me over the edge on the Stealth 18 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport was a combination of the “Start Engine” label on the power button and the Mercedes orange color on the “W”, “A”, “S”, and “D” keys.

There’s so much detail in the design from a branding perspective for both MSI and Mercedes-AMG, it’s honestly rather impressive. There are even signatures from the CEOs of both companies on the bottom of the laptop.

MSI also offers several MSI and Mercedes-AMG branded accessories to pair with the laptop. One is a scale model of an AMG GT car with MSI branding all over it — which is, honestly, a good representation of the laptop itself. The Stealth 18 AMG almost looks like a NASCAR vehicle it has so many brand badges.

MSI Stealth 18 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport: Specs

MSI Stealth 18 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport: Pricing and configurations

The MSI Stealth 18 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport is designed to match a luxury sports car and has the price to match. Starting at $3,899, you definitely need to set aside some real funds to afford it. But then, it wouldn’t be a Mercedes-AMG crossover if it wasn’t a premium performance machine.

MSI Stealth 18 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport: Design

MSI and Mercedes-AMG Motorsport co-designed this laptop and it really shows. There’s an abundance of branding, from the very obvious logos along the top lid and sides to both CEO's signatures on the underside of the laptop. The heat vents above the keyboard read “AMG” and even the power button has been relabeled to read “Start Engine.”

The Stealth 18 also has a speaker array on the edges of the palm rest, a generous touchpad, and a satisfyingly reactive keyboard. That fact the whole laptop is under one inch thick and weighs only 6.4 pounds is shocking. The Stealth line has always been MSI’s premium thin and light gaming laptop lineup, but knowing how much is crammed into the Stealth 18 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport makes it almost impossible to comprehend.

MSI Stealth 18 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport: Ports

The Stealth 18 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport features one Thunderbolt 4 port with Power Delivery, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port with DisplayPort, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, a 3.5 mm audio combo jack, and an SD express card reader.

MSI Stealth 18 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport: Display

The 18-inch UHD+ (3,840 x 2,400) IPS panel on the Stealth 18 AMG also supports refresh rates up to 120Hz and Vesa HDR 1000. That’s enough display quality to make the Stealth 18 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Edition a worthy desktop replacement laptop.

While we’d have to test the display in our labs to be certain, the quality of the Stealth 18 AMG's panel looked impressive enough to me, even on the crowded Computex floor.

MSI Stealth 18 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport: Gaming and graphics

With an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 GPU, there aren’t many games that the Stealth 18 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport would struggle with. While it isn’t quite as powerful as the RTX 4090, few games really need the increased VRAM of Nvidia’s highest-level gaming graphics card. So a 4080 saves the Stealth 18 AMG a bit of weight while still providing crisp, high-fidelity graphics.

For more specifics on the Stealth 18’s gaming and graphics performance, we will have to wait until we can get one in our lab to put it through our standard gaming benchmarks. However, based on my hands-on experience at Computex, it seems like it would be more than enough.

MSI Stealth 18 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport: Performance

The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor in the Stealth 18 AMG isn’t the most powerful gaming processor out there right now, but it is a very good CPU regardless. Plus, it does give you access to the Intel Meteor Lake NPU so it is an AI PC.

That can give it a bit of hardware acceleration that may make up for the lack of raw power in the Core Ultra 9 185H compared to the more traditional Core i9-14900HX.

As usual, we can’t make any concrete claims about the performance of the Stealth 18 until we can get it into the Laptop Mag testing lab. But things do look promising.

Outlook

The MSI Stealth 18 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport will be available around August or September 2024. It commands a premium price, so you need to really love MSI Stealth laptops, Mercedes-AMG cars, or both to go for this one. But from what we’ve seen, it will be worth the price.

And hey, having a laptop that matches a model car on your desk is definitely a flex. It just needs the right audience.

Travel to and from and accommodation at Computex Tapei was paid for by MSI. The company did not see the contents of this article before publication.