MSI Prestige laptop - any experience?

[stessier]

I'm thinking about getting the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo (B1MG-020US) for my daughter. She will be using it for high school/college classes and some light gaming (Minecraft and Stardew Valley). I suspect she will want to use it for watching videos while at home but also need something light (she is very tiny) with long battery life to get through the school day.

Does anyone have any experience with MSI or Prestige laptops?

[gilraen]

MSI have great laptops. I used to have one for gaming years ago, finally got rid of it just because it got too old and outdated and I wanted a new one, but it lasted a solid 7 or 8 years and it wasn't even top of the line.

[GreenGoo]

I promised my son his own laptop if he maintained his scholarship after first year. He did, so I did some due diligence and ended up with an MSI gaming laptop.

One thing I remember about it after buying it was that there were some issues accessing the video card instead of the motherboard's integrated video. It ended up being some MSI specific bloatware that you could fiddle with in order to save battery if you didn't need full blown 3D video (like if you were doing work on the desktop mostly). It sounds like an OK idea but it was a bit of a pain to diagnose and figure out.

Second, it runs HOT. Damn, it's almost too uncomfortable to leave in your lap. Is it hotter than a desktop? Not really, at least not entirely, but it's venting right onto you, and that's uncomfortable. Typical with gaming laptops likely, but this is the first gaming laptop in the house, so it was new to me.

Lastly, very short battery power. I bought it thinking it would be "good enough" but it seems like it's shorter than it was rated for. This is likely tied to the MSI control software turning off things to extend battery life. I haven't investigated this, so it could just be my son pushing it hard, but I don't think so. I know he was terrified to use it to write a 3 hour exam, and ended up plugging it in during the exam. I feel like something is wrong here, as 3 hours using a basic SDE and maybe a browser should be fine. Anyway, I already knew it was not for mobile gaming, but this surprised me anyway. Normally he has it plugged in and wired network.

In the end, I think he's happy with it, and I suppose I am too. I did not buy it for it's battery life and I eventually figured out the video card issue, and I suspect the heat is normal, considering the temp of the cpu/vpu are within operating limits.

Would I buy again? Probably, if the performance to cost ratio came out the same as last time (which was pretty good, and reviews too).

edit: checked the model, it was an MSI GE76 Raider. I think we ordered it directly from MSI, as I couldn't find the specs I wanted from anything on Amazon (Canada). Speaking to my son, he says that the wifi has always been a bit iffy. Bad enough to impact his usage (gaming, discord, video streaming etc) It's hard to know if this was a problem with the laptop itself or with my router or his placement within the house at the time. I feel like it was most likely the laptop's antenna, but that's my gut talking, no data to back it up.

[stessier]

Thanks for the notes! I found this video too. It's not really a gaming laptop, more for business and just happens to be able to run some games (it doesn't have a dedicated video card).

[GreenGoo]

Yes, sorry, I have no experience with that particular model. I did think it was noteworthy that my research arrived at MSI as being the right balance of power/cost/reliability, so I shared our experience.

Good luck with your purchase!

[Smoove_B]

I don't have any experience with that version, but I've owned multiple MSI gaming laptops and have been quite happy with all of them. As a matter of fact, an MSI GE62 APACHE-276 (from 2015!) is my backup and what I use for work and work meetings.

[AWS260]

If battery life is a priority, you may want to check out one of the new Windows laptops with Snapdragon X chips. They're supposed to sip power like a Macbook Air.

I picked up one a couple of weeks ago - the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x - but I haven't really had a chance to put it through its paces. (Because I still have the work laptop that is going to replace when I quit my job in a few weeks.)

[hitbyambulance]

Snapdragon X

my brother was one of the designers on that project - the startup he was working at on this new chip architecture was bought out by Qualcomm a couple years ago.

[AWS260]

Well congratulations to him, because it has gotten great reviews so far!

[stessier]

Just to close the loop, we got the MSI I referenced above and my daughter loves it. Battery life is excellent and the she loves watching videos on the display. She's only used it a bit for school, but it has done well there as well.