MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ evaluate: Intel Panther Lake arrives with a roar

New Windows laptops are slowly trickling out after the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), and the MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ is the primary one I’ve been capable of get my arms on. 

Admittedly, there’s a lot driving on this 2-in-1 work laptop computer that I nearly felt dangerous for it. For one factor, it is my first impression of Intel’s contemporary Ultra Core Series 3 chips (beforehand code-named “Panther Lake”), the primary made with its 18A process technology. The chipmaker claims they provide a 60 p.c bump in multitasking efficiency in comparison with their predecessors and as much as 27 hours of battery life. If that pans out, its chips might lastly vie with Apple’s M-series silicon.

The Prestige 14 Flip AI+ additionally marks my first alternative to take a look at the brand new Intel Arc B390 built-in GPU, which supposedly rivals the entry-level devoted GPUs present in low cost gaming laptops. Historically, Intel iGPUs have not been nice for critical PC gaming. But the corporate is so assured in Panther Lake’s gaming capabilities that it is planning on launching a handheld gaming platform with it later this 12 months.

As if that weren’t sufficient, MSI redesigned its complete Prestige collection of premium enterprise laptops for 2026. The Prestige 14 Flip AI+ is my first glimpse on the new look. 

Whew. 

Incredibly, possibly even miraculously, the Prestige 14 Flip AI+ meets all the hype (and I’m not simply being good). In my checks, it combines MacBook-tier multitasking efficiency with all-days battery life, all wrapped up in a beautiful convertible design with loads of future-proofing and a surprisingly cheap worth. Did MSI not get the memo in regards to the RAM scarcity?

I nonetheless have some extra benchmarking to do, however I’m already assured sufficient to award the Prestige 14 Flip AI+ a Mashable Choice Award, an honor reserved for one of the best devices we check. If this can be a preview of the 2026 Windows laptop computer market on Intel, the long run is dazzling.

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ evaluate: Pricing and specs

The evaluate unit that MSI despatched me is priced at $1,299.99 and accessible for buy by MSI’s web site and B&H Photo. It comes geared up with the next specs:

• Intel Core Ultra X7 358H processor

• Intel Arc B390 graphics 

• 32GB RAM

• 1TB SSD

• 14-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200 pixel) OLED touchscreen show with a 60Hz refresh charge and a 16:10 facet ratio

• WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0

• Two Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB-A ports, one HDMI port, and a headphone jack

• Includes an MSI Nano Pen

MSI can be releasing a 16-inch model known as the MSI Prestige 16 Flip AI+, which has a nicer 2.8K OLED show with a 120Hz refresh charge and as much as a high-end Intel Core Ultra X9 chip. It begins at $1,399 at Costco with out its Nano Pen and $1,549 at different retailers with the accent.

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ evaluate: Design and construct high quality

MSI’s 2026 redesign for the Prestige collection entails a thinner, lighter chassis with an all-aluminum construct and rounded corners as a substitute of boxy ones. Additionally, all fashions have a extra minimalist high cowl emblem with an iridescent end.

I am unable to converse for the opposite Prestige variants, however this 14-inch convertible appears smooth and spiffy. Its clean Platinum Gray end would not cling to fingerprints, and its wavy emblem provides it a barely futuristic, nearly Neo-Y2K vibe. It’s a bit of extra fascinating than your common silver MacBook impersonator, but it surely’s additionally not too flashy for the workplace. I actually dig it.

I attempted final 12 months’s Prestige 13 AI+ Evo and thought its ultralight magnesium-aluminum chassis felt flimsy. The Prestige 14 Flip AI+ advantages from the brand new totally aluminum case and a bit of additional heft; it feels very well-made. There’s zero give to its lid after I pressed down, and its hinge barely wiggles.

The new Prestige measures 0.47 to 0.55 inches skinny at totally different factors on its chassis. Its base is formed like a wedge with a taper within the entrance, one thing it inherited from its predecessors, however its curvier edges make it extremely refined. There are two skinny ft working throughout the underside of its base that hold it barely elevated when it sits on a tough floor.

That’s additionally the place you will discover a storage slot for the MSI Nano Pen, a cute little stylus for drawing and note-taking that is included with the gadget at no additional price. It costs whereas it is being saved and pops out with the push of a button.

