MSI Summit E13 Flip

The MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo boasts a small body, excellent performance, and a gorgeous 120Hz display, but its poor battery life drags it down.

MSI has established itself as a household name in gaming laptops, but with the MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo, the company aims to bring 2-in-1 business laptops to consumers, and It had a strong start with its Summit line.

For $1,899, the Summit E13 Flip offers high performance with an Intel Core i7-1185G7 processor, a bright 13.4-inch display, and a clicky keyboard wrapped in a sleek, durable chassis. However, the Summit is expensive, even compared to the Apple MacBook Pro. Not to mention, its battery life doesn't put it off the competition and its speakers are rather quiet.

Despite these issues, the premium business quality of the Summit E13 Flip more than makes up for its faults. It's easily one of the best business laptops you can buy if you have the money.

MSI Summit E13 Flip price & configuration

The MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo I reviewed costs $1,899 and features an Intel Core i7-1185G7 processor, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, Intel Iris Xe graphics, and a 13.4-inch 1920 x 1200 display.

There's also a $1,599 base model that drops the laptop down to 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD.

If you're looking for something a little more affordable, check out our best budget laptops and best laptops under $500 pages.

MSI Summit E13 Flip Specifications

Variants	Non-touch & Touch
Connectivity
Ports	2x Thunderbolt 4 + 1x USB 3.2 Gen1 + 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen2 + 1x microSD + 1x Audio combo
Wireless Connectivity	WiFi 6E + Bluetooth 5.2
Construction
Battery | Capacity	70 Wh
Camera | Front	IR HD camera
Colors	Pure White or Ink Black
Form Factor	2-in-1 convertible laptop
Material	Aluminium
Speakers	2x 2W Speaker
Dimensions
Size | Depth	222.25 mm
Size | Height	14.9 mm
Size | Width	300.2 mm
Weight	1.35 kg
Display
Aspect Ratio	16:10
Display Diagonal	13.4 inch
Display Type	IPS
Resolution	WUXGA / FHD+ (1920x1200)
Function
Graphics	Intel Iris Xe graphics
Keyboard Backlight	White
Operating System	Windows 10
Processor	11th-gen Intel Core i7
Sensor	Magnetometer, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Ambient Light Sensor, Fingerprint
Touch Screen	Yes
Performance
Memory | Capacity	Up to 32 GB
Memory | Type	DDR4 3200MHz
Power Supply	90 W
Storage	1x NVMe M.2 SSD by PCIe Gen4 x4

MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo design

Sure, MSI knows their way around a gaming laptop, but how does it do with a work laptop? Similar to everything else, make it slim and black. The MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo has a sleek black aluminum hood with a shiny copper MSI logo. Copper accents surround the entire chassis. They resemble the accents on some HP Spectres, but I can't decide if they look stylish or tacky.

Opening it reveals a similarly sleek black deck with a standard keyboard with white accents around the keys, a copper-accented touchpad underneath, and a fingerprint reader on the right side. The bezels on the display are quite thin, although there is a webcam on the top bezel. Being a 2-in-1 device, the lid easily rotates 360 degrees and attaches to the bottom with the magic of magnets.

The MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo is a 13-inch laptop that is lightweight and thin at 2.9 pounds and 11.8 x 8.8 x 0.6 inches. Dell Latitude 7320 2-in-1 (2.5 pounds, 12.1 x 7.9 x 0.7 inches), Apple MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020) (2.8 pounds, 12 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches), and Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 (1) inch, Intel) (2.8 pounds, 12.1 x 8.8 x 0.6 inches) is in a similar class.

MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo ports

The MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo has just enough ports to get by; there aren't many.

There's one USB Type-A port and two Thunderbolt 4 ports on the left side, while the right side houses a headphone jack, a microSD card slot, one USB Type-C port, and a webcam off switch.

Check out our best laptop docking stations and best USB Type-C hubs pages if you need extra ports.

MSI Summit E13 Flip defense and stability

A fingerprint reader, an Infrared webcam for Windows Hello, a webcam switch, a TPM 2.0 chip, and the ability to control USB ports and microSD cards are just a few of the security features the MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo provides as a business laptop.

In terms of durability, the Summit E13 Flip successfully tested the top 10 MIL-STD 810G military durability tests. This means it has withstood low and high pressure altitudes, impacts, vibrations, mechanical vibrations, extreme high and low temperatures, humidity, salt spray, sand and dust.

MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo display

The MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo's 13.4-inch display with a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels and a 16:10 aspect ratio is amazingly bright, subtly colorful and silky smooth thanks to the 120Hz refresh rate panel.

In the Riders of Justice trailer, the red taillights of Mads Mikkelsen's car lit up against a gray sky and rolling grass hills. While the Summit E13 Flip has a glossy panel, I still made out details in Mikkelsen's jacket as the protagonists gather in a dimly lit barn. Mikkelsen's matted beard was also surprisingly sharp on display.

According to our Summit colorimeter, the E13 Flip scored 82.4%, which is not far from the premium notebook average (84.8%). More colorful than MacBook Pro (78.3%) and Surface Laptop 4 (76.7%). Even Dell cannot beat the average, although it is slightly better than Latitude 7320 (83.3%).

At 479 nits, the Summit E13 Flip Evo crushed the category average of 392 nits, as well as the Latitude 7320 (260 nits), the MacBook Pro (435 nits), and the Surface Laptop 4 (349 nits).

MSI Summit E13 Flip keyboard & touchpad

It's been a while since I've enjoyed typing as much as I did on the MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo keyboard. The keys are a little shallow, but they click and the palm rests are pleasantly cool to the touch.

