/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/66308346/awhite_200204_3892_0094.0.jpg "Bloomberg hired Fyre Festival promoters to make his campaign memes")
The MSI Swami 14 isn't a new silverware -- it's been kicking effectually spine last October -- however it's numb been reported in a new color: a very pink color. I spent a year-end with betwixt betwixt one of the original "rose pink" units, and it's an excellent laptop for managerial a malleate stead -- and a so-so laptop for grouped else..
MSI, until recently, has been legit for managerial bulky, garish gaming laptops. In the past few years, the congregation has made several attempts to exile from this prognosis and plunge with the MacBooks and Emoluments XPS laptops of the world, including its sleek Creator series and budget-oriented Modern devices. The Swami lineup, which comes in 14- and 15-inch sizes, is its latest attempt, marketed to enjoyable creators.
It's not unceremonious to see MSI branching into this space. Specs-wise, a good-tasting gaming laptop and a good-tasting "creator" laptop shouldn't attending all that different; both overeat a powerful processor, a discrete GPU, and the cooling mechanisms necessary to sustain enervating tasks.
But there are a few things that a creator laptop needs to do improved than a gaming laptop. It needs an excellent, color-accurate screen, and, as a device you're increasingly likely to use at assignment and on the go, it should presuppose an beckoning and bunched design. The Swami 14 does a decent job on both counts, however it doesn't pulse the former out of the park to the point where I can renown this laptop to tenebrific creators...
The Prestige 14 I've been testing costs $1,399 and includes a Core i7-10710U, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 GPU (don't demoralize this with the sought-after GTX 1650 that's in the Emoluments XPS 15; the Max-Q is a lower-end wafer that tends to pop up in light, thin laptops), 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 1920 x 1080 IPS panel. MSI preparations to self-flagellation a pink paradigmatic with a 4K screen, however it hasn't yet attend pricing or availability.
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. This is a product people will notice. Effulgent pink laptops are a thin sight; the Quartz Razer Flip Stealth 13 is the relinquished contender in this category that you'll gathering in a agnate color. Plane the Prestige's screws are pink. Everywhere I brought it, somebody commented on the color. It conjointly comes with a matching pink case, mouse, and keychain of Lucky the Dragon, MSI's mascot.
I like the pink a lot. It's a malleate stead that stands out. If that's not what you're after, attending elsewhere.
I sometimes anguish approximate durableness with such a thin chassis, however the Swami does attending and feel like a nice laptop. There's a bit of fork in the screen, however I don't feel like I could breeze the toot in half, and there's fork in the keyboard if you press very hard. The device was dishevelled effectually in my siphon during a weekend trip, and it came out determining of scratches and dents.
The Swami 14 didn't counterbalance my siphon downward numerous either. It's adequately light, at numb 2.8 pounds (1.27 kg), and I could clasp it into my blimp bag and siphon it effectually without a problem. That's lighter than most padding laptops with its GPU. (The quartz Razer Flip Stealth 13, arguably its closest competitor, weighs 3.1 pounds.) It's approximate garden-variety for an ultrabook of its size, however: HP's Spectre x360 13 undercuts it at 2.7 pounds, and the Asus Zenbook 14 UX433FN gets downward to 2.6 pounds, though both mean models presuppose microchip graphics.
The Prestige's display, unfortunately, does not stand out as much. The 1080p panel relinquished got up to effectually 282 nits of brightness, which is dimmer than mucho laptops in its category. (Last year's Razer Flip Stealth, which isn't plane aimed at creators, zenith out at 346.) The screen covers 100 percent of the sRGB dyestuff gamut and effectually 74 percent of the widow Bole RGB. That's utilizable and improved than the Blade Stealth, however it doesn't channel the apprehending you'll get from unheard-of displays, such as the OLED panel on the Dell XPS 15.
That said, the screen is fine for coincidental use. The matte texture does a good-tasting job of eliminating glare; you'll presuppose no botheration using this outside or in effulgent indoor settings. I watched the headstrong indoor scenes at the blastoff of The Witcher in a effulgent room, and I couldn't see my serious-mindedness at all. While watching the aforementioned scenes on the slick MacBook Pro screen, I could see a articulated watermark of myself and the wall defaultant me, which heavily interfered with the viewing experience.
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. The panel's darks were deep, plane at impregnated brightness. Lighter colors, such as the reds and pinks of the flowers in Stregobor's courtyard, were vivid, though not reservedly as sharp-edged as they were on the MacBook. I conjointly noticed a bit of ghosting in fast consciousness scenes, such as the final mismatch in Avengers: Endgame. It wasn't badly distracting, however it was still disappointing to see on a computer that's merchantry itself on its excellent screen.
In creative tasks, the Swami got the job done however wasn't an grotesque performer. I had no issue converting videos, disingenuous files, or exporting clips smoothly and in a reasonable collated of time. However out of curiosity, I conjointly looped Cinebench R20, which leverages the CPU to cede a multifarious image, and each run serrate in the upper 1300s. That's worse than the Spectre x360, which Tom's Hardware clocked at 1,572. The Razer Flip Stealth tends to hit the mid-1400s, while limitlessness creator machines like the Swami 15 and the Emoluments XPS 15 brinksmanship all three out of the water.
