MSI Prestige A16 AI+ review: A great business laptop with one problem weighing it down

Most laptops come with one or two compromises, but every trade-off is important to consider, especially with a business laptop you’re going to rely on to get work done daily. The MSI Prestige A16 AI+ exemplifies this with an impressive array of features held back by just a couple of concerns.

While the Prestige boasts strong overall performance from its AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 CPU and a quality 16-inch display, it trailed behind some of the latest competition in battery life and features a bulkier design than similar business laptops. If your laptop rarely leaves your desk, these aren't a problem for you, but if you commute or travel for business, weight and battery life are critical.

Is the MSI Prestige A16 AI+ impressive enough in other key areas to justify overlooking those flaws? That’s the question I kept asking myself. While it has some stiff competition from the best business laptops, its strengths could still make it the right fit for some.

MSI Prestige A16 AI+: Specs and benchmarks

MSI Prestige A16 AI+: Price and configurations

The MSI Prestige A16 AI+ costs $1,399 and includes an AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 processor, AMD Radeon 880M integrated graphics, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and a 16-inch 2560x1600 QHD display. At the time of writing, this is the only configuration available.

Those specs offer good value for your money, although it's worth noting that this is the standard consumer-grade Ryzen chip, not one of the AMD Pro chips, which are geared specifically toward enterprise customers. AMD Pro offers enhanced security along with easier deployment and management by the IT department, but if you are in a small to mid-size business, these may not be crucial features.

If your business insists on an Intel vPro or AMD Pro chip, take a look at our best business laptops. Most Lenovo ThinkPads include a configuration option with one of these enterprise-grade chips.

MSI Prestige A16 AI+: Design

The MSI Prestige A16 AI+ is a business laptop that certainly looks the part. It features a sleek silver aluminum chassis with a glossy MSI logo on the lid. Inside it boasts a full-size keyboard complete with a number pad and a full row of function keys. There is also a dedicated Copilot key for activating the Microsoft Copilot AI assistant.

Unfortunately, MSI placed the power button on the keyboard. It’s located in the top right corner and has the same shape, size, and texture as the rest of the function row, which means it’s easy to press by accident while reaching for a different key. I would have preferred the power button to be separate from the main keyboard to avoid that issue.

It’s important to note that the MSI Prestige A16 AI+ is not a 2-in-1 and does not have a touchscreen. If those are must-have features, you would be better served with one of the best 2-in-1 laptops.

The MSI Prestige A16 AI+ is on the bulkier side for a business laptop. While you get a large 16-inch display as a result, this laptop’s size is still important to consider if you plan on commuting or traveling with it. It measures 14.09 x 10.17 x 0.66 inches and weighs 4.44 pounds, which is heavy even for a 16-inch laptop. To put that into perspective, here’s how a few of its rivals compare:

• Acer Swift Go 16: 14 x 9.6 x 0.6 inches, 3.5 pounds
• Asus Zenbook S16 UM5606: 13.92 x 9.57 x 0.47, 3.3 pounds
• Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5i 16 (Gen 9): 14.02 x 9.88 x 0.69 inches, 4.3 pounds

MSI Prestige A16 AI+: Ports

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The MSI Prestige A16 AI+ offers most of the ports an average business user would need, including:

• 2x USB Type-C Thunderbolt 4
• 1x USB Type-A
• 1x HDMI 2.1
• 1x MicroSD card

That was enough for me, but I would have appreciated a second USB Type-A port. If you need more ports, you can always pair the MSI Prestige with one of the best USB Type-C hubs or best laptop docking stations.

MSI Prestige A16 AI+: Battery life

Great battery life is crucial for many business laptop buyers, especially if you’re a commuter. The MSI Prestige A16 AI+ lasted 11 hours and 15 minutes in our battery test, which could have been better. Considering how important battery life is for a business laptop, I would have liked to see this laptop score closer to 13 or 14 hours.

Even so, the Prestige lasted about 45 minutes longer than the Acer Swift Go 16 and the Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5i 16, although the Asus Zenbook S16 outscored it with a time of 11 hours and 35 minutes. It's worth noting that you can get a number of laptops at this price point that offer much stronger battery life, often upwards of 14 hours, especially if you opt for a Snapdragon-powered laptop. You can visit our guide to the laptops with the best battery life for some top-rated options.

