MSI Prestige 14 Evo Review: Well-Crafted Ultrabook For Modern Workforce

MSI Prestige 14 Evo Specifications

• CPU: Intel Core i7-1185G7
• Display: 14-inch IPS LCD 1920 x 1080 60Hz
• GPU: Intel Iris Xe Graphics
• Memory: 16GB DDR4
• Storage: 500GB PCIe SSD
• Battery: 52WHr
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 64-bit

MSI Prestige 14 Evo Design: Elegant And Light Weight

The Prestige 14 Evo variant that we tested came in an all-white avatar and the company likes to call it Pure White finish. White bezels around the display, white keyboard, and white body. This is a refreshing change amidst laptops that usually come in black and grey colors. The keyboard is also backlit with three brightness levels. Again, this is a mono-tone backlight, which will get some appreciation from the target audience.

The MSI Prestige 14 Evo has two Thunderbolt ports, a microSD card slot (UHS-III support), a USB-A port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. As you might have already guessed, the laptop charges via the USB Type-C port, and the company includes a 65W USB PD charger in the retail box. The laptop weighs 1.29KG, which makes it easy to carry around.

Though the laptop has a pretty interesting I/O for an ultrabook, I would have loved to see a dedicated HDMI port. Another interesting design aspect of the Prestige 14 Evo is the hinge, where, the laptop sits at an angle (5 degrees) when opened, which improves the airflow.

MSI Prestige 14 Evo Display: Up To The Mark

The number "14" in the Prestige 14 Evo stands for the display size, as the laptop packs a 14-inch 1080p 1920x1080p IPS LCD screen, which is said to be a low-powered panel. A low-powered panel should be energy efficient; however, the company has not shared any numbers regarding the same.

For indoor usage, the display looks bright and vivid. During my testing period, I watched a lot of movies and videos on platforms like YouTube, Prime Video, Netflix, and I enjoyed consuming content on this laptop. However, if you are coming from a 15, or 16-inch laptop, you might feel the display on the MSI Prestige 14 Evo is a bit smaller, especially while content consumption.

MSI Prestige 14 Evo Speakers And Camera

The MSI Prestige 14 Evo has a stereo speaker setup, which offers clear audio output. However, the speaker does miss out on bass and it is also not that loud. Hence, you might want to use an external speaker and you can also configure a wireless speaker, as it supports Bluetooth 5.1 along with WiFi-6 connectivity.

As per the camera, the device has a regular 720p web camera, which does an average job of capturing videos and pictures. In addition to the camera sensor, the laptop also packs an IR blaster, which enables Windows Hello powered face-unlock on the MSI Prestige 14 Evo. Not just that, the laptop also has an embedded fingerprint sensor located on the trackpad.

MSI Prestige 14 Evo Storage

MSI claims that the Prestige 14 Evo comes with a PCIe Gen4 SSD and we were able to confirm it by running the CrystalDiskMark benchmark, where, the laptop posted a peak sequential read speed of 4954.16MB/s and a peak sequential write speed of 2504.68MB/s.

Having a faster SSD not only helps with the read and write speeds, but it also helps with software opening time and boot time. In my testing, the laptop took an average time of 10 to 11 seconds to turn on from cold boot. On top of that, I was also able to login into the computer using the fingerprint sensor in just a second or two.

MSI Prestige 14 Evo CPU Performance

The MSI Prestige 14 Evo is powered by the Intel Core i7-1185G7, which is one of the most capable 'U' series Tiger Lake processors from Intel which also comes with the Intel Iris Xe graphics, which uses the onboard memory as video memory.

The Intel Core i7-1185G7 is a quad-core, octa-thread processor with variable CPU clock speed. At 12W of power, the CPU operates at 1.2GHz, at 28W the CPU operates at 3GHz. Lastly, it can reach up to 4.8GHz using Intel Turbo Boost Technology on a single CPU core.

On Geekbench 5 CPU benchmark test, the laptop posted 1440 points on single-core and 4800 points on multi-core CPU test. On the OpenCL GPU test, the laptop posted 11327 points.

MSI Prestige 14 Evo GPU Performance

We also ran the Superposition benchmark on the MSI Prestige 14 Evo, where, the results were in line with the other laptops with the Intel Iris Xe graphics card. At 1080p medium graphics settings, the laptop clocked an average FPS of 18.26. Similarly, at 720p low graphics settings, the laptop scored 36.85fps.

If these numbers indicate anything, it is that you can actually play games at 720p resolution with over 30fps without any issue. At this budget, you can also get some good laptops with better gaming performance. However, those laptops won't be as slim and practical as the MSI Prestige 14 Evo.

MSI Prestige 14 Evo PCMark 10 Benchmark

We also ran PCMark 10 benchmark on the MSI Prestige 14 Evo, where, the laptop scored 4003 points. This is slightly lower than the score that we got on the Fujitsu UH-X, which is also powered by the Intel Core i7 processor. If a laptop scores anything over 4000 points can easily handle most office tasks and normal day-to-day tasks without any issue.

On PCMark 10, we also noticed that the maximum CPU power draw is at 29.15W, which was during the video editing. And on the same test, the laptop also got pretty toasty with a maximum temperature of 99 degrees centigrade with a maximum CPU load of 70 percent.

MSI Prestige 14 Evo Battery Life

For an ultrabook, battery life is as important as performance. The MSI Prestige 14 Evo supports fast charging, where the laptop can offer 1.5 hours of usage with just 15 minutes of charging. The company claims that the laptop can last up to 12 hours (productivity).

In my usage, the device lasted around five to six hours, where, my use case mostly included using the Chrome web browser with a YouTube video playing in one of the tabs at all times.

Verdict: Almost Complete Package

The MSI Prestige 14 Evo does all the things that one might expect from a thin-and-light laptop. However, for an asking price of over Rs. 1,00,000, the company should have included a touch screen support. If you are looking for a premium-looking thin-and-light laptop then you can consider the MSI Prestige 14 Evo.