CES 2019: MSI PS63 Modern Notebook, a 15.6-inch with 16 Hours Battery Life
by Ian Cutress & Gavin Bonshor on January 15, 2019 5:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- MSI
- Trade Shows
- GTX 1050 Ti
- Whiskey Lake
- CES 2019
- PS63 Modern
Designed with content creators and designers in mind, the new 15.6" MSI PS63 Modern looks to make a bold statement. The key feature for this new notebook is the specifications: under the hood we get Intel's latest Whiskey Lake processor, combined with a GTX 1050 Max-Q graphics card, a 15.6-inch 1080p display, and yet MSI claims that this system will hit 16 hours of battery life. That's one hell of a combination.
Also included is Qualcomm's Quick Charge 3.0 for quicker mobile device charging on supported devices. This is so with its '16 hour battery life', a user could be on the system for 12 hours and get a full charge of a smartphone in a day.
With a similar specification and feature set as the new Dell XPS 15, MSI's model looks to be undoubtedly cheaper if their usual pricing model applies and could certainly turn a few heads with its touted 16-hour battery life and MSI True Color technology designed to produce close to near perfect sRGB (99.6%) color reproduction.
Some of the specifications of the MSI PS63 Modern include a 15.6" 1080p IPS panel which is powered by an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 or GTX 1050 Ti with Max-Q Design and 4 GB of GDDR5 memory. Memory support is limited to DDR4-2400, but up to a maximum of 32 GB can be installed, if not provided as standard. Aimed more at professionals, there is no flashy RGB keyboards, but MSI does include one of its smooth glass touchpads and has room for up to two M.2 NVMe capable SSDs. There's also a fingerprint reader too.
MSI's Creator Center software is included which made its first appearance in the MSI P65 Creator model last year. The Creator Center looks to optimize and include adjustable system modes for creative applications including MAGIX Photostory, Adobe's suite and even the Sony VEGAS Pro video editing software.
There are no details on the launch pricing or retail availability of the MSI PS63 Modern at present. The whole unit is built on a '16 16 16' principle: 16 hours battery life, 1.6 kg weight, and 16mm thick. This unit was easily one of the most impressive we saw at CES this year.
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HStewart - Wednesday, January 16, 2019 - link
People just don't want to believe it maybe something that Intel did with Whiskey LakeTeckk - Wednesday, January 16, 2019 - link
People will believe once they see it tested and analyzed. Just claiming that the increase in battery life and all great things are due to enhancements in Whiskey Lake/just cpu upgrade, makes people skeptical about such claims. Keep things rational.ET - Wednesday, January 16, 2019 - link
Not all the way down. I'm sure it's the usual thing: screen dimmed somewhat (mid-brightness) and web browsing / office kind of activity. So yes, no dGPU in use, and CPU largely idle.Prestissimo - Wednesday, January 16, 2019 - link
Expect 5 hrs on average, 6 at best since the battery will probably be 80 Wh. For 16 hours you would need a 15W U-CPU, FHD screen, and 120 Wh battery.Prestissimo - Wednesday, January 16, 2019 - link
Never mind, Whiskey Lake makes it 10 hours supposing at least 8W of power consumption.HStewart - Tuesday, January 15, 2019 - link
This is 2nd Notebook with high battery life I notice and both of them are Whiskey Lake CPU's. There must be something different about Whiskey Lake CPU's that make a difference. This is quite a think laptop to just say it because of battery.Ian Cutress - Tuesday, January 15, 2019 - link
Intel launched it's low power panel initiative last year, for sub 1W displays. Those units are now starting to be shown off.HStewart - Wednesday, January 16, 2019 - link
I assume this is because Windows on ARM situation, but I would think could be part of Whiskey Lake. It would be interesting to compare same notebook with 4k display.For me personally. I mostly use it connected to display - but it is nice to have option to move it anywhere
Prestissimo - Wednesday, January 16, 2019 - link
When 10nm Ice Lake develops and matures, maybe. Until then, U-CPUs won't be much different from 5th gen Broadwell in terms of power efficiency.LP displays could change things but are limited in practice due to that nature. What we desperately need for all hardware is a leap in battery technology.
Prestissimo - Wednesday, January 16, 2019 - link
When 10nm Ice Lake develops and matures, maybe. Until then, U-CPUs won't be much different from 5th gen Broadwell in terms of power efficiency.LP displays could change things but are limited in practice due to that nature. What we desperately need for all hardware is a leap in battery technology.