MSI Prestige 15 A11SC Review: Beautiful Design, Elegant, and GeForce GTX 1650 Graphics for Smooth Work Experience

For those involved in content creation, an ideal laptop not only needs to be powerful and compact but also must possess aesthetics, elegance, and be suitable for artistic work. Recognizing this trend, MSI introduces the MSI Prestige 15 A11SC, a laptop that nearly meets all the standards required for users involved in content creation. Join me in reviewing the MSI Prestige 15 A11SC to discover its standout features!

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Modern and Elegant Design of MSI Prestige 15 A11SC

Simple yet impressive, these are my initial impressions when evaluating the exterior of the MSI Prestige 15 A11SC. Crafted from a matte gray carbon shell, the laptop exudes a masculine, powerful, and luxurious aesthetic. The front face of the MSI Prestige 15 A11SC looks modern and minimalistic, with only the MSI logo positioned in the center, serving as a focal point and enhancing the product's recognition.

The edges of the MSI Prestige 15 A11SC are squared off with two diamond-cut sapphire blue accents, making a highly impressive statement. These edged sides are what I value most in the design of the MSI Prestige 15 A11SC. The term 'elegance' in the main title is specifically used for this highlight. The squared edges contribute to the laptop's neat appearance, while the sharp cuts add a professional and distinctive touch during use.

In terms of overall dimensions, the MSI Prestige 15 A11SC is quite compact, weighing 1.69 kg and measuring 356.8x 33.7x 6.9 mm. With these dimensions, you can easily slip the MSI Prestige 15 A11SC into your backpack and carry it with you wherever you go without any hassle.

On the left side, the MSI Prestige 15 A11SC is equipped with two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, an HDMI port, and a 3.5mm audio jack. On the right side, our machine has two additional USB-A ports and a Micro SD card slot. Overall, the connectivity ports of the MSI Prestige 15 A11SC are quite diverse considering the slim design of the laptop. Personally, I appreciate these connection ports for effectively meeting daily peripheral device needs, especially the two Thunderbolt 4 ports that I highly value for their convenience.

Pooling together the overall design of the MSI Prestige 15 A11SC truly impresses me. Despite the minimalist style, MSI manages to incorporate unique highlights that attract users. The design of the MSI Prestige 15 A11SC seems to be suitable for everyone, from students and university students to office users.

MSI Prestige 15 A11SC with a display suitable for graphic design and work

The version of MSI Prestige 15 A11SC that I reviewed features a 15.6-inch IPS display with Full HD resolution. During usage, I observed that this screen provides excellent display quality with sharp images and high realism.

Additionally, the screen of MSI Prestige 15 A11SC covers 100% of the sRGB color gamut for true-to-life colors. This is a nearly mandatory standard for computers used in creative content work, graphic design, video editing, and more. Overall, the display specifications of MSI Prestige 15 A11SC may not be extraordinary, but they are sufficient to meet your daily entertainment, movie-watching, gaming, and work needs.

One aspect I highly appreciate in the screen design of MSI Prestige 15 A11SC is its very thin bezels. Despite having a large 15.6-inch display, the size remains compact, with a screen-to-body ratio larger, giving it a much more premium and sophisticated look.

Keyboard and Touchpad of MSI Prestige 15 A11SC

If the screen is not exceptionally outstanding, MSI compensates for it with the keyboard. The keyboard of MSI Prestige 15 A11SC is one of the best keyboards I've experienced on laptops designed for content creators. The keys are appropriately sized, with a decent key travel that provides comfortable feedback when typing. Additionally, the keyboard is equipped with white backlighting, allowing you to work easily even in low-light conditions or during meetings with weak lighting.

Regarding the touchpad of MSI Prestige 15 A11SC, it is generously sized, providing quick feedback during operations. Thanks to its large surface, gestures like swiping, tapping, or using two to three fingers are performed comfortably and effortlessly. However, one aspect I dislike about the touchpad of MSI Prestige 15 A11SC is the lack of separate physical buttons. This makes left and right-clicking less comfortable during use.

Oh, the touchpad of MSI Prestige 15 A11SC also integrates a fingerprint sensor, allowing you to quickly and easily unlock the device, enhancing both convenience and security for your device and data. Especially when working on important projects, ensuring information security is crucial, so I believe additional security solutions for the device are essential.

MSI Prestige 15 A11SC with powerful performance and GTX 1650 graphics card delivers a smooth experience

The configuration details of MSI Prestige 15 A11SC (the version available at The Gioi Di Dong) used in this specific review are as follows:

• CPU: Intel Core i7 Tiger Lake - 1185G7 with a base speed of 3.00 GHz and a maximum speed of 4.8 GHz.
• RAM: 16 GB, DDR4 with 2 slots (1 slot 8GB + 1 slot 8GB), running at 3200 MHz.
• Storage: 512 GB SSD NVMe PCIe (Upgradeable, supports additional M.2 PCIe SSD slot with a maximum upgrade of 2TB).
• Display: 15.6-inch Full HD (1,920 x 1,080 pixels).
• Dedicated GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX1650 Max-Q, 4GB.

Powered by the Intel Core i7 Tiger Lake chip, MSI Prestige 15 A11SC boasts 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD, expandable up to 4 TB. This substantial storage capacity is particularly beneficial for content creators, graphic designers, and 3D artists, providing ample space for large project files and easy access for future reference. The expandable memory of up to 4 TB makes MSI Prestige 15 A11SC exceptionally suitable for professionals with diverse storage needs.

