MSI Summit E16 Flip (2023) Laptop Review

The MSI Summit E16 Flip has a sleek, professional look with relatively thin bezels, a slightly wedge-shaped chassis, a full-size keyboard, and minimal branding. On the bottom, you can find the speakers near the front and air vents near the back. There are also air vents on the back of the laptop. It's only available in the Ink Black color scheme.

The MSI Summit's build quality is great. Its metal-and-plastic construction feels well-assembled and sturdy, exhibiting only a small amount of flex on the lid, display, and keyboard deck. The finish is relatively scratch-resistant, but like most dark-color finishes, it's a fingerprint magnet. The feet feel solid and stick firmly to the bottom.

The MSI Summit has outstanding hinges. Since this is a 2-in-1 convertible, the hinges can rotate a full 360 degrees, allowing you to flip the screen into tent or tablet mode. They feel smooth when opening and closing the laptop, and they're very stable, exhibiting only a small amount of wobble when moving the laptop or typing aggressively. One-handed lift is possible; it's just hard to get a good grip, as there isn't a cutout or notch to hold onto.

The MSI Summit isn't overly bulky or heavy; however, it's a 16-inch laptop nonetheless and might not fit into smaller backpacks or messenger bags. The 150W power adapter is relatively compact. MSI doesn't specify the size and weight of the 120W (models with RTX 4050) and 65W power adapter (models with Intel Iris Xe only), though they're likely smaller and lighter.

The MSI Summit E16 Flip's serviceability is mediocre. Accessing the internals is relatively easy; you only need to remove seven Philips screws and undo the clips with a prying tool. The screws are of different sizes, so it's best to keep them organized to make the reassembly easier. Unfortunately, the RAM isn't user-replaceable. The storage slot supports M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 4 SSDs.

• 150W power adapter and cord
• MSI Pen
• 2x pen tips
• USB-A to USB-C charging cable
• Documentation

Note: Models with Intel Iris Xe have a 65W power adapter, while models with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU have a 120W adapter.

The MSI Summit E16 Flip is available with the following displays:

• IPS 1920 x 1200 Touchscreen with stylus support
• IPS 2560 x 1600 Touchscreen with stylus support

Though marketed as a 16-inch device, the panel actually measures 15.8 inches diagonally. At this screen size, the difference between the FHD+ and QHD+ resolution is noticeable at typical viewing distances, as it's much easier to see the individual pixels on the FHD+ panel than on the QHD+ panel. Both displays have a 16:10 aspect ratio, which is quickly becoming the norm. It's great for productivity, as the increased vertical space—compared to a standard 16:9 display—lets you see more information when reading a document or website, so you don't have to scroll as much.

The QHD+ display has a high refresh rate and fast response, resulting in a clear image with minimal ghosting in fast-moving scenes. The FHD+ is likely similar in performance. Unfortunately, neither display supports variable refresh rate to reduce screen tearing when gaming.

The QHD+ display's contrast ratio is decent and within the typical range of most IPS panels, but it's relatively low compared to other display technologies like VA and OLED. This contrast level makes blacks look gray in dim settings. The FHD+ likely has the same contrast ratio.

The QHD+ display gets pretty bright. It's good enough for use in most indoor rooms, though you may still have some visibility issues in direct sunlight. It gets very dim at the lowest brightness setting, which is great for dark room viewing, as it helps reduce eye strain. The FHD+ display likely has the same brightness.

The display's glossy finish handles reflections well. It mostly struggles with direct, mirror-like reflections, so it's best to avoid having bright light sources directly behind you, like a lamp or open window during the day. These reflections are visible even with the screen at maximum brightness.

The display's black uniformity is passable. There's some clouding throughout the screen, and some backlight bleed near the corners. These uniformity issues are relatively minor, though. They're only noticeable when viewing dark content in a dim setting.

The QHD+ display's horizontal viewing angle is okay. The image dims and washes out quickly as you move to the side. You can still share the screen with someone else for text documents and other casual content; however, it's best to be directly in front of the screen if you need perfect accuracy for color-critical work. The FHD+ panel likely has the same viewing angle.