MSI designed this stylus in partnership with Microsoft, and it doubles as a approach to discuss to Copilot. If you press each of the buttons on the aspect of the Nano Pen on the similar time, the Copilot app opens on the Prestige 14 Flip AI+. If you press the buttons once more, you possibly can verbally ask Copilot questions or give it prompts utilizing the Nano Pen’s built-in microphone. I’m not a fan of AI chatbots so I’d in all probability by no means use this function myself, however I like a freebie. (Ironically, we have been yelling at Microsoft to cease making folks pay additional for equipment. It’s actually this straightforward!)

The Prestige 14 Flip AI+ weighs in at 3.02 kilos. Three kilos is technically our cutoff level for laptops we contemplate to be light-weight, but it surely’s undoubtedly moveable and simple to carry with one hand. For comparability’s sake, it is about 0.4 kilos lighter and a minimum of 1.5 millimeters thinner than the most recent 14-inch M5 MacBook Pro.

Display

The OLED display screen gives deep blacks and punchy colours. This additionally makes it appear a bit extra vibrant than different shows rated at 300 nits of brightness. I did not have any bother utilizing it indoors, although I sometimes set it at max brightness, which can zap the battery sooner. Its image could be a bit of tougher to see in sunnier environments. 

The show has a shiny Corning Gorilla Glass overlaying for sturdiness. I haven’t got any points to report relating to its touchscreen capabilities. It’s responsive whether or not you are navigating with the Nano Pen or a fingertip.

The Prestige 14 Flip AI+’s 60Hz refresh charge and 1200p decision are a bit of fundamental, and its decrease bezel is a bit thick. But total, the show appears enticing, if not tremendously crisp. I actually cannot complain an excessive amount of: Upgrades like a 120Hz refresh charge and a 2.8K decision would push the gadget to a a lot increased worth level.

Keyboard and touchpad

The Prestige 14 Flip AI+ has an island-style keyboard with adjustable backlighting and black keys with a comfortable matte end. There’s a fingertip reader within the energy button, which is shinier and barely recessed so you possibly can’t push it unintentionally. Its up and down arrow keys are a bit of too shut collectively for my liking (it is onerous to inform them aside together with your finger), however that is actually my solely difficulty. This is a handy guide a rough, satisfying, just-stiff-enough keyboard that I cherished typing on.

The mylar touchpad that sits beneath it’s huge and velvety clean, and it makes a nice clicking sound while you press down on all of it the way in which; it would not really feel low cost. MSI is looking it an “Action Touchpad” as a result of it has built-in gesture capabilities. You can customise these actions within the MSI Center S app, the gadget’s primary management hub.

This is not a groundbreaking function — a number of different laptops have touchpads with gesture controls — but it surely’s a pleasant premium element.

Webcam and mic

The Prestige 14 Flip AI+ has a full HD (1080p) webcam with a bodily privateness shutter. It helps Windows Hello, a facial login instrument, in addition to Microsoft’s Windows Studio Effects for Copilot+ PCs. These are AI-powered digicam settings like background blur, automated framing, and an uncanny valley eye contact toggle.

The digicam’s image high quality is satisfactory however not spectacular, one thing I’ve come to count on from Windows laptops’ webcams. I might say its shade accuracy is above-average — heat tones like pores and skin aren’t too oversaturated — but it surely’s grainier than the 1080p FaceTime digicam on my M1 Pro-era MacBook Pro. It’s particularly noticeable while you transfer across the display screen.

As for the mic: It’s a strong 4/5 by itself, just a bit skinny and echoey. However, when you activate the Studio EQ setting within the MSI Center S app, it turns into a 5/5 MacBook-level mic. Overall, this machine is fab for video calls.

Speakers

The Prestige 14 Flip AI+ has two 2-watt stereo audio system and two 2-watt woofers. There are two 2.2-inch speaker grills beneath its base.

I all the time go into testing able to be disenchanted by laptops’ sound high quality; most of them mandate an excellent pair of headphones. But you recognize what? The Prestige 14 Flip AI+ really sounds fairly first rate. While its audio lacks the bass and richness of my MacBook Pro, it would not sound muffled or distorted. I do not assume you’d understand you had been lacking out on something if you do not have higher audio system to match it to.

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ evaluate: CPU efficiency

Now comes the juicy half. How quick is that new Intel Core Ultra Series 3 chip?

Here at Mashable, we run a pair checks to measure processing energy. One is Primate Labs’ Geekbench 6 CPU check. The different is a real-world stress check that entails opening a minimum of 20 Google Chrome tabs and two apps to attempt to make the gadget sweat.