To support smooth and seamless design work on MSI Prestige 15 A11SC, the manufacturer has equipped the laptop with a dedicated NVIDIA GeForce GTX1650 Max-Q graphics card. Featuring Turing architecture, this GPU delivers processing power over 1.5 times per clock and energy-efficient consumption 1.4 times more effective than the Pascal architecture (found in GTX 1050, GTX 1050 Ti, etc.).

With these specifications, MSI Prestige 15 A11SC can smoothly handle all tasks you demand and excel in creative content work such as video editing, image processing, audio editing, graphic design, 3D modeling, etc., using applications like Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, After Effects, and more.

For a more visual insight into the power of MSI Prestige 15 A11SC, I quickly assessed its performance using software like Geekbench 5, Cinebench R23, and 3DMark. Here are the results:

- GeekBench 5:

• Single-core/multi-core: 1,495 points / 5,078 points.
• GPU Compute: 36,813 points.

- Cinebench R23 (single-core/multi-core): 1,426 points / 5,818 points.

- 3DMark Time Spy: 3,071 points.

Overall, MSI Prestige 15 A11SC performs exceptionally well in various tests, promising a smooth experience that meets both your work and entertainment needs. During real-world usage, there seems to be no lag or delayed response, even when multitasking with numerous applications and working with multiple Chrome tabs.

In addition to performance ratings, I also tested two games, FIFA Online 4 and Forza Horizon 4, on MSI Prestige 15 A11SC. In both games, I set the graphics to the highest settings and used MSI Afterburner software to measure FPS, CPU temperature, RAM consumption, etc., providing you with a more visual understanding.

First up is FIFA Online 4, where every player's gesture and in-game details are vividly and attractively reproduced by MSI Prestige 15 A11SC. After the experience, I found that the Prestige 15 A11SC can maintain a frame rate of around 50 - 60 FPS throughout a match. Sometimes, sudden scene transitions like entering a match, slow-motion, replay scenes, etc., may cause FPS to drop to around 20 - 30 FPS or even lower, but I feel the experience remains stable and quite smooth.

Next is Forza Horizon 4, a game with much heavier graphics compared to FIFA Online 4, but MSI Prestige 15 A11SC still faces no difficulties in handling this game. From the start of the race, FPS fluctuates between 60 - 75 FPS until the end of the race, providing a smooth and impressive gaming experience.

Despite not being a gaming-focused laptop, MSI Prestige 15 A11SC, with its powerful configuration and GTX1650 Max-Q graphics card, can still meet your entertainment needs with your favorite AAA games. However, don't set your expectations too high as this product primarily targets content creators.

Additionally, I used Crystal Diskmark software to measure the read/write speed of the SSD inside MSI Prestige 15 A11SC. The results are quite impressive, as follows:

• Read speed: 6,714 MB/s.
• Write speed: 4,583 MB/s.

You can see that the read/write speed of the SSD in MSI Prestige 15 A11SC is truly impressive. With this speed, exporting files or transferring large-sized files from MSI Prestige 15 A11SC to other devices will be fast and easy. I consider this a highly impressive feature for content creators, as we often work with very large files, and if the read/write speed is slow, it can be a nightmare when exporting files, right?

MSI Prestige 15 A11SC with nearly 4 hours of battery life and excellent heat dissipation

With its slim and lightweight design coupled with powerful specs, it's not surprising that the battery life of MSI Prestige 15 A11SC isn't exceptionally high despite being equipped with an 82 Wh battery. I used BatteryMon software to test the battery, dividing it into two different usage scenarios. The results are as follows:

- Scenario 1: Normal tasks without gaming:

• Battery life: 3 hours and 50 minutes.
• Measurement time: 1 hour.
• Screen at 100%, volume at 70%, and no power-saving mode.
• Keyboard backlight enabled.
• Bluetooth connection for keyboard and USB mouse connected.

- Scenario 2: Normal tasks with 20 minutes of gaming.

• Battery life: 3 hours and 28 minutes.
• Measurement time: 1 hour.
• Screen at 100%, volume at 70%, and no power-saving mode.
• Keyboard backlight enabled.
• Bluetooth connection for keyboard and USB mouse connected.

After the two tests, you can see that the usage time of MSI Prestige 15 A11SC reaches about 4 hours without gaming. Although not a high figure, considering the design and configuration, the battery life is acceptable. Surprisingly, the gaming battery life of MSI Prestige 15 A11SC doesn't differ much from non-gaming usage, showcasing MSI's excellent battery optimization.

Due to the relatively modest battery life, it's advisable to carry the charger when working outside with MSI Prestige 15 A11SC. The laptop and charger are both lightweight and compact, ensuring convenience when carrying them around.

Regarding the cooling capability, MSI Prestige 15 A11SC performs well. During testing with League of Legends, without the High Performance mode, CPU temperature ranges from 80-88°C, and GPU temperature is around 65°C. With High Performance mode and the cooling fan activated, the CPU temperature drops to approximately 76°C.

I'd like to note that my assessment of the battery life and cooling performance of MSI Prestige 15 A11SC is based on its design. It performs well for a thin and light laptop, but it's not the best when compared to gaming laptops.

How much does MSI Prestige 15 A11SC cost? Is it worth buying?

MSI Prestige 15 A11SC is priced at 34.99 million VND at Mytour currently. In my opinion, this is a reasonable price considering various aspects such as design, configuration, and features that MSI has equipped for this product.

With its luxurious and sophisticated design, coupled with powerful specifications, the MSI Prestige 15 A11SC is perfect for office work, professional content creators, specialized business tasks, and even students in fields that require design software. How do you evaluate the MSI Prestige 15 A11SC? Feel free to leave your comments below! Thank you for reading my entire article.

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