MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo Review: A Good 2-in-1, At a Price

MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo

MSRP $1,900.00

“The MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo will get almost all of the issues correct — moreover the price.”

Execs

• Fashionable and interesting aesthetic
• Skinny and lightweight
• Great keyboard and touchpad
• Good battery life
• Robust productiveness effectivity

Cons

• Lid is a bit versatile
• Present is poorly calibrated
• Too expensive

Within the occasion you’re seeking a convertible 2-in-1 laptop, MSI will not be the first mannequin that entails ideas. It’s best acknowledged for its gaming laptops, nevertheless the agency produces a lot of totally different laptop strains geared towards primary clients and enterprise clients. For the latter, MSI has the Summit line, along with the model new Summit E13 Flip Evo 2-in-1 that gives a 16:10 present and an particularly partaking design.

I reviewed the high-end configuration that costs $1,900 and consists of an Eleventh-gen Intel Core i7-1185G7 and a 13.4-inch IPS present throughout the productivity-friendly 16:10 aspect ratio. It acquired me over immediately with its aesthetic, and I was left with a particular impression of top quality. Nonetheless with a greater whole worth and and never utilizing a low price base configuration, its attraction will keep further restricted.

Design

My first impression of the Summit E13 Flip Evo was that it bears a particular resemblance to HP’s Spectre x360 14. On the very least, that’s the case with my Ink Black mannequin; the impression isn’t as pronounced with the Pure White coloration scheme.

I say that because of the Summit E13 Flip Evo has chassis and present corners which is likely to be clipped off at associated angles to the Spectre x360 14, and the laptop’s quite a few edges (along with throughout the touchpad) are a well known rose gold coloration. You can merely inform the laptops apart, but it surely certainly optimistic seems that MSI borrowed some aesthetic concepts from HP.

That doesn’t extend to efficiency — in distinction to the HP, the MSI doesn’t have a USB-C port conveniently positioned in a single nook. Irrespective of its inspiration, the Summit E13 Flip Evo is a lovely laptop with fashionable strains and interesting colors that blend into an whole elegant design. MSI makes an entire lot of the Golden Ratio (1.618) used to proportion the laptop, and I can’t fault its math.

What I can fault, though, are the massive present bezels that distract from the in another case fashionable look. They’re greater on excessive and on the underside than they is likely to be, and that makes the 13.4-inch laptop with its 16:10 present a bit deeper than compulsory. It’s inside fractions of an inch of the Spectre x360 14 with its greater and taller 13.5-inch 3:2 present, although it’s pretty a bit thinner at 0.59 inches compared with the HP’s 0.67 inches.

The MSI is just barely heavier at 2.98 kilos compared with 2.95 kilos for the HP. It’s greater in width and depth than the Dell XPS 13 that moreover makes use of a 13.4-inch 16:10 present, and the Dell is barely thinner at 0.58 inches and lighter at 2.64 inches. Among the many Summit E13 Flip Evo’s additional depth is because of convertible 2-in-1 hinge, moreover, MSI might have made this a further diminutive laptop with a bit further consideration to the bezels.

The Summit E13 Flip Evo’s constructing is unquestionably premium, as a result of it makes use of CNC-machined aluminum to carve the lid and chassis out of single blocks of metallic. The lid has merely the slightest little little bit of a bend to it in case you exert some stress, and the LCD distorts everytime you accomplish that. The underside chassis and keyboard deck are company, though, lending the laptop an whole sense of solidity. Due to the lid, it’s not as rigid as a result of the HP Spectre x360 14 or Dell XPS 13, but it surely certainly’s shut. The hinge permits for opening the lid with one hand, but it surely certainly moreover makes points a bit wobbly while you’re transferring the laptop spherical.

About that pricing: The Summit E13 Flip Evo is expensive in its $1,900 configuration. Given the laptop’s top quality design, it’s worth a premium nevertheless most clients will seemingly be turned off by the high-end worth. The $1,600 configuration with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD is further low cost and in line with the opponents. The Spectre x360 14, for example, presently costs $1,460 for the same configuration as a result of the $1,600 Summit E13 Flip Evo, albeit with a Core i7-1165G7 versus the MSI’s Core i7-1185G7. So it’s $140 cheaper however moreover has a lesser processor.

When identically configured, the Dell XPS 13 is $1,620, almost exactly the equivalent worth. MSI is charging an extreme quantity of for an enhance to 32GB of RAM that almost all clients on this class acquired’t need.

Connectivity is good for a extremely skinny and lightweight laptop, with a USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port and two USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports with Thunderbolt 4 alongside the left-hand side, and a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port (no Thunderbolt 4) changing into a member of a 3.5mm audio jack and hidden microSD card reader on the right-hand side. Wi-Fi 6E — the Summit E13 Flip Evo is the first laptop to equip the most recent Wi-Fi 6E commonplace that helps a 6Ghz distinctive band — and Bluetooth 5.2 current for wi-fi connectivity.

