Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
MSI is known for its impressive catalog of gaming laptops – and many of the core machines in its range have received updates in time for us to hear about them on Consumer Electronics Show 2026. But there is a clear shift in focus.
More hardcore gamers (with the biggest wallets) may be upset that MSI’s top-performing gaming laptops were passed over in the Titan series this year. But hobbyists and enthusiasts will likely appreciate that MSI’s wide range of affordable gaming laptops have been improved, including the slim Stealth series and the mid-range Raider and Crosshair series.
It seems like MSI doesn’t want to highlight the core elements of its games for too long this time around. While the company has improved its gaming laptops, the real stars of the show are its revamped Prestige business laptops. It’s thin, has good battery life, and MSI has committed to a design that lets you service the laptop yourself.
We’ve got all the big MSI announcements from the show collected for you here. But there is a lot going on Consumer Electronics Show 2026So be sure to keep up with the CNET team as we catalog what’s new in the world of technology this year.
Prestige 14 AI Plus and Prestige 16 AI Plus
MSI’s business laptops are significantly downsizing as the company tries to shift its non-gaming catalog into the spotlight. In addition to the design overhaul, these laptops focus on the variables that matter most to working professionals: display, portability, and battery life.
The Prestige 14 AI Plus and Prestige 16 AI Plus have rounded edges, and there’s now an MSI logo on the back. These changes add some personality to what could otherwise be very simple-looking laptops.
The Prestige 16 AI Plus has a much nicer display than its 14-inch counterpart, featuring a 2880 x 1800 pixel OLED display and a 120Hz refresh rate. The Prestige 14 AI Plus has an OLED display with a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels, so images won’t look quite as sharp on this model. Corning Gorilla Glass protects the screen from scratches and smudges on the 14- and 16-inch touch models.
Both laptops have all-day battery life, although the Prestige 14 AI Plus offers up to six hours of additional playback time compared to the Prestige 16 AI Plus. It’s not at all unprecedented for modern business computers to have this kind of uptime between charges, but it’s certainly important.
The internal specifications between these devices are mostly the same. The Prestige 14 AI Plus and Prestige 16 AI Plus can have 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 AA Plus
MSI has unveiled an upgrade to another series of mid-range gaming laptops with the Stealth 16 AI Plus. This is a PC that won’t quite achieve the performance levels offered by the latest and greatest Titan models, MSI’s largest series of gaming laptops. It trades performance for more style, and despite its heavy weight, it’s a laptop that gamers should be able to comfortably carry almost anywhere.
The Stealth series returns to being stealth, eschewing the 18-inch display model refresh for 2025 in favor of a standard-sized laptop. The tapered black case changes height across the length of the design but remains slim throughout.
The previous version of the Stealth 16 AI Plus weighed closer to 5 pounds — which is 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 completely missing from the 2025 iteration of the laptop.
The 16-inch laptop has an OLED panel with a resolution of 2560 x 1400 pixels and a refresh rate of 240 Hz. The screen is made of Corning Gorilla Glass, which provides better protection from scratches and smudges.
Updates have been made to the computer’s internal specifications as well, of course. Intel silicon will be inside the latest version of the Stealth 16 AI Plus, while last year’s model had an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 CPU. The new Stealth 16 AI Plus has 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.
You better love dragons if you’re interested in Raider 16 Max HX. The large gray dragon on the top cover adds a lot of visual noise to the clean design.
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 to offer. The company has updated the Raider 16 Max HX laptop with a new design and some light touches on the internal specifications.
The latest version of the Raider 16 Max HX has a lot going for it visually – the black PC has a huge dragon motif on its top casing and an RGB stripe built into the hinge. RGB lighting for each key on the keyboard means you can stick to one color or attack your eyes with the entire rainbow at once. The laptop also has an OLED display with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels and a refresh rate of 240Hz.
Perhaps most importantly, the new Raider Laptop has a small, removable back panel that lets you easily access the RAM and SSD. If you have basic knowledge, this design allows you to maintain some parts in this laptop yourself in case something goes wrong.
The Raider 16 Max HX can accommodate up to an Intel Core Ultra 200 HX CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 GPU, up to 128GB of RAM and dual PCIe Gen4x4 and PCIe Gen5x4 SSDs.
The Crosshair 16 Max HX is one of MSI’s affordable laptops. It doesn’t have per-key RGB lighting, but it does have 24 RGB lighting zones.
Crosshair 16 Max HX
MSI’s most accessible and convenient gaming laptops — the Cyborg series — weren’t on display at CES 2026. But there were still some laptops on display that gamers with tight constraints might find exciting. MSI’s Crosshair series blends fairly high-performance parts at a reasonable price. The company revealed the latest update to the Crosshair 16 Max HX at CES 2026.
The dragon appears on the top cover of the Crosshair 16 Max HX – and the visual design is contained in a small blue logo, which looks cleaner than the Raider 16 Max HX. There’s no RGB strip built into the hinge here, but the keyboard does have a 24-zone lighting setup. The Crosshair 16 Max HX has an OLED display with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels and a refresh rate of 165 Hz.
This laptop can accommodate up to an Intel Core Ultra 200HX CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 GPU, up to 128GB of RAM, and dual PCIe Gen4x4 and PCIe Gen5x4 SSDs.
All of these laptops are expected to be released this year, but MSI has not announced their prices yet.