MSI Prestige 16 Studio Evo could be the most exciting Windows laptop of 2023

Amidst all the excitement about generative AI, valuations, and the like, Consumer PC News had little thought at Computex 2023. That’s why I was so excited to find this gem buried in the middle of MSI’s very loud and crowded show floor booth: the Prestige 16 Studio Evo. It’s coming in the second half of this year, pricing has yet to be announced, and I’m very eagerly waiting.

First things first: This device has received Intel’s coveted “Evo” certification. This is exciting because, to my knowledge, no device with a GeForce RTX GPU has received Evo certification since the program’s inception in 2020. , this is still a very rare occurrence.)

The reasons for this are somewhat obvious. To achieve Evo certification, Intel requires a certain level of battery life and performance within a certain weight class, which is difficult to achieve with a power-hungry discrete GPU inside. But the Studio Evo could include up to a GeForce RTX 4060 – and it’s a legitimate GPU that should give it a big hand in gaming and graphic work, unlike some of the underpowered MX chips you often see in these thin and light, which These days Intel’s integrated offerings aren’t much different. MSI representatives were very clear with me in the booth that the RTX 4060 model, in particular, is Evo-rated.

Now, in my experience, the avo label isn’t always Guarantee For things like fast performance and all-day battery life. Still, the fact that an RTX 4060 system was performing so efficiently that even an Intel would Consider This makes me very excited for the program.

It’s hard right now to recommend a really solid Windows laptop for content creators, and I think there are real openings in the market that the Prestige 16 can fill. Using programs like Premiere Pro and Blender on a 14-inch screen can be a real pain, and I often advise pros to go bigger if they can. But 15-inch and 16-inch devices with discrete GPUs inside them can get really heavy—which also doesn’t bode well for many video people, who may need to carry their laptop with a lot of other bulky gear to shoot. Is. I’ve been waiting — actually, waiting impatiently — for a 16-inch device with a discrete GPU to come along that isn’t a total tank. A solid battery lifetime would really seal the deal.

The Prestige 16 Studio Evo is 3.3 pounds—closer to a pound and a half lighter than that 16 inch macbook pro, I can tell you, holding this thing, that it’s Very Light. LG Village Lighting. “Are you sure it’s not an empty chassis?” Light. Carrying around in a packed backpack would be a dream. I am sad just remembering what it was like to be raised.

That’s especially true because the finish feels like a solid step above what I’ve experienced from MSI before—this company often puts out laptops that engage the fingerprint as quickly as five seconds after unboxing. I tried so hard to screw the Prestige’s lid on the show floor, and I really couldn’t do it.

The Prestige 16 Studio Evo also packs a 99Whr battery, which is the largest battery you can bring on a plane (and thus, the largest battery you’ll see in a consumer laptop).

Another cool thing about this product is that it looks like it could be one of the first 14th-gen Meteor Lake laptops we’ve seen in the wild. The spec sheet in the booth just lists “the latest Intel Core i7 processors,” and — notebook check Also discovered – the processor in the show floor unit was listed in Device Manager as “Genuine Intel(R) 0000” and showed 22 threads. It’s definitely not the 13th-gen Mobile i7, as there isn’t a 22-thread offering in that lineup.

Now, I don’t want to get my hopes up or spoil anything. But I’m wondering if maybe, just maybe, it’s a good sign for the efficiency of upcoming meteorite lake generation. After all, many of today’s workstation laptops have poor battery life and a bulky chassis for a reason: Intel’s current heavyweight processors are inefficient and run hot.

The phrase “MacBook Pro alternative” gets thrown around a lot. But it is shaping up to be one of the closest contenders to the Prestige 2023 that I have seen so far. Now, let’s wait to hear about the pricing.

Photography by Monica Chin