MSI Creator m16 16-inch Laptop Review – RTX for Content Creators

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science” Tech Meets Aesthetic. This is the all-new MSI Creator m16 Laptop. A boon for Content creators!

With the all-new MSI Creator M16 Laptop, MSI introduces their first 16:10 display with a resolution of 2560×1080 and high brightness, specifically aimed at content creators who edit videos and photos on the go. The MSI Creator M16 is packed with the latest specifications like the Intel Core i7 11th Generation Processor along with the 2nd Gen RTX 3050Ti with 4GB of VRAM.

As the Coronavirus Pandemic hit, most people started advancing towards alternative careers rather than their daily job which came to a halt due to lockdown. People started to give time learning new technologies and software like Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Pro with hopes of starting freelancing when everything comes back to normal. That was when these Content Creator laptops started selling. MSI earlier used to launch the MSI Creator 15, Creator 17 with True Pixel 1920x1080p displays. This year, as 16:10 displays are a trend, the brand thought of bringing that aspect ratio to the creator series as well and released the MSI Creator M16 16inch Laptop.

It’s not only about Content creation, MSI also gives a free copy of Windows 10 Pro as this laptop can be used for business as well. With the lower bezel gone, you can get more workspace for any kind of scenario. It is one of the best Content creation/business laptops that you can buy now!

So without further delay let’s checkout the all-new MSI Creator m16 Laptop.

Creator m16 Laptop – Specifications

Here are the MSI Creator m16 Laptop specs.

OS	Windows 10 Home (Free upgrade to Windows 11 when available)
CPU	Core i7-11800H 8 Core CPU
CPU SPEED	2.4 – 4.6GHz
CHIPSET	HM570
COLOR	Black
SCREEN SIZE	16″ QHD+ (2560*1600), 60Hz DCI-P3 100% typical
RESOLUTION	2560×1600 (16:10)
GPU	NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3050 Laptop GPU / NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3050 Ti Laptop GPU
VIDEO MEMORY	4G GDDR6
KEYBOARD	White keyboard with Anti-Ghost key (99 Key)
AUDIO	Nahimic 3 / Hi-Res Audio
SPEAKER	2W*2
MEMORY	16GB (8G*2)/32GB (16G*4)  DDR4 3200MHz
HDD CAPACITY	512GB NVMe SSD/ 1TB NVMe SSD
HDD INTERFACE	NVMe
LAN	Gb LAN
WLAN	Killer WiFi 6E AX1675 (2×2 )
BLUETOOTH	BT 5.2
WEBCAM	720p HD Webcam
USB	2x USB 3.2 Gen1; 1x USB 2.0
TYPE-C PORT	1x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type C
VIDEO PORT	HDMI (supports 4K @ 60Hz)
AUDIO PORT	1 Audio Combo (1/8″)
AC POWER ADAPTOR	150W Slim
BATTERY PACK	3 cell (53Whr)
DIMENSION	14.13″x10.20″x1.08″
WEIGHT	4.97 lbs
MANUFACTURER WARRANTY	1-year Limited Warranty (Include 1 Year Global)

MSI Creator m16 Laptop – Price and Availability

The all-new MSI Creator M16 Laptop is now available with different specifications. The pricing is listed below
MSI Creator m16 11UC (RTX 3050) – $1499
16inch Creator m16 11UD (RTX 3050Ti) – $1699
16inch Creator mM16 11UD (RTX 3050Ti/1TB SSD/32GB RAM) – $1799
It is now available globally with various online retailers like Amazon, XoticPC, Newegg, etc.

If you go with my choice, I would suggest you get the MSI Creator M16 11UD with the highest specs as it is not much of a difference when you compare it against the lower version model and you will not have to upgrade for several years when you are on 32gigs of memory! It can literally handle anything you throw at it. Today we have with us the lowest variant i.e Creator M16 11UD with the RTX 3050Ti 4GB Graphics Card.

MSI m16 Laptop – Build Quality and Design

The all-new MSI Creator 16 laptop is fully black in color. It looks familiar to this year’s MSI GF66 11th Generation Gaming Laptops. It has a plain black matte finish to it. Earlier, MSI used to have a silver brushed finish aluminum design on their last generation Creator 15 and Creator 17 models. But from this year onwards MSI wanted their m16 laptops to be used both as a Content Creation laptop as well a Business laptop. The dark stealthy look and the glossy black MSI dragon logo make this laptop look more appealing aesthetically.

The new sleek looks borrowed from the GF66 and Sword Series of laptops and giving it a much edgier and stealthy look was MSI’s perfect approach in bridging the gap between sleek business looks with tons of raw power. The body is made entirely out of plastic. It’s heavy which speaks volumes of the build quality. The build is extremely rigid with no flex on the body whatsoever. The laptop also has a good base weight which lets you open the lid with only one hand. The laptop deck is quite sturdy as well and you will have no issues resting your arm and typing.

