The MSI Creator Z17 HX Studio is a mighty speed demon hidden in a case that can be described as business with good will. This device has few bad points and will appeal to many enthusiasts.

With the MSI Creator Z17 HX Studio (2,974 excl. VAT), MSI tries to combine aesthetics with horsepower. Something like this is possible, Ferrari has proven that from day one in the car world. In the laptop space, however, performance and beauty seemed like two extremes. If you want to be slim and stylish, you sacrifice performance, and if you want to push a robust CPU and GPU to the limit, you can carry half a desktop in your backpack.

However, components are evolving, and high-performance components from Intel and Nvidia generate less heat than they did a few years ago. MSI is therefore confident that the right building blocks are available today to build a beautiful and fast notebook.

moon gray

The 17-inch MSI Creator 17 HX is a real eye-catcher. The laptop is big and that moon gray (or just gray) apartments look attractive. The case is made of aluminum and houses a keyboard with a number pad and a strikingly glossy 16:10 screen whose colors steal the show. The screen edges are quite modest considering the size of the laptop.

Anyone who gets their hands on this notebook has high expectations. This is helped by the dragon in the black MSI logo on the back, although we personally think that for laptops of this caliber the manufacturer should hire a design agency to come up with a slightly more refined variant. The thing looks undeniably fast, but as we know, looks can often be deceiving when it comes to laptops.

The components make us hopeful. Under the hood we find an Intel Core i7-13700HX, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060, 32 GB of RAM and 2 TB of storage. The Intel CPU of the Raptor Lake generation has sixteen cores on board, eight P cores with multithreading and eight E cores without. The advertised maximum clock rate for the P-cores is 5 GHz. Can MSI dissipate the heat from these chunky parts enough to get the Creator 17 HX up to cruising speed?

On the rack

Yes and no, we say. Under heavy load, the processor can reach 4.1 GHz for a short time, after which the chip drops to 3.5 GHz. At this frequency, the CPU cores remain stable. That makes the CPU in the laptop a real powerhouse, although you’re paying a lot for a chip that has a little more to offer but can’t show it.

However, the results don’t lie. Both single core and all sixteen cores combined, the processor in this laptop outperforms the equally powerful Intel Core i7-13700H in the MSI Stealth 16 Studio. Logically, since it has two P-cores less. The Samsung Galaxy Book Ultra also has to lose out with the same H chip. The Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 with its AMD Ryzen 9 Pro 6950H does not come close at all.

The Cinebench results indicate how fast the CPU can render a scene. We also look at HandBrake converting a 4K video to a new format and LuxRender re-rendering the laptop. These workloads traditionally get the most out of a CPU, both in terms of clock speed and core count. It should be clear that the MSI Creator Z17 HX Studio is a powerhouse.

Of course, there is also a graphics card inside. MSI opts for an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060. As we analyzed in detail before, GeForce cards are very well suited for creative professional workloads. The RTX 4060 is a powerful mid-range engine that can theoretically keep up, but won’t blow anyone away either. We see that in the results too.

We specifically look at the GPU calculation. Caffe is a deep learning framework and Folding@Home (f@h) is a scientific project to simulate protein folding. Both tasks are mainly done via the graphics card. The chip’s performance is good, but surprisingly no better than the same GPU in the stealth laptop. Presumably, the additional heat generated by the HX processor in the compact case also plays a small trick on the GPU. For those who want to relax, playing modern games on this laptop will not be a problem.

Equipped with a powerful processor and a sufficiently powerful graphics card, it is not surprising that the MSI Creator Z17 HX Studio also copes with more traditional tasks with ease. The notebook plays at the highest level.

Don’t be afraid of a greasy spreadsheet and, for distraction, you can easily pretend you’re in a video meeting with 25 other tabs open, spread across three different browsers. The 32 GB RAM contributes well to this.

As the name suggests, the Creator is aimed primarily at users who want to tinker with their laptop. Photo and video editing are the focus. Our tests prove what we already suspected: This notebook is an absolute champion with both workloads. The hardware is also optimally utilized in the 3D creation.

MSI does not disappoint. As advertised, the MSI Creator Z17 HX Studio is a beautiful and powerful laptop. The tests show that a larger tank provides more air to breathe and allows for higher performance. So beauty still requires a compromise, although it’s not as difficult as it used to be.

