MSI Prestige 14 Evo (2023) review

The Status 14 Evo (B13M) is the 2023 refresh of MSI’s line of work-centric Home windows laptops aimed primarily at enterprise customers.

With costs beginning at across the £1,000 mark within the UK, US$1,500 in the US and AU$2200 in Australia, they’re moderately priced, contemplating you’re getting a machine with thirteenth gen Intel processors, as much as 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and a 512GB SSD.

Different key promoting factors embrace Thunderbolt 4 ports and Wi-Fi 6E, the newest requirements for wi-fi web and knowledge switch. MSI’s lofty battery life claims additionally rise up properly to scrutiny.

However there’s stiff competitors within the enterprise laptop computer house, with with the likes of Huawei, Microsoft and Apple all providing nice alternate options. The MSI Status 14 Evo isn’t a simple advice, however it’s a powerful system that’s nonetheless value contemplating.

Design & construct

• Metallic exterior, black plastic bezel
• Thunderbolt 4 and HDMI 2.0 ports
• Dropped hinge makes for extra comfy typing

The MSI Status 14 Evo won’t win prizes for originality – it’s a reasonably standard-looking silver machine – however that doesn’t imply it’s not a properly designed laptop computer.

Except for the skinny black plastic bezel, each edge and floor is roofed in aluminium. The metallic chassis feels cool to the contact, and provides the Status 14 Evo an air of, properly, status. It’s slim and lightweight sufficient to be simply slipped right into a bag and carried round, however many of the weigh is concentrated in the long run of the deck, so holding it in a single hand isn’t the simpler.

The Status 14 Evo incorporates a dropped hinge, that means that when its opened in your desk, the hinge lifts the deck up off the floor of the desk. This enables for higher air move and a extra comfy typing angle than conventional laptops.

On the left-hand facet, there’s an HDMI 2.0 port and two Thunderbolt 4 ports. On the proper, you’ll discover a single Sort-A USB 3.2 (Gen2) port, microSD card reader, 3.5mm audio jack and bodily shutter toggle for the webcam. Not unhealthy in any respect.

The webcam sensor is tiny, and also you’ll seemingly neglect that it’s there more often than not. It’s able to recording 1080p @30fps video and high quality is definitely not unhealthy, and it may possibly unlock the Status 14 Evo by way of Home windows Good day. But it surely’s not good at choosing out your face in low mild. 

Thomas Newton / Foundry

Keyboard & trackpad

• Large chunky keycaps with good motion on most keys
• Arrow and nav keys are far too small
• Trackpad is properly sized, however depresses erratically

The MSI Status 14 Evo’s keyboard is without doubt one of the higher ones I’ve used on a 14in laptop computer. The format is mostly well-spaced, with most issues simply inside attain, and the fingerprint scanner cleverly positioned due south of the arrow keys.

Every backlit keycaps is properly sized, and reveals a nice, springy motion, which gives the look of extra journey than the keys even have. MSI hasn’t stated precisely what sort of switches are used or how a lot journey you get, however the firm has hit on a profitable method right here.

The one criticism I’ve in regards to the keyboard are the arrow and nav keys, that are shoehorned into an extremely small space of the deck. The keys themselves are tiny.

Even after utilizing the Status 14 Evo for per week, I’d nonetheless every so often discover my little finger by accident hitting ‘Web page Down’ after I’d both tried to hit the ‘Enter’ or ‘proper’ arrow key. It’s fairly annoying, particularly once you’re engaged on lengthy 1,500-word evaluations, to have an enormous abruptly seem in the midst of a sentence.

Thomas Newton / Foundry

Small arrow keys are a standard bugbear for laptops of this dimension, however I’d have most well-liked bigger arrow keys (which double as nav keys when mixed with the operate key) or elimination of the nav keys altogether. It’s a disgrace, as a result of other than just a few cramped keys, the typing expertise is great. 

There’s some noticeable flex within the space instantly just under the keyboard, which sadly extends to the trackpad. The latter requires extra pressure to motion clicks on the high than backside, which raises questions on the way it’ll fare long run.

MSI says that the Status 14 Evo is MIL-STD-810G-certified for sturdiness, but it surely makes you marvel. Other than this, the trackpad is nice – properly sized at 5.6in and responsive, permitting you to glide by means of menus and net pages with ease. 

