MSI Writer 17 vs MacBook Professional 16 Inch

The corporate promotes the MSI Writer Z17 as “Tech meets Aesthetic,” combining excessive functionality with a swish look. This kind of aggregate must be what maximum inventive pros must aspire to possess.

With its massive display screen and purported excessive functionality, the Z17 occupies the similar area out there because the 16-inch MacBook Professional.

Apple’s biggest pocket book has a an identical high-concept really feel about it, in that it is trendy, skinny, and provides mounds of functionality with its incorporated Apple Silicon.

Over part a yr after the discharge of the 16-inch MacBook Professional, MSI’s unlock has so much to reside as much as if it needs to take the productiveness crown clear of Apple.

MSI describes the Z17 as having a “rounded and fluid shape with swish edges,” which merges “each postmodernism designs” into its look.

In additional typical phrases, it is an aluminum pocket book the usage of a CNC-tooled frame, with a flat most sensible and rounded edges and corners. Whilst touching upon one of the most taste issues of the trendy 16-inch MacBook Professional, you’ll be able to nonetheless inform that the Z17 is an excessively other pocket book from the out of doors.

Whilst each use an identical fabrics and styling, one large takeaway is that the Z17 is a bodily better product in lots of respects. Numerous this stems from its show measurement being just a little larger, so it isn’t totally unexplainable.

The MSI Writer Z17 has a larger 17-inch show, however a decrease answer and pixel density.

The 16-inch MacBook Professional has a smaller footprint at 14.01 inches via 9.77 inches as opposed to 15.03 inches via 10.07 inches for the MSI. On thickness, the MacBook Professional is uniformly skinny at 0.66 inches, whilst the MSI tapers relatively from 0.7 inches to 0.75 inches.

Then there is weight. Apple’s notebooks weigh 4.7 or 4.8 kilos, relying on configuration, whilst the Z17 is a hefty 5.5 kilos. That is three-quarters of a pound heavier than the common 16-inch MacBook Professional, or 15% heavier.

Whilst the dimensions distinction may well be appropriate to maximum, the burden achieve might not be noticed the similar manner.

The 16-inch MacBook Professional boasts the most productive show in an Apple pocket book, consisting of a mini LED-backlit display screen measuring 16.2 inches diagonally. That backlighting brings options together with Extensive Colour (P3) beef up, True Tone, and ProMotion at as much as 120Hz.

Apple’s show additionally has its signature notch on the most sensible, an opening used to deal with its FaceTime digicam. This does consume into the show just a little however handiest takes out as a lot intensity because the menu bar, and additionally it is hidden with strategic black sections when an app is displayed fullscreen.

MSI’s show is a 17-inch “True Pixel” type, described as being at an “IPS Stage” and with 100% DCI-P3 beef up. At a 16:10 “golden” side ratio, the show fits the MacBook Professional.

Past simply the whole DCI-P3 colour gamut beef up, it additionally has factory-calibrated Delta-E

Just like the MacBook Professional, the Z17’s show can use a excessive refresh fee of as much as 165Hz. Then again, Apple’s mini LED backlighting has a large merit over the MSI’s show, which makes use of extra typical LED tactics.

This contains the distinction ratio, which Apple claims is 1 million to at least one for the MacBook Professional, whilst MSI’s pocket book seems nearer to at least one,000:1.

Then there is brightness, which Apple units the MacBook Professional at as much as 1,000 nits of sustained fullscreen brightness, 1,600 nits at height for HDR content material, and 500 nits for SDR content material. The Z17 appears to be round 400 nits, a ways from its rival.

Apple wins large on answer, with its smaller show providing a three,456 via 2,234-pixel symbol and a pixel density of 254ppi. MSI makes use of a QHD+ display screen, which is two,560 via 1,600 pixels with a pixel density of 177.5ppi, a ways under the MacBook Professional.

One large plus in MSI’s court docket is that its show is not only multi-touch enabled but additionally helps stylus enter. The use of the MSI Pen, there are as much as 4,096 ranges of force sensitivity to play with.

Then again, whilst it is a first for a 17-inch pocket book, stylus beef up is typically higher fitted to drugs and for notebooks that may develop into a pill. You can no longer get the bodily beef up to correctly use a stylus on a show until you are protecting it together with your unfastened hand.

It is a curious addition however nonetheless a favorable for MSI.

The 16-inch MacBook Professional makes use of Apple Silicon, with a number of 3 M1chips to make use of. The bottom type makes use of an M1 Professional with a 10-core CPU with 8 functionality cores and two potency cores, 16-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine.

The mid-range possibility is the M1 Max with the similar 10-core CPU, 16-core Neural Engine, and a 24-core GPU. The 3rd possibility is the M1 Max, however with a 32-core GPU.

Apple makes use of Unified Reminiscence for its MacBook Professional, which reduces knowledge redundancy via sharing the similar pool throughout more than one chip components. That suggests including extra reminiscence will impact such things as the CPU and the GPU cores on the identical time.

