The MSI Creator 15, which starts at $1,499 and was tested at $1,999, is made for creative work like editing photos and videos. Our test laptop stands out because of its eight-core Intel Core i7 processor and XXL-size battery, which give it great performance and let it run for almost 10 hours without being plugged in. Even though it doesn’t get our Editors’ Choice award because of a few things, like a hot chassis and some issues with the keyboard, we recommend it over the Asus ProArt StudioBook 15 because it has more features. It’s also a good alternative to the Razer Blade 15 Base Model, which doesn’t do as much for the money.
The model number for the IPS screen on the MSI Creator 15 A10Sx is AUO B156HAB03.0 (AUOF08A). It has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and a diagonal of 39.62 cm. The screen ratio is 16:9, and there are 142 pixels per inch (ppi) and 0.18 mm between each pixel. When viewed from a distance of 60 cm (24 inches) or more, the screen turns into Retina. At this distance, the eye stops being able to tell the pixels apart, which is normal for a laptop. The brightness levels on the MSI Creator 15 A10Sx panel are not changed with PWM. This makes it easy to work for long periods of time without putting strain on your eyes.
The Z16’s touchpad is 2.4 by 4.8 inches, which isn’t a lot of space but is enough to get things done. When using Windows 10 gestures like two-finger scrolling and pinch-to-zoom, the rectangle in the middle is smooth, clicky, and responsive. With an Intel Core i9-11900H CPU, 32GB of RAM, and a 2TB SSD, it’s no surprise that these are the kinds of specs you want when editing photos or videos or doing multiple things at once.
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPU with 6GB of VRAM in the MSI Creator Z16 is very quick, and I never had any stuttering when editing videos with Adobe Premiere or DaVinci Resolve. Even though the 3060 GPU is made for making content, it did a great job with Borderlands 2. The animation-style graphics ran very smoothly, with an average of 62 frames per second on the 120Hz display and quick, responsive gameplay.
The MSI Creator Z16, like many other powerful laptops that need a lot of power, won’t last all day on a single charge. It’s a given when you have a high-resolution, high-refresh-rate screen, a powerful GPU, and other features that need power to work at their best. The Z16 lasted 6 hours and 27 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test, which was continuous web browsing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness.
That’s a lot faster than the average 10:27 for a premium laptop. Still, with both screens on, it lasted longer than the Razer Blade 15 (5:14) and the ZenBook Pro Duo (5:01). With only one display, the Duo’s life extended to 6:50, which fell just short of the XPS 15 and its group-leading 6:58.