The Prestige series from MSI always had that wow factor, and the MSI Prestige 14 Evo A11M is no different!
Today, 14-inch laptops are taking over the market by storm. The 14-inch laptops do look small in size, but it is better than 13-inch ones, which are way smaller to our liking, to be honest. 14-inch laptops are the sweet spot when it comes to power and portability. The ultra-portable laptops also give out a more professional level look while having a battery life that lasts throughout the day. The MSI Prestige 14 had their EVO certification, which means Intel brings a much better battery life with increased responsiveness. The EVO series laptops have Thunderbolt 4.0 and WiFi 6 for the connectivity side of things. This laptop is targeted more towards mid-tier photo editors and video creators.
So let us check out the all-new MSI Prestige 14 EVO Laptop A11M.
Specifications
| CPU | 11th Gen. Intel® Core™ i5/i7 U-Processor |
| OS | Windows 10 Home / Windows 10 Pro (MSI recommends Windows 10 Pro for business.) |
| Display | 14.0″ FHD (1920×1080), IPS-Level, Low Power |
| Graphics | Intel® Iris® Xe graphics |
| Memory | 16GB LPDDR4 onboard Memory Type, Max 32GB Max Capacity |
| Storage Capability | 1x M.2 SSD slot (NVMe PCIe Gen4) |
| Webcam | IR HD type (30fps@720p) |
| Keyboard | Backlight Keyboard (Single-Color, White) |
| Communication | 802.11 ax Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth v5.1 |
| Audio Jack | 1x Mic-in/Headphone-out Combo Jack |
| I/O Ports | 1x Type-A USB2.0/ 1x Micro SD /2x Type-C (USB4 / DP / Thunderbolt™4) with PD charging |
| Battery | 52 Battery (Whr) |
| AC Adapter | 65W adapter |
| Dimension (WxDxH) | 319 x 219 x 15.9 mm |
| Weight (w/ Battery) | 1.29 kg |
| Colour | Pure White, Rose Pink, Carbon Gray |
Pricing and availability
The MSI Prestige 14 EVO is now available worldwide to purchase. It is also available on various shopping websites. The base variant with an i5 11th Gen CPU, 16GB RAM and Iris Xe Graphics starts at $1099. However, there is an i7 version also available at $1499 with a similar set of configurations. You will get either the Pure white, Rose pink or the most popular one, the Carbon Gray.
Design and Aesthetics
The MSI Prestige 14 EVO variant we had is the Carbon Grey version. The laptop is wrapped up in a dark navy blue colour matte finish with a reflective blue trim line around the lid. The body is aluminium, and it’s strong and durable and extremely lightweight and portable. The design of the laptop makes it easy to blend in with any situation. The stealth look with the new reflective black slanting MSI logo makes the laptop look more eye-catching.
We can see a little flex on display on opening the laptop, but that is fine because some flex is definitely required to handle minor shocks and pressures. MSI featured extremely thin bezels on either side of the screen but kept relatively thicker for the top and the bottom frames. The top frame hosts a 720p webcam, while the lower frame only has the black MSI logo engraved. The laptop also has an ergo lift feature, which makes cooling a lot better, plus the hinge is 180 degrees rotatable, which supports the flip and share mode.
The laptop deck area has this beautiful lighter shade with dark keys and grey letters. The keys are also larger, and the touchpad is beautifully decorated with a reflective blue trim.
MSI Prestige 14 EVO Display
The MSI Prestige 14 sports a full HD IPS 14-inch display. With a resolution of 1920×1080, the screen looks extremely vibrant and crispy. The Prestige 14 also sports a colour calibrated True Color Display. The average brightness of 245 nits is fairly low in a competition like the Yoga 9i or the Macbook Pro. But the display makes it up with the 82% DCI P3 Color gamut, which beats out the Yoga 9i and the Macbook Pro. The Color accuracy of this laptop being 0.2 Delta E Score is much better (closer to zero is better) than the Yoga 9i with 0.27 & Macbook Pro with 0.21. Overall an excellent display for both your entertainment and creative work purposes.
Keyboard and Trackpad
Keyboard
MSI provides one of the best keyboards in the market for laptops, and the MSI Prestige 14 EVO is no exception. With key travel of around 1.5mm, the keys are large, making typing on this keyboard bliss. The white backlit adds more to the aesthetic as well as an important function in the dark. The keys feel a little soft, but they are very tactile and responsive as well.
