MSI Prestige 15 review: A creative laptop at a competitive price

MSI makes a variety of gaming laptops, desktops, monitors and components. Seriously, if you check out everything the company makes, you can get lost in its website exploring the catalog. In among the gaming laptops you’ll find its Prestige 15 series that turns MSI’s PC performance and display knowledge into a thin-and-light laptop made for content creators. The end result is a sleek, discreet laptop that, while maybe not as polished as competing models made for creators from Dell, HP and others, has what you’ll need to get your video, photo and graphics work done on the go. 

Between the design, components and display, the Prestige 15 isn’t cheap at $1,799. It’s available in the UK and Australia with 16GB of memory (half of what’s in my review sample) for £1,185 and AU$3,099, respectively. That’s a reasonable price, but if you don’t need the color-accurate display but still want something thin and light with a little extra graphics performance, there are more affordable options. Consider the Acer Aspire 7, which costs less than $1,000. For what you’re getting with the MSI, though, it is a good deal. 

The whole picture

The 10th-gen Intel six-core processor and Nvidia GTX 1650 graphics deliver fine performance for things like photo and video editing. The graphics are good for gaming, too. That’s not the point really, though it’s nice if you’re looking for a laptop to handle both. It’s also not workstation-caliber performance, but this is made for work and mobility and something’s got to give, especially if you need to spend time away from an outlet. The Prestige 15 reached just under 8 hours of battery life on our streaming video test. 

The UHD-resolution display is color accurate out of the box and covers 100{8c54160eed80eb00ac4f5d74c8785e95142d89daf570f201b81dc7fdc31059f3} AdobeRGB color gamut. It’s clear this display is where a chunk of your money is going, so if you need a laptop for color-critical work, you’re in luck. Oddly, though, one of my favorite parts of the system is that it has a 180-degree lay-flat hinge and, with a press of the F12 key, the screen flips 180 degrees so someone sitting opposite you can see what’s on the screen without craning their neck.

MSI’s Creator Center software that’s preinstalled on the Prestige lets you quickly switch between several color profiles — including AdobeRGB, DCI P3 and sRGB — or create your own. You can also use the software to change hardware performance for specific applications, so you’re not chugging along in a battery-saver mode when you open Adobe Photoshop. 

Should you want to connect to an external display for more room to work, the Prestige 15 has a full-size HDMI port (supports resolutions up to 4K at 30Hz) and two USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports. A headphone jack, two USB-A ports and a microSD card slot are onboard, too. MSI also includes a mini USB-C dock with an Ethernet jack, SD and microSD card slots and two USB-A ports.

There are some drawbacks to the Prestige 15, though. For example, while it has an appealing overall design, the fit and finish are just not as polished as others in the category. Although it has an attractive blue beveled edge around an aluminum body, they, unfortunately, draw your eyes to all the body seams around the rear hinge, corners and bottom. 

The keyboard and touchpad are a letdown, too. While I like the font and size of the key legend MSI used, the keys themselves feel soft and lack a pop that might make typing more enjoyable. And althought the touchpad feels great and tracks well, it’s so wide and off-center of the spacebar, that I ended up dragging my right palm across it regularly. 

These are relatively minor complaints in the overall picture here. It’s just that at a dollar shy of $1,800 you might expect it to be a little more polished. Still, MSI’s Prestige 15 gets you more performance than your average thin-and-light laptop and a great color-accurate display.