The MSI Prestige 14 and 15 share a number of similarities, but there are also some big
differences between the two that you need to know about before choosing one. In this
detailed comparison I’ll look at pretty much everything to help you decide which laptop
you should get.
Starting with the specs, both of these laptops have the same 10th gen Intel i7-10710U CPU,
which is a 6 core 12 thread Cometlake chip. They’ve both also got the same Nvidia GTX
1650 Max-Q graphics, though with different power limits, along with 16gb of memory in
dual channel, however the memory speeds are different. They both have an NVMe M.2 SSD
for storage, but sizes of disk and memory will vary when buying.
The screen is the first major difference, as per the name, the Prestige 14 has a 14
inch screen, while the Prestige 15 has a 15.6” screen. Both laptops are available with 1080p
or 4K options.
Network connectivity is also the same, both have WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5, but they’re
both too thin for an ethernet port.
Both laptops are also available with different specs, you can find examples and updated prices
linked in the description.
They both have an all metal design, and mine are both carbon grey, however different colour
options are available. The lids just have a very subtle MSI logo in the center, and
there are blue trims around the edges of both machines, so very similar design aesthetic.
Build quality felt pretty good with both, however I’d give a slight edge to the larger
Prestige 15.
The Prestige 15 was about 410g heavier than the 14 when comparing the laptop only, rising
to a 440g or almost 1 pound difference when including the 90 watt power bricks and cables.
As you’d expect due to the different screen sizes, the 14 is smaller in width and depth,
however both are the same thickness when closed.
This changes when you open the lid of the Prestige 14, the back of the laptop raises
up a little, putting it on a 5 degree angle. This lift up design is not present with the
15.
When we compare the panels, my Prestige 14 has both higher brightness and colour gamut,
however it’s not really a fair comparison. Both the Prestige 14 and 15 have 1080p and
4K options, but the 4K panel is higher quality in both, and my 14 happens to be 4K while
my 15 happens to be 1080p. If you’re looking at either for photo or video editing I’d
suggest going for the 4K option.
Backlight bleed was pretty similar with both laptops, I never had any issues when viewing
darker content with either, but this will vary between panels.
Both laptops can bend the screen right back 180 degrees, then by pressing the F12 key
you can flip the screen around to show the contents to someone in front of you.
Both worked fine sitting on my lap, however the Prestige 15 did feel better after a while,
as the back groove on the 14 kind of digs into your legs compared to the flat base of
the 15.
They both have a 720p camera in the center above the screen, interestingly the smaller
Prestige 14 has IR for Windows Hello support, but this is missing in the 15.
This is what the camera and microphone look and sound like on the smaller Prestige 14,
and then on the larger Prestige 15 things are just a little bit better.
Screen flex was pretty similar with both laptops, however the 15 was a little sturdier, as the
lid looked just a tiny bit thicker.
There was less chassis flex for the 15 when pushing down on the keyboard, this mostly
seems to be because of the lift up design of the 14. When its open up the back is only
held up by a couple of small rubber feet, so there are less contact points, but realistically
I had no problems using either.
Both keyboards are the same, no numpad on either so the keys aren’t small and cramped.
I measured them at the same size, the key layout is the same, and they both have 1.5mm
of key travel. They both have 3 levels of white key backlighting which illuminates all
keys and secondary key functions. I liked typing with both keyboards, however I will
give a very small edge to the Prestige 14, as that slight 5 degree incline of the keyboard
felt a little better compared to the flat Prestige 15. Here’s how the keys sound to
give you an idea of what to expect.
Like the keyboards, the precision touchpads also seemed to be the same. They’re both
the same size and click down anywhere you press. They’re both wider than most other
laptops, it was nice to have more space, and the palm rejection of both seemed about the
same, if I accidentally touch it while typing it’s ignored.
They both have a fingerprint scanner in the top left corner, and I found this to work
quite fast with either machine.
Fingerprints and dirt were fairly well hidden with both laptops, and both were easy to clean
as they have the same smooth finish.
Let’s check out I/O differences, I’ve got the Prestige 15 on the bottom and Prestige
14 on top. On the left both have two USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C ports with Thunderbolt 3 and DisplayPort
support, and both ports also support Type-C charging. The Prestige 14 on top has a MicroSD
card slot, while the 15 on bottom has a HDMI 2.0 output and 3.5mm audio combo jack.
On the right the Prestige 14 has its 3.5mm audio combo jack, and the 15 also has a MicroSD
slot. They both have two USB Type-A ports, faster USB 3.2 Gen2 for the 15, and slower
USB 2.0 on the 14.