I scored 82 words per minute on the 10fastfingers.com typing test, which is above my typical average of 78 wpm. The keys are reasonably sized and well spaced to provide a solid typing experience no matter how big or small your hands are.

The Summit E13 Flip also comes with an MSI pen. It is an active pen with three buttons, 4,096 points of pressure sensitivity and a rechargeable battery via USB-C. The pen is also metal, magnetic, and measures 148.67 x 9.2 millimeters and weighs 0.5 ounces. I drew a simple sketch of another dungeon I'm creating for my D&D campaign and it seemed smooth and easy. You can customize the shortcuts in the MSI Pen Control app, but it's pretty barebones.

The 4.7 x 2.4-inch touchpad isn't very tall, but it makes up for it in width and feels elegant to the touch. My only complaint is that the drop from the deck to the touchpad is a bit steep. Otherwise, it's smooth and Windows 10 gestures work without issue.

MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo audio

The MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo's bottom speakers aren't loud and don't offer enough bass to leave a lasting impression.

I listened to Halestorm's "I Miss The Misery" and the opening vocals were clear but sounded a bit compressed. The following percussion lacked the bass to sound impressive, and the electric guitar merely thrashed the other instruments. Overall, the sound was not very deep.

The notebook comes with Nahimic audio software, which offers settings for voices, bass, treble, volume stability and surround sound. Playing around with it can change the sound and improve it a bit, but not enough to make it good.

MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo performance

The MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo includes an Intel Core i7-1185G7 processor with 32 GB of RAM. It effortlessly handled five 1080p YouTube videos and 40 Google Chrome tabs.

In the Geekbench 5.4 overall performance test, the Summit E13 Flip scored 5,524, beating the average premium laptop (4,368). It also outperformed the Surface Laptop 4's Core i7-1185G7 (4,829) and the Latitude 7320 Core i7-1185G7 (5,292), but fell short of the MacBook Pro's M1 CPU (5,925).

While it seemed like a long time, the Summit E13 Flip transcoded 4K video to 1080p in 13 minutes and 47 seconds, beating out the category average (16:17), the Latitude 7320 (17:16), and the Surface Laptop (17:01).

MSI's 1TB SSD managed a transfer rate of 1,025 megabytes per second, beating the average premium notebook (631 MB/s). It even crushed the SSDs in the Latitude 7320 (192 MB/s) and Surface Laptop 4 (563 MB/s), but not the MacBook Pro (2,752 MB/s).

MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo graphics

The MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo's Intel Iris Xe graphics chip averaged 25fps in the Sid Meier's Civilization VI Gathering Storm (Medium, 1080p) benchmark, which falls short of the premium laptop average of 28fps and the 30fps benchmark for gameplay. . However, with the same GPU, it beat the Latitude 7320 (20 fps) but couldn't beat the MacBook Pro M1 GPU (29 fps).

In the 3DMark Fire Strike synthetic graphics benchmark, the Summit E13 Flip scored 4,917, which slipped below the category average (4,756) but landed between the integrated GPUs in the Latitude 7320 (4,227) and the Surface Laptop 4 (5,089).

MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo battery life

MSI is trying to improve its battery life strategy for gaming laptops, but how well is it doing with its business line? Not bad, but not great either. In Laptop Mag's battery test, the Summit E13 Flip lasted 8 hours and 53 minutes, more than an hour less than the premium laptop average (10:19). It also couldn't come close to the Latitude 7320 2-in-1 (12:01), the MacBook Pro (16:32), and the Surface Laptop 4 (10:46).

MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo webcam

It's not much worse than putting a 720p shooter in a laptop, even if it's an IR webcam with Windows Hello.

The test shot showed tons of noise and the window behind me was completely broken due to poor contrast. My red shirt looked OK, but the text on the poster behind me was completely illegible. I wouldn't want to use this webcam when I'm playing D&D Online or in a business meeting, so check out our best webcams page for alternatives.

MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo heat

Despite being thin, the MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo stayed cool under pressure. After playing 15 minutes of 1080p video, the underside warmed up to 89 degrees Fahrenheit. This is safely below our comfort threshold of 95 degrees. The center of the keyboard and touchpad reached 91 and 75 degrees, respectively. On the other hand, the hottest part of the machine was 100 degrees in the middle of the bottom just behind the vents.

MSI Summit E13 Flip software & warranty

MSI has packed a lot of apps into the Summit E13 Flip Evo, but you'll probably only use one: MSI Center for Business and Productivity. Yes, that is his real name. It shows an area for Display Settings, Display Settings, Keyboard Settings and Driver Updates. There is also a section for support utilities that will help you clean up disk or memory space and check your laptop's battery health. MSI also packs third-party software into the laptop, such as AudioDirector, ColorDirector, Music Maker Jam, PhotoDirector 10 Essential and PowerDirector 17.

There is also Windows 10 bloatware, such as Hulu, Hidden City and Roblox.

There is a one-year limited warranty included with the Summit E13 Flip Evo. See how MSI fared on our tech support showdown and best and worst brands rankings.

Bottom line

The MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo has a lot going for it between its robust performance and vibrant display between its comfortable keyboard and stylish 2-in-1 chassis. However, it's lackluster shine in the wave of business laptops has been dampened by its subpar battery life and high price.

Some business users may just go with the MacBook Pro, which costs the same and offers them longer battery life and stronger performance.

However, if you're looking for a Windows alternative to the MacBook Pro and a laptop with a real touchscreen, you can't go wrong with the Summit E13 Flip.