Lock ‘n’ Laptop! First Look: MSI Commercial 14, a Secure Fleet Machine

TAIPEI—MSI has long been known as a gaming-PC brand, but a couple of its newly announced laptops at the Computex 2023 trade show reflect the company’s shift to try making some purpose-built, rather than rejiggered, business laptops. The targets for these systems, especially the first model below, include government agencies and other entities that have strict purchasing requirements around security, performance, and sustainability.

With some of the same smart designs and powerful components seen in its gaming machines, these business and media laptops are likely to bring more buttoned-down appeal to the Taiwanese computer maker, while also catering to the specific needs of professionals and content creators.

MSI Commercial 14: Lock This Laptop Down

The biggest divergence from MSI’s gaming past is the announcement of the MSI Commercial 14, an enterprise laptop with a sturdy, no-nonsense construction along with several security features and options. That should make it right at home in any office environment or meet the needs of large institutional buyers.

(Credit: John Burek)

From the spill-resistant keyboard to the whisper-quiet cooling system designed to keep fan noise at zero decibels, this is a machine made for offices full of people. However, rear-mounted ports, like Thunderbolt 4, USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, HDMI, an SD card reader, and optional Ethernet show MSI hasn’t left the individual user out of the plan. This is a practical port mix, and the back-edge positioning of the ports like MSI does on some of its high-end gaming laptops shows the company bringing some of its best practices from the consumer side to businesses.

(Credit: John Burek)

Security, though, is really where this machine is at. IT managers and agency procurement personnel will be glad to see plenty of security features, like Near-Field Communication (NFC), an optional smart-card reader, Windows Hello with facial recognition and fingerprint reader, and Intel vPro—as well as support for TPM 2.0. The whole system is built to meet Microsoft’s Secured Core PC standards, and it includes handy capabilities like presence detection to seamlessly lock your machine when you have to step away from your desk.

(Credit: John Burek)

Another thoughtful aspect of this machine is sustainability. The keyboard deck on the Commercial 14 has a sort of rough, sandy texture; this is meant to signal the use of recycled plastics, and this trait is also shown off in the PCR logo work embedded in the deck and bottom right. MSI notes that some corporate and government buyers have stipulations around the use of post-consumer recycled (PCR) materials, and this machine was designed to meet these. (The packaging also employs significant recycled content.)

(Credit: John Burek)

The MSI Commercial 14 is slated to start selling this fall, but pricing hasn’t been announced yet.

MSI Prestige 16 Studio Evo: Light, Discrete GeForce

Less an institutional choice and more a machine for business travelers and content makers who need a big, light power machine, the Prestige 16 Studio Evo is an ultra-slim and ultra-light laptop that’s an unusual mix. From filmmakers to graphic designers, the slim laptop’s Intel Core i7 processing and optional Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics (up to RTX 4060) should provide plenty of power for any light to moderate media-creation work.

(Credit: John Burek)

The slim chassis design looks slick in a color scheme MSI calls Urban Silver, and a sandblasted finish makes it just as nice to the touch. The shell is magnesium alloy, and this enables the Stealth 16 to hit a 1.5-kilogram carry weight, which is extraordinarily light for a machine with the option for a discrete graphics solution and packing a 16-inch panel.

Measuring just 18.9mm thick, this laptop also has features like Intel Unison phone-to-PC linking, LPDDR5 RAM, Thunderbolt 4 with power delivery, proximity sensing, a 99-watt-hour battery with fast charging support, and an IR FHD webcam. (The 99WHr battery is the largest allowed aboard commercial aircraft.) Overall, the Prestige 16 Studio Evo combines business and productivity elements in a stylish and high-performance package, delivering a big screen in a light package that reminds us of LG’s larger Gram laptops, but with the option for a discrete GPU.

(Credit: John Burek)

The MSI Prestige 16 Studio Evo will also be coming to market in Q4 of this year, with pricing to be announced at that time.

(Credit: John Burek)

Whether the machine is made for the workplace or for your creative space, we’re looking forward to seeing how MSI’s latest non-gaming machines handle themselves in our tests, so keep an eye out for our reviews later this year.