The new honeycomb mesh design at the bottom of the laptop which resembles the gaming series of laptops is also present on this laptop for maximum heat dissipation. The 3 sided bezel with one thick bezel on the top for the webcam is common for all 16-inch laptops nowadays. Aesthetic-wise, we can call it a stealthier version of the GF66 Laptop with a better display!
And pursue the best of the best, the product meets the MIL-STD-810G military standard for promising reliability and extended durability.

MSI Creator m16 16inch Laptop – Display

This is MSI’s first time stepping into the 16 inch display zone. Since nowadays almost all brands have jumped onto the same 16-inch display bandwagon. Earlier last year we were still seeing MSI releasing their Creator laptops in 15.6-inch displays. But this year with their new Creator MSI m16 and MSI Creator Z16 they completely ditched the traditional 15.6 1920x1080p display and upgraded it with a 16inch 2560×1600 QHD+ Display. It is actually the same width as the traditional 15.6 inches but the display is extended down 0.4 inches so that you can have much more surface area to work and game. The bezels are extremely thin on all three sides with an included 720P webcam on the top bezel.

Because the MSI Creator m16 laptop is based on the Content Creation series, so you will be stuck with a 60hz panel on this one. But on the flip side, you get a much better quality display with a resolution of 2560×1600. MSI advertises it as the Golden ratio display. They claim that the Golden ratio 16:10 i.e. 1.618 is the perfect ratio considered as the law of beauty. This ratio gives 11% more headroom than the 16:9 aspect ratios for more workspace in Adobe and other applications.

It is a QHD+ Display with MSI’s signature True Color Technology. MSI’s True Pixel display delivers vibrant images with DCI-P3 100% color gamut. The display also features Delta E<2 Color compression out of the box. The display is one of the best in all other content creation laptop brands at this price point. The Calman verified MSI Creator m16’s display delivers the most accurate colors for your content creation needs.

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MSI Creator m16 Laptop – Keyboard and Trackpad

Keyboard

MSI incorporated a full-size keyboard on their MSI Creator m16 Content Creation Laptop. MSI is always known to have a good quality gaming-specific keyboard on all its product lines. The keyboard feels really nice when typing and there is 1.7mm key travel for people who would want to have that mechanical feel on a laptop keyboard. The keyboard is white backlit so blending it with any scenario be it at work or at home is not a problem. Also the white backlit can be toggled on or off depending on your needs.

Trackpad

The trackpad on the MSI Creator M16 laptop has a very rich and smooth tracking and gliding experience. The touchpad is extremely responsive and it responds really well to all the windows gestures. There are two dedicated right and left mouse buttons present under the touchpad. The size of the touchpad is average and there is a fingerprint sensor on the top left corner for faster and secured logins.

MSI Creator m16 16 inch – Ports and Connectivity

Talking about the ports, on the right side of the laptop you will have one RJ45 input of internet connectivity and LAN. Apart from that, you would also get an HDMI port, a USB Type PC Port, a USB Type-A Gen 3.2 port, and a headphone microphone jack. While on the left side of the laptop you will get one USB 3.2 Gen 1 port and 1 USB 2.0 Port.

For the wireless side of things, the MSI Creator supports Killer WiFi 6E AX1675 for wireless internet connectivity and Bluetooth 5.2 for seamless file transfers.

MSI Creator m16 16-inch Laptop – Audio, Webcam and Battery

The MSI Creator M16 Laptop features a pair of 2W speakers with support for Nahimic/ Hi-Res Audio. You can experience both music and gaming the way it’s meant to be heard. It also supports 24bit/192kHz audio so that you get the best quality audio on your headphones whenever you are using sound-related applications like audio mixing and mastering. Using a Headphone is recommended for all laptops nowadays.

MSI provides a 720p webcam on their Creator range of Laptops, which lets you connect with your loved ones over video calling. The Camera is more than decent to be used for Google meets, or Zoom calls, or even online classes. The video quality and photo quality are quite good but if you want to go Pro on webcams, you can check out our top 5 best webcams list here.

Coming to the battery, MSI provides a 3 cell 53W/hr battery for their new M16 Creator laptops. In our recent testings on these laptops, you can expect 5 hours of battery life with normal web browsing and 4 hours on continuous video playback. For heavy workloads like editing on Premiere Pro or Da Vinci resolve you might as well have to connect the laptop to an external power source for maximum performance. Standalone Batteries are not capable of running these laptops whenever you are doing heavy workload tasks like gaming.

MSI Creator M16 Laptop Performance

The all-new MSI Creator M16 Laptop is powered by the latest Intel Core i7-11800H Octa-Core Processor which is an 8 core 16 thread processor. It has a max TDP of 45W and with supports up to 128GB DDR4 3200Mhz memory. It has a base frequency of 2.3Ghz with a maximum CPU frequency of 4.6Ghz. The laptop features 16GB DDR4 3200Mhz RAM and a super-fast 512GB NVMe Gen4 SSD.

