I tried getting my wife into gaming with an MSI Stealth 18 AMG laptop. Now I want one.

At the point when I married my wife, I knew she wasn't a gamer.

But I always had hope that I could convert her.

So when I got to try out the MSI Stealth 18 Mercedes AMG Edition Gaming Laptop, I knew this was my chance to get her into gaming.

Wish me luck.

What it feels like to splurge

Now I would consider myself a semi-casual gamer (i.e. I would love to game more if work didn't get in the way).

And while I've kept to a fairly modest gaming setup over the years, I always wondered what it would be like if I let myself splurge one time.

So it's not an exaggeration to say that my breath caught a little when I first saw the AMG edition laptop box.

Jet-black and patterned with a stylish silver design reminiscent of a sports car, it functioned less like a container and more like a loot box that you'd open in a AAA game.

The unboxing provided a similarly satisfying experience:

To drive home the motorsports feel, the package also comes with a model 1:18 Mercedes- AMG car.

Here's the full suite of goodies I unpacked:

Lightweight for such a massive screen

Now the first thing that I appreciated when I opened the laptop was its massive 18-inch display.

That's a lotta screen real estate — pretty much a monitor screen by itself.

The body of the laptop comes in a sleek matte black finish with RGB options for the keyboard, an AMG mouse and a generously sized mousepad.

And when I was handling the laptop, I liked that it was relatively lightweight at just 2.89kg.

Given that even 16-inch gaming laptops can come in chunky models that take up half of one's bag, this felt surprisingly manageable as a portable work-cum-gaming station.

That is, if you'd want to make your colleagues, friends or really, anybody in the same room jealous.

Also, a little design tweak I liked on the keyboard was the "Start Engine" switch to turn it on or off.

Thematic.

Trying it out

Now before getting my wife in on the action, I thought I'd first test the "luxury gaming experience" touted on the box with some AAA games.

And sure enough, the gorgeous display and graphics processor did not disappoint.

Here are some scenes from "Cyberpunk 2077" and "Dying Light 2" that I captured:

However, I suspected that my non-gamer wife might find the games too complex, so I tried to ease her into the idea of trying out the laptop.

"Don't the graphics look great?" I asked her, hoping to start the ball rolling.

But all I got was a blank look, showing she didn't quite appreciate the merits of the vibrant in-game footage.

So I opted for a different tactic to let her appreciate the high-definition display, which I felt would be more effective as she's been asking me about having a pet.

"You know what's even higher definition?" she asked me after watching the video on repeat as per instructions.

"What?" I replied.

"A real dog," she said. Ha ha.

Since she didn't seem convinced, it was time for plan B.

Racing together

My one hope was my wife's love for arcade racing games. Hopefully, this would do the trick.

And it also felt fitting to run "Forza Horizon 5" on an AMG-branded laptop.

After showing my wife the ropes, I encouraged her to take turns at the wheel with me.

This was how some of her attempts went:

But amidst the difficulties of navigating winding tracks in unfamiliar terrain in-game, there was a sense of fun I hadn't felt in a long time.

We spent far too long on the character design page as she wanted to make the character look like a friend of hers.

I found myself cheering for my wife as she successfully took on certain tricky road sections or smoothly overtook other vehicles.

There were too many breathtaking moments as we explored the landscape together that made me audibly go, "Wow".

And although role-playing games (RPGs) are more my cup of tea, the experience racing with my wife on the AMG laptop's beautiful display was remarkable.

It also made me fall in love with gaming again.

Or, as my wife put it, "Quite cool. Very immersive. It's a nice way to spend time together."

Ultimately, I didn't manage to sway her into letting me buy the laptop at this point, but I still have hope.

I guess I really need to make her into a gamer now.

Try the laptop at Best Denki Funan from Jul. 15-28

Those who would like to try the laptop for themselves can visit the Best Denki Funan outlet for MSI's product launch from Jul. 15-28, 2024.

Visitors can experience the device and also win freebies on-site.

The limited-edition MSI Stealth 18 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport laptop is sold exclusively at Best Denki.

Prices start from S$6,699.

For more information on the product, you can visit this link.

This sponsored article from MSI made this writer wish he had a bigger bonus.

Top image via Mothership.