With a second lockdown in place, it seems like many of us will continue working from home for a long time to come.
But is your current home office set up ready for this long-term shift? You may have created the perfect zone in your pad for all things work related, but if your laptop isn’t up to speed, all your efforts will be wasted.
So, with that in mind, we reveal the five things you need to look for in the ultimate remote working laptop – and show you the two leading devices that can offer them all.
Good for work… and play
Being out of the office certainly has its perks. However, it does make it more important that our laptops can fit around how we work – and play.
Fortunately, MSI have launched two new work and productivity laptops for remote working and leisure time.
The Summit E14, for example, which sports the latest Tiger-Lake-U Corei7 processors, has enough muscle to help you whizz through multiple work or life admin tasks in a flash.
Combined with a NVDIA® GeForce® GTX 1650Ti graphic card with Max-Q Design, this slimline laptop packs a heavyweight performance that’s ideal for every kind of worker – even creatives.
Meanwhile, the Prestige 14 EVO is a beautifully crafted computer that boasts the same Intel® Core™ i7 processor PLUS Intel® Iris® Xe graphics. The result? A super responsive piece of tech that incorporates AI optimizations and Intel EVO certification, offering super-fast performance and longer battery life. With this by your side, work and play is so much more efficient.
Both of these innovative laptops come with PCI-e Gen 4 storage support, meaning you can keep more important documents with you and access them faster. Getting that empty inbox feeling should come a little quicker than usual, then.
And how about downtime? Well, with 14-inch 4K UHD and Full HD displays respectively, the Summit E14 and Prestige 14 EVO offer crisp, vivid colour viewing – great for catching up on your favourite shows or watching the latest movies.
Portability
Lockdown means we’re somewhat restricted to where we work remotely for the time being, but that shouldn’t prevent you from investing in a laptop that you can rely on wherever you choose to work in the future.
MSI business laptops are ultra thin and super light, despite all the powerful processors they carry. The Summit E14 and Prestige 14 EVO weigh just 1.29kg, making them easy to carry around wherever work may take you.
Despite their lightweight nature, these laptops still offer tremendous battery life – so you don’t even need to carry around their chargers. The Summit E14 can last up to 10 hours on a single charge, while the Prestige EVO 14 can last for 12.
Safety
Whether you’re self-employed or working out of the office, keeping your device and your data protected is extremely important – particularly if you’re fielding emails and downloads from multiple sources every single day.
MSI’s business laptops are built with your protection and privacy in mind – all while never impacting on speed. The Summit E14 comes with an infrared camera and Windows Hello as standard – a means of unlocking your device with face ID so only you can access your device and the files on it – so you can log in securely and instantly without typing in lengthy passwords.
It also has a built-in Trusted Platform Module chip, otherwise known as TPM 2.0, which protects you in every aspect of your life. This boosts the security of your laptop right down to its hardware through encryption, providing greater protection than software-only security programmes and ensuring your data is only ever available to you.
The Summit E14 also comes with BIOS Security Menu for IT Management, a means of safeguarding your data even if your laptop gets stolen.
The Prestige 14 EVO offers this and additional fingerprint ID, making the process of logging in faster and more secure than ever before.
By integrating identity protection with super secure software and firmware, you can rely on all MSI laptops to protect large companies from data theft while its employees work remotely, as well as solo entrepreneurs.
Versatility
Without the IT department at our immediate beck and call and our tech-whizz desk mates holed up in their own homes far away, we need laptops which are not only simple to use regardless of your ability, but a pleasure to work on too.
Behind its classy exterior, the Summit E14 packs a lot of helpful features which make day to day working that little bit easier.
For example, it has AI Noise Cancellation which means that you can cut out all background noise when you’re video conferencing, so you can participate without being disturbed.
It also comes with a built in touch-screen, so you can switch between a traditional desktop setting and tablet-style device as it suits you. Expect fast scrolling and intuitive features such as pinch-to-zoom and more.
The Summit E14 also boasts a super smooth glass touchpad, which makes daily navigating more comfortable.
Speaking of comfort, the Prestige 14 EVO offers this too. Designed with a unique 5-degree hinge, this laptop unfolds to position your keypad at the optimum angle for typing, making your strokes more accurate while taking pressure off your wrists.
Just to round off the user experience, both MSI business laptops come with multiple powerful Thunderbolt 4 ports, which not only enable you to charge your device super fast, but transfer data as fast as 40Gbps too. You even have the option to connect to multiple screens if you wish.
Durability
These devices, the SUMMIT E14 and Prestige 14 EVO, each meet Military-Grade Durability test standards to ensure they’re up to helping you work however and wherever you want.
They can both withstand high or low altitudes and temperatures, humidity, dust, shocks and vibrations – all things which might normally hold up your busy schedule.
Plus, as they’re finished with premium, sleek aluminium chassis, the SUMMIT E14 and Prestige 14 EVO not only look the business, but are rugged enough to keep you trucking on whether you’re working from home or on the move.