The M1 Professional begins with 16GB, however an possibility for 32GB is to be had. The M1 Max starts at 32GB, with an possibility for 64GB.

MSI makes use of two Twelfth-gen Intel processors for its pocket book vary.

The Core i9-12900H is a 14-core chip with six functionality cores, 8 potency cores, 20 threads, and max turbo frequencies of three.80 GHz and 5.00GHz for the potency and function cores respectively.

The Core i7-12700H could also be a 14-core chip, once more with six functionality cores and 8 potency cores, and 20 threads. Then again, it gives 3.50GHz for its potency core max turbo frequency, and four.70 GHz for the functionality core.

Reminiscence capacities get started at 32GB of DDR5, attaining a most capability of 64GB. Then again, MSI lists it as two SO-DIMM slots, so there’s the chance to improve or downgrade.

In step with Geekbench, the Writer Z17 with the Core i9 can rating 1,877 for its single-core take a look at, emerging to fourteen,301 for the multi-core take a look at. The Core i7 model manages 1,743 for single-core and 12,774 for multi-core.

For the 16-inch MacBook Professional, the M1 Professional model is able to a single-core rating of one,742 and a multi-core of 12,141. The M1 Max manages a an identical 1,746 and 12,207 respectively.

It is honest to mention that at the CPU facet, the M1 chips set up to stay alongside of the Core i7, however no longer rather with the Core i9.

The MacBook Professional’s M1 chips all use Apple’s design of GPU cores, starting from 16 cores within the M1 Professional to 24 cores and 32 cores within the M1 Max. That is classifiable as built-in graphics, however Apple has prior to now blown its personal horn over graphical functionality.

Certainly, when Apple introduced the 16-inch MacBook Professional, it in reality used MSI notebooks for its comparisons. Given the playing cards getting used, we just about know the end result already.

MSI’s Writer Z17 has 5 other GPU configurations to be had. They’re:

• GeForce RTX 3080 8GB,
• GeForce RTX 3080 Ti 16GB,
• GeForce RTX 3070 8GB,
• GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 8GB,
• GeForce RTX 3060 8GB.

Turning to Geekbench’s browser for OpenCL effects, the M1 Professional manages a at ease 35,724 issues, whilst the M1 Max can hit 56,581.

The GeForce RTX 3060 “Pc GPU” is indexed as attending to 92,420. The an identical pocket book model of the 3070 will get to 111,099, whilst the Ti stretches to 119,528.

The RTX 3080 manages 123,019, whilst the Ti variant will get just a little additional to 136,008.

This can be a repeat of the placement AppleInsider wrote about in November, when the 32-core M1 Max went in opposition to the GeForce RTX 3080 16GB within the MSI GE76 Raider.

Then again, on the time checking out made up our minds that whilst the MSI GPU was once total higher, there was once an important variance when the usage of a battery or an outlet. In the meantime, checks of the MacBook Professional confirmed an identical ratings without reference to continual supply.

We doubt that this will likely have modified on MSI’s facet. Whilst it is going to surely be higher graphically, it would possibly not essentially be offering the similar identified amount of functionality that the MacBook Professional does.

Each notebooks have a integrated digicam of a an identical base specification, however then the 2 cross off in several instructions.

The MacBook Professional is going for a 1080p FaceTime HD digicam crammed into the notch within the show. The digicam is an development at the 720p model prior to now utilized in Apple’s pocket book lineup and advantages from complicated symbol sign processing within the M1 to give a boost to the image it creates.

MSI’s digicam could also be a 1080p shooter, once more quietly positioned on the most sensible of the show, however inside the skinny bezel.

The Z17 is rather MacBook Professional-like in its look.

The digicam comes alive with IR imaging, which used to continual the Home windows Hi biometric safety. Apple may’ve incorporated a TrueDepth digicam array within the notch to supply Face ID, but it surely did not.

Talking of biometrics, each notebooks be offering a fingerprint reader for authentication. Contact ID won’t essentially be as protected as Face ID in opposition to false positives, however it is nonetheless higher than many times typing in a password.

The MacBook Professional contains 3 Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI port with 8K30 beef up, an SDXC reminiscence card slot, a headphone jack, and MagSafe for charging. The entire Thunderbolt 4 ports can be utilized to care for video and charging tasks.

The Z17 incudes two Thunderbolt 4 ports, however whilst each can care for an 8K show and as much as 40Gbps for knowledge transfers, they range in continual. One helps Energy Supply as much as 100W for enter and as much as 9V/3A for output, whilst the opposite handiest manages as much as 5V/3A output.

MSI’s pocket book additionally features a headphone jack, an HDMI port, and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Sort-A connection.

MSI contains a good choice of ports at the Writer Z17.

At the wi-fi facet, the MacBook Professional can attach the usage of Wi-Fi 6, whilst the Z17 gives Killer AX Wi-Fi 6E beef up. MSI additionally leads with Bluetooth, supporting 5.2 to Apple’s Bluetooth 5.0.

