MSI’s New Prestige 14 & 15 Laptops Get Intel's Comet Lake-U CPUs & Calibrated 4K Display
by Anton Shilov on August 22, 2019 5:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Notebooks
- MSI
- GeForce
- Laptops
- NVIDIA
- Turing
- Prestige
- 10th Gen Core
- Comet Lake
Among the many manufacturers launching new or updated laptops this week alongside the release of Intel's new Comet Lake processors is MSI. This week the company is introducing its new compact Prestige 14 and Prestige 15 laptops, which feature Intel’s 10th gen Core CPUs, NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 16-series GPUs, and a factory-calibrated 4K display. The notebooks are aimed at power users running multiple threads at once – such as content creators and photographers – particularly with the machines' top-end hex-core configurations.
MSI’s Prestige 14 and 15 laptops are based on Intel’s 10th generation Core "Comet Lake-U" processors, which come with up to six CPU cores. Accompanying the CPUs at the high-end is NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1650 in Max-Q design configuration. Officially, MSI labels this as an "up to" configuration, however looking at the SKU specs, even the cheapest Prestige 15 inclucdes the 1650. Details on the Prestige 14, on the othe rhard, are harder to come by, and it's not clear what the baseline configuration is there.
Meanwhile in terms of memory and storage, the 14-inch notebook comes with up to 16 GB of LPDDR3-2133 memory onboard and one M.2 SSD featuring a SATA or PCIe 3.0 x4 interface, whereas the 15-incher can be equipped with up to 64 GB of memory as well as two M.2 drives (see exact specifications in the table below).
The Prestige 14 and the Prestige 15 laptops from MSI come in sleek sandblasted aluminum chassis with blue accents that are only 16 mm thick in both cases. The bodies house a 14 or 15.6-inch ‘IPS-level’ panel (which probably means AHVA or something similar), with MSI offering 1920x1080 and 3840x2160 options. All panel options cover 100% of the Adobe RGB color gamut and come factory calibrated to Delta-E<2 color accuracy.
Connectivity-wise, the systems are very similar, yet not completely the same. The PCs come with a Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth adapter, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, two USB Type-A connectors (2.0 in case of the 14-incher and 3.2 Gen 2 in case of the 15-incher), an HDMI 2.0 output, a 3.5-mm audio connector for headsets, and a microSD card reader. As for multimedia capabilities, MSI’s Prestige 14/15 laptops are equipped with a webcam with IR sensors, stereo speakers, and a microphone array.
It is noteworthy that MSI’s original Prestige laptops introduced in 2018 were aimed primarily at business users seeking a combination of performance and compact form-factor. Meanwhile, MSI’s Prestige 14 and Prestige 15 mobile PCs in their high-end configurations are increasingly targeted at creative professionals, which essentially means that the systems are entering workstation territory. In fact, the Prestige brand plays equally well both for business users who need to show their status and for creative professionals.
Specifications of MSI's 2019 Prestige Laptops | |||
Prestige 14 | Prestige 15 | ||
LCD | Diagonal | 14-inch | 15.6-inch |
Resolution | 3840×2160 | ||
Brightness | ? | ||
Contrast Ratio | ? | ? | |
Color Gamut | 100% AdobeRGB | ||
Touch Support | ? | ? | |
Protective Glass | ? | ||
CPU | Intel 10th Gen Core processors (Comet Lake-U) | ||
Graphics | Integrated | Intel UHD Graphics | |
Discrete | up to NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 1650 with 4 GB GDDR5 w/ Max-Q | ||
RAM | up to 16 GB LPDDR3 DRAM (onboard) | up to 64 GB of DDR4 DRAM (two SO-DIMMs) |
|
Storage | SSD | 1 × M.2 SSD (SATA or PCIe) | 1 × M.2 SSD (SATA or PCIe) 1 × M.2 SSD (PCIe) |
Card Reader | MicroSD Card reader | ||
Wireless | Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth 5.0 | ||
USB | 3.1 | 2 × TB 3 (USB Type-C) 2 × USB Gen 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A |
2 × TB 3 (USB Type-C) |
2.0 | - | 2 × USB Gen 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A | |
Thunderbolt | 2 × TB 3 (for data, charging, DP displays) | ||
Cameras | Front | 720p HD webcam with IR sensors | |
Other I/O | Microphone, 2 stereo speakers, audio jack, fingerprint reader | ||
Battery | ? | ||
Dimensions | Width | 31.9 cm | 12.56 inches | 35.7 cm | 14.05 inches |
Depth | 21.5 cm | 8.46 inches | 23.4 cm | 9.2 inches | |
Thickness | 1.6 mm | 0.63 inches | ||
Weight | 1.28 kilograms | 2.84 pounds | 1.65 kilograms | 3.64 pounds | |
Launch Price | ? |
MSI’s Prestige 14 and Prestige 15 notebooks are available for pre-order from Amazon and Newegg and will be released in early September.
Related Reading:
- MSI’s PS42 Business Laptop Now Available: 14-Inch Quad-Core Ultrabook
- MSI's New 5Kx2K 34-inch Monitor, with 98% DCI-P3: PS341WU
- The MSI GT75 Titan Laptop Review: Hex-Core DTR
- MSI Upgrades Budget Laptops with Intel’s CFL-H: Six-Core Notebooks Start at $1,099
- MSI GT63/GT83 Titans Upgraded with Six-Core CPUs, Samsung’s PCIe SSDs
- MSI Announces GS65 Stealth: Thin & Lighter 15-Inch Gaming Laptop
Source: MSI
21 Comments
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shabby - Thursday, August 22, 2019 - link
Where are the ice lake laptops?dullard - Thursday, August 22, 2019 - link
Click on one model, click estimated shipping date, it is Sept 5. https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/cty/pdp/spd/xps-13...damonlynch - Thursday, August 22, 2019 - link
1.6 mm thickness is indeed an exceptionally thin laptop — perhaps you mean cm? ;-)Ashinjuka - Thursday, August 22, 2019 - link
I can't wait to get my hands on a DDR3 system! It's gonna feel so much faster than the old, tired DDR2 we've been stuck on for so long.ajp_anton - Thursday, August 22, 2019 - link
I'm starting to suspect that Comet Lake doesn't actually have the new LPDDR4-supporting memory controller that they made such a big deal about.PeachNCream - Thursday, August 22, 2019 - link
Lots of newly announced laptops are taking the option of adding your own RAM off the table by seemingly soldering it to the motherboard. At least its 16GB which is workable in the present day.taisingera - Thursday, August 22, 2019 - link
Laptops are getting so thin that even 14" ones don't have enough room to put in ram slots. 15"+ are large enough to place two ram slots side by side but not stacked on each other.PeachNCream - Friday, August 23, 2019 - link
I'd rather have a bit more thickness for various reasons including some flexibility with upgrades and replacement of tired batteries. A pity companies are going this direction.abufrejoval - Tuesday, August 27, 2019 - link
Can't have more than 16GB with DDR3L so slots won't buy you any flexibility or benefit. Can replace battery, WiFI and M.2 SSD on my Lenovo Yoga S730, actually I put in a WiFi 6 module w/o problems.Vitor - Thursday, August 22, 2019 - link
Im fine with 1080p as long the promises of color calibration are honored.