MSI has used this year’s CES to thoroughly refresh its business portfolio, but what’s most significant is not in the new case design, but in the silicon. The Taiwanese manufacturer is one of the first to launch machines based on Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors, more widely known as Panther Lake.
For the partner channel and the industry as a whole, this is an important signal – these chips are the first market test for Intel’s new 18A technology process, which is expected to define the power efficiency of mobile devices in the coming quarters.
In the Prestige and Modern series, the visual changes are evolutionary, but the specifications aim high. The Prestige 14 AI+ and 16 AI+ models, also available in “Flip” convertible variants, have received Intel Core Ultra X9 388H processors.
The ‘X’ designation indicates the presence of an integrated but relatively powerful Intel Arc B390 graphics chip. Combined with OLED matrices and robust 81 Wh batteries, MSI is positioning these machines as tools capable of handling not only office packages, but also more demanding graphics tasks.
The smallest representative of the family, the Prestige 13 AI+, may cause the most discussion. MSI engineers managed to get the weight down to an impressive 899 grams while retaining the Core Ultra 9 processor and 2.8K OLED panel. Here, however, is where the technological risk comes in: a battery capacity of just 53 Wh with such a high-resolution matrix could prove to be a challenge for uptime.
The market success of this model will be a direct test of whether Intel’s promises of a leap in energy efficiency at the 18A node are covered in reality.
For the corporate mainstream, MSI has prepared a refreshed Modern series (14S and 16S models). Here, the focus is on pragmatism: Core Ultra 7 processors, a metal finish and a full set of ports, including the now rare native Ethernet, which is still an asset in an office environment.
Significantly, despite parallel launches from AMD, MSI is betting exclusively on the ‘blues’ in its current business deal, with no models based on competing chips announced in these series. Sales of the flagship Prestige series are due to start on 27 January.