In Geekbench 6, the Intel Core Ultra X7 358H chip notched a single-core rating of 2,824 and a multi-core rating of 16,257. 

That first quantity is not tremendous spectacular. It trails the single-core rating of the M4 MacBook Air (3,778). But the multi-core is distinctive. It surpasses that of the M4 MacBook Air (14,992) and the M4 MacBook Pro (15,199). Compared to the newer M5 MacBook Pro (17,470), it is solely seven p.c slower in demanding multitasking situations like video rendering.

The X7 358H’s most direct predecessor is probably going the 7 255H chip from final 12 months’s Arrow Lake period. We examined three laptops powered by that processor — all of which price greater than $2,000 — and two of them scored beneath 15,400. The just one that scored higher than the Prestige 14 Flip AI+ was the Dell 16 Premium (16,881), which was 1.7 kilos heavier and value $3,200.

The Prestige 14 Flip AI+ runs remarkably quiet and funky for a laptop computer with that a lot oomph. Props to its new dual-fan vapor chamber thermal system; MSI says it helps warmth dissipate sooner than the earlier Prestige fashions’ setup.

The gadget’s fan briefly kicked on whereas I used to be opening tabs for a stress check, but it surely’s so whisper-quiet that I barely seen it. (The radiator hissing subsequent to my desk as I wrote this evaluate is, like, 10 occasions louder.) The fan quantity did not enhance even after I plugged within the laptop computer and ran my Geekbench 6 benchmark, which ought to’ve made it work tougher. It by no means received sizzling to the contact.

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ evaluate: GPU efficiency

We do not usually run in-depth graphics checks on Windows laptops that lack devoted GPUs, however Intel has made such a fuss about its new Intel Arc B390 iGPU that I felt obligated. I’m pleased to report that Cyberpunk 2077 was playable on the Prestige 14 Flip AI+ at each 1080p and 1200p with the sport’s default settings enabled. (Intel’s XeSS Super Res 2.0 AI upscaling expertise was on.) 

Unfortunately, I haven’t got another testing takeaways or detailed body charge readings to share at the moment. After I cranked up the upscaling to the max settings and closed out of the sport to use them, my sport stored crashing at startup. Intel’s engineering staff is wanting into the problem, and I’ll replace this evaluate as quickly as they decide a repair. It might simply be a me drawback.

For now, I’ll say this: The Prestige 14 Flip AI+ is not a substitute for a correct gaming laptop computer, however it could nearly actually play most of your favourite titles.

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ evaluate: Battery life

Strong multitasking efficiency is one factor, however a premium Windows laptop computer cannot really compete with Apple’s MacBooks if it would not supply an all-day battery life, too. 

The Prestige 14 Flip AI+ has that within the bag. As I’m scripting this, it simply surpassed the 24-hour mark in our video rundown check. (I’ll replace this evaluate with its last runtime within the very close to future.) It outlasts each MacBook and almost each different Windows laptop computer we have ever tried apart from the HP OmniBook 5 14 with Qualcomm’s unique Snapdragon X Plus chip, which is an excessive outlier.

Only one Intel-powered Windows laptop computer that we have examined up to now two years has surpassed the 20-hour mark. (Models with these Snapdragon X collection chips have typically had extra stamina.) That could be the $1,550 Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition, which died after 23 hours and 34 minutes. Notably, the Yoga 9i solely received a Geekbench 6 multi-core rating of 10,765 with its Intel Core Ultra 7 258V chip.

As for the last-gen (Arrow Lake) laptops that do supply comparable efficiency: None of them lasted for greater than 14 hours.

Final ideas: Is the MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ price it?

This is likely one of the most worth-it laptops I’ve ever examined — a lovely and well-made machine with good specs, loads of RAM and storage, and uncompromising stamina and computing energy. It’s a stellar all-rounder, a legit MacBook competitor, and a can’t-recommend-enough purchase for professionals, distant employees, and content material creators.

I reserve the best to edit my last ranking for it as soon as I end my battery life and GPU benchmarks. But at current, the Prestige 14 Flip AI+ earns an total rating of 4.8/5, making it the highest-scoring laptop computer we have reviewed since overhauling our laptop computer testing methodology. 

What a approach to begin the 12 months. Good luck, everybody else.