Test: MSI Creator Z16P – powerful laptop with extra everything

Tested product: MSI Creator Z16P
Award: SEK 40,900 at Dustinhome

Among high-performance laptops, two categories are the most common, those for creative work – filmmakers, designers, photographers … and those built to play on. They differ with different designs, different complementary software and above all different types of screens. High resolution and perfect color, or high frame rate and fast response times. The new MSI Creator Z16P is a very lavish laptop whose main focus is creativity, hence the name.

Its sleek design with dark aluminum chassis, bevelled moldings and slightly rounded edges exudes business luxury. The keyboard is generously sized, well-built, with a small numeric keypad on the side, and excellent response in the keys. The mouse pad is large and provides good control for both the mouse cursor and fast swipe gestures, and you get a conveniently placed fingerprint reader for secure login.

But MSI, with its gaming roots, can not refrain from giving your computer some features that appeal to you if you want to play games. The screen is not only sharp for professional creation, it also has 165 Hz frame rate and response times of as little as three milliseconds. The only thing the screen lacks to become a perfect gaming laptop is Gsync support.

However, the main purpose is as a colorful and reliable screen for media creation. It has a 16 inch ips panel in 16:10 format with 2,560 x 1,600 pixels. It has a color range that is stated to match dci-p3 to 100 percent and promises color accuracy in professional class, pre-calibrated to below 2 in Delta E value and Calman verification. The panel also has an unusually high contrast and deep black point for being an ips, even if it does not reach pls or of course oled level at that point.

You get a brightness of 400 cd / m², which is good for a laptop, but can still be limiting for working outdoors. Especially considering that reflections easily occur when the screen surface is completely glossy. This is because it is a touch screen. The control with fingers on the screen is very good, and the screen also supports the stylus. Specifically MSI’s own MSI Pen. However, no pen is included, but you can buy it separately. We probably think we could have gotten it on the purchase of such an expensive computer.

Easy to control screen

You can easily check the color properties of the screen with the included MSI True Color software. You can switch between profiles such as srgb, AdobeRGB, dci-p3 and Display p3, all of which give distinctly different images, where Display p3 is most intense on all channels. Then there are a handful of modes, one for blue light filter, one for office work, one for film (if you do not use dci-p3 for that) and a manual where you have full control over rgb channels, contrast, gamma, color spaces, and color temperature .

If you want to connect an external monitor, do so via usb-c. The computer has a thunderbolt 4-port and a separate usb-c with display port support. There is no standard hdmi, which is a bit impractical if you want to connect to a TV. But an adapter is easy to get. In addition to two type c ports, there is a usb 3 type a port, input for analog headset and an sd card reader. It is not the most generous range of external gates for a powerful workhorse, more certainly did not fit due to the cooling grilles on the sides. Investing in a good docking can also be a good idea.

Above the keyboard is a grille that makes the appearance of holding speakers. But if there are some there, they only sound marginal. The main speakers are located on the bottom of the computer, near the front edge. They provide detailed sound and unusually high volume. Unfortunately, we are never really satisfied with the sound image. It has an intense, sharp treble where some details also flow into each other, and even some of the middle register disappears. We can adjust the equalizer in the sound enhancement program from DTS, but it will never be fully enjoyable for either music or voices.

It’s not exactly lousy. We hear that all the details are there. But the sound is… odd. As if there are no whole frequency bands here and there. After tinkering with different fixed profiles and equalizer on top of that, we finally find a mode where both music, film and voices sound completely okay. Not as good as we hoped from a computer of this caliber, but approved.

Still colorful

The keyboard, developed in collaboration with Steelseries, has rgb backlighting and as standard it shows a colorful rainbow effect, which to say the least is in contrast to the computer’s otherwise sober design. The backlight can be programmed individually per button or you can choose from a variety of effects in Steelseries’ included program. Here you can also create keyboard macros.

Does this have any use outside of gaming? Yes, you can, for example, colorize the buttons you use for keyboard shortcuts in a specific application, and then set a specific keyboard profile to be activated when you start a specific application. But it is obvious that this is a feature primarily for gamers. And honestly, there’s nothing wrong with that. Do you have a computer with the right performance for games, why not add game features? Even professionals should be able to relax and have fun from time to time.

The noticeable cooling grilles both on the sides and on the underside testify that there is powerful hardware under the shell. Here are the latest generation Intel Core processor and Nvidia Geforce RTX graphics card. And it is not a direct ultra-thin lightweight. Almost two centimeters thick, and weighing just under two and a half kilograms. This is a big difference from the slimmer MSI Creator Z16, which we tested last autumn.

High price, and performance accordingly

The price can also make one or another buyer think. This is not for the faint of heart. There are a handful of different configurations of the computer in Swedish stores, where the cheapest is around SEK 37,000, and the most expensive costs SEK 47,000. Our test computer is the second most expensive model for SEK 41,000.