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Show & audio system

• 14in 1920 x 1200 60Hz LCD show 
• 16:10 facet ratio
• Close to-full sRGB color house protection 
• Downward firing audio system are loud, however tinny 

The Status 14 Evo’s 14in Full HD+ show’s brightness and distinction ranges make it greater than enough for on a regular basis use, due to punchy brightness and good viewing angles. However the reflective coating picks up overhead glare, and low color accuracy make it much less viable for critical picture work. 

Utilizing a SpyderX colorimeter, I recorded 99% of the sRGB color house. That’s strong, and means web sites, video games, and digital artwork nonetheless look correct, Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 areas had been low at 77% and 78% respectively. In case your picture modifying necessities don’t lengthen past cropping and resizing, you then’ll be capable of get away with this. But when your line of labor or examine requires a really colour-accurate show, this isn’t the laptop computer for you. 

Likewise, a refresh price of 60Hz signifies that, together with the low DCI-P3 rating and no discrete GPU, this isn’t a laptop computer you can purchase for gaming or video modifying. 

Most recorded brightness utilizing the identical colorimeter was 429.7 nits, tallied with a black level of 0.23 nits, including as much as a distinction ratio of 1880:1, which is respectable. Ideally, you’ll need a show that may give you most brightness above 500 nits to ensure that you may work in all lighting circumstances, and a black level as near zero as attainable, indicating that darkish areas of a picture look deep and wealthy, and never washed out. 

That is broadly in step with what you get on the Huawei MateBook 16s, but it surely’s not fairly nearly as good because the Floor Professional 9’s show. 

The facet ratio of 16:10 is a welcome replace from final 12 months’s MSI Status 15 A12UC. It offers you a bit extra peak to work in, one thing you’ll recognize in case you’re engaged on a very lengthy report. 

Thomas Newton / Foundry

Two downward-firing audio system sit beneath the deck. The spec sheet would possibly say that they’re ‘DTS Audio Prepared’, however in actuality, they’re fairly common laptop computer audio system.

Dialogue from streamed video sounds good, as do vocals from songs, however something with a number of excessive finish trebly noise sounds weak and tinny. The cymbals on Grasp of Puppets would possibly as properly have been a load of KitKat wrappers caught collectively, they sound that unhealthy by means of the Status 14 Evo’s audio system. If you happen to’re listening to music on this, seize some headphones.

Specs & efficiency

• thirteenth gen Intel Core i5 or i7 H-series CPU choices
• No devoted graphics 
• Battery will simply final you a working day 
• Good total efficiency, however followers can get noisy

The 2023 collection of Status 14 Evo laptops characteristic thirteenth gen ‘Raptor Lake’ Intel CPUs. You’ve got the choice of a 12-core i5-13500H processor which boosts to 4.7GHz, or a extra highly effective 14-core Core i7-13700H chip, with a lift clock velocity of 5.0GHz. Relying on the place you’re based mostly, choices for 8-, 16- or 32GB of RAM can be found, plus 512GB or 1TB of storage.

The mannequin examined right here options the Core i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. 

For fundamental workplace duties, the system runs very properly certainly. In case your major concern is having a number of apps working directly (together with the likes of Zoom, Slack, Google Drive and Microsoft Phrase), the Status 14 Evo handles all on a regular basis duties with out breaking a sweat.

That is mirrored within the excessive PC Mark 10 scores for Necessities (11593), the place the benchmarking software simulates quite a lot of PC workplace duties. Elsewhere, PC Mark 10 scored the Status 14 Evo fairly extremely for Productiveness (7767) and Digital Content material Creation (7733).

The Status Evo 14 racked up an total PC Mark 10 rating of 6353, beating the Floor Professional 9 and 2022 model of Huawei MateBook 16s. Nevertheless, it is available in barely behind final 12 months’s Status 15 A12UC.

The Geekbench 6 CPU benchmark equally yielded good outcomes for single-core (2515) and multi-core (12909) stress assessments. It is a newer model of the Geekbench benchmark, and so it’s not a straight comparability, however you may see roughly the place these scores place the Status 14 Evo alongside the competitors. 

