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09 Sep

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

September 9, 2021
Posted by Samson

MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo sits on the tabletop.

MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo

RRP $ 1,900.00

"The MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo does almost everything right – except for the price."

advantages

Modern and attractive aesthetics
Thin and light
Excellent keyboard and touchpad
Great battery life
Solid productivity performance

disadvantage

Lid is a bit flexible
Display is badly calibrated
Too expensive

When looking for a convertible 2-in-1 laptop, MSI might not be the first brand that comes to mind. It's best known for its gaming laptops, but the company makes several other lines of laptops aimed at general consumers and business users. For the latter, MSI offers the Summit line, including the new Summit E13 Flip Evo 2-in-1, which offers a 16:10 display and an extremely attractive design.

I tested the high-end configuration, which costs $ 1,900 and includes an 11th generation Intel Core i7-1185G7 and a 13.4-inch IPS display in a productivity-friendly 16:10 aspect ratio. It immediately convinced me with its aesthetics and left a clear impression of quality. At a higher total price and without cheap basic equipment, however, the attractiveness remains limited.

draft

My first impression of the Summit E13 Flip Evo was that it bears a clear resemblance to the HP Specter x360 14. At least that's the case with my Ink Black version; the impression is not as pronounced with the Pure White color scheme.

I say this because the Summit E13 Flip Evo has case and display corners that are cut off at angles similar to the Specter x360 14, and the various edges of the laptop (including around the touchpad) are a familiar rose gold color. It's easy to tell the difference between the laptops, but it seems that MSI has adopted some aesthetic concepts from HP.

This does not apply to functionality – unlike the HP, the MSI does not have a USB-C port, which is conveniently placed in a corner. Regardless of its inspiration, the Summit E13 Flip Evo is a beautiful laptop with modern lines and attractive colors that add up to an overall elegant design. MSI makes a lot of the golden ratio (1,618) used to proportion the laptop, and I can't fault its math.

What I can criticize, however, are the large display bezels, which detract from the otherwise modern look. They're bigger at the top and bottom than they could be, and that makes the 13.4-inch laptop with its 16:10 display a little deeper than necessary. It's only a fraction of an inch away from the Specter x360 14 with its larger and taller 13.5-inch 3: 2 display, though it's a bit thinner at 0.59 inches compared to the HP's 0.67 inches.

The MSI is only slightly heavier at 2.98 pounds than the HP at 2.95 pounds. It's larger in width and depth than the Dell XPS 13, which also uses a 13.4-inch 16:10 display, and the Dell is slightly thinner at 0.58-inches and lighter at 2.64-inches. Part of the added depth of the Summit E13 Flip Evo is due to the convertible 2-in-1 hinge, but even so, MSI could have made this laptop a smaller laptop with a little more attention to the bezels.

The construction of the Summit E13 Flip Evo is certainly top notch as it uses CNC machined aluminum to carve the lid and chassis from individual blocks of metal. The lid bends only slightly when you press it lightly and the LCD becomes distorted in the process. However, the bottom chassis and keyboard deck are solid and give the laptop a solid feel overall. Thanks to the lid, it's not as stiff as the HP Specter x360 14 or Dell XPS 13, but it is close. The hinge allows the lid to be opened with one hand, but it also makes it a little wobbly when you move the laptop.

At that price point, the Summit E13 Flip Evo is expensive in its $ 1,900 configuration. It's worth the premium given the high-end design of the laptop, but most users will likely be put off by the high-end price. The $ 1,600 configuration with 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD is cheaper and on par with the competition. The Specter x360 14, for example, currently costs $ 1,460 for the same configuration as the $ 1,600 Summit E13 Flip Evo, but with a Core i7-1165G7 versus the MSI Core i7-1185G7. So it's $ 140 cheaper, but it also has a smaller processor.

With an identical configuration, the Dell XPS 13 costs almost exactly the same price at $ 1,620. MSI is asking too much to upgrade to 32GB of RAM, which most users in this class won't need.

