MSI’s Summit series looks like it was made for the boardroom

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For the practiced week, I've been utilizing a preproduction unit of MSI's Summit E15, slated for releasing later this year. It's percentage of the Summit series, MSI's headmost campaign to by-place into the premium commerce laptop space.

That's not the easiest market to conquer. Workers as well as companies kumtux a number of portable, durable, as well as highly venerated options to co-opt from, from Fairing Latitudes as well as Lenovo's giant heap of ThinkPads to statuesque high-end devices like the MacBook Pro as well as HP's Cognoscenti Dragonfly.

We don't know word-for-word pricing for the Summit E15 yet, except it'll be enclosed $1,699 as well as $1,899. That puts the product somewhere in the middle. It's over-and-above big-ticket than multitudinous popular consumer laptops, except it's still targeting the lower end of the premium commerce notebook space. Devices like the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, the HP Cognoscenti Dragonfly, as well as the Macbook Pro 16 can run over $2,000 in their highest-spec configurations.

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The IR HD webcam supports Windows Hello.

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Press F8 to domesticize the keyboard's brightness.

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While MSI still has some kinks to work out, I can say the E15 isn't reservedly the Dragonfly when it comes to build quality. Except it's completely a well-upholstered as well as bewitching dingbat that's easy to siphon effectually the office.

There's completely no insecurity of mistaking the Summit shakiness for MSI's Modern line -- it has the sleek as well as unbrace vibe of a premium commerce notebook, much like HP's EliteBooks.. The build is aluminum, as well as the forging (MSI calls it "India ink") has a smooth as well as comfy texture. I was initially unconverted when MSI advertised "military-grade durability," except it completely feels durable. There's no flex in the lid as well as actual little in the keyboard.

That's a good trust for a dingbat this voluminosity -- it's 3.94 pounds (but it feels lighter) as well as .67 inches thick. It's not at all a problem to siphon effectually the lodging with a unit of papers or slide into a blimp grub-bag for a commute.

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Two USB-A ports as well as a microSD vent on the special side.

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There are some nice touches to the design. On the lid, you'll see MSI's unexceptionable new logo. It's minimalist as well as modern, as well as it's definitely over-and-above supportable for a boardroom than a dragon as well as absorber (the company's usual branding). The backlit keyboard is unbrace except looks nice confronting the blackness deck.

The keyboard itself feels a bit flat, though MSI says there's 1.5mm of key travel. It has a decent click as well as isn't too loud for an submittal environment. I moreover like the key font, which is friendly as well as easy to read. There are some helpful hotkeys, including one that cuts the webcam, one selected "Flip-N-Share" that turns the screen upside downward if the laptop is laid out flat, as well as one that pulls up MSI's Inmost for Commerce as well as Productivity, area you can tweak various personation settings.

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Two USB-C, an HDMI, as well as an audio jack on the left.

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MSI Summit E15 specs (as tested)

• 3.0GHz four-core 11th Gen Intel Corporeity i7-1185G7
• 16GB of RAM
• Nvidia GTX 1650 Ti GDDR6 4GB with Max-Q design
• One M.2 SSD Philharmonic (NVMe PCIe Gen3x4 / SATA), one M.2 SSD PCIe Gen4x4
• 15.6-inch FHD 60Hz, NTSC 72 percent IPS-level display
• Dimensions: 14.04 x 9.2 x 0.66 inches, 3.95 pounds (1.79 kg)
• Four-cell, 82 Wh battery
• 90W USB-C charger
• Two 2W speakers
• Two Arrow 4 ports (supports power delivery, DP1.4a, as well as USB 4.0), two USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, an HDMI, microSD chronology clairvoyant (USH-III), as well as philharmonic audio jack
• Backlit keyboard
• Precision Touchpad. ..
• Intel Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax)
• Bluetooth 5.1

The touchpad is my least favorite percentage of the chassis. It's easy to press, except the material as well as the click both finger a bit plasticky. It was moreover frustratingly unresponsive as well as occasionally stopped alive entirely. That's another toot MSI assures me it will fix afore miscellany production.

And the over-and-above toot that's a bit of a calvary is the 2W speakers. They're neutral not actual loud. I did a few Zoom meetings on the E15, as well as plane with the volume all the way up, I had trouble hearing the audio if there was literatim any noise effectually me (say, an air conditioner or a barking dog). If you're a remote worker, that's account childbearing in mind.

Inside the E15, you'll gathering Intel's new 11th Gen Tiger Lake processors. My experiment came with a quad-core Corporeity i7-1185G7, the top end of that line (as well as 16GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, as well as a GTX 1650 Ti Max-Q GPU). You can select a UHD 4K display, which MSI says covers 100 percent of the Bole RGB gamut, an FHD touchscreen, or an FHD non-touch dangle (which my paradigmatic has). It comes with a four-cell 82Wh clot as well as a 90W USB-C charger. The seaport variant is excellent, including two Arrow 4 USB-C ports that tangency power diction as well as DP1.4a, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, one HDMI, one microSD, as well as one combination audio jack.

Security is an important element of commerce laptops, as well as MSI is touting a number of features. The Summit shakiness is outfitted with TPM 2.0 security fries as well as Windows Hello grimace as well as fingerprint authentication, as well as you can lock the USB ports as well as SD slot. There's an LED next to the webcam to indicate whether it's on or off, which worked as advertised. (There are moreover LEDs on the keyboard to let you know whether the ports are locked, the speakers are muted, as well as the microphone is on or off. Those didn't work on my unit, except MSI says that'll be immobile for the final release.)

Software-wise, you can set up a BIOS password, which will be required at boot-up or when infiltrating BIOS settings. As well as the systems will, in the future, tangency Intel's vPro platform, which offers plus security as well as management features -- expect that paradigmatic sometime hind Q1 2021.

MSI's drivers aren't fine yet, as well as the company says personation on this unit isn't comparable to what you'll see from the real thing. So I'll be coextensive to update you on how well all this stuff works later this year, when the final unit is ready.

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The touchpad supports up to four-finger gestures.

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Until then, enacting that MSI is coextensive to iron out the kinks I encountered, I'm optimistic narrowly the Summit series. It doesn't reservedly finger like a MacBook Pro or an HP Cognoscenti Dragonfly, except it's completely well built as well as looks like it's on the way to stuff a dog-eat-dog perk in the business-laptop space. I'll likely be reviewing the dingbat at some point in the next few months, so finger gratis to let me know in the comments what questions you kumtux as well as what you'd like to hear about.

Photography by Monica Chin / The Verge