The QHD+ display's vertical viewing angle is okay. Like the horizontal viewing angle, the image dims and washes when viewing from above and below, so you need to look at the screen more or less straight on to see an accurate image, which can be challenging in tight places where you don't have much room to tilt the screen, like on a bus or airplane.

The QHD+ display's out-of-the-box accuracy is decent. The white balance inaccuracies are minor and hard to spot; however, color accuracy isn't quite as good, as the default color profile targets a wider DCI P3 color space, resulting in some oversaturation. The color temperature is a tad warmer than the standard 6500K target, giving the image a slight, almost imperceptible, reddish tint. The gamma follows a nearly flat 2.1 instead of the sRGB curve; most scenes look too bright, while dark scenes look too dark.

The QHD+ display's color gamut is outstanding. It has full sRGB and DCI P3 coverage, making it suitable for content creation. Its Adobe RGB coverage is excellent; it's only missing the highly saturated greens. The FHD+ display has the same color gamut.

The MSI Summit has a good keyboard. The layout feels spacious and is easy to get used to, except for the Numpad, which seems more like an afterthought and feels rather cramped. The keycaps are stable but feel cheap for a laptop in its class. There's a good amount of key travel; the problem is inconsistency, as some keys have noticeably more travel than others. The amount of force required to actuate a key is also inconsistent, though most keys are light enough to not cause fatigue over an extended period. The backlight brightness is adjustable via a hotkey; the light looks slightly blue due to its cool color temperature.

The touchpad is excellent. Its large size makes it easy to perform actions like dragging and dropping over a long distance and other gestures. The tracking is excellent except around the edges, where it sometimes fails to register some touches. You can click anywhere on the touchpad; it's just a little harder to click towards the top. The buttons feel tactile and provide clear feedback.

The MSI Summit's speakers get pretty loud with minimal compression artifacts at high volume levels. Unfortunately, they sound tinny and extremely unnatural, almost like a cheap synthesizer.

The MSI Summit E16 Flip has a good webcam. The image looks fairly detailed, with true-to-life colors; however, it's slightly overexposed, and there's some noise in darker areas. Voices sound loud and clear over the microphone, with almost no background noise. There isn't a physical privacy cover; the switch on the left side of the laptop only disables the camera at the software level.

The MSI Summit E16 Flip has a good port selection. The USB-A port supports USB 3.2 Gen 2 data transfer speed of up to 10Gbps. Both USB-Cs support USB 3.2 Gen 2 data transfer speed; however, only the one closest to the back supports DisplayPort and Power Delivery. The latter allows for fast charging of the laptop and other PD-enabled mobile devices connected to the port. Unfortunately, Thunderbolt 4 support is only present on the Evo model (with Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics only). Although MSI's specifications specify that the HDMI port can only output at a maximum resolution of 4k @ 60Hz, we can confirm that it can output a 4K @ 120Hz signal.

The MSI Summit E16's wireless adapter is an Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211. Wi-Fi 6E has faster speeds, lower latency, and less signal interference than previous Wi-Fi standards. However, you need a router that supports Wi-Fi 6E to benefit from these features.

The MSI Summit E16 Flip is available with the following CPUs:

• Intel Core i5-1340P (12 cores/16 Threads, up to 4.6GHz, 12MB Cache)
• Intel Core i7-1360P (12 cores/16 Threads, up to 5.0 GHz, 18MB Cache)

Both processors are designed for thin and light laptops. They're a step up from the U-series typically found in most ultraportables, as they have more cores and operate at a higher wattage of 28W. The core count and composition are the same for both CPUs, each sporting four performance and eight efficiency cores. The only difference is that the Core i7 has faster clock speeds and a larger cache memory, giving it a slight performance increase over the Core i5. These CPUs can handle general productivity tasks like text processing, spreadsheets, presentations, web browsing, video playback, and more demanding tasks like photo editing and programming.