Connectivity is good for a very thin and light laptop, with a USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port and two USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports with Thunderbolt 4 on the left and a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port ( no Thunderbolt 4) with a 3.5mm audio jack and a hidden microSD card reader on the right. Wi-Fi 6E – the Summit E13 Flip Evo is the first laptop with the latest Wi-Fi 6E standard that supports an exclusive 6 GHz band – and Bluetooth 5.2 ensures wireless connectivity.

power

MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo easel, foldable, sitting on the tabletop. Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

In the Summit E13 Flip Evo, MSI activates the full 28 watts of the 11th generation Intel Core i7-1185G7 and theoretically promises the best possible performance of the chip. However, according to our benchmarks, the 2-in-1 does not necessarily jump to the top among similarly configured laptops.

In Geekbench 5, the Summit E13 Flip Evo was in the midfield. MSI includes a utility to tune performance versus fan noise, and it made a modest difference in some tests. For example, the Geekbench score jumped to 1,519 single-core and 5,310 in performance mode. The utility also improved the laptop's Handbrake Score, which measures the time it takes to encode a 420MB video as H.265, from 207 to 178 seconds. Both values are more competitive. The utility made less of a difference in Cinebench R23 and PCMark 10. In the last-mentioned benchmark, the notebook was in the midfield across all included tests, including Essentials (web browsing etc.), productivity (Office apps etc.), and Creation (video coding and more).

Overall, the Summit E13 Flip Evo was a fast laptop for its configuration, which included 32GB of RAM and a fast 1TB SSD, but it wasn't dominant among the Intel machines. As mentioned above, the $ 1,600 base configuration comes with 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB solid-state drive. A model with 8 GB of RAM and less storage is not offered, which puts it behind its competitors.

In any case, the MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo will be fast enough to keep up with demanding productivity workflows, but it won't please creative types who crave a laptop that can handle CPU-intensive tasks. For this you need an AMD Ryzen 5000 series chip, an M1 MacBook or a larger 45 watt Intel laptop.

	Geekbench (single / multiple)	Handbrake (Seconds)	Cinebench R23 (single / multiple)	PCMark 10	3DMark time spy
MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo (Core i7-1185G7)	1352/4891	207	1360/4392	4872	1751
Dell XPS 13 (Core i7-1185G7)	1549/5431	204	1399/4585	n / A	1380
HP Specter x360 14 (Core i7-1165G7)	1214/4117	236	1389/3941	4728	1457
Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 (Core i7-1185G7)	1532/5415	207	1435/4409	4800	1648
Asus ZenBook 13 OLED (Ryzen7 5800U)	1423/6758	124	1171/7824	6034	1342
MacBook Pro 13 (M1)	1707/7337	n / A	1487/7547	n / A	n / A

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

Its 3DMark Time Spy Score is inconspicuous and it only managed 26 frames per second (fps) at 1080p high settings in Fortnite. With the Epic graphics switched on, this dropped to 19 fps.

Close up on the MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo laptop screen. Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

I love seeing so many new devices with larger displays, especially in different sizes and form factors. The Summit E13 Flip Evo is such a laptop with a 13.4-inch 16:10 display in Full HD + resolution (1,920 x 1,200). That's the only choice that's unfortunate – I'd love to see a higher resolution display option.

Subjectively, the display seemed to me well suited for productivity tasks, as it was very bright and with good contrast, so that black text popped out of the white background (as an author, this is one of my most important display attributes). The colors seemed fine when looking at the display alone, though I did notice that things were a little out of place in color compared to some of the other laptops I had lying around.

This is where my colorimeter came in. So the display has some good and some not so good features. As I said, the panel appeared to be bright, at 471 nits (well above our 300 nit threshold), and the contrast ratio was 950: 1 – just below our preferred ratio of 1,000: 1. The colors matched at 73% AdobeRGB and 97% sRGB the average of the premium laptop (not creative). All of this is good enough for a machine in the Summit E13 Flip Evo's class.

The color accuracy was not so great with a disappointing DeltaE of 3.94. That explains my subjective impression. Gamma (how light or dark an image or video is displayed compared to the original) was also extremely poor at 1.4. I usually don't mention gamma as most laptop displays measure the 2.2 standard. However, the MSI's display is way too bright, which I noticed again when using the laptop.

