28 January 2024 , 09:47
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Taiwanese laptop manufacturers MSI are best known for producing high-quality, powerful gaming laptops, as well as other high-performance hardware and peripherals used by PC enthusiasts and professionals all over the world.
In recent years they have shifted to applying their expertise to impressive computers that aren’t just premium gaming rigs, but also machines aimed at businesses, professionals and content creators.
Design
The MSI Summit E16 Fli Evo has a strong design that clearly shows MSI’s gaming origins, with its all-black look and hard edges with no ugly RGB lights, stickers or logos in sight. This gives it a mean, practical, and slick appearance but carrying it makes me feel like a supervillain.
While it may look like a normal laptop, it has a full 360-degree flexibility that allows you to flip the screen, and switch between tent and tablet mode. The hinge feels stable and secure but isn't too stiff.
The MSI Summit E16 Flip Evo is a powerful workhorse, and sports a plethora of fun and useful featuresThe ability to fold made it easier to use when I had limited space or while commuting, and is also handy for drawing or watching films. This feature is usually seen on much more compact ultra books and the Summit's large size puts it right on the edge of becoming unwieldy.
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It’s not a dinky Ultrabook, measuring 54.29 x 36 x 9.1cm, but its large size gives you a decent amount of space to work, it also feels quite heavy at 2.10 kg but with that weight comes a sturdiness I didn’t expect.
The Summit is a laptop for being on the go, with its incredibly tough Aluminium shell and having received the US military standard MIL-STD-810G, this guarantees a high level of durability in harsh environmental conditions and has been tested against heat, cold, shock, humidity, and even gunfire. While it’s (hopefully) unlikely you’ll get into a firefight, it’s good to know how durable it is and this allows you to be less precious.
The keyboard is large and comfortable, and the keys are backlit in white which is handy in low light and at night. It also includes a small number pad which is good if you are inputting lots of numerical data on spreadsheets.
The trackpad is spacious and comfortable to use, but the plastic surface surprised me a little as it made the laptop feel slightly cheap compared to the smoother glass you often see on premium laptops.
There is a respectable number of ports on the Summit, meaning you’ll be ready for anything, including two USB-A 3.2 and a Micro-SD slot. It also has an HDMI 2.1 output supporting 4K quality and Thunderbolt 4 port and a USB-C / charging port. You can connect to three displays further enhancing what you can do with the Summit.
It’s worth noting however, there is no ethernet port or full SD card slot.
Screen
The screen on the Summit is a large and glossy 16-inch crystal clear display supporting a resolution of 2560 x 1600. It doesn’t end there either; gaming and films will look buttery smooth on that 165Hz screen keeping the action fluid and making the Summit always feel snappy and responsive.
It also uses a 16:10 display, which is the perfect fit for most content, so you won’t have huge bars on your videos, and you won’t lose as much of that glorious display. The bezels are minimal, and it's also great for drawing and retouching photographs as the screen supports touch and pen inputs.
Although it features a 16:10 aspect ratio display, it can be a little dim when used outdoors, even at max brightnessSpecifications
The latest 13th Gen i7 Intel CPU makes the Summit generally very fast, and also fantastic for multitasking
The P series CPU strikes a balance between Intel’s more powerful and energy-demanding H and JX series and their weaker but very efficient U series, which feels like the right processor to use here as a more powerful option coupled with that large display would negatively affect battery life. It only uses Intel iris integrated Graphics however and not a dedicated GPU, which limits performance, especially for intensive activities like gaming.
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The unit I looked at featured 16GB of DDR5 RAM and a huge 1 TB NVMe storage drive, which made it overpowered for both writing, meetings and spreadsheets, as well as making it amazing for things like Photoshop and Pro Tools.
- CPU: i7-1360P
- Screen: 16 Inch
- Graphics Iris Xe Graphics
- RAM: 16GB of LPDDR5 4800
- Storage: 1TB NVMe PCIe Gen4
The CPU is 13th Generation, boasting 12 cores (4 performance and 8 efficiency) with 16 total threads. It spins up to a speed of 5.00 GHz, which is great for a portable device.