The Creator laptop is available with both Nvidia’s latest RTX 3050 & RTX 3050Ti Graphics Card. The laptop we are testing here features the RTX 3050 Graphics Card. It is a 4GB Graphics card and it is very much capable of pulling Content Creation workloads. the new RTX 3050Ti features the all-new 2nd Generation Ray Tracing cores which are very much beneficial when you are rendering 3D projects. The all-new Ampere architecture delivers excellent performance while being power efficient at the same time.

The all-new Nvidia’s features come into play like the Dynamic Boost 2.0 which balances the power between the GPU and CPU for a much better performance boost. The Whisper Mode 2.0 uses AI to control the fan speeds to deliver the best acoustics possible so that you can work silently and peacefully. The Resizable Bar is a very interesting feature where the CPU gets direct access to the GPU frame buffer to improve performance in all the demanding games. The DLSS features use the AI rendering feature to render more images without having to deliver the extra power. This was only achievable with the groundbreaking research from Nvidia to deliver such features in the laptop graphics market as well.

These are some of the benchmarks of the Creator M16 laptop.

Applications	Score
3D Mark Fire Strike	12780
3D Mark Time Spy	4692
Uniheaven Benchmark	2995
Unigine Superposition	2775
3D Rendering	3520

Here are some Gaming benchmarks for the Creator M16 Laptop. Games tested at (1920x1080p for optimal performance). It is to note that you will get the performance more or less like this. Plus this laptop is meant mostly for Creators and not for Gamers in general. If you want an MSI Laptop with Gaming features you can check out MSI’s mid-range king Pulse GL66 Gaming Laptop.

GAMES	Min Settings (FPS)	Mid Settings (FPS)	Max Settings (FPS)
Apex Legends	157	135	97
FIFA 21	155		132
Red Dead Redemption 2	77	49	21
GTA V	141	115	41
Assassins Creed Valhalla	77	61	28
Cyberpunk 2077	50	40	31
PUBG	146	124	98
Doom Eternal	108	106	88
Overwatch	187	150	110
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Seige	170	151	140

Laptop for Creators – MSI Creator M16 Thermals

MSI is always known for its performance-oriented thermal solution. Their exclusive Cooler Boost 5 Cooling System features a dedicated thermal solution for the CPU and GPU each with 4 heat pipes. The large internal diameter of the cooling pipes helps in more heat transfusion and MSI’s signature thermal grease ensures maximum performance without having the issue of thermal throttling. The newly designed Honeycomb mesh bottom has proper vents and cutouts for maximum heat dissipation.

The fan blades are made much more thinner this year to facilitate more airflow. The brand is always known to have designed one of the best cooling solutions and radiators to carry the heat away from the system. The Cooler Boost 5 technology is known to give the best thermal temperatures so that your system doesn’t overheat and throttle even at extreme loads.

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MSI Creator m16 Laptop Software Bundles

Unlike Gaming Laptops, the all-new MSI Creator M16 Laptop comes with a free copy of Microsoft Windows 10 Pro. It also gives you a free upgrade to Windows 11 when it is available)

Apart from that MSI also provides their very own MSI Creator Center Pro software so that you can optimize your usage on the go with extremely easy adjustable modes and for a wide range of scenarios like working, gaming, or even chilling.
You can toggle between various modes like Gaming mode, or Silent mode. Also, you can track the disc space, memory usage, temperatures using this all-in-one software.

MSI Creator m16 Laptop – FAQ

How much Warranty does Creator 16 11th Gen Laptop have?

All MSI Creator laptops carry 1 Year Standard Global Warranty.

Can I upgrade Creator 16 RAM and SSD?

Yes definitely, you can swap out both the 8GB sticks and replace those with two 16GB sticks. It shouldn’t be a problem at all. The same goes for the SSD. You can upgrade your storage by adding one more NVMe SSD on the empty M.2 Slot. Check out the Top 5 Best SSD for Gaming. But make sure you do it in an authorized MSI Service Center as removing the Factory seal stickers will void your warranty.

Should you buy MSI’s latest Creator m16 Laptop?

Well, definitely a YES! If you are into Content Creation and business specifically. For gaming, you can check out these laptops

So with the all-new MSI Creator m16 notebook as the name suggests it mainly targeted the Creative Content creators mostly. It is for those who want to edit videos and photos on their laptops while they are on the go. The unique selling point of this laptop is the 16-inch display which is QHD+ resolution with a brightness of up to 500nits.

The display has all the features ticked that you would need on a content creator’s display as it covers 100% sRGB color space. The internal specifications are also well balanced with an Intel Core i7 11th Gen octa-core processor and Nvidia RTX 3050 or 3050ti 4GB Graphics Card. In terms of connectivity as well it has all the ports necessary except the Memory card reader which can be a big letdown for every creator.

Overall a very good Content Creator specific laptop from MSI with pricing starting just from $1499.

Learn more about MSI Laptops here.

That’s all for now
Until next time.