Effectivity

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MSI permits the whole 28 watts of the Intel Eleventh-gen Core i7-1185G7 throughout the Summit E13 Flip Evo, theoretically promising the perfect effectivity from the chip. In response to our benchmarks, though, the 2-in-1 doesn’t basically soar into the lead amongst equally configured laptops.

In Geekbench 5, the Summit E13 Flip Evo was within the midst of the pack. MSI contains a utility to tune effectivity versus fan noise, and it made a common distinction in some checks. The Geekbench ranking jumped to 1,519 single-core and 5,310 in effectivity mode, for example. The utility moreover improved the laptop’s Handbrake ranking, which measures the time to encode a 420MB video as H.265, from 207 to 178 seconds. Every of those scores are further aggressive. The utility made a lot much less of a distinction in Cinebench R23 and PCMark 10. Throughout the latter benchmark, the laptop was throughout the widespread differ all through all included checks, along with the Requirements (web looking, and so forth.), Productiveness (Office apps, and so forth.), and Creation (video encoding and additional).

Basic, the Summit E13 Flip Evo was a fast laptop for its configuration, which included 32GB of RAM and a fast 1TB SSD, but it surely certainly wasn’t dominant amongst Intel machines. As well-known above, the $1,600 base configuration comes with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB solid-state drive. A model with 8GB of RAM and fewer storage isn’t offered, which locations it behind its opponents.

Each strategy, the MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo will possible be fast enough to take care of up with demanding productiveness workflows, but it surely certainly acquired’t please creative kinds who crave a laptop that will churn by the use of CPU-intensive duties. For that, you’ll want an AMD Ryzen 5000-series chip, an M1 MacBook, or a much bigger 45-watt Intel laptop.

Like all laptops using Intel’s Iris Xe built-in graphics (and AMD machines with Radeon graphics), the Summit E13 Flip Evo doesn’t fake to be a gaming laptop.

Its 3DMark Time Spy ranking is unimpressive, and it managed merely 26 frames per second (fps) at 1080p Extreme settings in Fortnite. That dropped to 19 fps with Epic graphics turned on.

Present

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I actually like seeing so many new machines with taller exhibits, significantly all through numerous sizes and sort parts. The Summit E13 Flip Evo is one such laptop, with a 13.4-inch 16:10 present in a Full HD+ (1,920 x 1,200) resolution. That’s the one different, which is unfortunate — I’d wish to see a higher-resolution present selection.

Subjectively, the present appeared incredible to me for productiveness duties, being tons sensible and with good distinction that made black textual content material soar out from white backgrounds (as a writer, that’s one among my most important present attributes). Colors appeared incredible when viewing the present by itself, although I noticed that points had been a bit off-color compared with one other laptops I’ve lying spherical.

That’s the place my colorimeter bought right here in. In response to it, the present has some good qualities and some not-so-good ones. As I said, the panel appeared sensible, and it was, at 471 nits (properly above our 300-nit threshold), and the excellence ratio was 950:1 — barely under our preferred 1,000:1 ratio. Colors matched the premium (non-creative) laptop widespread at 73% of AdobeRGB and 97% of sRGB. All of that’s ample for a machine of the Summit E13 Flip Evo’s class.

Not so good was the color accuracy, which bought right here in at a disappointing DeltaE of three.94. That accounts for my subjective impression. Moreover, gamma (how sensible or darkish an image or video is displayed compared with the distinctive) was terribly poor at 1.4. I don’t often level out gamma because of most laptop exhibits measure on the common 2.2. The MSI’s present, though, is strategy too sensible, which, as soon as extra, was one factor I noticed when using the laptop.

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It’s potential that my machine was poorly calibrated and is likely to be mounted by anyone with the right devices — not that many people have entry to a colorimeter to hold out their very personal calibration. Nonetheless it detracts from the experience of using the laptop, along with watching films, the place the poor gamma has an impression. Creators may even uncover it too inaccurate for his or her needs.

The audio was incredible, with enough amount from the two downward-firing audio system to get pleasure from a YouTube video with out distortion when turned all the best way during which up. Mids and highs had been clear, nevertheless bass was nonexistent. You’ll want a pair of headphones for bingeing Netflix and listening to music, nevertheless in another case, the sound top quality is about widespread for the class.

Keyboard and touchpad

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The Summit E13 Flip Evo’s keyboard enjoys fantastic spacing and large keycaps with legible lettering and three useful ranges of fixed backlighting. The format is often commonplace, and I was in management in a short time. I beloved the 1.5mm of journey, significantly considering the sunshine switches that didn’t set off fatigue. The bottoming movement was a bit mushy, and I favor the snappier keyboard on the HP Spectre line, nevertheless whole, I found MSI’s keyboard to be comfortable for longer typing intervals (like scripting this review).