Benchmarks
The device scored relatively well on Geekbench 5, managing an average of 8877 multi-core, and 1660 single-core. This puts it at the upper middle range of the spectrum.
But benchmarks only tell part of the story and the best way to test the limits of a laptop like this is with gaming.
Since it lacks a dedicated graphics card, it struggles with some high end gaming. We couldn't do much better than 12 FPS in DOOM eternal for example, even on the lowest settings.
For simpler games at simpler graphics settings however, it's more than capable. We managed 64 fps in Overwatch 2 on low settings, 104 fps on Dota 2 in medium settings, 96 fps in League of Legends at normal settings, and 100 fps in CS:GO.
Witcher 3 managed 30 FPS on Medium settings, white GTA V hit consistent 60 FPS on GTA V at medium settings. God of War however faltered at 20 fps on the lowest settings.
In essence, this isn't a high-end gaming machine, but it is capable of playing most popular multiplayer games, and also a high selection of games (that aren't ultra new) are playable with some settings tweaks.
The machine shines in workhorse tasks however, like photo-rendering, video-editing, and multitasking, thanks to its powerful CPU.
The MSI Summit E16 Flip Evo benchmarks well, but remember that it doesn't have a built in GPU, and such isn't going to outperform expectations if used for gaming.Battery and other Features
The battery life on the Summit is a lifesaver for business professionals and content creators. On the go, the summit balances its performance with efficiency, lasting around 12 hours - perfect when you can’t stop to charge or don’t have access to power while on the go. It also comes with a USB-C 65W fast charger that charges the device (which sports an 82 Wh battery) quickly and effectively.
It's worth noting that the laptop comes with an MSI Pen which is really handy for note-taking, simple sketches and photo-retouching. That being said, it isn't going to win over artists, who will still most likely want to use their preferred tablet.
When it comes to connectivity, the laptop wields Bluetooth 5.3 a Wi-Fi 6, which offers fast and stable connections to the internet and can handle multiple Bluetooth devices effectively.
The Summit E16 takes security seriously and is packed with features such as dual biometric identification using fingerprint and face scanning. Using both fingerprint and IR camera biometrics to confirm identity ensures no one will be snooping around your notes, sketches, and files. It’s also protected with Tile tracking technology so you can use your phone to find it if it gets lost or stolen.
Price
For £1299.98 it may seem pricey but when you consider the incredible build quality, latest Intel CPU, brilliant screen and versatility of the Summit E16 it’s a very fair price and a laptop that won me over.
That's only when you consider it for what it really is, which is not a gaming machine. If you were spending £1300 expecting something that can play AAA games in ultra quality, this isn't it - but this is a fantastic workhorse, which will appeal to creatives, businesses, and people with a lot of technologically-centred hobbies.
MSI Summit E16 Flip Evo Verdict - 4/5
The MSI Summit E16 Flip Evo is a versatile powerhouse for working on the go and doesn’t sacrifice a large screen size, high performance or long-lasting battery.
The Summit suffers a bit of an identity crisis for being a jack of all trades, it looks like a gaming laptop with a high refresh rate, and features a number pad for business and data entry, but with its convertible display with pen and touch support it definitely feels like it’s better suited to creatives.
I normally prefer my laptops a lot more compact but with the impressive quality and size of the display, I actually began to like having the extra space, so felt like a worthwhile trade-off. My only criticism is that the graphical capabilities of this machine don’t rise to match the rest of its remarkable features.
Perfect for modern hybrid working as it’s just as effective while on the go and in the office or at home, I enjoyed having that full creative workstation on the go.
It’s a fantastic two-in-one laptop for digital artists, illustrators, photographers and content creators who don’t want to compromise having a large capable machine.
The MSI Summit E16 Flip Evo is available now, from wherever you usually get your laptops from.