The MSI A11UET-043 is a MacBook Pro that traces the MacBook Pro line, but its most notable feature is its 16-inch 16:10 aspect ratio display. This display has recently become the “Swiss army knife” of creative professionals, as it boosts productivity while maintaining an elegant and classic look. Although it lacks the visual features and fashion statements of flashier devices such as the Acer ConceptD series, it is exceptionally well equipped internally, making it an ideal choice for a wide range of videomakers.
The MSI Creator Z16 is a well-designed creative laptop that will not disappoint you if you buy it during sales. However, its high price is not that attractive, especially when you consider that there are more powerful and better optimized machines that are available for less money.
Design
The MSI Creator 15 is a gaming laptop that has had some features removed to attract manufacturers. It has an IR camera for Windows Hello, a 4K OLED screen instead of a high refresh rate FHD screen, and the style is simply more understated, for example. The color in which it is available is Core Black.
The MDI emblem is a logo on the lid of the device. It is not easily visible because the black finish is more subtle than the chrome finish. However, from the side, it has a boxy appearance. This may not be a positive aspect, but it’s just something that we expect to see more often on gaming devices. The ports are all located on the left and right sides, which is unusual for gaming laptops.
The ports are great for transferring data, but they can also be used to connect devices to the computer. The USB Type-C port can be used to connect a second display, as it also supports the DisplayPort port.
On the left side of the device are a Thunderbolt 4 port, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port and an HDMI port capable of sending output to an 8K 60Hz or 4K 120Hz monitor. Thanks to Thunderbolt, the USB Type-C port on this side is obviously much more flexible than the one on the opposite side, capable of 40 Gbps data transfer rate, two 4K monitors and even an external GPU. The downside is that users will have to be careful not to confuse them. ..
Keyboard and touchpad
The keyboard has a built-in mini-LED backlight, so each letter can have a distinct illumination color. An automatic configuration with a moving light is available. You must install Mystic Light if you find it annoying or if you want to configure other colors or combinations. Unfortunately, MSI Center Pro does not allow you to change the key lighting.
The SteelSeries keyboard is a well-made and sturdy keyboard that offers excellent feedback despite its short stroke. The keys are large and provide good pressure, making it easy to type even with large hands. However, the typing becomes tiring because of the hard stroke and short travel. In conclusion, the SteelSeries keyboard is a great choice for people with large hands and is usable even by those with smaller ones.
Some people find the ClickPad on MSI’s laptop too small and uncomfortable. Other laptops, such as the MacBook Pro 16 2021 M1 and Dell XPS 15 9510, use wider ClickPads (15 x 9 cm), while the MSI uses only 12 x 6 cm. The low height can be a bit of an annoyance, especially when sliding objects vertically. This is because the pad itself has a smooth surface, a defined pressure point, and modest travel at the bottom of the pad.
MSI Creator Z16 review: Display
However, the MSI Creator Z16’s display is still a great performer and is one of the best in its class. It has a very high color gamut and is able to reproduce colors very faithfully. The viewing angle is also good, making it easy to use in all directions.
The laptop has a very high price tag, but it is not necessary to have a 4K display to enjoy games and edit high-definition images and videos. The display is very glossy, making it difficult to use the device in bright environments. However, the brightness is good, with a resolution of about 398 nits.
If you’re using your laptop indoors, make sure to avoid windows that are open during the day. MSI Creator Z16 offers amazing saturation and depth with 100% sRGB, 91% AdobeRGB and 93% P3 coverage. If you need color accuracy, this product will satisfy you. Although it doesn’t have sharp contrast because it’s not an OLED display, it is still a high-quality screen. ..
MSI Creator Z16 review: Audio
The Z16’s audio experience was loud and detailed enough to be heard clearly throughout our apartment-studio. It features four Dynaudio stereo speakers with Nahimic software to fine-tune the listening experience. In addition to the normal audio settings for music, movies, games and conversations, there is also an automated Smart option that allows the system to flawlessly produce sounds based on what you are doing at the moment. This made it possible to clearly hear Anderson Paak’s falsetto voice and at the same time produce a pleasant bass in Bruno Mars’ “Leave The Door Open.” ..
What If Killmonger Saved Tony Stark on Disney Plus? The Nahimic surround sound setting did a good job of providing the audio with real spatial quality during the battle sequences. The sound is fine for a laptop, but in the end this is a workstation, not a theater, so it is still a bit tinny. For optimal audio quality, it would be wise to purchase computer speakers or a pair of wireless headphones.
Graphic and gaming
Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3060 GPU in the MSI Creator Z16 with 6 GB of VRAM ran quickly and never exhibited any performance stuttering when editing videos with Adobe Premiere or DaVinci Resolve. The delay between photos was minimal when we used Capture One to take tethered photos because they appeared immediately on the monitor. Despite being designed for content creation, the 3060 GPU performed excellently with Borderlands 2: the game’s fast-paced gameplay and animation-style graphics ran at an average of 62 frames per second on the 120 Hz display. ..
The Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (1080p) benchmark was used to evaluate the GPU. The Z16 outperforms the premium laptop’s average of 32 frames per second with a score of 95. Moving to native resolution (1600p), the XPS 15 recorded 67 FPS, while the Z16 scored 89 FPS. Our Creator Z16 scored 15,528 in our 3DMark Fire Strike test, outperforming the category average of 5,770 and the XPS 15’s 8,433. However, it failed to compete with the XPS 15.
