MSI just announced a significant refresh to its Prestige lineup at CES 2023 with a variety of new options to cover your needs.
This includes the lightest entry in the Prestige lineup, the Prestige 13 Evo at just 2.18 pounds alongside the powerful new Prestige 16 Studio with up to an Nvidia Geforce RTX 4060 GPU that still manages to keep the thin and light Prestige profile at just 0.66 inches thick and 4.18 pounds.
If you are in the market for a thin and light laptop with stylish good looks, one of these new MSI models may shoot to the top of your list.
MSI Prestige 13 Evo
If thin and light is your primary goal the MSI Prestige 13 Evo is the clear front-runner in the new lineup at just 2.18 pounds you’ll barely notice it in your bag. All this without sacrificing on performance or battery life with MSI claiming up to 15 hours on a single charge and up to a 28W Intel 13th Gen Core i7 CPU with Intel Iris Xe graphics.
Rounding out the internal specs you have up to 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM, up to 2TB of M.2 2280 SSD NVMe PCIe Gen4x storage and connectivity is future-proof with Intel Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2.
The 13.3-inch FHD+ 16:10 display is a perfect match for productivity, allowing you to fit more on the wider display.
The IR FHD webcam delivers facial recognition sign-in and the whole package should deliver solid performance for video meetings with a dual-mic array on-board. Speaking of audio the 2x2W speakers with Hi-Res Audio certification and DTS sound should also give you a solid content consumption machine during your downtime.
Thin and light doesn’t mean it isn’t rugged as well, the Prestige 13 Evo and its magnesium and aluminum alloy chassis still boast military-grade durability that should hold up well to years of daily usage.
MSI Prestige 16 Studio
If you don’t need to travel quite as light the new MSI Prestige 16 Studio may be the perfect fit for you with up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU and a 45W 13th Gen Intel Core i7 CPU.
As I already mentioned the true magic here is that MSI has squeezed that much power into a 0.66-inch thick laptop that only weighs 4.18 pounds. MSI claims that despite that minor spatial miracle that the Prestige 16 Studio will still deliver up to 11 hours of battery life, we’ll of course test that ourselves when we get it in for review. Fortunately, the 150W adapter should help top you up quickly regardless with an extra 1.5 hours after 15 minutes of charging.
Given the creator-level performance inside the Prestige 16 Studio, the display needs to stand out as well and it does not disappoint there with a 16-inch 16:10 QHD+ miniLED display that MSI says is rated at 1000 nits of brightness with 100,000 contrast and 240 zone local dimming. We absolutely can’t wait to get a glimpse at this display in person.
If you were worried that this thin and light frame wouldn’t leave you with any connectivity options then let me assuage those concerns. You have a full assortment of ports with two Thunderbolt 4, two USB 3.2 Type-A, an HDMI 2.1 port, a microSD card reader and a combo headphone/mic jack. MSI’s Matrix Display will let you leverage all this I/O to connect up to an additional 3 displays.
The keyboard and trackpad experience are getting a boost as well with a larger trackpad and 1.5mm key travel on the keyboard. The number-pad should come in handy for creatives and productivity workers alike. While the keyboard is fully backlit, MSI has your battery life in mind and you can set an Eco mode to turn it off when not in use for 10 seconds, but it comes back on as soon as you touch the keyboard.
The MSI Prestige 16 Studio is going to be an intriguing option for creators on the go that want high-end performance without having to load down their bag with a 5+ pound laptop.