MSI Prestige A16 AI+: Display

The 16-inch, 2560 x 1600, 165Hz display on the MSI Prestige A16 AI+ is one of its main strengths. It’s spacious, sharp, and scored well overall on our display tests. The text is clear with good contrast, and colors are vivid. The display gets plenty bright, too, at 454 nits.

I appreciated that high brightness while watching Game of Thrones on the MSI Prestige A16 AI+. The show’s dark, saturated visuals were sharp and perfectly visible, even at only 50% brightness. Scenes of Winterfell and Dragonstone brought out the MSI Prestige’s great contrast and color accuracy. Plus, the 16-inch display makes for an immersive viewing experience.

The MSI Prestige’s test scores match that viewing experience. It outscored most of its rivals across the board and featured the highest display brightness:

MSI Prestige A16 AI+: Keyboard and touchpad

While the MSI Prestige A16 AI+ is a bit bulky, the full-size keyboard might be worth it for many users. I don’t personally use a numberpad much, but there are plenty of scenarios where it comes in handy, such as data entry or even gaming.

Aside from the numberpad, the MSI Prestige features a solid, snappy keyboard that was comfortable to type on during my testing. On the Monkeytype typing test I scored 102 words per minute with 99% accuracy. That’s not far behind my current top score of 105 words per minute with 100% accuracy, which I scored on the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X.

At 5.1 x 3.2 inches, the Prestige boasts a roomy touchpad. It matches the silver of the chassis but with a slightly smoother texture. It was quick and responsive during my testing. If that’s not enough, you can always pair it with one of the best wireless mice.

MSI Prestige A16 AI+: Audio

With bottom-firing speakers, the audio setup on the MSI Prestige A16 AI+ is already less than ideal. I would have liked to see top-firing speakers, especially considering how roomy the keyboard deck is.

That said, the audio quality on the MSI Prestige A16 AI+ isn’t bad, although the speakers could be louder. I had to turn up the volume to around 70 or 80 to hear the dialogue in Game of Thrones clearly. When it was clearly audible, it was crisp and detailed with rich background ambiance.

I didn’t need to crank up the volume quite as much for music, which also sounded fairly good. Halsey’s “Roman Holiday” sounded slick and sharp with solid bass and clear highs. Likewise, the soundtrack in Game of Thrones was epic as always and the MSI Prestige captured its rich, textured melodies well.

MSI Prestige A16 AI+: Performance and heat

The MSI Prestige A16 AI+ is powered by an AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 CPU, one of AMD’s latest AI processors. It delivered solid overall performance during my hands-on testing and in our benchmark tests.

The MSI Prestige had no trouble keeping up with basic work-related tasks like word processing and web browsing. It handled multi-tasking smoothly and launched apps quickly. Overall, the MSI Prestige offers plenty of power for the everyday tasks most business users need.

However, I did run into a couple of hiccups that are worth mentioning. In one instance during my testing, the Prestige experienced a seemingly random heat spike while sitting idle and plugged in. In another instance, it crashed while running a Windows update. We reached out to MSI about these issues (and a graphic issue, more on that below) and were able to get them resolved, but the solution involved a BIOS update and graphics update, which some users might find complicated to run themselves.

MSI does have a guide for updating the BIOS on its laptops, but if you’re unfamiliar with navigating a BIOS or creating and using a BIOS flash drive, this process could be intimidating. Of course, the issues I ran into that made that update necessary may have just been fluke incidents, but it’s still worth noting since this could potentially happen to anyone.

The Prestige handily outscored similar laptops in the Geekbench 6 performance benchmark, although it fell behind on SSD speed. It could have performed a bit better on our thermal tests with a peak temperature of 96 degrees, but that just barely exceeds our 95-degree comfort threshold.

MSI Prestige A16 AI+: Gaming and graphics

While the MSI Prestige A16 AI+ isn’t a gaming laptop, it does deliver a solid gaming experience with most casual titles. I ran into a peculiar graphics issue while testing it, though.

Since this is a business laptop, I went with a couple of lightweight titles for my test, Death’s Door and Wildfrost. Both have been playable on nearly every laptop I’ve run them on, so I was shocked that neither was playable the first time I ran them on the MSI Prestige A16 AI+.

