MSI Laptop P65 Creator Review: Is It Good For Video Editing?

Are you looking for a laptop that can handle photo editing, graphic design, 3D rendering, and other content creation activities? Well, if that’s the case, you’ll need a ‘creator’ laptop that can handle your workload with a backbone of powerful components. 

With a 4K UHD display, 9th Generation Intel Core i7 processor, and NVIDIA RTX 2060 graphics, the P65 is ready to provide impressive efficiency for your content creation demands.  Oh, and if you like playing video games on the side, the P65 has got that covered too! 

Design

At first glance, you’ll notice that the MSI P65 Creator looks very similar to the MSI G65 gaming laptop in terms of appearance. The chassis is somewhat the same, with minor differences in connectivity options.

The MSI P65 comes in a sleek matte gray finish, made predominantly from aluminum. All corners are smooth, leading to a nice clean look that resembles smart-business casual, with an aspect of high-end details you’ll find on performance gaming laptops. 

In terms of upkeep, the P65 remains relatively clean thanks to the matte gray finish. The laptop is great at warding off unnecessary fingerprints and dirt. Although glossy finishes can look more modern, they are prone to dust and unnecessary smudges. 

When handling the P65, we tested it under the usual conditions - somewhat sweaty hands over extended working periods, and the odd snack in-between gaming sessions. The result? It stayed relatively polished. The P65 may need to be cleaned over time, but it's as easy as a quick wipe with a microfiber cloth. 

One of the most important factors surrounding a laptop is portability. It is the very reason you opt for a laptop compared to a desktop, because of the lightweight features and the ability to effortlessly take your work with you. The MSI P65 is listed as 1.9kg (4.2lbs), but in reality, the laptop comes in at around 2.2kg (4.85lbs).

This is still considered relatively lightweight and provides a comfortable experience on your lap for short periods. Generally, laptops weighing less than 5lbs are a good starting point for compact designs that aren't going to weigh you down during day-to-day activities.

Complimenting the lightweight design is an ultra-thin casing. The MSI P65 Creator comes in at only 14.08 x 9.75 x 0.7 (W x D x H) inches. This is quite admirable when considering the hardware under the hood, most notably the i7 9750H and the RTX 2060 (but more on that later).

In addition, the laptop is compact enough to fit in your backpack, so whether you need a laptop to go in-between work meetings or navigating class, the P65 slides right in.  

Build Quality

The overall build quality of the P65 matches the premium price point. The laptop feels solid with minimal screen flex. Staying on the topic of the screen, a cool little feature they added is the ability to tilt the display all the way back.

We didn't have any reason to extend the screen to this extent, but if you're prone to putting your laptop in awkward positions, well, the P65 has you covered.  

One thing that the screen flex highlighted, though, is a shortfall in the rubber feet located at the bottom of the P65. If you're on a smooth surface, the feet do not reduce movement as expected.

Opening the laptop is fine, but if you shake the table or tap the laptop with some force, the P65 will nudge. It's not a dealbreaker, but be mindful of using the laptop close to the edge of slippery surfaces. 

Keyboard

The actual keypresses have a good travel distance with minimal resistance. They aren’t at the level of MX Cherry Blue Switches, but you shouldn’t experience any accidental clicks. Comfortability wise they're soft to the touch, and you shouldn't experience any aches when you're grinding through hours of work. 

Similar to the screen, there is keyboard flex, but you'll only experience this if you intentionally push down. We can only assume the laptop has been made this way to cushion sound, perhaps? Keystrokes are audible but not distracting, so the P65 shouldn't create any noise disturbances around people.  

Touchpad 

Some users might find the touchpad takes up too much surface area, but, in our opinion, it's way better than sourcing an additional mouse which you then have to take with you. 

