MSI Creator Z16 Review: Gamer Meets Creator
MSI Creator Z16 Laptop Review: Gamer Meets Creator
RRP $ 2,727.00
"The MSI Creator Z16 has its charms, but it can't quite beat its competitors when it matters."
advantages
-
High refresh rate screen
-
Excellent content creation performance
-
Clicky, comfortable keyboard
-
Thin, slim case
-
Not a bad slot machine
disadvantage
-
Small, thin touchpad
-
Very expensive
-
Mediocre battery life
Everyone wants to try the MacBook Pro. The Creator Z16 is MSI's attempt to take on the 16-inch model, and on paper it looks like a viable alternative.
It has the same high-resolution 16:10 screen and ultra-thin body. It's even priced similarly sky-high, with a launch configuration costing $ 2,549.
But the MSI Creator Z16 has to do whatever it takes to distract buyers from the MacBook Pro or even Windows competitors like the Dell XPS 17, Asus Vivobook Pro X16, or a host of others. The Creator Z16 has a unique set of features, but its appeal is likely to be limited to those with a unique interest in PC gaming and content creation.
draft
The MSI Creator Z16 is a strange bird. The inspiration from the MacBook Pro is of course in the foreground, be it the color "Space Gray", the rounded corners or even the 16-inch 16:10 display. But many of these features have become standard in a technology world that closely follows Apple's example.
What distinguishes the Creator Z16? Well, MSI is primarily known as a gaming company, and it shows. Despite its supposed target audience for the Creator Z16, MSI was unable to completely shake off these PC gaming trappings.
The most obvious element is the keyboard's RGB backlight, powered by SteelSeries. The per-key RGB backlight is an exclusive effect on gaming laptops and peripherals, and it's daunting to see it here. Sure, it isn't hard to turn it into static color, but it's weird to pay extra for something that most non-gamers don't want.
The other holdover from his gaming roots are the vents. I can appreciate good airflow in a system, but the Creator Z16's extra vents force other elements of the laptop into awkward places. The extensive row of vents above the keyboard pushes the touchpad down to be squat. Meanwhile, the ventilation openings on the side walls also push the ports further down in the device. That's not an inconvenience, but it makes for a cumbersome looking setup. Again, it's a common thing to see in a gaming laptop – just not a content creator laptop.
There are no doubt some who appreciate the light gaming influences of the Creator Z16. There are even advantages in terms of performance and display. But from an aesthetic point of view, MSI still needs to clean up a bit before the Creator Z16 is competitive.
However, MSI has managed to make the Creator Z16 impressively thin. It's only 0.64 inches thick, which is almost exactly the same as the 16-inch MacBook Pro. That makes it thinner than options like the Dell XPS 15 and ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4. It's also a bit heavier than all of those laptops at 5.07 pounds. There's enough extra weight to easily tell the difference when you're carrying it in a bag or just moving from room to room.
The side and top bezels are quite small, but the laptop has a sizeable lower chin, especially when compared to the Dell XPS 15. It's not all that extraordinary, but it certainly isn't the most cutting-edge laptop either.
advertisement
The MSI Creator Z16 offers a 16-inch screen with a resolution of 2560 x 1600. This is a 16:10 format that corresponds exactly to the size and shape of the MacBook Pro 16-inch. This is no coincidence either.
However, the resolution is missing a bit. While the screen looks sharp enough for casual work for this screen size, you'll find that many of the Creator Z16's competitors use a higher resolution. The 16-inch MacBook Pro has a resolution of 3072 x 1920, while many Windows competitors offer a higher-resolution 4K display.
However, the MSI Creator Z16 has a few key features that give it the upper hand over the 16-inch MacBook Pro and a number of other laptops. First, it has a refresh rate of 120Hz. Yes, that's another holdover from MSI's gaming roots – and it helps give the Creator Z16 a more legitimate PC gaming experience.
But smoother animation is a boon for everything else you do as well. Whether it's moving the cursor or scrolling a web page, everything is improved with a higher refresh rate. We'll see this more in the future, especially with OLED panels, but so far it remains one of a kind that gives the Creator Z16 an interesting edge.
The second notable feature of this display is its touch capability. While it's pretty common in Windows laptops like the Dell XPS 15, the MacBook Pro 16-inch lacks it. I don't expect developers will rely on the touchscreen too much, but it's a nice addition for casual use.
In terms of image quality, the MSI Creator Z16 has a few different color modes that you can take advantage of. Content creators will be drawn to Display P3 mode. This produces the best color saturation and accuracy, which was impressive. With 100% sRGB, 91% AdobeRGB, and 93% P3, it's just as colorful as the MacBook Pro. The Delta-E of just 0.76 is a fantastically low average color error. All of this makes for the kind of display that professional color graders and photo editors will love.
