PC World - USA (2020-04)

72 PCWorld APRIL 2020

REVIEWS MSI PRESTIGE 14

MSI Prestige 14

PROS

• Six-core Core i7-10710U and GeForce GTX 1650
  Max-Q GPU.


• Very bright, 100-percent Adobe RGB panel.


• Amazingly light considering the CPU and GPU
  inside.
  CONS


• Chassis can flex.


• Can hit performance wall under heavy CPU and
  GPU loads.


• Speakers sound like Kazoos.
  BOTTOM LINE
  MSI’s Prestige 14 offers an impressive amount of
  hardware in a laptop weighing less than 3 pounds.
  $1,699

13 7390, which has a 4K touch screen. The

4K screen and touch adds a few ounces on

the Dell but it has a 6-core CPU with only

integrated graphics. Huawei’s MateBook X

Pro is similar in screen size, and heavier—but it

tops out with an 8th-gen 4-core CPU and

GeForce MX250 graphics.

The only real natural competitor to the

Prestige 14 is the Razer Blade Stealth 13,

which features the same GTX 1650 GPU and

an Intel Ice Lake Core i7-1065G7 GPU.

Although we haven’t reviewed the latest

Razer Blade Stealth 13, other reviewers say it’s

faster than the Prestige 14 when both CPU

and GPU are working heavily. It’s also heavier

by almost half a pound, mostly due to the

thicker aluminum body, and the additional

heat pipes and fans.

Of course, you could just step up to a

15.6-inch laptop, which would get you far

more CPU and GPU performance—at the cost

of a lot more weight.

So, the question you should ask yourself is

how much every ounce matters to you. If you

must have 6 cores and a GTX 1650 in as light

a package as possible—and you’re willing to

accept the limitation of the platform—we can

heartily recommend the MSI Prestige 14. If,

however, you’re ticked off by giving up any

performance for “just” another 8 ounces,

then you might want to look elsewhere.

But let’s make sure to say it’s still fairly

amazing to get this much hardware in this

light of a laptop.

Dell XPS 13 7390Core i7-10710U

MCore i7-10710USI Prestige 14

HuawX Pro 14ei MateBook

Core i7-8565U

Razer Blade Stealth 13

Core i7-8565U

Huaw 14 ei MateBook

Core i7-8565U

Dell XPS 15 7590Core i9-9980HK

454 GR AMS = 1 LBS.

1,270

1.49 0

1,33 0

1,270

1,995

1,478

Though it has compromises, the MSI Prestige 14

essentially weighs as much as an XPS 13 while

offering a GPU typically found in an XPS 15.

Thin and light dGPU

laptops compared

Grams