This means that it “only” has an RTX 3080 graphics card instead of an RTX 3080 ti, but otherwise the two models look the same. New powerful Intel Core i9-12900H, 23 gigabyte frame of fast ddr5 type with the ability to upgrade up to 64 gigabytes, and a very fast two terabyte large ssd. In short, this is close to the limit of what you can put in a laptop today.

It also delivers the highest work performance we measured in a laptop to date. MSI does a very good job of squeezing the max out of the processor, with efficient cooling and the right combination of hardware. It is not the fastest gaming computer we have tested, but it does not fall far behind, and can deliver a stable high frame rate on the computer screen in almost all games. Individual poorly optimized titles excluded.

Can get really hot

The cooling is convincing from a performance point of view, but it is not entirely without problems. Under heavy load, especially on the graphics card, parts of the chassis become scalded, for example above the keyboard and on the underside. Do not try to play games with the computer in your lap, for example. The keyboard itself is also uncomfortably hot at times. Not the buttons themselves, which just get lukewarm, but the metal between them, which is easy to access.

You can choose from four user scenarios in the MSI Center control program. High-performance mode that makes it easy to shift up, which gives the fans an extra gear, a balanced default mode that can both cool intensively for a short time, but for the most part keeps the cooling muted, a “quiet” mode that dampens the cooling constantly, but also reduces maximum performance and finally a battery optimization mode.

When active, you can use the computer normally, and as long as you also dim the screen brightness and do nothing intense on the computer, the battery can actually last a full working day, which is not common in this type of performance monster. However, we do not recommend that you have a long way to the charger. It is difficult to control one’s own use to be so resource-efficient.

There is also a Smart Auto mode, which with the help of ai should be able to choose the right cooling settings for you. Such people always take a while to train, we can not determine how effective it will be in the long run. It never gets completely quiet from the cooling, a vague buzz from the cpu fan is constantly present, but it does not interfere significantly during normal use in an office environment.

Convenient control program with a lot of automation

The MSI Center also has other features and settings, such as noise reduction for both speakers and microphones. There is also a tool that allows you to select programs that always get priority system resources when used. It can be smart to get stability in important programs you work with. There are also functions for system maintenance, settings for some keyboard choices and the option to turn off the webcam.

The webcam delivers sharp 1080p image without image lag or noise. It is a bit warm in color, but otherwise we have nothing to complain about. The microphones, together with the previously mentioned noise reduction, do an excellent job.

All the performance you could possibly want is here. Ergonomics, quality in mouse, keyboard and build quality in the chassis as well. You get elegant design in a convenient format, despite the high weight. The screen is good enough for games, excellent for surfing and office work and even brilliant for creative work. Even the battery life is a positive surprise, and MSI’s software makes the computer’s more advanced settings and features manageable.

Were it not for three things, that external ports are stingy, that the computer does not manage to keep the keyboard cool, and that the sound is scattered and difficult to control, this would have been a hit. Now it’s just close. And for a computer for over SEK 40,000, we expect more perfection.

Specifications

Product name: MSI Creator Z16P B12UHT-054NEU
Tested: June 2022
Manufacturer: MSI
Processor: Intel Core i9-12900H, 6 Performance up to 5 GHz + 8 Efficient 2.5 GHz
Graphics: Gerforce RTX 3080, 12 GB
Memory: 32 GB ddr5
Storage: 2 TB ssd, space for sd card
Screen: 16 inch glossy ips, 2560×1600 pixels, 165 Hz
Webcam: 1080p
Connections: Thunderbolt 4, usb 3 gen 2 type c with Displayport, usb 3 gen 2 type a
Wireless: Wifi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2
Operating system: Windows 11 Pro
Other: Fingerprint reader, rgb keyboard, MIL-STD-810G tested
Noise level: 0-41 dBa
Battery life: 1 hour 15 minutes (high load), 9 hours 20 minutes (low load)
Size: 35.9 x 25.6 x 1.9 cm
Weight: 2.41 kg
Rec. Award: 40,990 kr
Current price: SEK 40,900 at Dustinhome

Performance

Cinebench R23, cpu: 19,263 points
Cinebench R23, cpu a core: 1,907 points
Geekbench 5, cpu: 14 263 points
Geekbench 5, cpu and core: 1,839 points
Geekbench 5, gpu: 125 212 points
3dmark Fire Strike (DirectX 11): 22,795 points
3dmark Time Spy (DirectX 12): 9,637 points
3dmark Port Royal (Radiation Tracking): 7 010 points
Disk, reading: up to 6,648.81 MB / s
Disk, writing: up to 4,925.56 MB / s