Professional users familiar with rugged laptops or tablets may be accustomed to seeing small latches or covers on the bottom or back sides of their units. Opening these small doors would give users quick access to serviceable components such as the RAM, SSD, or battery without needing to take off the entire back panel. Curiously enough, this feature has been relatively uncommon on consumer laptops. MSI hopes to reintroduce the concept to more of its models beginning with the upcoming Raider 16 HX Max.
Unveiled just a few weeks ago at CES 2026, the new Raider 16 HX Max will run on familiar Intel Arrow Lake-HX CPUs and Nvidia Blackwell hardware as the 2025 model. The chassis has nonetheless been redesigned this year with a new hatch on the bottom panel for easier access to upgradeable components as shown by the images below. In this case, owners will be able to install up to two DDR5 SODIMM modules and two M.2 PCIe5 SSDs without needing to open up the entire bottom panel.
Such upgrades weren’t very complicated on older MSI gaming laptops to begin with, but the new design should quicken the whole process almost exponentially to appease both tinkerers and general consumers alike. Reducing the numbers of screws to remove from over a dozen to just one or two is always welcomed. This also circumvents any “warranty void” stickers that are present on many previous generation MSI models.
Keep in mind that you’ll still need to remove the entire bottom panel to clean the fans or service the battery. Additionally, the feature is only limited to the Raider model for now, but MSI has expressed interest in incorporating similar design elements to other models depending on user feedback for the Raider 16 HX Max. For us, simpler upgrades and easier repairability should definitely be priorities regardless of model type. Expect the Raider 16 HX Max to become available by next quarter of this year.
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