MSI Creator M16 A12UEV-468 Review

MSI Creator M16 16" Content Creation Laptop: Intel Core i7-12650H RTX 3060 32GB 1TB NVMe SSD,...

$1,999.00

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2 used from $1,999.00

as of December 21, 2024 9:59 am

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The MSI Creator M16 A12UEV-468 is a laptop designed for creative professionals and content creators, though its specifications also make it a pretty decent gaming machine. Like the MSI Creator Z16 we reviewed last month, the Creator M16’s features and design make it an attractive choice for people looking for an all-in-one solution.

Our review unit features a massive 16-inch QHD display with an immersive 16:10 aspect ratio, a powerful 12th-generation Intel core i7 processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPU, 32GB RAM, and 1TB SSD storage. With this hardware, the MSI Creator M16 easily handles all the software creatives use and is easily one of the best video editing laptops in the market today.

Does this midrange performer have what it takes to inspire prosumers to the next level of productivity? Let’s find out.

MSI Creator M16 Specs

CPU: Intel i7-12650H
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 (6GB VRAM)
RAM: 32GB LPDDR4 (3200MHz)
Screen: 16″ QHD+ (2560*1600), 60Hz
Storage: 1TB SSD (PCIe, NVMe, M.2)
Camera: 720p 30fps
Weight: 4.9 lbs
Size: 14.13 x 10.20 x 0.94 inches

Design and Features

With an all-black chassis, the Creator M16 A12UEV-468 looks minimalist but feels solid to hold and use. The overall design is elegant, and although it houses a massive 16-inch display, the weight is well distributed across the body. The silver chrome MSI dragon on the lid is tasteful and adds some charm to an otherwise plain-looking cover.

Opening the MSI Creator M16 is quite effortless, thanks in part to the slight curve indentation just beneath the lid. It opens to a spacious large black Chiclet-style mini-LED-backlit keyboard that affirms the professional side of this laptop. Beneath the clicky luxurious keyboard is a rectangular touchpad with a security-conscious fingerprint scanner.

The keyboard deck is of decent size deck, that’s comfortable and offers enough wrist support when typing. Above the keyboard is a grill where the 2W speakers are hidden and waiting to deliver quality audio performance.

Getting down to specifics, the MSI A12UEV-468 comes in ‎20.5 x 13.3 x 4 inches and weighs 4.98 lbs. On paper, that sound quite heavy but in reality, it falls in the middle of the competition – the Razer Blade 15 Advanced is lighter at 4.4 pounds but is slightly thicker at 14 x 9.3 by 0.7 inches.

Finally, port selection is good, giving creatives ample connectivity options although it lacks a standard Display Port. All you have here are two USB 3.2 ports, one USB 2.0, one USB Type-C, HDMI, RJ45, and an audio Combo jack. That’s pretty enough for all your connectivity options, but we feel an SD-card slot would’ve been more useful if included.

MSI Creator M16 A12UEV-468 Review keyboard

MSI Creator M16 Review: Display

One of the MSI Creator 16’s selling features must be the display. MSI introduced the 16-inch 16:10 “golden ratio” as MSI calls it, typically 2560 x 1600 QHD+ display to their lineup last year with the 11^th MSI Creator M16. The display is the same width as a traditional 15.6-inch display, but it’s 0.4-inches taller and gives you 11% more screen in a very similar form factor because of its incredibly thin bezels. Even with the thin bezels, it still manages to fits a 720p webcam on the top bezel, unlike some other thin bezels that have eliminated the webcam.

The biggest advantage of having this extra height is evident with creative apps like Premiere Pro, where you can have a taller video timeline, and still have a relatively large playback preview area above it. The same isn’t possible on smaller laptop screens, where everything can feel a little squished and hard to use unless you close some of your tools. If you’ll be editing larger and more complicated sequences, this extra height is great. The extra height comes in handy for apps with large toolbars at the bottom like Blender and Cinema4D, as well as general multitasking.

