MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo review: perfectly balanced

The MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo is an excellent laptop with a phenomenal battery, which currently does too little to justify the AI label.

MSI puts a rock-solid premium laptop on the market with the Prestige 16 AI Evo, equipped with capable hardware. The manufacturer shows its ability with this device and impresses as soon as we take it out of the box. The weight of 1.56 kg feels low, considering the 16-inch size of the device. We owe that to the magnesium-aluminum alloy chassis, which makes the whole thing feel premium.

The keyboard offers room for a numeric keypad, which we always appreciate. The keys also tap away pleasantly, although Lenovo remains the champion of keystroke as far as we are concerned. MSI opts for a spacious and accurate touchpad, which we like.

Evo badge

Underneath it all, the laptop manufacturer is resolutely going for an Intel processor. It has to, because the Evo badge was coined by Intel’s marketing team. Devices earn that badge when they meet certain performance requirements with respect to horsepower and battery, when the manufacturer wraps all that in an attractive and sufficiently thin package. That is certainly the case here.

Our test model features a latest-generation Intel chip: the Core 7 Ultra 155H with its sixteen cores (including six P cores with a maximum frequency of 4.8 GHz). Our laptop has no additional graphics card on board, relying on built-in Intel Arc Graphics. The processor is flanked by 32 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD.

Solid muscle

The Meteor Lake chip baked on Intel’s 4 nm baking process is no slouch. The chip shows itself to be more powerful than the Intel Core Ultra 7 165U vPro in the Lenovo X1 Carbon, though on the other hand the base TDP is different. The U-chip is more economical at 15 watts versus 28 watts for the H-processor in the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo, giving MSI’s laptop more breathing room.

In the Huawei MateBook 14, we do find the exact same processor. There MSI shows that it manages to squeeze the most out of the CPU better than Huawei. However, Intel and x86 are not the only options since the arrival of the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite. In the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s, we see how that ARM-based chip effortlessly keeps up with the Core Ultra 7 in the MSI laptop.

Still, the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo is not always the fastest of the pack. We analyze typical office workloads in Microsoft Office and find that the CPU and 32 GB of RAM come into their own in slightly heavier work in Excel.

For somewhat lighter workloads such as Word and browsing in Edge, it matters less that the Prestige 16 AI Evo has big muscle and the difference is less. The ThinkPad with ARM processor excels at those lighter tasks. In practice, simple tasks just go very smoothly, and the MSI Prestige continues to bulge smoothly when the work gets heavier.

Phenomenal condition

This is not at the expense of the battery, which is downright phenomenal. Despite the laptop’s power and the fact that MSI opted for a larger 16-inch screen, the device can go very long without an outlet.

The results of our test are spectacular. The MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo leaves the Lenovo X1 Carbon and Huawei MateBook far behind, even though these are ultramobile devices with economical hardware and a smaller screen. Only the efficiency ARM processor in the ThinkPad does better, though we have no doubt that at similar screen sizes, this MSI would be the champion in the comparison.

Quick recovery

The handsome results are due to the immense battery MSI puts in the laptop. You get a 99.9 Wh one: just not too much to legally carry on a plane. The other laptops have a much smaller battery on board.

Yet the device recharges very quickly. In a good half hour the tank is half full again, and you can go on for many hours. The other laptops with their smaller battery hardly do any better. MSI accomplishes this by including a powerful 100 watt charger, while 65 watts is the norm for the other three devices.

Red, or red?

In terms of performance, the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo is an excellently balanced device and the casing is also fine. Only on the screen can we find some fault. The 16-inch display does look beautiful and sharp with its thin bezels and 2,560 x 1,440 pixels, but the calibration of the panel leaves a bit to be desired on our test model.

By this we mean mainly that the colors displayed do deviate somewhat from reality. This is not noticeable for average users, but can be a stumbling block for graphic professionals who do want the shades they see on their screens to be absolutely correct. We see a discrepancy in both the white balance and the colors.

Connections

MSI provides the usual ports for the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo, with one USB 3 A connector and two USB C ports with Thunderbolt. Ethernet (RJ45) and HDMI also draw present, as does a 3.5-inch audio jack in a slot for an SD card. Only the placement of the ports is a bit odd. All the USB ports and the HDMI connector are on the back. This is not always practical.

(Video) calls are made via the FHD webcam, which performs satisfactorily and supports Windows Hello. Sound is also fine: we understand everyone and are intelligible.

What about AI?

Finally, we have to talk about the AI in the name. On that we are going to be brief: the marketing department clearly had its say in naming the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo. The device has some AI-powered features found in every modern laptop, and a small selection of them run smoothly on the NPU in the Intel chip.

As a user, you’ll mostly find that things like background blur in Teams work well and don’t guzzle much battery. MSI puts its own MSI AI Engine in the laptop to optimize it for the workloads you run, but we think that’s a non-item ourselves. MSI jumps on the AI train like all other manufacturers today and doesn’t really differentiate itself from other AI-labeled devices, which don’t add much to the user experience either.

Topper

Definitely don’t skimp on that. The MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo is a very good 16-inch laptop that does not make any major mistakes. Only graphics professionals may be left a little hungry because of the color reproduction on the panel. Furthermore, MSI provides a powerful laptop for various office workloads, even if they are on the heavier side. Photo and video editing are also possible, as long as the aforementioned color fastness is not essential.

The build quality, excellent battery and fast charging frame the good performance and make the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo a unit that we can recommend without further ado to almost anyone looking for a capable 16-inch laptop. Just don’t expect miracles from the AI aspect.

Tested configuration: MSI Prestige 16 AI EVO B1MG-022NL – Intel Core 7 Ultra 155H, 32 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD, 16-inch glossy IPS screen (2,560 x 1,440 pixels) – €1,280 excl.