Intel’s new laptops CPUs last forever. But I didn’t expect the performance leap

Intel’s Core 285H chip, the first member of its Core Ultra 200 or “Arrow Lake-H” family for laptops, has a big crater to fill. Yes, crater: This processor essentially bombed on the desktop. In laptops, however, Intel’s Core 285H chip helps redeem Intel’s reputation, starring in the otherwise pedestrian MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo (B2HMG) laptop.

Consider this to be two reviews for the price of one: I’ll take a look at the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo itself, a sample of a laptop that has yet to begin officially shipping. But most of the performance tests I’ll run are for the purpose of comparing Intel’s Core Ultra 285H and the Arrow Lake-H architecture to the best that AMD and Qualcomm have to offer, plus Intel’s older mobile chips.

The short answer: Intel blows away its previous “Lunar Lake” chips, the Core Ultra 200V. The new Core Ultra 200H chips essentially double the performance in general applications thanks to a ton of additional cores. But, hampered by its lack of a modern NPU, Intel is forced to mumble and kick the ground when it comes to talking about AI.

At press time, I couldn’t find any retailers that advertised the Prestige 16 AI Evo (B2HMG) for sale, and MSI’s own listing for the laptop just references a number of overseas suppliers. MSI charges about $1,620 for the Prestige 16 AI EVO B1MG, which was the debut laptop for our tests of the Core Ultra 100-series chips, or Meteor Lake, in Feb. 2024.

Mark Hachman / IDG

MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo (B2HMG): Specs and features

• Display: 16-inch 3840×2400 OLED @60Hz
• Processor: “Up to” Core 7 200H, Core 9 285H as tested
• Graphics: Intel Arc 140T
• NPU: Yes, 13 TOPS
• Memory: 32GB LPDDR5x-7500
• Storage: 1TB (2x M.2 SSD slots, NVMe PCIe Gen 4)
• Ports: 2 USB-C (Thunderbolt 4, DisplayPort/Power Delivery 3.0); 1 HDMI 2.1, 1 USB-A 10Gbps, 1 SD (XC/HC card reader), Gigabit Ethernet, Kensington lock
• Camera: 1080p, 30 fps (user-facing)
• Battery: 99.9Wh
• Wireless: Intel Killer BE Wi-Fi 7/ Bluetooth 5.4
• Operating system: Windows 11 Home/Pro (Windows 11 Home as tested)
• Dimensions (inches): 14.11 x 10.02 x 0.75 in. (16.9-19.0mm)
• Weight: 3.31 lbs.
• Color: Stellar Gray
• Price: Unknown

MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo (B2HMG): Design, build quality, display and ports

Intel sent us an engineering sample of the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo (B2HMG) for review, as a test bed for the Core Ultra 9 285H (Arrow Lake-H) chip inside.

You’re not going to find too many differences between the Prestige 16 AI Evo B2HMG and earlier models like the 2024 MSI Prestige 16 B1MG, which housed the Core Ultra 7 155H, Intel’s first entrant into its mobile Core Ultra family. As reviewer Matt Smith noted of the B1MG, this B2HMG is a thoroughly mainstream, rather nondescript, plasticky laptop most notable for what’s inside. It’s not a huge surprise that the model is used as a showcase for Intel’s new chips.

Structurally, the magnesium-aluminum laptop doesn’t quite have the robustness you’d expect from a purely aluminum chassis, though I really didn’t notice any keyboard flex. I didn’t notice any display flex either, although opening and closing the device feels a bit flimsy.

I wouldn’t mind if MSI shaved a few tenths of a pound off of the weight, but 3.3 pounds isn’t egregious for a mainstream laptop. I’ve stopped worrying about laptop thicknesses, mostly, but the chassis is thick enough to accommodate an Ethernet port, which is always a nice touch.

