MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo review - The multimedia laptop with a speedy Arrow Lake CPU and impressive runtimes

The MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo is a 16-inch multimedia laptop with a high-quality yet lightweight metal case, comfortable input devices and very long battery life. The new Arrow-Lake-generation Intel Core Ultra 9 285H delivers around 20% more performance than the old Meteor Lake chips, but its problems with high power limits remain. This is also noticeable in its cooling, as MSI has only decided to install a single fan. This is enough for the more frugal Lunar Lake configurations, but the Arrow Lake model would benefit massively from more powerful cooling. MSI has missed a very good opportunity to create a quiet multimedia laptop.

Its display offers decent quality, but its low frequency of 60 Hz, highly reflective surface and slow response times are all disadvantages. We don't yet know exactly which panel the Prestige will be launched with here in Germany, where this test was carried out; the Lunar Lake version, for example, is sold with a 4K IPS panel and there is also a 4K OLED version—but the frequency is always 60 Hz.

In addition, the distribution of its ports proved to be less than ideal during our test, as all USB ports are located on the back of the device, which is simply impractical. Further disadvantages include its soldered-on RAM, 1080p webcam (the identical Lunar Lake model already comes with a 5 MP sensor) and its 100-watt power supply unit, which isn't sufficient to cover the processor's power requirements during peak loads. All-in-all, the Prestige 16 AI Evo has the potential to be an amazing multimedia laptop, but some unnecessary design decisions prevent this from being the case. 

The MSI Prestige 16 AI with the new Arrow Lake processor is not yet available in stores.

The MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo is a slim and lightweight 16-inch multimedia laptop with a magnesium case and the brand new Arrow Lake mobile processor, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285H. Our test device has an IPS display with a resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 pixels. The Arrow Lake model is not yet available in stores; only the identical Lunar Lake model with a 4K IPS display is available for the time being. We are currently assuming a price of just over $2,000.

For the Prestige 16 AI Evo's case, MSI has gone for a unibody design consisting of a magnesium-aluminum alloy in a dark grey color (Stellar Gray). Its finish and build quality seem to be very good, and the case's stability is also impressive. The base unit can hardly be pressed in or twisted, and we couldn't elicit any creaking noises from it during our test. Its surfaces also aren't overly susceptible to collecting fingerprint marks.

Furthermore, the screen lid is similarly stable and we couldn't provoke any image errors when applying selective pressure. The hinges are very tight, but the lid still wobbles slightly when you adjust its angle.You can just about open it with one hand and its maximum opening angle is 180 degrees.

Our test device weighs 1.561 kg and, as a result, is one of the lighter models in our comparison group (comparable to the Zenbook S 16 & Galaxy Book4 Pro 16), while the other models are significantly heavier at around 2 kg. At just under 17-19 mm, the MSI is actually the thickest device and when it comes to their footprint, the competitors are all pretty similar. The 100-watt power supply weighs 365 grams with the power cable included.

In general, the Prestige features all the most important ports, including USB-C, USB-A, Gigabit Ethernet and an SD card reader. However, we are not at all satisfied with the distribution of them, as all USB ports are located at the back of the device. There's not a single port on the left-hand side, which is due to the laptop's internal arrangement. This is simply incredibly impractical during everyday use and we don't understand this decision whatsoever. The NPU of the new Arrow Lake processors doesn't meet the minimum requirements for a Copilot+ PC, but functions such as Studio Effects or live subtitling are still supported.

There is a fully-fledged card reader with a spring mechanism on the right-hand side of the laptop. Inserted cards protrude only minimally from its case. In conjunction with our reference card (Angelbird AV Pro V60), we measured transfer rates in the 80-90 MB/s range. These results are okay, but many of the comparison devices performed better.

An FHD webcam with a mechanical aperture is built into the device's upper display frame. It supports Windows' advanced Studio Effects and its overall image quality is okay, but the Lunar Lake model is equipped with a better 5 MP camera. It also has an IR camera for facial recognition via Windows Hello.

The manufacturer hasn't provided any information on the CO₂ footprint created during the laptop's production or the proportion of recycled materials that are used. Still, its packaging is mainly made of paper. Repair guides are not available.

The MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo is equipped with the new Arrow Lake H mobile processors (Core Ultra 200). Our test device comes with 32 GB RAM (LPDDR5x-7500), which can't be upgraded. Dedicated graphics cards are not offered by MSI.

Multiple energy profiles are available to choose from in the pre-installed MSI Center (Eco Silent, Balanced & Extreme Performance). There is also an AI mode, but this produces fluctuating results. We deactivated the AI engine and carried out the following benchmarks and measurements using Balanced mode, which is activated by default.

The Core Ultra 9 285H is the new top-of-the-range model from Intel's Arrow Lake H series (Core Ultra 200) and the direct successor to the Meteor Lake generation. It has a total of 16 CPU cores (22 threads), with the six fast performance cores (including hyper-threading) reaching a clock speed of up to 5.4 GHz. Further technical details and efficiency comparisons are available in our analysis article.

Inside the Prestige 16, the processor consumed a maximum of 115 watts for a short time, but its power consumption dropped slowly under continuous load and then stabilized at 45 watts during our test. Its multi-core performance naturally benefitted from this, especially during short load phases, but its performance dropped by 30% under continuous load. Overall, however, the test device was still able to place itself ahead of competitors with the Core Ultra 9 185H in our multi-core tests, although the power limits were higher there. In the single-core tests, its performance was 12-14% higher, but the Core Ultra 9 285H couldn't come close to the current M4 chips from Apple. The processor consumes a maximum of 42 watts in battery mode. Further benchmarks are available in our tech section.

Our test device performed very well in the system benchmarks and proved to be a very responsive laptop, but this also applied to the other comparison devices.