Nvidia’s RTX Studio drivers do not offer the best gaming performance, and MSI reduced the TGP of the RTX 3080 Ti from a maximum of 150 watts to 90 watts. In the 3DMark Time Spy test, in which the Creator Z16P lagged behind rival laptops equipped with the RTX 3080 Ti, this is readily apparent. In addition, the frame rate was set to 60 frames per second even with all frame-limiting options turned off on the system and in games (fps). We tried to solve the problem by contacting MSI, but to no avail.
Performance
The Intel i9 processor and RTX 3060 GPU are perfect for video and photo editors, making it a great choice for those who use these applications frequently. If it had an HDMI connector, it would also be great for digital artists, but if you use a mouse for sculpting or rendering, you will still benefit. Our unit’s 16 GB of RAM is adequate for gaming, but seems a bit limited when used for creative work. We could only open about 20 tabs of Chrome and Adobe Photoshop before the laptop started to slow down, which is not what you want from a machine with such powerful hardware. ..
If you work with 3D programs such as Maya or Blender and want the ability to run multiple programs at once, you will need to upgrade to a more powerful graphics card. In both cases, you will receive only 6 GB of VRAM, since the RTX 3060 GPU is the only graphics card offered in all the various specifications we have seen. Again, thanks to Nvidia’s DLSS, this is more than enough to run most recently released games but if you are using more powerful mobile hardware such as an Nvidia or AMD workstation GPU or even a more powerful model than the current RTX 30 series, the power may be insufficient.
The MSI Creator Z16 is a powerful and well-made gaming laptop that has excellent sound quality. It is also comfortable to use, even if it has a small number of ports. The Dell XPS 15 has significantly more bass, but they are still pleasant to listen to even if they are not the best we have heard. The MSI Creator Z16 handled tasks, games, and benchmarks admirably while maintaining its composure.
These fans do make a lot of noise, but even that depends on the context. It’s not particularly outstanding for a gaming laptop, but if you’re working in a shared space, the volume doesn’t compare to the 16″ MacBook Pro without fans. Its merits as a “part-time” gaming laptop are well confirmed by the fact that it was able to average 44 FPS in Cyberpunk with maximum settings and DLSS enabled. Using the 120 Hz display would be preferable for running less demanding games such as Valorant.
MSI Creator Z16 review: Battery life
The Prestige Z16P has a respectable battery life of 90 watt-hours. It lasted 4.75 hours during our web browsing test, which cycles through a number of well-known and complicated websites. This is a result we typically see from gaming laptops. The Dell XPS 17 had an almost three-hour longer battery life. ..
The MSI only managed 5.5 hours in our video test, which plays a local 1080p movie trailer; the XPS 17 easily outperformed it. The Prestige Z16P shut down after around 5.5 hours in the PCMark 10 Applications battery test, which is the best indicator of productivity battery life. Of course, the Apple MacBook Pro 16 stands out in this comparison because it completely destroyed its Windows rivals despite being about as quick. The MacBook’s durability embarrassed the Prestige Z16P. It is not a very portable workstation, the Prestige Z16P. If you engage in any kind of rigorous creative labour, you’ll likely exhaust yourself after a few hours. Make sure to account for the size and weight of the power brick. ..
Heat
The MSI Z16 uses Cooler Boost technology with what MSI claims are the world’s thinnest fans (0.1 millimeters). The three-fan system is actually quite quiet, which is surprising for such a thin laptop. During our thermal test, which involved playing a 15-minute full-screen video at 1080p, the bottom end reached 96.4 degrees Fahrenheit, just a bit above our comfort threshold of 95 degrees.
The touchpad remained cool at 78.6 degrees, while the temperature between the G and H keys reached 90 degrees during the test. MSI’s prosumer system was relatively cool and quiet during our use. ..
Configuration options
It is difficult to get a regular price for the MSI Creator Z16 because different configurations are available based on geographic location. MSI’s website states that the model we are reviewing can have up to 64 GB of RAM, although we have never seen one configured this way. It also includes an Intel i9-11900H CPU, an RTX 3060 graphics card and 1 TB of SSD storage and costs £2,349 (about $3,120 or $4,400 Australian dollars if converted to euros).
We could not find this configuration on the U.S. website. However, the lowest configuration we could find is one with an Intel i7-11800H and 32 GB RAM for $2,599.99. Therefore, it is important to examine the specifications carefully before making a purchase, because if something looks too good to be true, it probably is, and you could end up with a laptop that is less powerful than expected. ..
The laptop costs more than the gaming laptop because it is used as a creative workstation.
Conclusion
The MSI Creator Z16 is a laptop that is designed to be both powerful and stylish. It has a steel composition that makes it incredibly durable, while its portability allows it to be easily carried around. This makes it the perfect choice for content creators and gamers alike.
The MSI Golden Ratio is a design principle that the company has named after its MacBook-inspired product, the MSI ConceptD. Compared to other flashier products, it doesn’t put much emphasis on design and instead focuses on powerful internal hardware. This makes the MSI Golden Ratio a great option for several videomakers who want an affordable and reliable computer.