Close up on close up of the screen and bezels of the MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo. Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

It is possible that my device was poorly calibrated and could be repaired by anyone with the right tools – not many people have access to a colorimeter to do their own calibration. But it detracts from the experience of using the laptop including watching videos where the poor gamma has an impact. Creators will also find it too imprecise for their needs.

The sound was fine, with enough volume from the two down-facing speakers to enjoy a YouTube video without distortion when it was all the way up. The mids and highs were clear, but there was no bass. You will need a pair of headphones to enjoy Netflix and listen to music, but otherwise the sound quality is average for the class.

Keyboard and touchpad

Close-up of the trackpad and keyboard on the MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo. Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

The keyboard of the Summit E13 Flip Evo is characterized by excellent spacing and large keycaps with legible lettering and three useful levels of constant backlighting. The layout is standard for the most part and I was up to speed in no time. I enjoyed the 1.5mm of travel, especially considering the light switches that didn't cause fatigue. Floor motion was a bit soft, and I prefer the crisper HP Specter range of keyboards, but overall I found MSI's keyboard comfortable for longer tips sessions (like writing this review).

The touchpad was large and medium in size, but there is more room on the keyboard deck for a larger touchpad. It supports Microsoft's Precision touchpad drivers and responded well to Windows 10's multitouch gestures. The buttons were clicky and quiet, which is a nice combination. Apart from the fact that it would be a bit bigger, I have no complaints.

The active MSI pen is included in the scope of delivery and is attached magnetically to the lid or housing of the laptop. It supports 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity and tilt and is conveniently charged via USB-C. I found it to be as good a Windows Ink experience as any other modern 2-in-1 device I've used. The touch display also responded. An infrared camera and face recognition as well as a fingerprint reader on the palm rest offer Windows 10 Hello passwordless support. Both were quick and reliable.

Close up of the trackpad, keyboard, and fingerprint scanner on the MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo. Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

Interestingly, MSI has built a switch on the side of the laptop to electronically turn off the webcam. This is the same mechanism that HP used in some older Specter 2-in-1s, such as the Specter x360 13 and Specter x360 15. HP has since moved on to placing a key on the keyboard that closes a physical shutter over the webcam , but it's interesting that this is something else that MSI apparently borrowed.

I prefer the electronic version because it turns off the webcam completely and doesn't let hackers take advantage of it. The keyboard also has a button to turn off the microphone, another welcome privacy feature.

Battery life

MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo sits on the tabletop. Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

MSI packed 70 watt hours of battery into the Summit E13 Flip Evo, which is a lot for a 13-inch laptop. In combination with the Full HD + display, I expected a good battery life.

That's exactly what I saw, starting with our web browsing test, where the 2-in-1 lasted about 11 hours. This is a strong score that surpassed the seven hours of the HP Specter x360 14 (an OLED display was used in our test device, so that's not a really fair test) and the Dell XPS 13 Full HD + with around 8.5 hours. In our video looping test using a local Full HD Avengers trailer, the MSI achieved 16 hours, which is also a good value. The XPS 13 only lasted 12 hours, the Specter x360 14 was well behind with 10 hours.

I also ran the PCMark 10 Applications battery test which got the Summit E13 Flip Evo to reach 13.5 hours. The Specter x360 14 ran for nine hours and the XPS 13 for 10.75 hours in this test, which makes the MSI's score impressive. In the PCMark 10 gaming battery test, which stresses the CPU and GPU, the Summit E13 Flip Evo scores 2.5 hours better than many laptops – although this test seems to demonstrate how hard a laptop runs on battery power instead of directly testing battery life .

Ultimately, battery life is a strength of the Summit E13 Flip Evo. It runs all day, leaving some time for evening work or Netflix bingeing. You don't have to worry about taking your PSU with you unless you really put a load on the processors.

Our opinion

The MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo is a useful addition to the stable 13-inch convertible 2-in-1. It's fast, has a long battery life, and looks great. The lid is a bit flexible and a bit expensive in its high-end configuration, but I found it to be a comfortable laptop for real world use.

The problem is that there are a lot of competitors. The MSI is as good as most of them, just make sure you choose the right configuration to avoid spending too much.

Any alternatives?