The brightness and the contrast didn't tear me out of the water. The screen achieved 385 cd / m² and had a contrast ratio of 800: 1 at 100% brightness. OLED laptops such as the Samsung panels of the Asus Vivobook Pro 16X or Dell XPS 15 shine here.
Keyboard and touchpad
The keyboard and touchpad are mixed in the MSI Creator Z16. On the one hand, the keyboard offers a comfortable typing experience with large keycaps, clicking keys and a fairly standard layout. The full-size arrow keys are nice but can take a bit of getting used to.
A small curiosity in the layout is the lack of a function key on the left. Instead, MSI has opted for an enlarged control button. You still have a function key on the right side of the layout, but only as a half key shared with a second control key.
As I mentioned in the design section, the keyboard has RGB backlighting per key, although the SteelSeries software isn't the most useful. For what it's worth, the indicator light on the Caps button on my test device didn't come on when I turned it on.
The touchpad is where my bigger problems are. It's both too small and poorly implemented. Due to the placement of the keyboard (see the Design section above for more information), the touchpad has been squeezed into a squat shape. This is one of the smaller touchpads you'd find on a laptop designed with the creative in mind. Most of the designs follow the MacBook Pro in that they feature an enlarged touchpad that leaves plenty of room.
However, the click of the touchpad is the most frustrating part. While tracking and gestures are fluid on the glass surface, the click mechanism is not well executed. It squeezes when you apply pressure and then requires a second squeeze to register a click, and I found the mechanism too loud and stiff. Although I got used to the faulty touchpad over weeks, going back to a MacBook Pro or XPS laptop felt heavenly.
If this were a gaming laptop, the importance of the touchpad is diminished. This is disappointing on a device where the touchpad is expected to be the primary input.
Ports
The MSI Creator Z16 has a fairly limited number of ports. On the left you will find a USB-A 3.2 Gen2 port, Thunderbolt 4 USB-C, a headphone jack and an AC power adapter. On the right side you have access to another USB-A, USB-C and a micro SD card slot.
This is disappointing in several ways. There are two different approaches that competing laptops take. Laptops like the MacBook Pro 16-inch stick with only four Thunderbolt 4 ports, which provide the device with a lot of power, make a separate power supply unit superfluous and simplify set-up. The other option is to throw in the entire kitchen sink, including HDMI, USB-A, and SD card slots. The MSI Creator Z16 is somewhere in between. It doesn't include HDMI, requires an A / C adapter to provide full power to the device, and only has a micro SD card slot instead of a full size.
This will be an inconvenience for creatives who mainly work outside of the camera and are forced to use adapters and dongles when uploading raw content.
power
The MSI Creator Z16 has packed some powerful components in its thin case. MSI doesn't sell cheap configurations of the Creator Z16, which is not a bad thing. It's a high-end device for a professional audience. The starting configuration for $ 2,549 still gives you an Intel Core i7-11800H, an RTX 3060 (with up to 65 watts of graphics), 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of SSD storage. This basic configuration even comes with the same 1440p 120Hz screen.
My test unit was a slightly revamped model that increased the storage to 32GB and storage to 1TB, bringing the price up to $ 2,727 (you can buy it on Amazon starting at $ 2,599). If you want to spend more than three grand, you get it with an additional terabyte of memory and a higher clocked Core i9 processor.
What you get with the Creator Z16 is a very powerful (and expensive) laptop regardless of the exact configuration. In most benchmarks, it is in the same range as the XPS 15 and 17 and the ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4.
| Cinebench R23 (single / multiple) | Handbrake (seconds) | PCMark 10 | Pugetbench Premiere Pro | |
| MSI Creator Z16 (Core i7-11800H) | 1444/9615 | 102 | 6486 | 738 |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 (Core i7-11800H) | 1519/10497 | 106 | 6251 | 432 |
| Dell XPS 15 (Core i7-11800H) | 1513/9979 | 103 | 6024 | 509 |
| Dell XPS 17 (Core i7-11800H) | 1525/10145 | 109 | 6209 | 692 |
| Asus Vivobook Pro 16X (Ryzen 9 5900HX) | 1486/11478 | 90 | 6486 | 6287 |
The video editing was an outstanding benchmark for the MSI Creator Z16 in my tests. In Pugetbench Premiere Pro, which tests everything from applying effects to exporting timelines, the Creator Z16 took home the prize for the high score, backed up by an incredible score on the video playback. Yes, that means it even beat the Dell XPS 17.
What's the secret? Well, I mentioned earlier the numerous vents in the case that could allow the system to push the components harder without overheating. The processor was able to sustain around 4.5 GHz throughout PCMark 10, with occasional bursts above 5.0 GHz. The internal temperatures never rose above 95 degrees Celsius during the test. That's hot, but it's pretty much what you see in similar systems.
