We Tested the Intel Core Ultra 9 285H in the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo
The MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo is the latest laptop from MSI, announced with an ambitious goal in mind. Folks have known the Taiwan-based tech giant for its performance-driven gaming laptops within their preferred price range. With the Prestige 16 AI Evo, the brand aims to establish itself as a reputable manufacturer of superior productivity laptops. To clarify, it has been producing these exceptional machines for creators, yet they have remained unnoticed.
The Prestige 16 AI Evo is part of the first generation of laptops featuring the brand-new Intel Core 9 Ultra 285H processor at its core. This chipset offers improved performance, enhanced AI capabilities, and increased efficiency over its predecessor. That said, do all these claims manifest in the real world and make a difference? Moreover, will it help MSI succeed in its endeavour? I spent a month testing the Prestige 16 AI Evo.
Note: This is an engineering sample provided by Intel to test the performance of the Intel Core Ultra 9 285H inside the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo.
Intel Core Ultra 9 285H Performance
Under the hood, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285H has taken the reins of handling every operation in the Prestige 16 AI Evo, which runs at a boost frequency of 5.4GHz. It is a 16-core chipset featuring six performance cores, eight efficient cores, and two low-power efficient cores, along with 16 threads.
Assisting it in the GPU-based workload is its Intel Arc 140T, a new integrated GPU. The laptop is also equipped with 32GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD.
Executing everyday tasks didn’t pose challenges to the Prestige 16 AI Evo. Whether I switched between six to eight tabs on the Brave browser or edited a short video in Adobe Premiere Pro, it largely kept stutters at bay and left a great impression on me. However, we did notice it reducing its speed while adapting to the multi-layer timeline in Premiere Pro software. The Premiere Pro froze for a moment, but started working normally afterwards.
We also conducted several synthetic benchmarks to assess its performance further and determine its ranking among other contenders.
In Cinebench 2024, the Prestige 16 AI Evo outperforms the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition, the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus, and the Asus Vivobook 14 Flip, powered by the Intel Core Ultra 258V, the Intel Ultra 7 155H, and the Intel Core Ultra 7 256V, respectively, in the multi-core phase, achieving nearly double scores. The single-core scores of all three laptops are comparable.
The Asus Vivobook S15 OLED, which runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chipset, trails slightly behind the Prestige 16 AI Evo in both multi-core and single-core tests. However, the Prestige 16 AI Evo couldn’t match the pace of the Asus TUF Gaming A14 in the multi-core phase, which runs on the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor.
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The story repeats itself in the Cinebench R23 test. The Geekbench test results differ slightly from prior tests. The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition, the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus, and the Asus Vivobook 14 Flip pull their socks a bit, but they remain pale in comparison to the Prestige 16 AI Evo. Even the Asus Vivobook S15 OLED doesn’t stand on the same level. Surprisingly, the Asus TUF Gaming A14 with AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 was also overshadowed by the Prestige 16 AI Evo.
Regarding the memory department, MSI has fortunately incorporated a considerable zippy SSD on the Prestige 16 Evo, delivering better speed than its competitors.
Since the laptop only has a stand-alone CPU, we also evaluated its iGPU in our synthetic benchmarks. The Geekbench 6 GPU results have similarities to previous CPU-based tests, with the Prestige 16 AI Evo outperforming the other four laptops by nearly double the margin. This goes to show that Intel has put in some work with the 140T iGPU.
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Strangely, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition and the Asus Vivobook 14 Flip, the other Intel-based laptops, gain the upper hand over the Prestige 16 Evo in both the FireStrike and Wildlife tests, which are 3DMark’s GPU benchmarks. The most fascinating aspect of these results is that the Intel Core Ultra 9 285H processor has a superior integrated GPU compared to the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V and Intel Core Ultra 7 256V chipsets.
We have clarified that the three Intel-based laptops do not have a dedicated GPU, yet we still evaluated their gaming capabilities.
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The Prestige 16 Evo failed to match the performance we observed in the CPU benchmarks, remaining overshadowed by the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition and the Asus Vivobook 14 Flip.
As the Intel Core Ultra 9 285H features a dedicated NPU, we evaluated its performance.
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Oddly, it struggled to compete with the Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro, which is powered by the Intel Core Ultra 5 226V.
AI Use Cases
As mentioned previously, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285H processor within the Prestige 16 AI Evo features a dedicated NPU. Thus, you can utilise it to accelerate your workflow, whether it involves number crunching or is a creative field. In our case, we used its intelligence to add sunglasses to our colleague’s face on Adobe Photoshop. It instantly wrapped up the task with great results.