The HP Specter x360 14 is a great alternative. It's not that fast (at least without activating the performance mode), but it has a spectacular 13.5-inch OLED display with a 3: 2 aspect ratio. It's almost as expensive as the MSI when configured with the OLED display, but it only comes with a maximum of 16GB of RAM compared to the Summit E13 Flip Evo's 32GB.

The Dell XPS 13 is another great option if you don't need a 2-in-1. It's just as fast, has good battery life, and is better built – there's a reason it tops several best-of lists.

How long it will take?

The Summit E13 Flip Evo is so well built that you don't have to worry about its longevity. In addition, it is future-proof equipped with modern components such as the fast Wi-Fi 6E. The one year warranty will always be disappointing.

Should you buy it?

Yes sir. You will love using the Summit E13 Flip Evo; Just be prepared to pay a few extra dollars if you go for the high-end version.

Editor's recommendations

16 Nov

Blog

Destiny 2: Beyond Light Review: Ice is Nice

November 16, 2020
Posted by Samson

Destiny 2 Beyond Light

Destiny 2: Beyond Light Review: Icy expansions bring cool changes

"Beyond Light's weak history leaves much to be desired, but new stasis skills help make the game feel fresh again."

Versatile stasis forces
There is a lot to discover in Europe
Faster loading times

Blunt campaign
The class feels unbalanced

No matter how good it actually is, it's always tempting to feel a glimmer of hope when a Destiny 2 expansion is as significant as Beyond Light. Any excuse to jump into one of the best shooters again is welcome right now, but it is becoming increasingly necessary to keep long-term expectations in check.

A little over a year ago, we reviewed the game's last major expansion, Shadowkeep. At the time, we said the upgrade was "full of potential" and we were hoping it would turn the game around after a difficult year with no exciting content.

If that sounds like déjà vu to fans, it's because it's exactly the same situation that Beyond Light is in now. Shadowkeep ultimately didn't deliver the intriguing setup, leaving players hoping that Beyond Light would get the ship back on course. After years of re-experiencing the same cycle, it is time to finally accept these expansions for what they really are, and stop using them as a symbolic Rorschach test for the future of the game.

Destiny 2: Beyond Light is a perfect content drop for fans who just want more Destiny. The new location in Europe and the stasis ability give players a lot of leeway, although the new story campaign is one of the weakest in the franchise. For the looter, this is not an illuminating change. It's just a good reason to sign back in … and that's fine.

Welcome to Europe

Beyond Light features one of Destiny 2's most stand-alone stories to date. Instead of moving from planet to planet, almost the entire five-hour campaign is devoted to the game's new location, Europe. The big evil this time is a fallen captain named Eramis, who has equipped her army with the new element of the game, stasis. Guardians are forced to fight fire with fire (or ice with ice, in this case) by using the power of darkness against them.

Nothing about the story is particularly memorable. Eramis ends up being little more than another anti-climactic villain, with the really big evil presumably being saved for the game's upcoming raid. There isn't much to discover in each of the missions either, as the campaign has more or less the same order of objectives that are repeated three times. It feels less like a story, but more like a lengthy tutorial for stasis forces.

Destiny 2 Beyond Light

Despite these flaws, the story has surprising thematic weight. The good are asked whether it is morally right to use the tools of evil to fight evil, which in our current political climate is purposely felt to be right. This question becomes less convincing every time characters have the same existential debate. However, it is always welcome to hear meaningful real-world questions asked throughout the game's infinitely vague story about light and dark.

Europe itself is a mixed bag when it comes to locations. Sometimes the snow-covered planet looks just like the moon with gray craters exchanged for white hills. The lack of suitable landing zones means players have to do the same long hikes every time they have a new destination. The campaign and subsequent post-quests will send players through the same handful of areas over and over, which is getting old quickly.

The best parts of the planet are the rooms that are hidden under the snow. High-tech laboratories create a stark contrast to Europe's bleak surface and give the mixture a certain environmental secret. Of particular note are the lost sectors of Europe which provide some of the most inspired ideas of expansion. In a hidden area, I freed a train of Braytech robots that became my personal army when I defeated a giant hydra.

The story feels less like a story and more like a lengthy tutorial for stasis forces.