About the only thing that feels off to me are the rear-mounted ports. I know there’s an argument to be made that snaking the power cable (which takes up one of the two USB-C/Thunderbolt ports on the rear of the machine) from behind can save space. The same holds for placing the HDMI port on the rear. But it feels weird in my own setup, in which the laptop sits on my desk’s keyboard drawer, with its screen nestled just under a desktop display. I always worry about crimping the cords or bending the USB-C port itself.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Aside from the SD slot, Ethernet, and headphone jack on the right side of the chassis, the Prestige 16 AI Evo B2HMG uses the left side for venting hot air that’s pulled in from a grille underneath the laptop itself. I rarely heard the fans spin up to peak levels. Most of the time, if the laptop needed to cool itself, the fans ran at just a light hiss.

The fan response time seems quick as well; over the years I’ve simply expected the fans to ramp up and stay that way through benchmark tests. That wasn’t the case here, with the fans turning off and on as needed.

Maybe I’m jaded, but I’ve come to expect high-refresh rate displays. This laptop doesn’t have one — just the default 60Hz — which feels like a step down if you’ve used a faster one. Thankfully, MSI added an OLED display to the Prestige 16 AI Evo, which always adds a certain je ne sais quoi when watching movies, where OLED’s fantastic contrast helps the colors pop. I’m assuming you’ve used an OLED display before; if you haven’t, you’re in for a real treat.

Mark Hachman / IDG

There’s a tradeoff, however, and that’s the display resolution: 2560 x 1600.

As the numbers suggest, the display offers more pixels than a 1440p display, but falls short of a true 3840×2160 (4K) display. I couldn’t help but wonder why the earlier B1MG offered a gorgeous 3840×2400 display, and this didn’t. Pushing pixels does affect performance, however. (At the time of my review of Intel’s Core 100 chip, Intel and MSI sent me an engineering sample of the B1MG with the same 1600p display as in the B2HMG, and not the 2400p display that was part of our B1MG review.)

Mark Hachman / IDG

As always, some of the most useful functionality hides within the system utility software. MSI calls its app MSI Center, and it allows quick toggles between performance modes as well as access to features like the ability to cap charging at 80 percent to preserve battery life, what happens when the lid is closed, and so on. MSI doesn’t offer nearly as many capabilities as, say, Asus, but it’s still worth a tour to discover noise cancellation technologies and where to find firmware updates that aren’t covered by Windows Update itself.

Our engineering sample didn’t come with any bloatware besides Norton 365, which I had to remove because it interfered with my benchmark software.

There are a couple of other features worth noting: support for the very latest Wi-Fi 7, which may be faster than your own broadband connection, as well as a neat feature that uses the webcam to put the laptop into sleep mode when you walk away. The latter feature isn’t new, but not every vendor offers it.

Mark Hachman / IDG

MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo (B2HMG): Keyboard and trackpad

The MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo (B2HMG) offers a full keyboard plus a trackpad, which is always to be applauded for lefty gamers. A biometric login also hides behind the power button. Windows and Windows Hello prefer that you log in with a depth camera (and yes, there is one) so you might be unaware that it exists. I like logging in with my face, but shaving or just a bad hair day can sometimes mess it up. Set up both and chances are that you’ll never have to use a PIN as a backup again.

Everything about the MSI laptop experience is sort of meh, so it’s mildly delightful to discover that the Prestige’s keyboard is comfortable and a pleasure to type upon. The keys are springy, even if they feel a mite small. The number pad is a bit narrower than a full-sized external keyboard, but that’s just a minor nitpick. A row of function keys at the top of the keyboard doesn’t hide any surprises, and includes keys to cut off the mic and camera. (There is also a physical webcam shutter.)

There are three levels of backlighting, which can be configured to automatically turn off in 10 seconds via MSI Center. The default mode is “auto off,” which doesn’t really provide any additional explanation. It seems to rely on whether it detects you.

I honestly didn’t notice this feature before performing some battery longevity tests that put the laptop near me on occasion. The battery life of this laptop is still amazing, but my results varied by about 90 minutes. This could be why.