The Taiwanese manufacturer is ready to pour in more R&D resources to crack into the lucrative mobile workstation and traditional Ultrabook markets. The Prestige, Modern, and Creator families of non-gaming laptops are just the beginning.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/MSI-is-getting-serious-about-laptops-outside-of-just-gaming.394141.0.html
The PS42 does interest me greatly. Hopefully, the second generation will reinforce the existing chassis' strong points while mitigating some of the drawbacks.
Beyond the usual amount of slop in MSI assembly (to be expected, sadly), we have:
-Cannot charge the laptop via USB-C, even optionally
-Single channel DDR4. A half and half approach, with one channel soldered on and another available via SODIMM would be preferable, if two SODIMMs cannot fit
-Availability of parts outside of MSI service centers. Batteries in particular are a sore spot. For any ultrabook that may see years of service under the same owner, replaceable batteries are a must (IMO).
To reiterate some of the strong points:
-High quality, matte monitor
-Strong sustained performance of CPU + GPU combined (even if individually, the CPU is somewhat limited, though consistent)
-Software control of the hardware
However, when it comes to resolving the weak points, I feel MSI has already either resolved them, or will just keep rushing through the second generation. On a side note, I do wonder if MSI is waiting for 10nm, Ryzen, or just taking a while with Whiskey Lake, to release the second iteration of this laptop. Maybe even waiting for Nvidia to do something in the 1050 class?