Even with these bright spots, the content and location of the new story are overwhelming compared to previous expansions. There's still a lot to enjoy, especially after the campaign ends, but Beyond Light feels less like Taken King's gold standard expansion than it does with the comparatively less ambitious Rise of Iron.

Ice cream to meet you

The campaign's obsession with stasis is ultimately justified. For the first time ever, Beyond Light is adding an entirely new item for players to equip, including new Supers and Abilities. Stasis gives the Guardians ice powers that enable them to keep enemies cold, crush frozen enemies, and build huge walls of ice like Overwatch's Mei.

Stasis is the most exciting feature Destiny has hit in years.

Stasis is literally changing the way the game is played, and fans are already taking full advantage of it. The game's Crucible PVP mode is currently in a state of glorious mayhem as Guardians use their skills to do things that have never been possible in Destiny before. Some build ice walls to block the entrances to checkpoints and capture them safely. Others throw the ability at their feet and shoot them dozens of feet in the air.

The Destiny series has rarely done this type of experiment, even with new subclasses and supers added. It was always clear what the three types of damage were doing, no matter how they were packaged. Stasis feels completely alien and adds excitement to the activities that players have been weeding out for years.

Destiny 2 Beyond Light

The way the stasis subclass works is fundamentally different from the old trio. Players can upgrade each ability with fragments that completely change the way they work. When the ice wall grenade wasn't clicking with my play style, I switched to one that shot out a creeping line of icicles that could be chained to enemies. The way players can customize the subclass is so deep that it is really worth looking for more options.

However, it feels like Bungie needs to make some adjustments. Stasis is absurdly powerful in a way that doesn't feel sustainable in the long run. Not only does ice freeze enemies (it can even turn off Supers), it also harms them when they break out. This is a blast in PVE activity where players can shatter a fair amount of debris, but it feels out of whack in competitive mode. Freezing feels like a death sentence no matter the circumstances, and stasis feels like an unbalanced option in its current state.

Even if there is still much to be done, stasis is the most exciting feature that Destiny has hit in years. It opens the door to new styles of play and lets old experiences work again. It's exactly the kind of update the game has been looking for in a long time.

Less is okay

The big story with Beyond Light is less about what's added and more about what's removed. The update significantly reduces Destiny 2 and removes entire planets and their corresponding activities. Places like Mercury are gone, freeing fans of boring content like the Infinite Forest.

Destiny 2 Beyond Light

What is surprising is that none of it feels missing so far. I didn't feel crazy for not being able to patrol Titan or miss a run of the escalation log. The mass expulsion shows how voracious Destiny 2 had gotten over the past few years as it accumulated filler that didn't add anything.

Not much is added in their place, but that has its merits. Destiny 2's file size has been cut almost in half, resulting in a more compact game that already feels a lot smoother. The loading times are faster and I have fewer problems with the loading zone during strikes.

Beyond Light is about taking the game back down to the basics so that Bungie and players can find out what is actually fun about the game.

The added stability feels like a fair trade, although the long-term implications are unclear. With much of Beyond Light's content in Europe, I'm not sure how little things will feel when I've got my chores done. Many of these questions should be answered in the upcoming season of the hunt, but ever-skeptical fans wouldn't be wrong in preparing for another slow year.

That's why it's so important this time to recalibrate expectations. Beyond Light is not about starting a bright chapter for the series. It's about taking the game back to the basics so Bungie and the players can find out what is actually fun about the game. It's entirely possible that Beyond Light only piqued gamers' interest for a few weeks, but maybe it's time to accept that Destiny 2 is less effective as a long-tailed service game and a rock-solid shooter that's well worth it is to be visited again, less fun times a year.

Our opinion

Destiny 2: Beyond Light is a leaner proposition than fans hoped for thanks to its disappointing campaign, but there is still enough intrigue beneath Europe's surface to warrant a return to orbit. The new stasis subclasses refresh years of experience and ensure that parts of the game feel new again, even if the honeymoon feeling disappears in a few weeks.

Is there a better alternative?

The answer is still no, although the competition is getting tougher. Warframe is creeping up on the throne in particular, but Destiny 2's shooting is still unmatched.