MSI Prestige 14 AI Evo C1M Review
Well-built, reasonably fast and packed with forward-looking connectivity and AI features
Verdict
It’s not the most exciting business laptop, but the MSI Prestige 14 AI Evo C1M is well-built, reasonably fast and packed with forward-looking connectivity and AI features. In short, it’s a smart investment.
Pros
- Good performance for mainstream business apps
- Integrated AI acceleration and Arc GPU
- Impressive wired and wireless connectivity
- Excellent battery life
Cons
- Small keys and cramped keyboard layout
- Weak audio
- Slightly dull design
Key Features
- Integrated graphics and AI acceleration Intel’s Core Ultra CPUs give you the brand’s strongest integrated GPUs along with built-in AI acceleration. With the new Copilot key on the keyboard, you’re ready for a brave new world of AI-enhanced computing – in the event more compelling software arrives.
- Bigger screen, compact bodyThe Prestige 14 AI Evo C1M packs a 14-inch screen with a squarer 16:10 aspect ratio into a chassis that would normally fit a 13.3in display. While not enormous, this screen looks and feels larger than it actually is.
- Future-proof connectivityMSI’s latest is one of a handful of laptops we’ve seen with next-generation Wi-Fi 7 support. Throw in HDMI 2.1 and Thunderbolt 4 ports and you’re good to connect the full range of modern docks, displays and storage devices.
Introduction
The new MSI Prestige 14 AI Evo C1M is the latest in MSI’s line of business laptops, and while it misses out on the Nvidia GPUs of the creator-focused, non-Evo Prestige line, it makes up for it with Intel Evo certification and the enterprise-grade security and management features that come with it.
What’s more, the lack of dedicated graphics isn’t such an issue with this year’s model. As it’s built around Intel’s Meteor Lake Core Ultra CPUs, it incorporates an ARC iGPU, giving you base-level 3D performance that’s good enough for everyday apps and some casual gaming, along with the AI acceleration signposted in the product name.
This isn’t the best laptop in terms of design or features, but that’s not so important in a market where usability, security, reliability and performance are often more important.
But is it good enough to make a great home office workhorse?
Design and Keyboard
- Compact and classy magnesium alloy body
- Great connectivity with HDMI 2.1, Thunderbolt 4 and Wi-Fi 7
- Keyboard has a great action, but compromises have been made
As far as its design goes, the Prestige 14 AI Evo C1M tries to strike a balance between the style and portability of today’s thin-and-light laptops and the functionality of larger business laptops. It’s compact, effectively cramming a 14-inch, 16:10 display into the kind of body you’d expect on an old 13.3-inch machine. The desktop footprint is just 313.4 x 246.5mm while it’s just under 19mm thick, with a weight of 1.7Kg.
The magnesium alloy chassis feels tough, though there’s a little too much flex in the lid for my comfort, and a little too much bezel at the top and bottom of the screen.
I suspect this is partly for practical ergonomic reasons. Previous Prestige 14 AI Evo models had a hinge at the rear of the clamshell, working like Asus’s Ergolift hinge to lift the keyboard deck at an angle when you had it open on the desk. The new model’s hinge sits on the top of the deck 2cm forward of the back edge, so the extra bottom bezel gives it some extra height and makes for a slightly deeper body with larger palm wrests to support your hands while typing.
The thicker form factor opens up more scope for ventilation – there are vents on both sides as well as at the rear – and also more room for connectivity.
Here the Prestige 14 AI Evo C1M beats its thinner, lighter brethren by packing in two Thunderbolt 4/USB Type-C ports on the right-hand side, plus a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type A port, an HDMI 2.1 output and a Gigabit Ethernet port on the left. Throw in a good old-fashioned 3.5mm audio socket, and you have all the connectivity most of us need for day-to-day work within the unit. Add Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, and the wireless stuff is looking future-proof as well.
There are things I like about the MSI’s keyboard. The keys have a great, light but crisp action with plenty of travel, giving me plenty of solid tactile feedback as I type. The keyboard backlighting is effective, despite having just three levels, and it has the new Windows Copilot key, which could be useful as Microsoft’s tech (hopefully) matures over the next few years.
