Faisal Ghaffar 
MSI decided to refresh its work-centric Windows laptops that target business users and the 2023 refresh has come in the form of Prestige 14 Evo. The laptop is reasonably priced, as it starts at $1,500, and offers many perks, including a lofty battery. The device comes off as quite impressive, despite the tough competition in the space.
Design and build
The MSI Prestige 14 Evois a fairly standard machine in silver, so it does not win prizes for originality, but it is quite well-designed. Other than the thin black plastic bezel, all surfaces and edges are covered in aluminum. The metal chassis gives the laptop an air of prestige, as its name says. It is light and slim enough to carry around.
As it has a dropped hinge, the Prestige 14 Evolifts the deck off the surface when you open it on the desk. This improves air flow and it makes typing easier, as opposed to other traditional laptops. The left has two Thunderbolt 4 ports and an HDMI 2.0 port. The right has a microSD card reader, a Type-A USB 3.2 (Gen2) port, a physical shutter toggle for the webcam and a 3.5mm audio jack. The tiny webcam sensor is quite forgettable, but it is capable of recording 1080p @30fps video.
Keyboard and trackpad
The 14in laptop keyboards are not that special, but the MSI Prestige 14 Evois certainly a better one, as it has a well-spaced layout and the fingerprint scanner has been cleverly placed below the arrow keys. The keys are backlit and have a nice size and are quite easy to use. The typing experience is great, but the navigation and arrow keys are a bit cramped and tiny.
When it comes to the trackpad, it appears to require a tad more action and force to click at the top than at the bottom. Otherwise, the trackpad has a good size of about 5.6 inch and it is also responsive, as you will be able to glide through web pages and menus easily.
Display and speakers
The 14in Full HD display of the Prestige 14 Evooffers more than adequate contrast and brightness levels, but the color accuracy could use some work. It has a 60Hz refresh rate, which means this is not a laptop that has been designed for video editing or gaming. It has a 16:10 aspect ratio and this is certainly an improvement from last year. There are two speakers under the deck that fire downwards and they are quite average.
Specs and performance
The 13th Gen ‘Raptor Lake’ Intel CPUs have been used in the Prestige 14 Evo laptops this year. They come with the option of 12-core i5-13500H processor or 14-core i7-13700 chip. Depending on location, you can get RAM options of 8GB, 16GB or 32GB and storage options are 512GB and 1TB.
The device performs quite well for everyday office tasks, considering that it is a business laptop. Even in terms of battery life, the Prestige 14 Evo is able to last for more than 16 hours easily. This means you can use it for a full working day and still have some battery to spare.
The Verdict
Anyone who is searching for a Windows laptop that would suit a work environment can certainly consider the MSI Prestige 14 Evoa good investment because it is powerful, has a fast-charging battery and comes with good connectivity options, all at a great price.