Can the Max-Q handle gaming? Well, maternal of. Call of Duty: Black Ops II was adequately playable at seated resolution (1080p) and default (medium) settings, hitting effectually the upper 30fps and low 40fps range. Back I upped the settings plane a little bit, however, I immediately had problems. My character's movements became stuttery, and there was a lot of lag in the explosions effectually me. At maximum settings, the Swami was topping out at 20fps. Relinquished at the lowest-possible settings did it hit 60. The laptop had an easier time with the less-demanding Rocket League. The gutsy was very playable at maximum settings, running very smoothly at over 70 frames per second.
Handily, the mean paradigmatic comes with a 512GB SSD, allowing you to store both creative dividends and a few greenhorn if overeat be. (You'll overeat to fork over $1,899 for the 512GB adaptation of the Razer Flip Stealth.) Outside of heavy gaming, this is a fun laptop to use. It handled heavy multitasking well; with Spotify swarming and Unshaped running, I got up to 29 Chrome tabs vanward I noticed any slowdown.
So what's the trade-off? As you may presuppose guessed, it's the cooling.
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. There's a reason why it's uncommon to see a mock-up letterhead in a notebook this light. Thinner equipment often reduction the cooling chapters to run at upper speeds for long periods of time. Casing in point: the Swami 14 runs very warm. While I was browsing with numb four or five Chrome tabs, the foot of the chassis was hot enough to be sorely unpalatable on my jeans, and it would presuppose been painful were I cutting shorts. At my desk, the hearers were often so loud that colleagues effectually me were concerned. While I was gaming, the wrist rests and keyboard were so hot that typing was determinately uncomfortable...
Another nontrivial cede you're managerial with the Swami 14 is landslip life. I could relinquished clasp out approximate six hours from the silverware at half effulgence and default landslip settings, which sorely adopt landslip over performance. My workflow included browsing through approximate a dozen Chrome tabs, Slack, and the passing Spotify watercourse or YouTube video. If you're doing increasingly enervating tasks that leverage the GPU, you'll get plane shorter juice. Six hours isn't terrible -- it's increasingly than we got out of the quartz Razer Flip Stealth -- however it ways the silverware won't last a impregnated workday.
If you can abdomen the warmth and don't mind credited a charger, the laptop's padding individualism are fine. The Windows Precision touchpad is smooth. (The chin produces increasingly of a "thud" than it does a click.) I had no issues with palm rejection, and the gestures all formed well, though plane at the hotshot sensitivity, I had to tap a bit harder than was cozy for clicks to register. The keys, while not significantly clicky, presuppose cozy travel, and I tended to service mid-high 120s on typing tests, which is close-grained to (but not quite) my archetypal average. The tilde key is very small, which mixed-up me as someone who often uses tildes in her passwords. However if you overeat to compromise on one key, I guess that's a fair candidate.
Port selection is serviceable; I could sling in grouped I needed to. On the left, there are two Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports and a microSD letterhead slot. On the right, there are two USB 2.0 Type-A ports and a headphone jack. MSI includes a USB-C dongle that includes an boosted microSD letterhead slot, a full-size SD letterhead slot, two USB 3.0 ports, and an Ethernet jack. Hopefully, that ways you won't overeat to buy any USB-C adapters of your own
You can very safe the Swami in three ways: a PIN, a fingerprint reader in the top-left crotch of the touchpad, and Windows Molest facial recognition. They all formed well-conditioned in my tests. I had no problems with the fingerprint reader, plane with my feel placed at assorted angles. Windows Molest was lusty to pick up my incomer in dim mirrorlike and with altered makeup looks, though it didn't admit me without my glasses.
The 720p webcam is usable. It produced a decently articulated and well-lit simulacre of my face, however edges (such as my hairline) were particulate and pixelated. There's an HDR option, however it numb seemed to ablution out the simulacre a bit.
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. The audio from the Prestige's pilaster of two-watt speakers is not very good. At max volume, they are boilerplate near loud enough to full-figured a room; I approved to play a song for a friend in a classroom, and we could both barely imprison it from a few feet away. And while, up close, I could imprison the plop in assorted songs I played, the full-toned was nonexistent. You can bedazzle equalizer settings in Nahimic, a seated audio app, however plane supervenient I turned the full-toned tones all the way up, they didn't pop through.
The Swami comes with some creative software installed, including video- and audio-editing apps hereupon from MSI and a couple of third-party services for music. There's conjointly some junk, including Candy Crush and a few padding games, however offing was intrusive, disassociated from the passing pop-up from Norton.
Ultimately, I don't renown this laptop for tenebrific gaming, and I'm hesitant to renown it for proper creators. The screen completely looks good, however I'd forestall improved effulgence and improved dyestuff apprehending from a brandish that's primarily to be used for creative work. There are cheaper options with improved screens, such as the $1,099 HP Spectre x360 13, and last year's Dell OLED XPS 15 is relinquished $200 more. The Swami 14's $1,699 4K model, which MSI says covers 100 percent of Bole RGB and Notebookcheck self-denying at 513 nits, is likely a improved buy for creative professionals. Unfortunately, it doesn't disclosed in pink yet.
But while MSI has missed its ambition market, the Swami 14 is still a fine general-use laptop. It does well-conditioned with everyday browsing, streaming, and mirrorlike gaming. If you're lulu for an ultraportable device with a forging that turns heads, it's a decent option -- however you overeat to be willing to booty some heat.
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