On the other hand, the keys themselves are fairly small and the layout feels oddly cramped, with the Page Up and Page Down keys squeezed in with the tiny cursors in the bottom-right corner and the Return key chopped to make space for the Hash. It’s something I got used to, and the wider Shift and Ctrl keys help, but I still find myself making more than an average number of typos, even while writing this review.
There’s a similar issue with the touchpad, which is a good 12cm wide but only 7.4cm deep. However, it’s very smooth, sensitive and responsive to multi-touch gestures, so not really much of a problem.
The Prestige 14 AI Evo C1M also benefits from a fingerprint scanner, built into the recessed power key next to Delete in the top-right corner of the keyboard. It’s fast and extremely reliable, unlocking the laptop instantly and without further hassle every time.
MSI doesn’t make any specific claims about sustainability for this particular laptop, but the rather slick packaging is entirely made from cardboard, with no plastic foam inserts to be found.
Screen
- 14in, 16:10 display with 1920 x 1200 resolution
- IPS display can’t match the best OLED screens, but still packs a surprising punch
- Audio is loud and clear, but lacks finesse in some departments
The Prestige 14 AI Evo C1M doesn’t have some fancy OLED or Mini LED screen, but what we’ve got is a decent example of an IPS screen.
Sure, you don’t get the perfect blacks and infinite contrast of an OLED panel, but it’s very bright, at 491.4 nits, and relatively crisp. The 1920 x 1200 resolution could look chunky on a 15-inch or larger screen, but there’s little pixelation visible on a 14-inch display, while the extra height of the 16:10 aspect ratio makes it seem slightly larger than it is. It’s good for comfortable multi-tasking and Windows’ split-screen views.
Colour performance isn’t perfect, but it’s easily good enough for productivity work, light creative tasks and entertainment. I measured sRGB coverage at 95.1% and DCI-P3 coverage at 71.9%, putting the Prestige 14 AI Evo C1M’s screen in the same ballpark as the Huawei Matebook 16’s 16-inch display.
Colour accuracy is also fine for general image-editing purposes, with an average delta-E of 1.76. Most of all, there’s enough punch here to make stills and streaming video look great, even without the flawless contrast and full HDR support of other screens. The vibrant colours count.
The audio isn’t quite so good. There’s some depth to the output and a relatively spacious soundstage, but the low-end is a little weak and the mid-range has a slightly tinny quality. Video calls won’t be a problem – the mic does a good job of capturing voices and the incoming sound is always clear – but you might want headphones for background music or catching up with TV on the commute home.
Performance
- 14-core Ultra 5 CPU promises excellent performance in mainstream apps
- Integrated ARC graphics promise entry-level 3D speeds
- 16GB of RAM and 1TB of fast SSD storage round out a solid spec
With its Core Ultra 5 125H CPU and 16GB of DDR5 RAM, our lower-end version of the Prestige 14 Evo C1M is focused on delivering good performance across everyday productivity and creative applications rather than being some kind of creative powerhouse. A Core Ultra 7 155H version is available if you need higher speeds, but this version will be fast enough for most business users, and then some.
In fact, its scores in Geekbench 6 and PC Mark 10 put it ahead of some models running 13th-generation Core i7 CPUs, including the Acer Swift X 14, last year’s MSI Prestige 14 Evo and the Asus Zenbook S13 OLED. In PC Mark 10 it even pips some rivals based on the Core Ultra 7 155H, including the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED and the new 2024 Dell XPS 14,
What’s more, it has the built-in AI acceleration features introduced with the Meteor Lake line. True, we’ve yet to see these used in any seriously meaningful ways within mainstream applications, but there has been progress in terms of AI model and developer support, and the Prestige 14 AI Evo C1M gives you everything you need to take advantage of apps and future Windows features as these emerge.