On the back we can see the rubber feet on the top Prestige 14 that come into contact
with the desk when opened, while the 15 has air exhaust vents. When the lids are open,
both laptops exhaust air below the screen, otherwise there’s nothing going on the front
of either.
Both are also all metal underneath, and there are air intake vents towards the back. The
Prestige 15 is opened by removing 11 Phillips head screws, while the 14 has 7 Phillips head
screws, however I found the panel on the 14 a bit harder to remove.
There are quite a few differences between them inside. They both have the battery down
the front, and a WiFi 6 card, and that’s where the similarities end. The smaller Prestige
14 only has one fan for cooling compared to the two in the 15. As the Prestige 15 has
more space it’s got room for two M.2 storage slots, while the 14 only has one. The Prestige
15 also has two memory slots for DDR4 memory, supporting user upgrades, while the 14 has
LPDDR3 memory soldered to the motherboard and cannot be upgraded.
The two speakers are found on the front left and right sides. Listening to both side by
side, I thought the 14 sounded better, possibly as the speakers are raised a little off the
desk when the lid is opened. The 15 was louder at max volume, but this resulted in some vibration
in the palm rest, and the latencymon results were decent and similar with either laptop.
The Prestige 14 has a smaller 3 cell 52Wh battery, while the Prestige 15 has a larger
4 cell 82Wh battery. The Prestige 15 was lasting much longer as a result, more than double
as long in the gaming test, and over 9 hours in the watching YouTube test compared to the
over 5 hours from the Prestige 14.
Now let’s take a look at thermals. Both laptops were tested in an ambient room temperature
of 21 degrees Celsius. Both laptops allow you to set the performance level between three
different profiles through the Creator Center software, which from lowest to highest are
eco, comfort, and sport modes. We’ve also got the option of enabling cooler boost to
set the fan to maximum speed.
These are the CPU temperatures of both machines while under combined CPU and GPU stress tests
with Aida64 and Unigine Heaven. We’ll check the GPU results shortly, so for now just keep
in mind these are CPU only results but for combined loads. Temperatures vary based on
the mode in use, but for the most part the Prestige 14 was hotter in more instances than
not.
These are the CPU clock speeds during these same tests. The Prestige 15 is performing
ahead of the 14 in all of these results.
We can see why this was the case when looking at the power levels of the CPU. The Prestige
15 is able to use more power, so it’s expected to run hotter, but also perform better as
a result of these higher limits.
When we look at the GPU results for these same combined CPU and GPU workloads the Prestige
15 was hotter until we set the fans to max speed. Either way the GPU temperatures were
pretty close together.
The GPU clock speeds from the Prestige 15 were way ahead of the Prestige 14 though,
it’s almost on a whole nother level and you’ll see this backed up in the gaming
benchmarks soon.
The Prestige 15 is able to hit its 35w limit even in combined CPU and GPU workloads, however
the Prestige 14 has harsher GPU caps. The 14 can run up to 30 watts in GPU only loads,
but if the CPU needs to get used, like for video editing or gaming, we’re looking at
much less performance.
Here’s what we’re looking at in terms of Cinebench R20 scores from both machines
with the best sport mode and coolerboost enabled. The differences are quite large considering
both laptops technically have the same CPU, with the Prestige 15 scoring 23% higher at
stock. The Prestige 14 has a lower power limit which prevents it performing as good, and
this is because it has less cooling. More power equals more heat, so a higher power
limit would probably overload it.
As for the areas where you’ll actually be putting your hands, at idle the smaller Prestige
14 was around 10 degrees warmer than the 15. With the stress tests running the wrist rest
in the 14 was noticeably warmer, however the rest of the chassis seemed to be pretty similar.
Here’s how fan noise sounded during these tests.
The larger Prestige 15 was silent at idle, however the single fan in the smaller 14 was
still audible. Interestingly, the smaller Prestige 14 was louder in all of these tests,
regardless of the mode in use. This must be down to it having just one fan inside, so
it’s got to spin faster to do what two fans at slower speeds can do in the Prestige 15.
I suspect many people will be looking at these laptops for video editing, so let’s compare
Adobe Premiere export times. As the prestige 15 is capable of performing much better, as
we just saw, it’s completing this task much faster than the 14.
Next, let's compare some games. Although these aren’t advertised as gaming laptops, with
1650 Max-Q graphics I’d expect them to handle gaming. Both laptops were tested in sport
mode with coolerboost enabled for best performance.
Fortnite was tested using the replay feature, and we can see straight away that there’s
a massive difference in performance between the two laptops. The Prestige 14 was barely
usable at minimum settings, while the Prestige 15 was hitting higher average FPS even at
max settings.