Design and Build Quality
The Prestige 16 AI Evo has convinced me that MSI possesses a department of sorcerer supremes. It is a 16-inch productivity laptop, yet it seems to weigh about as much as my 13-inch MacBook Pro.
Employing plastic as its building material may have contributed to this astonishing quality, but it succeeded in making me question my ability to gauge. That said, I have been persuaded that this laptop will last long enough to witness RCB lifting the winner’s trophy again in the later season of IPL.
While MSI may have hired wizards to trim the Prestige 16 AI Evo’s excess weight, it couldn’t address an underlying issue with their assistance.
The laptop’s polycarbonate structure is susceptible to scratches, even when protected as you would a baby every day. Furthermore, it always has a field day getting sullied by fingerprint smudges, grime, and dust.
The major selection of ports is on the laptop’s rear side, and the remaining ones occupy the space on its right side.
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This machine mostly has all the necessary ports, but it instantly won me over with its normal-sized SD card reader. Whenever I urgently needed to upload footage from a camera to the cloud, it always came in clutch and simplified my job.
Keyboard and Trackpad
I have filled out numerous Google Sheets and searched for various items on the browser using the Prestige 16 AI Evo’s keyboard, and each time, it has pleased me. It has a satisfying key travel.
As this is a 16-inch laptop I’m talking about, MSI has fortunately integrated a full-size keyboard with a separate numeric keypad. Therefore, I never felt cramped while doing finger acrobatics on its keyboard. It is also backlit, so completing assignments at midnight is a piece of cake.
The power button on the Prestige 16 AI Evo doubles as a fingerprint scanner, so you get an extra layer of protection for your sensitive data.
If it doesn’t feel enough, then don’t be sad. MSI has also installed a row of infrared sensors beside the webcam, giving you access to the Windows Hello feature.
In addition to the keyboard, the trackpad is second to none. MSI has encroached on a considerable amount of space on the Prestige 16 Evo for its trackpad.
So, I received plenty of space to scroll around websites comfortably. Speaking of scrolling, it feels smooth as butter when you execute gestures like swiping up and down.
Display and Audio Quality
The Prestige 16 AI Evo’s display instantly had my attention when I started binge-watching a series of YouTube videos and an episode of the My Hero Academia: Vigilantes series. Coming from my 13-inch MacBook Pro, its 16-inch screen felt like a movie theatre. Okay, I am exaggerating a bit.
However, what really drew me over is the display’s colour reproduction. To give you a context, any episode of the My Hero Academia: Vigilantes series is primarily flooded with various colours. The Prestige 16 AI Evo rendered its scenes beautifully and vibrantly, with each frame looking like beautiful wallpaper. While wrapping my binge session, I discovered that going above 50 per cent of brightness started irritating my eyes. As a result, I kept the brightness below half.
While the display entertained me well, the speaker fell short of keeping its pace. Don’t get me wrong. It has a decent audio quality and a punchy bass. However, it does not feel fuller. Additionally, your favourite songs may get accompanied by a shrieking tune.
Battery Life
With the Intel Core Ultra 9 285H processor in command, the Prestige 16 AI Evo is expected to deliver improved power efficiency, which it somewhat achieved in our testing. This laptop effortlessly outperformed the Asus Vivobook S15 OLED in our PCMark Battery test. This result is surprising, considering the latter’s Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite has gained a reputation for offering exceptional battery life.
Unfortunately, this celebration is short-lived when comparing the Prestige 16 AI Evo’s endurance to that of the Asus Vivobook 14 Flip. Even with its folding design as a potential drawback, the Asus Vivobook 14 Flip lasted three hours longer in our test.
My real-world experience was pleasant with the Prestige 16 AI Evo’s battery life, as I squeezed a similar screen-on time with moderate usage.
Verdict
The MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo is truly a compelling productivity laptop. Like other laptops, it isn’t immune to minor setbacks. However, they do not impact its credibility in any shape or form. The Intel Core Ultra 9 285H easily beats the previous gen Intel processors when it comes to synthetic benchmarks. It manages to beat the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 in some benchmarks, but falls behind in others. In addition to this, it has been optimised such that you get a tremendous battery life with moderate usage, but the ‘V’ series from Intel continues to be better in terms of efficiency.
Aside from this, the other core pillars — be it the keyboard, display, or design — are also well done.
All in all, the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo is a fantastic laptop for what it offers.
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