One of the great things about trade shows like Computex 2023, is that you'll sometimes see a product on display that hasn't been fully and officially announced yet. Case in point: MSI's next version of its Prestige 16 Studio laptop, which was on display at the company's demo suite with Intel's upcoming 14th Gen, Meteor Lake processor inside.
MSI had announced a Prestige 16 earlier this year at CES 2023, but that unit leverages a 13th Generation Core i7 Raptor Lake chip. The one at Computex 2023 seemingly taps into Intel's upcoming Meteor Lake parts but its specs card says it has the "Latest Intel Core i7 processor."
The Prestige 16 arrives with a mysterious Intel Core i7 processor with 22 threads. Given the thread count, the processor is likely a Meteor Lake part with six P-cores, eight E-cores, and two E-cores inside the SoC tile. Only the P-cores feature Hyper-Threading, so the processor rocks a 16-core, 22-thread configuration. In addition, Device Manager confirms that the chip has a Movidius VPU onboard, a feature that's characteristic of Meteor Lake. The 16-core chip features a clock speed of 3.1 GHz, but it's uncertain if it's the final specification.
The Prestige 16 is a lightweight laptop weighing 3.3 pounds (1.5 kilograms) and sports a magnesium-aluminum alloy body. The previous iteration was 4.6 pounds (2.1 kilograms) heavy, so the Meteor Lake-based variant has lost around 29% of its body weight.
The 16-inch display outputs at a resolution of 2560x1600, providing an IPS-level viewing experience. The specifications of the panel are identical to the prior version. However, MSI didn't confirm whether the newer model still has a 165 Hz refresh rate. Nonetheless, the panel is certified for 100% DCI-P3 color space, an essential aspect for video and photography professionals.
Consumers can choose from two versions of the Prestige 16. The Evo version is the standard model with Intel Evo certification, or in other words, Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics. Meanwhile, the Studio version binds Intel's Meteor Lake processor with Nvidia's GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU with Nvidia Studio-validated drivers. It's a significant upgrade over the Raptor Lake version, for sure, which was on a GeForce RTX 2050 Laptop GPU restricted to a 45W power target.
MSI claims the Prestige 16 has an excellent battery life, targeting around 24 hours. However, the vendor didn't explain how it tested the battery life. The laptop supports USB PD Revision 3.1 for charging up to 140W. Connectivity on the Prestige 16 includes one HDMI port, two USB Type-C ports, and one USB Type-A port.
The laptop also provides an integrated SD card reader and Ethernet port. In addition, unlike previous Prestige 16 models, the new addition has the fingerprint sensor merged into the power button instead of having it on the touchpad.
According to MSI, the Prestige 16 Studio/Evo will land in the fourth quarter of this year. The time frame aligns with Intel's plans to launch Meteor Lake in the summer.