Dota 2 was tested playing in the middle lane. There was less of a difference at low and
medium settings, the Prestige 15 was still better, but the difference is much larger
at high and ultra settings.
CS:GO was tested with the Ulletical FPS benchmark, so the exact same test was done on both machines.
The 14 could still hit 100 FPS at low settings, however even max settings on the 15 was significantly
better.
Overwatch was tested in the practice range, and once more, quite a large difference between
these two laptops, with a huge edge to the Prestige 15.
The much worse performance on the Prestige 14 is because both the CPU and GPU have lower
power limits when compared to the larger Prestige 15. When gaming, the GPU in the Prestige 14
caps out at 15 watts, half of its 30 watt limit, while the Prestige 15 runs up to its
35 watt limit consistently. The 14 did initially run ok for the first few minutes, but after
a bit the performance is capped heavily to what I’m showing. These are big differences,
and this is a great example of why you shouldn’t shop for a laptop based purely on specs, as
on paper these look about the same.
I’ve also got the overall and graphics scores for 3DMark’s Fire Strike and Time Spy benchmarks.
Unlike the games, the performance in these tests was much closer together, granted the
15 was still ahead.
I’ve tested storage with Crystal disk mark, the 1TB SSD in my Prestige 14 was performing
much better than the 512GB drive in the Prestige 15, but this could vary by region and will
depend on what drive you buy it with.
The Micro SD performance was quite similar with both laptops.
Now for the final difference, the price. You can check updated prices using the links in
the description. At the time of recording, the MSI Prestige 15 with similar specs to
what I’ve tested here goes for $1400 USD. The Prestige 14 is also available with the
same specs, but with 1080p screen for the same price. I’ve tested the more expensive
configuration with double the storage and 4K screen though, however it is possible to
get both for about the same price.
Finally let’s summarise the differences and similarities between these two machines
to help you decide which you should get.
Due to the screen size difference, the Prestige 14 is smaller than the 15, however both have
the same thickness. This means that the 14 is also lighter, so it is a bit more portable
comparatively, however I wouldn’t say the 15 is exactly heavy.
There’s a big difference when it comes to performance. The power limits in the prestige
14 are capped much more harshly when compared to the 15. Even though they technically both
have the same processor and graphics, the Prestige 15 comes out far ahead, whether that
be in Cinebench, Adobe Premiere video exporting, or even just gaming. The 15 is absolutely
capable of gaming, and can play most titles well at lower settings, while the 14 on the
other hand struggles with less demanding games. Of course neither are gaming laptops, but
I think this helps demonstrate the performance differences.
The power limit difference seems to be due to the cooling. The Prestige 14 has one fan
and less space, so they can’t allow it to run with higher power limits, as that would
probably result in overheating. The 14 also ran a bit louder, both at idle and when under
load, I guess because that single fan has to run faster to keep up with the two in the
15. Although the temperatures weren’t too different internally during my tests, the
Prestige 14 felt much hotter to the touch under load.
The Prestige 15 also has a huge advantage in battery life, as the chassis is larger
it can house a larger battery, and the results from the 15 were nothing short of impressive.
The 14 was still decent, but the 15 was next level.
Speaking of the internals, the 15 has more upgradeability. It’s got two memory slots
for DDR4 memory which you can change, while the 14 has LPDDR3 memory soldered to the board,
which cannot be upgraded, so you have to buy it with what you need from the start. The
15 also has two NVMe M.2 slots for storage, while the 14 is limited to one, again due
to space constraints, but both have WiFi 6.
The 15 felt better to use on my lap due to the flat base, as the 14 rises up when you
open the lid, the back kind of digs into your legs a little over time. The 5 degree incline
with the 14 was preferable when typing though, and it seemed to contribute to better sounding
speakers as well.
The I/O was better on the 15, they both have two Thunderbolt 3 ports which support Type-C
charging, a 3.5mm audio combo jack and a MicroSD card slot. The 15 has HDMI 2.0 which the 14
is missing, and although both have two Type-A USB ports, the 14 uses slower 2.0 while the
15 uses faster 3.2 Gen2.
All things considered, I think the Prestige 15 is a better option given they’re available
at essentially the same price. It performs way better, has better I/O, more upgradeability
options, better build quality, and better battery life. It’s not really all that much
bigger or heavier than the 14, I’d only consider the 14 if you really need that extra
level of portability, and don’t need to constantly run resource heavy applications.
So which of these two laptops would you pick, the smaller MSI Prestige 14, or slightly larger
Prestige 15? Let me know which you’d get and why down in the comments, and if you’re
new to the channel consider getting subscribed for future comparisons and tech videos like
this one.