Beautiful but not colourfast

Just because the performance is so good, we’re a little bored with the screen. As mentioned, this is very nice and sharp thanks to the resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 pixels. The IPS display is touch-sensitive and has a maximum brightness of 410 cd/m². So you can also work in bright environments. Unfortunately, the beautiful colors are not always accurate.

The laptop supports sRGB, Adobe RGB and DCI-P3. The Delta E never drops below three in the three color spaces. For graphics professionals, a color deviation of two or less is recommended when on-screen colors need to match colors elsewhere in detail. We even see maximum deviations of around dE 10. The white balance and the blue values ​​in particular are not set that precisely.

As the chart shows, other devices perform better. To be clear, the lower the score, the more accurate the color reproduction. We note that the screen is still of very high quality. If you’re not particularly interested in color, don’t be put off.

Find the nearest outlet

If you want to enjoy the big screen and great hardware, make sure there’s an outlet nearby. Even compared to other powerful laptops with similar hardware, the MSI Creator Z17 HX Studio actually fares poorly.

In a working day, maybe a morning, you certainly won’t make it. To be clear: the results do not reflect heavy work, but rather classic office work with light photo and video editing. Count on around five hours of autonomy if you don’t set the screen too bright. The battery lasts even less during heavy work, where you also actively use the GPU.

MSI allows you to switch between an “AI” mode that balances performance and autonomy, or some manual options to increase battery or performance, through its own tool. There is even an option to completely disable the Nvidia GPU and only use the internal GPU in the Intel chip. A restart is necessary for this, after which the notebook apparently no longer has an Nvidia GPU on board. The function sounds promising, but turns out to be completely worthless in our tests: Turning off the GPU hardly adds a few minutes of additional working time.

The small battery has one small advantage: it can be recharged quickly. With half an hour at the outlet, you can fill up quickly.

links

There are still some important details left to discuss, such as video calls, ports and gadgets in the box. As for the latter, you get an active stylus. We’ve tried and searched for a long time, but still don’t see any real use for Windows Ink. Are you a fan? Then you can write to your heart’s content.

When it comes to the connections, MSI relies on an appropriate balance. On the left are two Type-C ports, both of which are Thunderbolt compatible. On the right side you will find a classic USB 3 Type-A port and an HDMI port. There is also space for an SD card. Charging has to be done via a dedicated charging connector, but that makes sense as USB Power Delivery isn’t powerful enough to optimally power this workstation.

The keyboard is high-quality, spacious and gives a lot of feedback when typing. The experience is fully in line with what you can expect from a premium laptop. MSI wouldn’t be MSI if the keys weren’t (optionally) backlit with configurable RGB LEDs. The touchpad also works precisely and is spacious, although the case offers space for an even larger one.

calls and meetings

Video calls go smoothly. Thanks to the FHD webcam, our counterpart reported consistently high image quality. The colors are also vibrant. If we really zoom in on the details, we notice that HP’s Elite line of webcams are a bit sharper, but the Creator’s colors are more accurate.

We can’t complain about the sound either. The speakers can be quite loud for a laptop without too much distortion. When we’re on the phone, our counterparts sometimes sound a bit metallic, even if that’s just a small detail. MSI also comes with a Sound Tune tool that is supposed to improve the call quality, but neither we nor our interlocutors noticed a big difference during our calls.

After all, MSI can’t get away with including Norton bloatware in this very expensive notebook. Anyone who buys such a beautiful, expensive, and professional device doesn’t deserve to be insulted with an unnecessary and unsolicited security suite that’s primarily there for the sake of the money in the bank account. Enemy, MSI.

Diploma

The MSI Creator Z17 HX Studio is a very good notebook that strikes an excellent balance between form and function. The laptop is quite nice and well made, with a nice but not always true-to-color screen and an excellent keyboard.

The performance is of course the real star. Although the components inside the legs don’t quite stretch, we can see that the MSI Creator Z17 HX Studio is indeed a powerhouse. Unfortunately the battery is defective. This is certainly the biggest flaw of this laptop.

The other is the price. 2,974 ex VAT is a money bomb. The Creator Z17 HX Studio is more expensive than any of the other laptops we included in the comparison. You can also buy a device with similar performance and a better battery for less money. That will be a little less beautiful, but we still find the surcharge for the design demanded by MSI piquant. The black gaming logo on the back combined with the price tag is a bit of a thorn in our side.

However, if you have the budget and power outlets nearby, the MSI Creator Z17 HX Studio is the top choice for any graphics professional, from video editors to 3D specialists. And would you like to play a little game after work? Then of course that is also possible.