MSI Summit B15 review: medium business

This year, several companies primarily known for gaming laptops have entered the laptop business and productivity industry. It’s already a crowded area, but Razer has made a splash with its excellent Razer Book 13, which has a sleek bezel, 16:10 display, and just a touch of its company’s signature RGB lighting.

In this review, I’m looking at the Summit Series, which is MSI’s attempt to get into the same space. The series includes the Summit E line – which includes discrete GPU options and is priced to compete with top dogs like the Dell XPS 15 – and the Summit B line, which starts at $ 999 and is squarely in the midrange.

I’m talking about the B15 summit here – I watched the E15 summit last fall. The base B15 includes a Core i5-1135G7, 8GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. I tested the more expensive configuration, which costs $ 1249 and has a Core i7-1165G7 (one of the better processors 11th Gen Intel), 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. The system puts solid specs in a nice chassis, but there are a few hiccups that make it a bit pricey for what it offers.

The most attractive aspects of the Summit series laptops are their appearance and construction. They have a smooth black finish, aluminum construction, a sleek backlit keyboard, and a shiny new MSI logo on the cover and bottom bezel (no dragon to find, a first for MSI). MSI claims the B15 has “military-grade durability,” and while this is a difficult claim to test, there is very little flex in the B15’s cover and keyboard. And at 3.53 pounds and 0.67 inches thick, it’s lightweight for its size.

Overall, however, the B15 has a somewhat utilitarian look, especially compared to the E15. The latter has a few small touches that add to a more elegant vibe – there are gold accents around the touchpad and hinge edges, for example, where the B15 is straight black. Another thing about the B15’s chassis – it’s one of the worst fingerprint magnets I’ve ever seen. Touch the cover once and a visible stain will remain. I used the sides of my fists to reposition the laptop while taking pictures and always had to wipe it off between shots.

Make no mistake, it’s a nice and nice chassis. But there’s nothing exciting about it, and you’re going to wipe it down a lot if you want to keep a clean look.

The useful port selection is a highlight, given the slim chassis. It includes one USB-C (supporting Thunderbolt 4, power, DP 1.4a and USB 4.0), two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, one USB 3.2 Gen 1, a combo audio jack, a microSD player and an HDMI jack, in addition to the barrel plug power port. You also get an RJ45 Ethernet dongle in the box which is handy. I also like having USB-A ports on both sides.

I also like the keyboard backlight, which looks quite classy and wouldn’t be out of place in an office. The keys have a nice texture and a 1.5mm travel. Three nitpicks to note: First, the Fn key is half size, and I found it painful to hit. Secondly, there was sometimes internal rattling inside the bridge which was annoying. Third, the keys are softer than clickable, and they’re a bit shallower than the best keyboard keys. Subjectively, I made more mistakes on this keyboard than usual.

The display, likewise, is functional with warnings. It covers 98% of the sRGB range and 76% of AdobeRGB, and reaches a maximum of 258 nits. It’s an acceptable range of color coverage and functional enough for office use, but it’s too dark to easily use in bright environments. I would expect more from a $ 1,249 laptop. Plus, it uses a 16: 9 aspect ratio, which is out of fashion among high-end business laptops for a reason – it’s cramped for multitasking.

The only component that I really don’t like is the touchpad. It’s a bit small for a 15-inch laptop, and I occasionally hit the fingerprint sensor (built into the top left corner) and top plastic as I scrolled. It’s also not the smoothest I’ve ever used, and my fingers would slip into it quite a bit. The material and click are a bit plasticized compared to what you might find in a nicer model.

The performance of the summit is good. I did not encounter any issues while performing my usual office job. The integrated Iris Xe graphics aren’t suitable for serious gaming, but can be lighter if that’s your thing. I could sometimes feel the system hissing under the keyboard while doing more intense tasks, but it was never too loud or too hot. You can switch to the “Quiet” cooling profile in the MSI control panel if the fan noise bothers you.

Having said that, two disappointments came out of my testing period. Firstly, the sound from the B15’s dual speakers isn’t that great and works great for video calls, but it offers tiny percussion and hardly any bass. I also heard occasional distortion at maximum volume, although I could eliminate it by turning the sound down a notch. My test unit’s microphone also didn’t work on Zoom calls, although it does work in other apps – I’ve asked MSI about this and will update this article if they understand it.

Second disappointment: battery life. Running the B15 as a daily pilot at 200 nits of brightness, I only averaged five hours and 13 minutes. That’s not entirely unexpected, as it only has a three-cell, 52 Wh battery – similar to what some 13-inch laptops ship at this point. On that 15-inch laptop, that’s not enough to get you through a full day if your workload is similar to mine (ten Chrome tabs, Slack, the occasional Zoom call, that sort of thing) . One thing to note is that the B15 comes with Norton, which I have seen to be severe battery drain in the past. I did a battery test before uninstalling this software and only had four and a half hours. After bombarding the bloatware, the B15 moved closer to six.

All in all, the Summit Series is a great first step for MSI. In a market where business laptops typically cost several thousand dollars, there is absolutely an audience for something like the B15, which is lightweight, attractive, and functional for just over $ 1,000. It looks and feels like a laptop you would bring to a business meeting, and it has a high-end Intel processor with cooling that can handle it. Professionals on a budget could certainly do worse.

But given the mundane audio, battery life, and other areas of the chassis, I still think people who are willing to spend a little more will benefit, especially those who can live on less RAM and storage. A better screen, better speakers, and better battery life can make a big difference to the day-to-day experience, and while the B15’s beautiful chassis, plentiful storage, and company-specific features are worth a premium. for some, they will not be everyone’s. priority.

Photograph by Monica Chin / The Verge