MSI Modern 15.6" A15 AI+ F3HMG-003US Platinum Gray

All hat, no cattle. The MSI Modern A15 AI+ slaps an 'AI' sticker on a budget laptop and charges a premium for it. Spend your $1500 on literally anything else with a decent screen and processor.

The biggest surprise, and not a good one, is how weak the CPU is. The AMD Ryzen AI 5 330 is a 4-core chip that lands in the 45th percentile for laptops. That's solidly 'meh' territory. You get 16GB of RAM and a speedy 1TB SSD, which is great for multitasking and file storage, but the processor is a bottleneck you'll feel every day. The integrated Radeon 820M graphics are even worse, sitting in the 41st percentile. Forget gaming or any serious creative work. This thing is built for light office tasks, and even then, it's not going to feel snappy compared to almost any modern Intel Core Ultra or Apple M-series chip.

The elephant in the room is the Apple MacBook Pro M4 Pro. For a similar price, you get a screen that's in a different universe, performance that laps this MSI several times over, and battery life that'll actually last a workday. On the Windows side, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 is a gaming powerhouse with a gorgeous OLED display, and the Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro offers a stunning AMOLED screen and a much more capable processor in a similarly thin package. All three of these competitors make the MSI look like a bad joke, offering dramatically better performance and displays for your money.

This is a tough sell. For $1500, you're getting a laptop with a CPU that belongs in a $600 machine. You can get a MacBook Air M3 with a vastly superior screen, performance, and battery life for the same money, or a powerful Windows ultrabook with an Intel Core Ultra chip. The only thing this has going for it is the 1TB SSD, and that's not nearly enough to justify the price. It's not worth it.

The MSI Modern A15 AI+ is a laptop with an identity crisis. It's got 'AI' plastered right in the name and a dedicated NPU, but the rest of the hardware feels like it's from a budget office machine from three years ago. The one thing to know is that you're paying a premium for that AI branding on a chip that's otherwise a basic 4-core processor. It's a weird mix of a decent amount of RAM and storage paired with a dim, slow screen and a CPU that'll choke on anything beyond web browsing and spreadsheets.

If you're looking for a powerful, all-around laptop with a great screen for $1500, this isn't it. Go get a MacBook Air M3 or a Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro instead. You'll get a night-and-day better display, performance that actually feels fast, and battery life that lasts. This MSI is only for someone who has been tricked by the 'AI' label and doesn't mind a dim, slow computer.

Don't buy this laptop. The MSI Modern A15 AI+ is a masterclass in marketing over substance. The 'AI' in the name is a gimmick to distract you from a weak processor and a lousy screen. For the same $1500, you have a dozen better options that will run faster, last longer on battery, and look better doing it. This is a machine for someone who only cares about having a big SSD and doesn't know any better about the rest of the specs.