The touchpad was in a big format and fairly sized, nevertheless there’s further room on the keyboard deck for a much bigger touchpad. It helps Microsoft’s Precision Touchpad drivers and responded properly to House home windows 10’s multitouch gestures. The buttons had been clicky and quiet, which is a nice combination. Aside from wishing it had been barely greater, I’ve no complaints.

The MSI energetic pen is included throughout the discipline, and it magnetically attaches to the laptop’s lid or chassis. It helps 4,096 ranges of stress sensitivity and tilt, and it conveniently bills by means of USB-C. I found it to provide almost pretty much as good a House home windows Ink experience as each different fashionable 2-in-1 I’ve used. The contact present was moreover responsive. An infrared camera and facial recognition, along with a fingerprint reader on the palm rest, current House home windows 10 Hiya password-less help. Every had been fast and reliable.

Mark Coppock/Digital Traits

Curiously, MSI utilized a change on the side of the laptop for electronically turning off the webcam. That is equivalent mechanism that HP utilized in some older Spectre 2-in-1s, such as a result of the Spectre x360 13 and Spectre x360 15. HP has since switched to putting a button on the keyboard that closes a bodily shutter over the webcam, but it surely certainly’s fascinating that that’s one factor else that MSI seems to have borrowed.

I favor the digital mannequin because of it absolutely turns off the webcam and leaves nothing for hackers to make the most of. There’s moreover a button on the keyboard to point out off the microphone, one different welcome privateness attribute.

Battery life

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MSI packed 70 watt-hours of battery into the Summit E13 Flip Evo, which is a lot for a 13-inch class laptop. Combined with the Full HD+ present, I was anticipating good battery life.

That’s exactly what I observed, starting with our web-browsing test, the place the 2-in-1 managed roughly 11 hours. That’s a sturdy ranking, beating out the HP Spectre x360 14’s seven hours (it used an OLED present in our review unit, so that’s most likely not a very good test) and the Dell XPS 13 Full HD+ that hit about 8.5 hours. In our video-looping test that makes use of an space Full HD Avengers trailer, the MSI achieved 16 hours, which generally is a excellent ranking. The XPS 13 managed merely 12 hours, and the Spectre x360 14 was strategy behind at 10 hours.

I moreover ran the PCMark 10 Functions battery test, the place the Summit E13 Flip Evo hit 13.5 hours. The Spectre x360 14 ran for 9 hours on this test and the XPS 13 for 10.75 hours, making the MSI’s ranking spectacular. Throughout the PCMark 10 Gaming battery test that stresses the CPU and GPU, the Summit E13 Flip Evo bought right here in at 2.5 hours, increased than many laptops — although this test seems to show how exhausting a laptop runs whereas on battery fairly than testing battery life straight.

Throughout the final analysis, battery life is a power of the Summit E13 Flip Evo. It could actually run all day prolonged and go away some time left over for evening work or some Netflix bingeing. You acquired’t have to stress about carrying your power adapter with you besides you’re truly taxing the processors.

Our take

The MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo is a serviceable addition to the safe of 13-inch convertible 2-in-1s. It’s fast, has good battery life, and seems good. The lid is a bit versatile, and it’s a contact expensive in its high-end configuration, nevertheless I found it to be a pleasant laptop for real-life use.

The difficulty is that there are pretty a few opponents. The MSI is sort of pretty much as good as most of them, merely ensure you choose the right configuration to stay away from overspending.

Any choices?

The HP Spectre x360 14 is an efficient totally different. It’s not as fast (not lower than, with out enabling its effectivity mode), but it surely certainly affords a spectacular 13.5-inch OLED present throughout the 3:2 aspect ratio. It’s almost as expensive as a result of the MSI when configured with the OLED present, but it surely certainly solely comes with a most of 16GB of RAM versus the Summit E13 Flip Evo’s 32GB.

The Dell XPS 13 is one different good selection in case you don’t desire a 2-in-1. It’s as fast, has good battery life, and is more healthy constructed — there’s a motive it stays on the excessive of a lot of best-of lists.

How prolonged will it remaining?

The Summit E13 Flip Evo is constructed properly enough that you just acquired’t have to stress about its longevity. It’s moreover outfitted with fashionable elements, along with the short Wi-Fi 6E, making it future-proof. The one-year assure will always be disappointing.

Do it’s important to buy it?

Positive. You’ll love using the Summit E13 Flip Evo; merely be able to pay a few additional {{dollars}} in case you go for the high-end mannequin.

Editors’ Strategies