MSI Prestige 16 AI review: a productivity laptop that performs for creatives
By Paul Hatton,
2 days ago
MSI is on the AI bandwagon with the 2024 release of a set of laptops powered by the new Intel Core Ultra CPUs and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series GPUs. Whether you want it or not, the future is being built with AI in mind.
The laptop in question here is the MSI Prestige 16 AI. Earlier this year, we had the pleasure of reviewing the MSI Prestige 16 Studio but found that it "looks the part but doesn't put in the performance." The AI alternative leads the Prestige lineup, boasting a gorgeous 16-inch screen, an unbelievably light chassis, and a cracking battery.
The Studio version is tailored to creative professionals whereas the AI model focuses on productivity across a broader range of disciplines. It is yet to be determined whether the Prestige 16 AI will make it as one of the best AI laptops or whether it'll be up there is a notable pick for graphic design , photo-editing or CAD .
I've been using the laptop for a range of tasks over the course of a couple of weeks including word processing, web browsing, emails, and creative tasks. To benchmark the performance against other machines, we ran tests using Cinebench, Geekbench, and Handbrake.
MSI Prestige 16 AI: Key specifications
Design & Build
As soon as you get the MSI Prestige 16 AI out of the box, the first thing you notice is how light this thing is. I've tested a lot of laptops and the 16-inch versions are almost always too heavy to be comfortably portable. Weighing in at only 1.5 kg, the Prestige 16 AI bucks the trend. That makes it noticeably lighter than the smaller Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch. You won't have any issues throwing this in your bag and taking it around with you.
The chassis is crafted with a magnesium-aluminium alloy, which certainly looks great but may lack the strength required for a laptop at this price point. I could relatively easily warp both the base and the display without applying too much force. I wonder if MSI has sacrificed strength in favour of reducing the weight.
The corners of the laptop are ever so slightly chamfered but otherwise, the chassis is made up of sharp edges. I really like the side profile where MSI have opted to taper the design. This is purely visual, as the bulk of the base is actually of rectangular construction. Either way, it reminds me of previous generations of the MacBook Air and looks very nice indeed.
The 16-inch display boasts a 16:10 aspect ratio, which is becoming increasingly common in laptops. This gives a little bit of extra screen real estate when working with documents or web pages. The additional space is also helpful when working on design documents, although it does require a greater depth of chassis, which could be avoided with a 16:9 alternative.
One of the risks with laptops is that you overpush the display when opening it. You won't have any problems with the Prestige 16 AI because the hinge can be rotated to almost a full 180 degrees. I'm not quite sure why you want such a great opening angle but it's there if you need it. The responsive hinge is paired with enough friction to keep the display in the location you rotated it to.
The MSI Prestige 16 AI offers an average number of ports without going crazy. This helps to make room for air vents, especially on the left-hand side and at the back. On the back, connectivity includes 2x USB Type-C, 1x USB Type-A, and an HDMI port. The Type-C USB ports have Thunderbolt technology for superior performance, with one of those providing power. I like having the power coming out of the back of the laptop, as this helps to keep cables much tidier.
The right-hand side includes an SD card reader for creative professionals and a 3.5mm audio jack. As is standard on most laptops nowadays, you'll also find an ethernet port. There is also a white backlight keyboard with a fingerprint reader
The keyboard is well set up with a reasonable gap between keys to enable efficient typing. There's also a full numpad for those working with spreadsheets a lot. There's a large trackpad, which is centred on the alphabet keys of the keyboard. This means it's off-centre, which I'm not a fan of. I experienced this on the Dell Precision 7780 and found it uncomfortable to work with there. In essence, it forces your seating position to be off to the side and makes it difficult to predictably click on the right location.
In general, this is a nicely designed laptop. I would have preferred a stronger chassis with a centralised trackpad but these are the only criticisms from my point of view. The 16-inch 16:10 display looks great, as does the magnesium-aluminium alloy case.
Features & Performance
The MSI Prestige 16 AI has an Intel Core Ultra 7-155H with 16 cores and 4.8 GHz of maximum turbo frequency. This isn't as superior as the 165H or the 185H but it still delivers great performance. The CPU is one of Intel's new CPU/NPU combo chips that are designed for delivering AI experiences, superior performance, and a battery that lasts.
We ran Geekbench and Cinebench benchmark tests on the CPU. The former scored 1,515 and 9,778 for single-core and multi-core, respectively. The latter benchmark test across single-core and multi-core came in at 1,216 and 10,011. These are very respectable scores and are comparable with the power of the Dell Precision 7780 .
Alongside an excellent CPU, the Prestige 16 AI also has a great NVIDIA GPU in the form of the GeForce RTX 4060. This is a very capable 1080p graphics card, which is a technical upgrade on the GeForce RTX 3060. Our Geekbench OpenCL GPU score came out at 71,662, which is similar to the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2
Video editors will be pleased to know that the laptop transcoded a 10-minute, 34-second 4K video to 1080p in only 6 minutes and 40 seconds. This is nowhere near as quick as the MSI Vector 16 HX but is comparable with the Dell Precision 7780. All of this shows that this laptop has enough power for most video-editing workflows.
We also ran a number of Blender benchmark tests that included rendering scenes such as monster, junkshop, and classroom. These scores came in at 60, 38.97, and 30.6, respectively.
The QHD+ 2560 x 1600 px 16-inch display performs incredibly well with bold and vivid colours across the full colour range. Viewing angles are wide so you won't have a problem if multiple people need to gather around. The colour gamut and colour performance make it ideal for working with graphics and video.
Speakers are mounted underneath the laptop so even though they provide a fairly full sound, they're not especially loud. MSI avoids classic sound problems, including tinny and harsh output.
The Prestige 16 AI boasts one of the best-performing laptop batteries around, largely thanks to the 99.9WHr battery and technology that causes it to adapt to the way you work. When fully charged, the portable laptop had enough juice to manage a full day's work with not a huge amount else left in the tank. This is very rare for a lot of laptops, which sets the Prestige 16 AI apart from many.
Price
The MSI Prestige 16 AI retails at £1,799 in the UK and $1,649.99 in the US although the laptop benefits from discounts from time to time. There are no configuration options so these prices are for the Intel Core Ultra 7-155H, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, 32 GB RAM, and 1 TB SSD.
At this price, the MSI laptop is priced the same as the smaller HP Omen Transcend 14 although this is more targeted towards gamers and creatives.
Who is it for?
The MSI Prestige 16 AI is specifically targeted at professional users who want to work on the go. With a high-performing CPU and GPU in a lightweight chassis, MSI has designed a portable laptop that packs a punch.
The AI label is because of the integrated NPU, which is focused on intensive computation and demanding workloads. This makes it perfect for long-sustained, power-moderate, intensive applications.
Despite focusing on AI-powered productivity, the Prestige 16 AI would still be a very capable laptop for creative professionals, although something like the Prestige 16 Studio would be better suited to this workflow.
Should I buy the MSI Prestige 16 AI?
Buy it if:
- You need the latest NPU technology
- You want both power and portability
- You demand productivity
Don’t buy it if:
- You need a 4K display
- You want top-notch chassis strength
- You're an all-out gamer
Also consider
This is for the all-out gamers who want better battery life than in previous-gen gaming laptops. Mind you, it works real nice for creative pursuits too. View Deal
Another creative powerhouse, this one has a bigger 17.3-inch screen, in case 16 inches just don't quite cut it. It's mucho heavy though, mind. View Deal
Bulky gaming-first laptop has more structural integrity than the MSI Prestige 16 AI, but remember; with great power comes great fan noise. View Deal
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