The MSI Summit E16 Flip is available with the following GPUs:

• Intel Iris Xe (integrated)
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU 6GB GDDR6 (discrete, 45W TGP /w Dynamic Boost)
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU 8GB GDDR6 (discrete, 55W TGP /w Dynamic Boost)

The choice of the GPU depends on your workload. If you only perform light productivity tasks like text processing, spreadsheets, and presentations, the Intel Iris Xe integrated GPU is more than adequate. However, if you plan on doing more intensive work like video editing and complex graphic design, getting a model with a discrete GPU is best. While the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 and 4060 are current-gen discrete GPUs that can handle such workloads, they're lower-tier models and run at a pretty low TGP (Total Graphics Power), so don't expect to get the best render times. The RTX 4060 is roughly 20% faster than the RTX 4050. For gaming, both GPUs can deliver smooth gameplay at 1080p. The RTX 4060 can run some games at 1440p, but you'll have to lower some low graphical settings to get playable frame rates.

You can configure this laptop with 16GB or 32GB of RAM. The memory isn't user-replaceable.

You can configure this laptop with 1TB or 2TB of storage. The SSD is user-replaceable; the slot supports M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 4 SSDs.

The MSI Summit E16 Flip's Intel Core i7-1360P performs well; however, you need to be in the Extreme Performance mode because the default Balanced profile throttles the CPU significantly (posted results) to save power. Switching to the Extreme Performance results in a single-thread score of 1727 and a multi-thread score of 9680, roughly a 7% and 68% performance increase, respectively. Its maximum performance is where we expect it to be for an Intel 13th Gen P-series CPU: better than a low-power U-series CPU but behind the more power-hungry H-series processors found in higher-performance mobile workstations and gaming laptops. The i7-1360P can handle fairly demanding workloads like programming and simulations. That said, if you're a professional and need the best performance to complete tasks faster, getting a laptop with an H-series CPU is best. The Core i5-1340P is only slightly slower than the i7-1360P.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 GPU is capable and can handle GPU-intensive tasks, but again, there are faster GPUs on the market. Like the CPU, it gets a boost in the Extreme Performance mode, scoring 94,054 in the GPU Compute test, roughly a 5% performance increase. The RTX 4050 can also handle demanding tasks; it'll just be slower. The Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics perform poorly and aren't suitable for any intensive workloads.

The overall score in Cinebench R23 is outstanding, but again, you need to be in the Extreme Performance mode to get the best results. The posted results only represent the default Balanced profile. The Extreme Performance mode boosts the single-thread and multi-thread performance by roughly 10% (1835) and 80% (11,504), respectively, making the Core i7-1360P suitable for intensive, multi-threaded applications and heavy multitasking. The Core i5-1340P is only slightly slower.

The MSI Summit E16 Flip is great for Blender work, but only if you get a model with an NVIDIA discrete GPU. The Intel Iris Xe isn't suitable for 3D rendering. Switching to the Extreme Performance increases performance considerably, resulting in the following render times:

• CPU: 3.46 minutes (45% faster)
• GPU: 0.43 minutes (25% faster
• Optix: 16 seconds (15% faster)

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 scores well in the Basemark GPU benchmark. This GPU can handle most games at 1080p without any problems and can even run some games at 1440p, albeit with low graphical settings. The RTX 4050 is slower but can still handle most games at 1080p. The Intel Iris Xe integrated GPU performs poorly and isn't ideal for gaming.

The 2TB SSD's performance is outstanding, particularly its sequential read and random write speeds. Its fast speeds allow the system to boot up, launch apps, and transfer files quickly. The smaller-capacity SSDs are likely slower, as SSD speeds typically increase with storage size.

The MSI Summit E16 Flip's battery life is okay. You only need to plug it in for a short time to get through a typical 8-hour workday. Switching to the Super Battery mode extends the battery life to around 8.3 hours of light use. Models with an FHD+ display and/or integrated graphics only will have longer battery life. If you want a workstation laptop with longer battery life, check out the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M3, 2023).

