MSI is well known for its impressive catalog of gaming laptops — and many of the staples in its lineup have received updates in time for us to hear about them at CES 2026. But there’s a distinct shift in focus.
The most hardcore gamers (with the biggest wallets) might be upset that MSI’s highest performance gaming laptops in the Titan series were passed over this year. But hobbyists and enthusiasts will likely appreciate that a wide range of MSI’s more affordable gaming laptops were touched up, including the slim Stealth series and the midrange Raider and Crosshair series.
It feels like MSI doesn’t want to cast the spotlight on its gaming staples for too long this time around. While the company touched up its gaming laptops, the real stars of the show are the overhauled Prestige business laptops. They’re slim, they have good battery life and MSI has committed to a design that lets you service the laptop yourself.
We have all of MSI’s big announcements from the show collected for you here. But a lot more is happening at CES 2026, so be sure to keep up with the CNET team as we catalog what’s new in the world of tech this year.
Prestige 14 AI Plus and Prestige 16 AI Plus
MSI’s Prestige business laptops are slimming down considerably as the company tries to shift its nongaming catalog into the spotlight. In addition to a pleasant design overhaul, these laptops focus on the variables that matter most to working professionals: the display, portability and battery life.
The Prestige 14 AI Plus and Prestige 16 AI Plus both have rounded edges, and the MSI logo is now branded on the back. These changes add some character to what would otherwise be very pedestrian looking laptops.
The Prestige 16 AI Plus has a much nicer screen than its 14-inch counterpart, featuring a 2,880×1,800-pixel OLED display and 120Hz refresh rate. The Prestige 14 AI Plus has a 1,920×1,200-pixel OLED display, so images won’t look quite as sharp on this model. Corning Gorilla Glass protects the display from scratches and smudges on both the 14- and 16-inch touchscreen models.
Both laptops have all-day battery life, though the Prestige 14 AI Plus ekes out up to six hours of additional uptime compared to the Prestige 16 AI Plus. It’s not at all unprecedented for modern work computers to have this sort of uptime between charges, but it’s certainly important.
The internal specs between these machines are mostly the same. The Prestige 14 AI Plus and Prestige 16 AI Plus can both house up to an Intel Core Ultra X9 processor with integrated Intel Arc B390 graphics, up to 64GB of RAM and a single M.2 2280 PCIe Gen5/Gen4 x4 SSD.
Stealth 16 AI Plus
MSI unveiled an upgrade for another of its midrange gaming laptop series with the Stealth 16 AI Plus. This is a computer that won’t quite eke out the levels of performance afforded by the latest and greatest Titan models, MSI’s beefiest series of gaming laptops. It trades in performance for a sleeker form, and in spite of its hefty weight, this is a laptop that gaming enthusiasts should comfortably be able to tote along just about anywhere.
The Stealth series is going back to being stealthy, eschewing an update to the 2025 18-inch display model in favor of a more standard size laptop. The tapered black chassis changes height across the length of the design but remains thin throughout.
The previous iteration of the Stealth 16 AI Plus weighed close to 5 pounds — it’s a heavy laptop — while the new iteration is much closer to 4 pounds. In a nice quality of life upgrade, the new model also includes two Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports, which were missing entirely from the 2025’s iteration of the laptop.
The 16-inch laptop has an OLED panel with a 2,560×1,400-pixel resolution and a 240Hz refresh rate. The screen is made of Corning Gorilla Glass, which serves as better protection from scratches and smudges.
Updates were made to the computer’s internal specs, too, of course. Intel’s silicon is going to be inside of the latest iteration of the Stealth 16 AI Plus, whereas last year’s model contained an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 CPU. The new Stealth 16 AI Plus houses an Intel Core Ultra 300H series processor. The Stealth 16 AI Plus also has two Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs, up to 128GB of RAM and two M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 x4 SSDs.
Raider 16 Max HX
It’s no MSI Titan, but the Raider series is the second most powerful lineup of gaming laptops the company has on offer. The company has refreshed the Raider 16 Max HX laptop with a new design and some light internal spec touch-ups.
The latest iteration of the Raider 16 Max HX has a lot going on visually — the black computer has a massive dragon motif on its top cover and an RGB strip integrated into the hinge. Per-key RGB lighting in the keyboard means you can stick with one color or assault your eyes with the entire rainbow at once. The laptop also has an OLED display with a 2,560×1,600-pixel resolution and 240Hz refresh rate.
Perhaps most importantly, the new Raider laptop contains a small removable back panel that grants you easy access to the RAM and SSD. If you have the basic know-how, this design allows you to service some of the parts in this laptop by yourself in the event that something goes wrong.
The Raider 16 Max HX can house up to an Intel Core Ultra 200 HX CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 series GPU, up to 128GB of RAM and dual PCIe Gen4x4 and PCIe Gen5x4 SSDs.
Crosshair 16 Max HX
MSI’s most accessible and casual-friendly gaming laptops — the Cyborg series — haven’t been showcased at CES 2026. But there are still some laptops on display that gamers with tighter purse strings might find exciting. MSI’s Crosshair series mixes fairly high-performance parts with a more affordable price tag. The company unveiled the latest update to the Crosshair 16 Max HX at CES 2026.
The dragon is subdued on the Crosshair 16 Max HX’s top cover — the visual motif is contained to a small blue emblem, which looks much cleaner than the Raider 16 Max HX. No RGB strip is built into the hinge here, but the keyboard has a 24-zone lighting setup. The Crosshair 16 Max HX has an OLED display with a 2,560×1,600-pixel resolution and 165Hz refresh rate.
This laptop can house up to an Intel Core Ultra 200HX CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 series GPU, up to 128GB of RAM and dual PCIe Gen4x4 and PCIe Gen5x4 SSDs.
All these laptops are expected to release this year, but MSI hasn’t released pricing yet.
Read the full article here