MSI Prestige 16 AI EVO
A great daily driver laptop with a good screen but still untapped AI potential.
However, those artificial intelligence capabilities won’t change how you use your average workday laptop.
Should you believe the hype?
AI is central to the latest Prestige 16’s marketing, but I think the excellent screen and great keyboard make a stronger statement.Photo: Kyle Barr / Gizmodo
No, not quite, but does AI make our standard laptop design a bit smoother?
Yes, though mostly on paper.
The MSI Prestige 16 AI EVO would be a fine laptop even without the AI in the name.
Photo: Kyle Barr / Gizmodo
Its a very minor complaint, but Im picky about these things.
I also need to take umbrage with where most of the ports are located.
Aside from minor quibbles, theres nothing wrong with the Prestige 16.
Photo: Kyle Barr / Gizmodo
The keyboard has a nice feel on the right side of the recessed, yet still clacky keys.
Its also fairly light at 3.3 pounds without being too thick at just .74 inches when all closed up.
Its just slightly too wide for that.
Photo: Kyle Barr / Gizmodo
I measured it at around 87 degrees Fahrenheit when doing simple browsing tasks.
Under load, the laptop can get very warm.
It contains an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor with 32 GB of onboard memory.
Intel has said the NPU should handle background blurring tasks on video calls, but that didn’t work well my first time with an AI PC.Screenshot: Kyle Barr / Gizmodo
I had no real problem with the Prestige for daily productivity tasks.
Benchmarks are about what you expect when youre only running the default Intel ARC graphics.
This incorporates a neural processing unit, otherwise called an NPU.
There are some tasks that the NPU wont handle, such as Intels XeSS AI-based game scaling.
The emphasis is on the should here.
However, I tried background blur on Microsoft Teams and Zoom, and neither seemed to engage the NPU.
Instead, the only real way youll interact with the Prestiges AI capabilities is through the MSI Center software.
The PC will perform a few automatic tasks when the MSI AI Engine is enabled.
More applications could start using the NPU, but theyre few and far between.
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