Borderlands 3 doesn't run very smoothly in the default Balanced power profile. It's playable, but you have to play with low graphical settings to get smooth gameplay. Switching to the Extreme Performance mode results in a significant performance boost, increasing the frame rate to 87 fps with High settings and 165 fps with Low settings. The RTX 4050 can handle this game, too; you just have to play with lower settings to get playable frame rates.

We've run additional benchmarks in Red Dead Redemption 2 and Cyberpunk 2077 to give you a better idea of the performance on a Core i7 model with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 GPU. Here are the results in the Extreme Performance mode:

Red Dead Redemption 2 (1080p):

• Avg FPS (high settings): 64 fps
• Avg FPS On Very Low: 97 fps

Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p, DLSS: Auto, Frame Generation: On):

• Avg FPS (Ultra): 102 fps
• Avg FPS On Very Low: 123 fps
• Avg FPS with ray tracing on Ultra: 70 fps
• Avg FPS with ray tracing on Overdrive: 49 fps

Civilization VI runs decently well. The gameplay is smooth for the most part; there are occasional stutters, but they aren't severe enough to make the game unplayable. The average frame time is decent and within the expected range for an Intel 13th-Gen P-series CPU. The Extreme Performance mode improves performance considerably. Here are the results:

• Avg FPS: 124 fps
• Avg FPS On Very Low: 251 fps
• Avg. Turn Time: 7.19 seconds

The Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics can also handle this game; however, you'll have to play with low graphical settings to reach playable frame rates.

Counter-Strike 2 runs very well on the MSI Summit E16 despite what the results show. Although our frame data tool records significant frametime spikes, the actual gameplay is smooth, with few stutters. The Extreme Performance mode boosts the average frame rate to 140 fps with High settings) and 176 fps with Low settings. The RTX 4050 can handle this game without any issues; however, the Intel Iris Xe integrated GPU will have a hard time reaching playable frame rates.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider runs reasonably well on the MSI Summit E16 Flip with an Intel Core i7-1360P CPU and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU. The average frame rate in the default Balanced mode is high, but there are some noticeable stutters. The Extreme Performance mode improves the smoothness considerably, increasing the average frame rate to 107 fps with High settings and 119 fps with Low settings.

The keyboard is only mildly warm when idle, and the fans are on but barely audible. The keyboard gets much hotter under load and can cause some discomfort, especially around the Backspace key. The fans are pretty loud at full speed, producing a high-pitched whistling noise. If you want a laptop that doesn't get as hot or loud, check out the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M3, 2023).

The MSI Summit's performance over time is outstanding. Neither the CPU nor the GPU noticeably throttles under load. These are results obtained in the default Balanced profile. Switching to the Extreme Performance mode results in a much higher CPU temperature of 95°C (203°F) and an 8% performance loss.

The MSI Summit E16 Flip has many pre-installed applications, including:

• MSI Center: Lets you see system information and monitor system statuses like CPU and memory usage, fan speed, and CPU temperature. You can also change the performance/fan profile, scan for updates, access support forums, and contact online support.
• MSI Pen: Lets you customize the stylus' buttons.
• Norton 360: Antivirus and internet security software. Requires subscription.
• Solitaire & Casual Games: Solitaire, FreeCell, Spider, Mahjong, Sudoku, and other casual games.
• Spotify: App for the music streaming service.

The MSI Summit has a fingerprint sensor and an IR facial recognition camera. You can use either one to log in quickly, authorize purchases in the Windows Store, and auto-fill saved passwords on supported websites.

This laptop supports pen input and comes with an MPP (Microsoft Pen Protocol) 2.0 stylus. This pen supports tilt and 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity, with a report rate of 266Hz. The built-in rechargeable battery can last up to 65 hours of use. You can charge it via the USB-C port on the side of the pen. Two extra pen tips are included in the box; the softer tip gives a more paper-like feel, while the harder tip feels more like writing on glass.