The fans can get really loud. If you dare to change the fan settings to "Performance" you will see what I mean. That'll get you even higher scores than I listed above, but the fan speed is pretty unbearable. In the meantime, the Creator Z16 does an excellent job of keeping surface temperatures down while you don't do anything intense. Thanks again to the thermal, which includes three fans and five heat pipes.
When playing games or video editing, the surface around the WASD keys can of course get quite hot.
The MSI Creator Z16 is also a good choice for someone who wants to do PC gaming on the side. The RTX 3060 is a powerful graphics card, and the 120 Hz refresh rate allows these higher frame rates to be used.
| 3DMark time spy | Battlefield V | Assassin's Creed Valhalla | Civilization VI | Fourteen days | |
| MSI Creator Z16 (RTX 3060) | 6322 | 102 fps | 50 fps | 92 fps | 56 fps |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 (RTX 3060) | 6691 | 106 fps | 48 fps | n / A | 85 fps |
| Dell XPS 15 (RTX 3050 Ti) | 4540 | 103 fps | n / A | 73 fps | 50 fps |
| Dell XPS 17 (RTX 3060) | 7039 | 109 fps | n / A | 104 fps | 78 fps |
| Asus Vivobook Pro 16X (RTX 3050 Ti) | 4601 | 90 fps | n / A | 68 fps | 57 fps |
The games listed above were tested at 1080p (or 1920 x 1200 for 16:10 laptops) at maximum graphics settings. The XPS 17 remains the fastest in the group for most games, aside from the great Fortnite performance of the ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4. There are dozen of factors that affect a game's frame rate on a laptop, and the Creator Z16 resides in the middle and swaps hits with other laptops in this category. Thanks to the 120Hz refresh rate, you'll likely prefer to play in 1920 x 1200, which offers a much smoother gaming experience.
The fact that it can even handle difficult games like Assassin's Creed Valhalla at 50 frames per second (fps) is impressive.
Battery life
Inside the MSI Creator Z16 is a 90 watt hour battery. That sounds great, but it wasn't enough to make this laptop a battery life champion. Among other laptops in this category, all of which have high-resolution screens and RTX graphics cards, the Creator Z16 is one of the worst in terms of battery life.
The Creator Z16 can last up to over eight hours just watching a local video. With light surfing on the Internet, it is five hours and 20 minutes. In my actual workload, which consists of more multitasking and web applications, that drops to less than five hours. The ThinkPad X1 Extreme gets you two extra hours, while a Ryzen-based laptop like the Asus Vivobook Pro 16X gets an astonishing 16 hours on the same test.
Part of the problem with the Creator Z16 could be the higher refresh rate screen, which you can switch down to 60Hz for a little more juice.
Cameras and sensors
The MSI Creator Z16 has the standard set of cameras and sensors. A 720p webcam is located above the display. These kinds of bad cameras are typical of laptops – and have been for years. You can occasionally find a 1080p webcam in 2021 laptops like the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 or even MSI's own GE76 Raider gaming laptop.
Unfortunately, the Creator Z16 sticks to 720p and the results aren't impressive. In bright light, your video calls will appear faded to match your skin tone. There are strong artifacts and strange colors in lower lighting. It's not ideal if your daily work involves a lot of video calls. On the other hand, a laptop like the Dell XPS 15 isn't going to do you any better.
MSI also includes an IR camera for Windows Hello facial authentication. You can also log on to Windows using the fingerprint reader, which is located directly below the arrow keys. The placement is a little strange, but fingerprints are registered well.
Our opinion
The MSI Creator Z16 is the right laptop for a very specific person. If you're looking for a laptop for content creation but don't want to miss out on the PC gaming experience, the MSI Creator Z16 manages that balance better than most. The 120 Hz screen and the excellent performance make it shine in both worlds.
But with its lower resolution display, mediocre battery life, defective touchpad, and high price, its flaws are a few too many.
Are there alternatives?
The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme, now in its fourth generation, is a great alternative with better configuration options (up to an RTX 3080 and Core i9) and a cheaper price.
The Dell XPS 15 and 17 are also good competitors. The XPS 15 isn't quite as powerful, but it has a design that I prefer and options for a 4K OLED screen.
I wouldn't recommend buying the current Intel-powered MacBook Pro 16-inch, but the rumored update to the M1X MacBook Pro is waiting in the wings and looks pretty impressive.
How long it will take?
The MSI Creator Z16 is an expensive laptop, so you should expect a lifespan of at least four or five years. The performance and components are all high end and should keep you productive for many years. The solid build quality should meanwhile hold up well.
MSI offers one year of accidental damage protection with a limit of one damage per laptop. If you want an extended warranty, you have to rely on what online retailers have to offer.
Should you buy it?
For most people, the answer is no. There are laptops out there that are better at focusing on content creation. The exception is for someone who wants a 120Hz screen without sacrificing content creation performance.
Editor's recommendations