The integrated ARC graphics also mean there’s some degree of useful 3D acceleration, though gamers aren’t likely to be convinced. The Ultra 5 125H has one fewer graphics core than the Ultra 7 155H, which means that MSI’s laptop gets slightly lower scores than the Core Ultra 7-powered Acer Swift Go 14 in both the 3D Mar TimeSpy test and Returnal’s built-in benchmark.
That said, neither is a gaming powerhouse. At 1080 Ultra settings, the MSI hits a woeful 20fps in Returnal and can only hit 28fps at 1080p Medium settings, or 33fps at the same settings with XESS upscaling enabled. If you fancy some after-office-hours gaming, you’ll be fine playing older or less demanding titles, but with AAA games you’ll need to take a hit on resolution or detail settings – and sometimes both.
More business-focused users will be more interested in the storage speeds, and here there’s better news. With a 1TB SSD capable of hitting sequential read/write speeds of 7074MB/sec and 5103MB/sec respectively, you’ll find loading times near instantaneous, while chunky datasets and complex media files will stream in smoothly.
Software
- Tobii Experience provides some useful webcam-powered features
- MSI Center is a comprehensive system tool, but not always user-friendly or intuitive
As a business laptop, the Prestige 14 AI Evo C1M comes mercifully free of unwanted software, though you do get a couple of pre-installed apps.
Tobii Experience is an interesting app that harnesses the built-in webcam for a range of privacy and security features, for instance, notifying you if someone is looking over your shoulder, or blurring the screen when you look away. It’ll also shift or re-centre the view if you have more than one person sitting in front of your laptop during a video meeting. These features work, and are genuinely quite useful.
Otherwise, the key app here is MSI Center, a bundle of system and diagnostic tools you can use to switch between thermal and performance profiles, optimise the battery and storage or ensure that your PC is running properly and all your drivers are up to date. It’s useful, but the layout of control panels is a bit confusing and it’s not always obvious where you might find a specific setting or control. On the plus side, it’s good to see an app of this type not focused purely on the gamer audience, with a style that works quite well in a more professional setting.
Battery Life
- Business users can expect to get through the day without a recharge
- Battery recharges quickly, reaching close to 50% in half an hour
Combine a 90Whr battery and an energy-efficient spec, and it’s no surprise that the Prestige 14 AI Evo C1M can easily make it through the average working day.
In fact, it can do a lot better, lasting 12 hours and 46 minutes in PC Mark 10’s Modern Office battery benchmark. It’s quick to recharge too, with the 100W charger getting the battery back from empty to 48% in 30 minutes.
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Should you buy it?
You want a solid, future-proof business laptop for less
It’s not the fastest or most stylish laptop or the laptop with the best screen tech, but it’s good across the board with cutting-edge connectivity, speedy storage and support for emerging AI features. It’s a smart investment that will keep up as new apps and features develop.
You want the best – and you’re willing to pay for it
There are areas like the screen and the keyboard where this laptop puts in a good performance, but doesn’t quite excel. Plus, there are other laptops out there that have sleeker and more interesting designs.
Final Thoughts
The strength of the MSI Prestige 14 EVO C1M is that it gives you good performance and a strong set of features for less money than most rivals.
Some, like the Dell XPS 14 or Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Pro 360, can offer you more style, better specs or a superior OLED or AMOLED screen, but they’ll cost you a good £500 more. Only a few, like the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED, can promise similar specs and EVO certification at a similar price.
Put it all together, and there’s a lot here for business buyers, particularly with the forward-looking connectivity, long battery life and decent ergonomics. It might not be the best laptop for every buyer, but in its own understated way it’s just right for the job.
How we test
Every laptop we review goes through a series of uniform checks designed to gauge key factors, including build quality, performance, screen quality and battery life.
These include formal synthetic benchmarks and scripted tests, plus a series of real-world checks, such as how well it runs popular apps.
Used as our main laptop for two weeks during testing.
We test the performance via both benchmark tests and real-world use.
We test the screen with a colorimeter and real-world use.
We test the battery with a benchmark test and real-world use.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