The MacBook Professional homes a 100WHr lithium-polymer battery, able to as much as 21 hours of Apple TV app film playback, or as much as 14 hours of wi-fi internet get entry to. Chargeable by means of Thunderbolt or MagSafe 3, it really works with a 140W USB-C continual adapter and has a fast-charging capacity.

In step with MSI, the Writer Z17 features a 90WHr 4-cell battery. It is provided with a 240W continual provide for recharging by means of its devoted port.

Like different pocket book manufacturers boasting of excessive functionality, MSI does not speak about how lengthy that battery in reality lasts underneath load. No longer even the guide says how lengthy it’s meant to closing.

This in most cases is not a just right signal relating to a tool’s battery existence, so it is secure to mention the Z17’s lively time can be a couple of hours in duration when no longer attached to an outlet.

On the other hand, in case you are a content material author pushing the {hardware} up to conceivable, you are most definitely no longer going to be that a ways from an influence outlet when setting out to paintings.

Each notebooks have a blended headphone and microphone socket, however Apple’s model gives beef up for high-impedance headphones.

The MacBook Professional has a six-speaker sound gadget with force-canceling woofers and vast stereo sound. It additionally helps spatial audio thru its integrated audio system and when used with AirPods fashions with dynamic head monitoring capability.

MSI makes use of 4 2W audio system, with processing treated via Dynaudio and DTS.

For gathering audio, MSI lists its pocket book as having an inside mic, whilst Apple makes use of a trio of mics with directional beamforming.

The 16-inch MacBook Professional begins with 512GB of garage, with choices for 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, or 8TB capacities.

MSI’s listings for the Writer Z17 point out 1TB and 2TB capability choices. Then again, there is a chance to move additional right here.

Whilst Apple does not permit customers to change the garage, MSI lists its pocket book as having a couple of M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe slots. A consumer with the correct gear and {hardware} can exchange or upload to the integrated garage via including extra drives.

The M1 Professional MacBook Professional with 16GB of reminiscence and 512GB of garage retails for $2,499, even though it is recently considerably discounted. Going to the M1 Max with the 24-core GPU with 32GB of reminiscence and 512GB of garage is $3,099 (test costs), with the 32-core GPU model $3,299 (test costs).

Upgrading the reminiscence from 16GB to 32 is $400, and some other $400 from 32GB to 64GB, relying at the chip.

A garage improve at the MacBook Professional from 512GB to 1TB is an additional $200, with an additional $400 to get to 2TB, an extra $600 on most sensible once more for 4TB, and $1,200 much more for 8TB.

A completely spec’d out 16-inch MacBook Professional with the 32-core GPU M1 Max, 64GB of Unified Reminiscence, and 8TB of garage will value you $6,099 (on sale for underneath $5,800).

The MSI Writer Z17 indubitably is a powerhouse, however it isn’t a MacBook Professional.

MSI does not be offering a configurator, however variations offered by means of B&H Picture give sufficient of a comparability.

The most affordable possibility indexed, packing the Core i7, RTX 3070 Ti, 32GB of reminiscence, and 1TB of garage, is $3,049.

On the different finish of the pricing scale for that store, there is the $4,499 possibility that comes with the Core i9, RTX 3080 Ti, 64GB of reminiscence, and 2TB of garage.

For reference, a 2TB construct of the 16-inch MacBook Professional levels from $3,099 to $4,299.

Relying on the way you take a look at the MSI Writer Z17, it is both a greater gadget than the 16-inch MacBook Professional or does not do sufficient. Each senses are true, to some degree.

MSI has constructed a high-performance system with higher graphical functions and edges forward of the CPU for those who imagine the Core i9. It additionally has a larger show and a reputedly affordable worth level on the excessive finish.

However then you must needless to say the functionality good points come at a price to battery existence, as you are no longer going to get full-bore functionality for quite a lot of hours. In Apple’s desire, it leans closely on its power-saving expertise to create a pocket book that works onerous for a very long time underneath the battery.

Then there is the show. Certain, it’s kind of larger at the MSI, and it makes a track and dance about colour accuracy, however Apple’s model has a a ways upper answer and the entire advantages of mini-LED backlighting.

Put in opposition to the MacBook Professional at an identical garage capacities, and its worth merit is nullified.

In November, in pitting the MSI GE76 Raider in opposition to the 16-inch MacBook Professional, we identified graphical functionality is not the whole lot and that the MacBook Professional did a large number of issues higher. Whilst the Writer Z17 is a thinner and extra MacBook Professional-like tool, it is nonetheless the similar tale.

MSI has get a hold of an excellent pocket book within the Writer Z17, one this is rather Mac-like in its look. It is not a MacBook Professional, however it is nonetheless a commendable possibility for Home windows customers.

The MSI Writer Z17 is already on sale at B&H Picture, with reductions of as much as $100 off at press time.