MSI Creator Z16P Review – Extremely Powerful Performance

MSI Creator Z16P is a high-end laptop aimed at the most demanding content creators, from filmmakers to engineers and gamers. The modern design and 16:10 display with vibrant color reproduction will undoubtedly convince them.

For the past few weeks, we’ve been working with the MSI Creator Z16P, the most powerful version of the The MSI Creator Z16 we reviewed last year And the In 2022 he also received an update† The Z16P outperforms its predecessor across the board and will therefore impress even the most professional users.

Final design

There is a lot to be said about the design of the MSI Creator Z16P. Just like the Z16, it reminds us of a MacBook with its rounded corners, but it’s actually a Windows laptop. As many designs still swear by Apple, this isn’t a bad choice from MSIA – It’s something different and we got used to it during the review period.

The aluminum casing looks good and sturdy, which is of course very important for a 16-inch laptop. Despite its screen size, the Creator Z16P is just 19mm thick and weighs 2.39kg very portable and easy to carry in a backpack or laptop bag. Since you have a dedicated graphics card and therefore need more power (240W to be exact), the charger is larger than the USB-C variants that many commercial laptops use. The weight isn’t that bad in a backpack, although we did notice the difference with MSI E15 Summit that we usually use.

In terms of connectivity, we see some differences with the Z16. For example, you have a Thunderbolt 4 USB-C port, a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port, and only one USB-A connection. We would’ve hated it had it not been for the SD card slot here, as it’s more convenient than microSD for creators (there’s a reason Apple added this port again to the MacBook Pro†

Vibrant display

What it’s largely about is the ultra-bright QHD (400 nits) display of the MSI Creator Z16P. The screen features a unique 16:10 aspect ratio (2560 x 1600 resolution), which translates to a larger vertical screen area. You can use it while editing videos or while multitasking daily. We’ve already tested a few MSI “golden ratio” laptops and you’ll quickly get used to the extra space, especially if you often work with online content like us. The bezels around the screen aren’t too big, with some extra room under the screen and a webcam at the top.

The refresh rate on this Pro model has been increased from 120Hz to 165Hz, ensuring that gamers can get more out of the screen. This is also permissible, because with an NVIDIA RTX 3080 TI on board, you naturally get a significantly higher frame rate. The laptop comes with NVIDIA Studio drivers for maximum stability, but if you want to run the latest titles, we recommend switching to Game Ready drivers.

Work or play, in the end it makes no difference, because in both cases you can get the most out of this screen. 100% DCI-P3 color gamut ensures you see vibrant colors at all times. Additionally, MSI True Color gives you the option to switch to sRGB or AdobeRGB. This is indispensable when editing photos or videos.

We also mention that the screen can be used in 180 degrees and you can invert the image via the hotkey to quickly show something to a colleague sitting on the other side of the table. stature, but it comes in handy.

MSI Creator Z16P Reference Standards

With specs like those of the Z16P, you naturally expect a lot more in terms of performance. The Creator Z16P never disappoints. We decided to edit a video in Adobe Premiere Pro and the combination of the new 12th generation Intel i9-12900H and RTX 3080 TI graphics card made it possible to scroll through 4K content while editing and exporting was fast. If anything less, we’ve played demanding games like Cyberpunk 2077 without any issues. Ray tracing at more than 30fps may not be possible, but the game was great.

If we look at the benchmarks, we see that the results of the Creator Z16P with the 12th generation Intel i9-12900H completely exceed the results of the Creator Z16 with the i9-11900H. Single-core performance is about 10 percent higher in Geekbench 5 and multi-core is 57 percent more impressive, with similar results in the Cinebench r23. We’ve also seen a strong increase in 3D Mark Time Spy due to the better CPU, but also due to the upgrade from the RTX 3060 to the 3080 TI, with a score of 9760, which is 48 percent higher than the Z16’s 6587. It shows how much impact a difference can have in one generation.

What’s Next?

We also used Cyberpunk as a stress test and found that the laptop got very warm (say hot) while gaming. The warmest point is the grille above the keyboard and heat also flows to the back of the screen. The keyboard itself has also gotten warm, but not as annoyingly as the sides. The touchpad has remained surprisingly cool.

MSI uses Cooler Boost technology with vapor chamber cooling for this model and the cooling surface has been increased compared to the previous generation. As a result, the surface temperature is a couple of degrees lower, but in our opinion this could be better so you don’t have to play with sweaty hands. The temperature is good during everyday tasks, but the laptop also cannot be called cool.

You don’t have to count on long battery life with the MSI Creator Z16P. The laptop is developed to handle heavy and power demanding graphical tasks. Count two to three hours depending on the work you do and less than two if you decide to play as well. It’s not a lot, but it’s enough to get you some freedom of positioning throughout the day.

MSI Creator Z16P: to buy or not?

The MSI Creator Z16P is definitely a great piece of technology. Thus, content creators who want to play some games will make an excellent purchase. In addition, the laptop also looks great with its aluminum design and rounded corners. This way it suits any professional environment.