Another area where this screen excels is color accuracy. MSI offers its True Color Technology which they claim displays 100% of sRGB color space. As a result, each color is delivered with the highest standard precision in detail, guaranteeing excellent color fidelity for many applications. There are a total of six color profile presets that you can utilize depending on the type of work you’re doing, the content you’re watching or the games you’re playing. It’s also possible for users to collaborate on color-accurate projects, and share or work from the same profiles to ensure that each display is representing the colors accurately.

While this laptop has the chops to run modern games, it’s more targeted toward creators, and that explains the low 60Hz display. A high refresh rate would benefit gamers more, it can also make the laptop feel snappier and smoother on tasks like web browsing and any other tasks that involve motion, creative tasks don’t depend on it that much. Once again. If you’ll be using the MSI Creator M16 for creative work, then the extra screen real estate as well as the more color-accurate panel overshadow the 60Hz tradeoff.

MSI Creator M16 Review: Performance

With an Intel Core i7-12650H, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD, it’s not surprising to say that these are the kind of specs you want when editing photos, videos, or multitasking. Even if you run up to 48 Google Chrome tabs with five playing YouTube videos simultaneously and a couple of Google Docs in the background, and the machine will still run fine without fans kicking in.

The M16’s 1TB SSD does a good job of transferring files swiftly, it duplicates a 25GB multimedia file in 16 seconds at a rate of 1653.52 Mbps, which blows out the premium laptop average of 1:24. Compared, the Asus ZenBook 14 manages 950 Mbps, the Razer Blade 15 averages 890.2 Mbps, while the Dell XPS 15 with a 512GB SSD closed out with an average of 825.6 Mbps.

For graphics, the MSI Creator M16 A12UEV-468 boasts an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPU with 6GB of VRAM, and with this, you won’t experience any stuttering performance while editing videos with Adobe Premiere or DaVinci Resolve. Although this laptop is aimed at content creation, it still runs modern AAA titles fluently. For instance, Borderlands 2 runs very well, with the animation-styled graphics running super smoothly, averaging 62 frames per second on the 60Hz display, but it would be better on, let’s say a 120HZ display.

Finally, MSI is using the same three-cell 53Wh battery as last year’s M16 Creator laptops. Since the laptop runs Windows 11 Home, it’s estimated to last about 2 hours, but from tests involving mixed tasks including web browsing and some videos, you can expect around 3-4 hours of battery life at 50% screen brightness. This should be fine for daily use, but heavier workloads including anything GPU intensive will significantly drop battery life to under two hours.

MSI Creator M16 16" Content Creation Laptop: Intel Core i7-12650H RTX 3060...

Brilliant Performance: The 12th Gen. Intel Core i7 processor, delivers high performance....
It All Starts Now: Enjoy the latest generation Windows 11 Home for your everyday needs....
Vibrant Display: The 16" QHDplus 60Hz 100% DCI-P3 offers vibrant colors with fast response...

MSI Creator M16 A12UEV-468 Review | Verdict

The MSI Creator M16 A12UEV-468 is a capable content creator mobile workstation, that would be a real prosumer powerhouse if MSI had given us options of an Nvidia RTX 3070 or 3080, instead of just the middle-tier RTX 3060. Even with that, the Creator M16 easily handles every photo and video editing task thrown at it.

And, with a gorgeous, QHD display with a 16:10 aspect ratio, a powerful 12^th generation Intel Core i7 CPU, and 32GB memory as well as a fast 1TB SSD, the RTX 3060 GPU isn’t a dealbreaker.

At the end of the day, there’s a lot to like about this fantastic, punchy performer, and it’s priced more competitively than its direct competitors. If you’re a content creator looking for a MacBook Pro M1 alternative, you’ll save a lot of money with the MSI Creator M16 A12UEV-468 in comparison to a similarly specced Apple.

Should you buy the MSI Creator M16?

Yes. If you want a single laptop for work and play, the MSI Creator M16 is a great candidate. Content creation is a niche market, but the M16 appeals to content creators who also want a single device to play games on, or are simply, an ideal choice over the spendy Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch.

The Review

MSI Creator M16 A12UEV-468

4.2 Score

The MSI Creator M16 A12UEV-468 is a fantastic laptop marketed towards professional creatives but works as a hybrid for creatives and gamers. It’s a great laptop, but the 60Hz refresh rate means it excels more in creative work and less in gaming.

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