MSI Prestige 16 AI+ C3MG-051BE OLED AZERTY

General impression and pros:

A wonderfully fast laptop that I bought for software development and desktop publishing (DTP) purposes. With 32 GB of RAM, an Intel Ultra X9 processor, and a 2 TB hard drive, it is once again a nice workhorse for me to use alongside my standard desktop PC.

Minor drawbacks:

The laptop is incredibly light for its size, and you can feel that reflected slightly in the stiffness of the construction. It isn't rubber, but there is a little bit of flex in it. This isn't a problem for me, and I haven't experienced any issues with it yet. The touchpad is huge and works well. It does take some getting used to regarding my hand placement. Sometimes 2-finger gestures on the touchpad (for example, scrolling) are recognized as a 3-finger gesture (scrolling down becomes minimizing a window) because my wrist touches the huge touchpad.

I use a 140 W PD GaN charger and a 240 W USB-C cable. The MSI manual is nowhere to be found in the box or on the MSI website, and the charger is no longer included due to new EU legislation. So pay close attention if you buy this laptop. My measurements show that the laptop draws 100 W while charging. With a 100 W or 140 W charger, you have sufficient capacity. Not all cables can handle this, so the advice is to buy a 240 W USB cable along with it. These are quite a bit thicker than the standard USB charging cables you get with your phone, for example.

All in all, I am very satisfied! :)

A fantastic laptop for work and productivity! What stands out immediately is the spacious screen and how pleasant the keyboard and touchpad are to use. Thanks to the powerful processor and ample amount of RAM, it is super fast. It runs heavy Excel spreadsheets, databases, or cloud applications without any trouble. Don't expect to be able to play games on it, as it lacks a dedicated graphics card. But then again, it is primarily a workstation, of course. All in all, highly recommended!

Out of the box, the laptop felt a bit slow and buggy, but that is normal for a new Windows PC. As soon as the first Windows and firmware updates were finished, everything ran flawlessly. After a few weeks of daily use for studying and programming, this was my experience:

The magnesium-aluminum chassis feels sturdy and premium, without any flex.

It is incredibly thin, barely thicker than a smartphone, and so light that I checked my backpack a few times because I thought I had forgotten to pack it.

The switch from an IPS panel to OLED is a huge improvement. Black is truly black, colors are vibrant without being oversaturated, and the contrast is in a league of its own compared to my old screen.

The 16:10 aspect ratio is excellent for programming and studying because you have more vertical space for text, although it does mean black bars at the top and bottom when watching videos.

Brightness is the biggest downside. OLEDs generally do not get as bright as the brightest LCDs, so direct sunlight is tricky.

The glossy finish turns the screen into a mirror as soon as you use dark mode or apps with dark backgrounds; even the keyboard backlighting can reflect at the wrong angle.

Under normal office or university lighting, it is fine, as long as you don't have a bright window directly behind you.

The lack of a separate numpad was new to me, but I got used to it within a few days. The keys feel premium, with a firm and fast response.

The touchpad is huge compared to most laptops, resulting in a love-hate relationship. It supports customizable gestures that are truly life-changing once they are set up; it is worth diving into MSI Center to check the default settings and configure your own preferences. Because it is so large, my first few days were filled with misclicks, skipping lines while coding, accidentally changing brightness during a task, refreshing a browser tab, and losing unsaved work. There is a learning curve involved, but it pays off.

The webcam is unusually good for a built-in one, almost on the level of a separate webcam.

The microphone is clear, comparable to that of a modern phone.

The speakers sound clear and loud enough for meetings, videos, and movies without needing external audio.

The battery life is fantastic. For CPU-intensive work such as productivity tasks and programming, I easily get 8 to 10 hours, sometimes even more.

For entertainment, you can count on about 6 hours of continuous 4K video at 60Hz; at 120Hz, the battery drains noticeably faster. Charging via USB-C worked fine with my phone charger, which is ideal for traveling light. The integrated GPU is a big leap forward compared to previous generations. It is not a gaming laptop, but it runs modern indie games and older titles smoothly on low settings.