MSI’s Summit Series are small business laptops for remote workers

MSI is best known for its gaming laptops, but today it announces a new line of business for remote professionals. The line includes the Summit E Series and Summit B Series, both of which have 14- and 15-inch models, along with the 13-inch convertible E13 Flip.

There isn’t any pricing or availability info for the top line yet, but it definitely looks like the high-end models. The body is made of aluminum with narrow edges and what MSI calls “military grade durability”.

Both groups have some other cool features too. The big news is that it is powered by Intel’s new 11th generation “Tiger Lake” processors and also supports the company’s new Thunderbolt 4 standard.

The E series appears to be more geared towards creative work. Its models include discrete graphics up to Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1650Ti Max-Q graphics. MSI says it also features “AI noise cancellation” to drown out background sound during video calls. In addition to the 1080p non-touch display, the E Series can come with two touch options: one that covers 72 percent of NTSC’s area and one that reaches 100 percent of the Adobe RGB gamut.

Both models have two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a microSD card reader, and a headphone jack. The E15 has two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 and HDMI ports, while the E14 has only one USB-A 2.0 port. They will support facial recognition and fingerprint reader authentication as well as TPM 2.0 security chips.

MSI claims the B Series offers a battery life of over 10 hours. You can choose between a 1080p screen that covers “nearly 100 percent” of the sRGB color gamut or a low-end display that supports 45 percent of the NTSC color space. Both models have one Thunderbolt 4 port, two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, an HDMI port, a microSD card reader, and a headphone jack.

The Summit series also includes the E13 Flip, a 360-degree hinge convertible laptop. That will be available by the end of 2020, according to MSI. (The details about that are thin.)

Photo: MSI

Elsewhere, MSI has added new “elegant and contemporary colors” to its distinct and modern fonts for creators. (These models also get 11th generation chips.) It also announced the Prestige 14 Evo, one of the first batches of laptops to be certified through the new Intel Evo program. The Evo brand is supposed to verify that the devices have fast alarm times and all-day battery life, among other requirements.

The company has not forgotten its roots in gaming. It also unveiled the new Stealth 15M, which MSI says is “the world’s thinnest 15-inch gaming laptop in its class”. You’ll be able to purchase that in October starting at $ 1,549. It also comes with Tiger Lake chipset, discrete graphics up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q, 144Hz 1080p screen, and RGB keyboard.