Death’s Door managed a pitiful 2 frames per second (yes, two), even after I lowered the resolution to 1280 x 1080, rather than full resolution (2560 x 1600). The lag was atrocious, rendering the game completely unplayable on the MSI Prestige A16 AI+.

Even Wildfrost, with its cartoony 2D graphics, was laggy the first time I ran it, averaging just 22 fps. That was especially disappointing considering Wildfrost otherwise looked great on the MSI Prestige’s bright, vivid display, which brought out its colorful graphics (at least there was something nice to look at when my game froze).

Neither of these games are what one would call “demanding,” even for a laptop with integrated graphics like the MSI Prestige. We reached out to MSI about those unusually low frame rates and they were able to offer a fix that resolved the issue. It required removing and updating the laptop’s graphics drivers, which is more straightforward than updating the BIOS, but could still be complicated for some users.

Both of my games ran far better after updating my graphics driver, with Death’s Door averaging 65 fps and Wildfrost hitting 140 fps. However, it is frustrating that a complicated driver update was necessary to get normal graphics performance. Again, this could be a fluke with our review system but it’s possible for this type of issue to happen to anyone, so it’s worth noting, especially if graphics is a top priority for you.

Plus, the Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 16 Gen 9, which only costs about $200 more than the MSI Prestige A16 AI+, delivered significantly stronger gaming performance in our lab tests. So, if graphics performance is crucial for you, it might be worth considering the IdeaPad instead.

MSI Prestige A16 AI+: AI features

As its name suggests, the MSI Prestige A16 AI+ is an AI PC. It features a dedicated key for activating the Microsoft Copilot app, along with all the features standard in Copilot+ PCs, such as Microsoft Studio Effects and the Image Creator AI image generator in the Paint app. The Copilot app ran smoothly in my testing, quickly answering questions and generating text and images.

The MSI Prestige also features the MSI AI Engine, which uses AI to detect user scenarios, such as watching a movie or playing a game, and automatically adjust performance settings accordingly. While it’s a background feature that might go unnoticed, it can help optimize and streamline performance for everyday tasks.

MSI Prestige A16 AI+: Webcam

The webcam on the MSI Prestige A16 AI+ isn’t any pro-grade camera, but it’s definitely better than average. It’s an IR 1080p camera with support for Windows Hello facial recognition and a built-in webcam shutter. My test video was relatively sharp, with good exposure and accurate colors. It’s definitely adequate for daily video calls and Zoom meetings. The mic is similarly decent – not the best I’ve ever heard, but plenty clear and sharp for most users.

Of course, if the built-in webcam is not to your liking, you can always choose one of the best webcams to use instead.

MSI Prestige A16 AI+: Software and warranty

The MSI Prestige A16 AI+ includes MSI’s standard one-year limited warranty, although you can extend it for an additional one or two years for an extra fee ($80 and $140, respectively). The Prestige runs on Windows 11 Home with all the standard Microsoft apps pre-installed, such as Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft Edge, the Microsoft Store, and the Xbox app.

Bottom line

The MSI Prestige A16 AI+ boasts strong overall performance, a great display, and a solid keyboard, but it falls short of perfection due to a relatively bulky design and mediocre battery life. Those flaws won't be deal breakers for every business user, but there's tough competition in this price range.

However, when it comes to basic work-related tasks, the MSI Prestige A16 AI+ has a few things going for it. The built-in webcam is surprisingly good, perfect for anyone who frequently attends video meetings. The full-size keyboard is also a major plus, great for anyone who does data entry. Lastly, the sharp, vivid 16-inch display not only looks pretty but offers space for multiple windows and gets bright enough for viewing in brightly lit office spaces.

Unfortunately, we did run into some issues in testing that everyday users could run into, as well, which required complicated updates to resolve. While those issues could be fluke incidents, they’re still worth keeping in mind.

So, depending on what you’re looking for, it’s still worth considering alternatives like the Acer Swift Go 16, which features similar performance and specs at a lower price. Similarly, the Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 16 Gen 9 is also similarly priced but offers much stronger graphics performance. You can also visit our guide to the best business laptops for even more alternatives.