MacBooks are among the most popular laptops. And there’s good reason for that: Apple makes top-notch hardware. However, they are expensive, and many of you are not familiar with macOS. Certainly, this system may have similarities to Windows, but it is still a different working environment.
The MSI company, well known to PC gamers, seems to be aware of these problems. This is what led it to create powerful ultraportable computers with performance comparable to that of a MacBook. But without paying the high price. So this brings us to MSI’s latest, the Prestige 13 AI Evo. This is a laptop that I recommend to those looking for a computer capable of handling heavy workloads while not weighing even a kilo.
Key takeaways from the MSI Prestige 13 AI Evo laptop
- The MSI Prestige 13 AI Evo laptop shows excellent performance thanks to its Intel Core Ultra processor and associated artificial intelligence technology.
- Its performance surpasses that of a MacBook Pro M1 for content creation.
- At this price, however, it has flaws: a mediocre graphics card and software bugs.
I put the Prestige 13 through two benchmark tests. This is my first time reviewing a computer with a Meteor Lake processor, so I wanted to see exactly what it was capable of. And the results were better than I thought!
The MSI Prestige 13 AI Evo is powerful
One of the tests was done with Cinebench: the Intel Core Ultra 5 processor obtained a score of 536. According to the benchmark, this places the processor just above Apple’s M1 chip in terms of performance.
And with Geekbench, it got a score of 8,477, which places it between AMD’s Ryzen 7 Pro 6850HS and the Ryzen 9 Pro 5945: that’s a good level.
Keep in mind that I had the worse performing of the two Prestige models on test. I should also point out that these numbers were obtained while the laptop was in Performance mode, so it was at peak performance.
Interesting, it seems that MSI has made sure that this laptop is also capable of handling games. The Prestige 13 comes with the Xbox app and a surprisingly powerful cooling system. It’s better than the fans I’ve experienced on some gaming laptops.
Underneath the machine, you will see three openings with a large fan inside. When working, the fan can cool the Prestige 13. That’s pretty impressive. My only problem with the fans is that they are noisy, much like a mini-turbine.
Not for hardcore gaming
Despite MSI’s efforts, however, this is not a laptop really intended for gaming. It performs well, but can’t compete with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 40 graphics card. I played a few games on the Prestige 13 just to see how they performed, and most of them ran flawlessly… with low graphics settings.
But as soon as I switched to high quality graphics, I encountered performance issues. Therefore, if you decide to play games on this computer, make sure they are on the lighter side.
On the plus side, the MSI Prestige 13’s screen is fantastic. It is a 13.3-inch OLED display with a resolution of 2.8K (2880 x 1800 pixels). Labeled DCI-P3 for color gamut support, this computer is capable of displaying visual content with breathtaking fidelity.
Bugs impossible to fix
The computer is equipped with a feature called Tobii Aware. It’s supposed to blur the display when someone is peeping behind your back in order to see your screen. Although this function seems useful in practice, I haven’t been able to get it to work. I tested several times, without success. The same goes for the Ambient Silent AI tool which is supposed to momentarily reduce fan noise if they are running at full speed.
Cesar Cadenas/ZDNET
It is entirely likely that I encountered an isolated bug that is not representative of all other Prestige 13 machines. However, I would be doing you a disservice if I did not warn you of this potential problem.
I managed to get the Smart Auto feature to work. It allows you to reallocate resources from different areas of the computer to the application they are using in order to improve its performance. Or if you want a given app to always be optimized, Smart Auto also lets you target specific software. It’s a nifty little tool that I really liked. It’s a safe bet that it will be the same for you.
Buying advice for the MSI Prestige 13 AI Evo laptop
That said, I recommend this MSI Prestige 13 AI Evo laptop, especially to content creation professionals looking for a lightweight, affordable device, a machine to carry between home and work .
Even if you don’t have a creative mind, this is still a great computer.
I tested the Intel Core Ultra i5 version of the Prestige 13. If you want the large model, it has the Intel Core Ultra i7 processor.
Source: “ZDNet.com”