Touchpad
The Touchpad is very wide with a glass-like surface. Using touchpads on Prestige series laptops gives a very smooth and wonderful experience. There is no lag while gliding on the silky smooth touchpad, and the touch is highly responsive. It responds to all our gestures like pinch to zoom, two-finger scroll, three-finger tap etc. There aren’t any physical buttons on the surface as they are present below the touchpad bar. There is also a fingerprint scanner present on the touchpad, which is very fast and incorporates Windows hello with no issues.
Connectivity and Ports
MSI Prestige 14 EVO offers a much better I/O Layout than its competitors like the Macbook Pro or the Dell XPS13. On the left side of the laptop, you will find two Thunderbolt 4.0 ports. A USB 2.0 Type-A Port, a headphone/microphone combo jack, and a memory card reader on the right side. Although a USB 3.2 would be a better choice than the legacy USB 2.0 on such a modern and advanced device.
For the wireless connectivity side of things, you will have the WiFi 6 functionality for a strong and stable wireless internet connectivity along with Bluetooth v5.1 support for seamless file transfer and Audio playback.
Webcam, Battery and Speakers
The Prestige 14 A11M sports an IR Webcam, which can shoot photos and videos at 720p. The camera quality is pretty decent and well enough for online classes, video meetings etc. The IR Camera works well with Windows Hello features like Face recognition.
The speakers are located on the bottom of the laptop. The quality of the speakers is not so good. As in, the speakers doesn’t have enough punch in them, and it sounds more like it’s emanating from a smartphone. However, you can enjoy excellent sound quality if you are using headphones, but there arent much to tweak or talk about the MSI Prestige 14 Audio. If you are looking for a laptop with good speakers, then this laptop might not be the one for you.
Since the Prestige 14 EVO A11M is certified with Intel’s EVO platform, the laptop is guaranteed to give a good battery life. The MSI Prestige 14 battery lasted for around 11 hours with continuous web surfing while connected to WiFi. That means you can use this laptop for a full 8 hour working day with still having juice left behind for your entertainment time!
MSI Prestige 14 EVO Performance
The MSI Prestige 14 is powered by the latest Intel 11th Generation Core i5 1135G7 Processor and 16GB 3200Mhz RAM. The SSD here deserves a worthy mention as MSI featured a new 512GB Gen4 SSD of the storage. The i5 1135G7 runs at around 2.4Ghz with a maximum boost of up to 4200Mhz. The 11th Gen Tiger Lake i5 is a Quad-Core CPU with hyperthreading. The 11th Gen i5 also features the Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 as an integrated GPU.
Here are some of the performance benchmarks of the MSI Prestige 14 A11M
| Single Core | Multi Core | |
| Cinebench R23 CPU | 1328 | 4507 |
| Cinebench R20 CPU | 506 | 1771 |
| 7-Zip | 4647 | 21271 |
| Geekbench 5.3 | 1394 | 4797 |
| Blender | 684 |
| 3DM11 Performance Physics | 9515 |
| 3DMark Ice Storm Physics | 52764 |
| 3DMark Fire Strike Standard Physics | 11268 |
| 3DMark Time Spy | 4010 |
MSI Prestige 14 EVO Thermals
The MSI Prestige 14 EVO A11M maintains its thermals with only a single fan, but it does the job pretty good if not so well. The Ergo lift does help in giving the cooling a little more boost. With 15 minutes of full-screen HD video playback, the laptop reached a maximum of 95 degrees, thus remaining well below the safety temperatures. There are no instances of thermal throttling, and the internal heat is managed pretty well.
Conclusion
The MSI Prestige 14 is a fantastic laptop geared towards content creators and business personnel in general. With the inclusion of the MSI Center for Business and Productivity app, you can control and customize your fan speed, battery saving mode, toggle between various performance modes, and try out the new AI-powered noise cancellation during mic usage in meetings of classes etc. It is a fantastic ultrabook intended for everyone and can be used daily. MSI showed their standards with the durable build quality and a fantastic display with a huge battery life makes this laptop a must-have for those in the market looking for a premium MSI Ultrabook.
Learn more about Prestige 14 – The essence of Elite!
That’s all for now!
Until next time…
A 30-year-old avid gamer by choice dabbles in all things tech. Whether spending hours in single-player narrative-based games or going through the latest innovation in technology and chip manufacturing, he prefers to stay on top of things. At the other times, you’ll find him tucked away drumming and headbanging to Rock and Roll Classics.