Unusually, the same old OpenGL Aztec Ruins benchmark wouldn’t run, with this system both crashing earlier than any rating might be recorded, or just not beginning in any respect. 

Fortunately, the 3DMark graphics benchmark did, with the Evening Raid benchmark returning a rating of 21731, a end result that’s roughly on par with different laptops in the identical class. 

Evaluate it with even an inexpensive gaming laptop computer, just like the Asus TUF Gaming A15 (2022), which scored 49215 in the identical take a look at, although, and you’ll see the distinction that having a devoted graphics card makes. Maybe unsurprisingly, whereas the Status 14 Evo did an OK job of working Civ 6, it did so at a lowly price of 20fps. 

Battery life is a kind of issues that’s overvalued on spec sheets, however fortunately, the MSI Status 14 Evo lived as much as claims of with the ability to provide you with 16 hours of energy – no less than in testing. Operating a looped movie with brightness locked at 120 nits, the battery lasted 16 hours and 23 minutes earlier than giving up the ghost. 

In real-world utilization, it doesn’t final fairly as lengthy. However you may nonetheless get a full working day and have cost to spare.

It’s fast to cost again up, too. Utilizing the equipped adapter ought to see you fill an empty tank to 48% after half an hour, and 85% after an hour, taking simply over two hours to fully recharge. 

Thomas Newton / Foundry

As there’s no devoted port for the mains adapter, which means that a kind of Thunderbolt ports will probably be pulling double obligation for at any time when you must recharge. Fortunately, there are many Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 hubs and docks out there, so that you no less than have some choices. 

Lastly, whereas at no level in testing did the Status 14 Evo run particularly scorching, these followers could be loud. Even when doing one thing comparatively mild, like opening pictures in GIMP, or watching one thing on YouTube, the followers would roar into life. It’s sufficient to be barely distracting whereas streaming a present in mattress or on the sofa, and it may doubtlessly annoy any noise-sensitive colleagues. 

Worth & availability

The MSI Status 14 Evo (B13M) is available for purchase now. Whereas it’s listed on MSI’s website, it’s not at the moment available for purchase instantly. The precise RAM and storage configurations seem to vary throughout nations. 

Within the UK, Laptop computer Outlet has the Status 14 Evo fashions with Core i5 and Core i7 processors and 8GB of RAM for £1,099.99 and £1,299.99, respectively.  Scan additionally has Core i5 and Core i7 Status 14 Evo’s with 16GB of RAM going for related costs, £1,198.99 and £1,298.99 (pre-order solely on the time of writing).  Very additionally has inventory of the Status 14 Evo, at the moment solely Core i5 16GB variations for £1199. 

In the US, you will get a Status 14 Evo with a Core i7 CPU, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB onerous drive from Amazon for US$1,499.99. Ava Direct has the identical mannequin on for US$1499, as does B&H, additionally for US$1499.

In Australia, you may decide up a Status 14 Evo with a Core i5 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD for AU$2199 from JB HiFi. PC Byte has Status 14 Evos with a Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD going AU$2499. Msy had a list for a Core i5 Status 14 Evo with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB with for AU$2299, however was out of inventory on the time of writing. 

Thomas Newton / Foundry

Verdict

The Status 14 Evo is an efficient alternative for anybody out there for a Home windows laptop computer that’ll comfortably ship the fundamentals in a piece surroundings.

It’s highly effective, and fairly priced, boasts good connectivity choices, and the fast-charging battery will final all day.

Folks with bigger fingers could battle with the cramped arrow keys, however noisy followers are the one different actual criticism right here. Competitors is robust, however the Status 14 Evo is value contemplating.

Specs

• Show: 14in, 16:10 IPS 1920 x 1200, 60Hz 
• Processor: Intel Core i5-13500H / Core i7-13700H processor
• Graphics: Intel Iris Xe 
• Reminiscence: 8 / 16 / 32GB 
• Storage: 512 / 1TB SSD 
• Ports: 2 x Sort-C USB with Thunderbolt, 1 x Sort-A USB 3.2 (Gen 2), HDMI 2.0, 3.5mm audio jack 
• Digital camera: 1080p webcam
• Wi-fi: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5 
• Battery: 72Whr
• Working system: Home windows 11 Residence 
• Dimensions: 314 x 227.5 x 17.9mm
• Weight: 1.6kg