For creative professionals, students and others who want a relatively powerful laptop with excellent value and prioritise a larger, more colourful screen, the MSI Creator M16 should be a great choice. If budget allows, we recommend opting for the RTX 3060 model.
The MSI Creator M16 (configuration A12UE-631) is the latest laptop to feature the new Intel Core i7-12700H processor, which is approximately 30% faster than the previous generation i7-11800H. While many features are aimed at more creative professionals, it offers great specs, performance and value – which makes it a great laptop for general productivity and gaming as well. It is also one of the best options under $1600.
The MSI M16 comes standard with a 16″ 16:10 QHD+ (2560 x 1600) True Colour panel with thin bezels that can be flipped 180° to flatten. Compared to a traditional 15.6″ 1920 x 1080 panel, this means you get more screen rear stations in the same footprint. The all-black design with glossy black MSI Dragon logo is somewhat bland and featureless, but it is a safe choice considering that this laptop will be used by creators, gamers and business people.
Despite being made of all-plastic, this laptop is fairly thick and heavy, which can be noticeable when taking this on the go at 1.08 inches and 4.97 pounds. However, its advantages include better build quality with less flexing, a good port selection including Gigabit LAN, full-size USB, and HDMI, and very effective thermal management with the Cooler Boost 5 cooling system.
For creative applications such as Premiere Pro, the biggest advantage is the height of the video timeline and the relatively large playback preview area above it. On a small laptop screen, everything is squashed unless the tool is closed, making it difficult to use. The extra height is great if you’re editing larger, more complex sequences, and the extra height is useful for applications with large toolbars at the bottom like Blender and Cinema4D, and for multitasking in general.
Another area where this screen excels is colour accuracy – MSI offers True Colour Technology, which claims to display 100% of the sRGB colour space. As a result, each colour is provided with the highest level of accuracy in detail, guaranteeing excellent colour fidelity in many applications. There are a total of six colour profile presets, which can be utilised depending on what you are working with, the content you are watching and the games you are playing. It is also possible to collaborate on colour-fidelity projects, sharing and working with the same profile to ensure that each display accurately represents the colours.