Fingerprint Scanner

At the top left corner of the touchpad, you'll find the fingerprint scanner. As the name suggests, you'll be able to sign in using your customized profile. The scanner speeds up the logging-in process and creates a personalized safety measure often seen in smartphones. Those who buy laptops often miss the Numpad practicalities of a traditional keyboard.

Using your Numpad to input the windows security pin has become a habit for most people. Nevertheless, the fingerprint scanner is a good alternative. Yes, you might not be able to use the windows calculator via the Numpad, but you will gain entry into windows at a swipe of your fingertips.   

Display 

For example, if you create content on a 720p display, you might not see the details as clearly as a 1440p user. They will be able to pinpoint mistakes or errors in your work while you are limited by your own equipment constraints.

The same aspect applies to video games; if you're playing with stretched pixels, images tend to become muddy as frames drops. More pixels mean more clarity, and lucky for the P65, it has 8.3 million to play with. 

In terms of the actual color, the P65 claims to have 100% RGB coverage. When tested with Spyder5 Pro, we found that the laptop only has 90%, in addition to 95% for sRGB, 80% for P3, and finally 85% for NTSC.

Moving over to brightness, the panel reached 350 Nits @100%; 170 Nits @75%; 70 Nits @ 50%; and 25 Nits @25% with an 880:1 contrast ratio. The colors are definitely an improvement compared to most 1080p and 1440p laptops, but they’re not quite there when weighed up against a dedicated 4K monitor.  

With that being said, at this price point, the P65 still offers a lot of warmth and depth. Colors are vibrant and rich, with dark shades having nice separation. The overall result is a crisp display that has an above-average color spectrum. If you’re creating videos, editing images, or playing video games, you shouldn’t have any problems with accuracy. 

Refresh Rate

The MSI P65 also has a refresh rate of 60Hz. This is a common resolution around 4K displays, especially where users are going for quality instead of smoothness. That’s not to say the screen stutters or impacts videos in any way, but it puts a limit on competitive gaming.

The included RTX 2060 GPU is a monster that can output lots of frames, but you will be limited by the 60Hz cap. Online shooters (1080p resolution games) may reach 200+ frames per second, but your monitor will only display 60 frames per second.

Now before getting worried, we need to take into consideration that this laptop prioritizes content creation and beautiful 4K imagery. If you're going to be playing graphic-intensive games in 4K, you'll probably hover around the 30-50 fps mark, so there's no need to worry about the refresh rate.

Additionally, most films are rendered and captured in 30-60 FPS, so actual production will be just fine. Therefore, the refresh rate is perfect for anyone going into this expecting quality but should be avoided by those looking for a competitive E-Sports experience.  

Performance Features

We might even go as far as saying the P65 is too overpowered for your average photoshop user, but more is always better. 

The MSI P65 packs a punch from the start with its 9th Generation Intel Core i7. The i7-9750H Processor has 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base frequency of 2.60 GHz and a max turbo frequency of 4.50 GHz. What does this mean for you creators?

Well, you'll be able to easily generate previews, encode and export videos, and speed up render times. No longer will you need to wait hours for pictures and videos to render; they can be outputted in minutes at the highest resolutions. Additionally, CPU-intensive games such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive push frames of upwards of 300+ FPS. 

A good graphics card lures gamers, but it should also be on the radar for editors and Adobe users. The MSI P65 includes an NVIDIA RTX 2060 GPU with 6GB of VRAM. The GPU was released around two years ago but still surpasses newer entries such as the 1660 Super and other variants hovering around the mid-tier GPU market in terms of gaming benchmarks. 

You'll be able to play most games on medium-to-high, and there should be minimum-to-no frame drops below 30fps @4K. If you're a casual gamer planning to use the MSI P65 for RPG titles or open-world gamers, well, you're in for a treat. Games such as Grand Theft Auto V should easily hover around the 90-110 FPS mark. 

Going back to the creative aspect of the GPU, the RTX 2060 should also chop through render times in programs such as Adobe Premiere Pro and Sony Vegas 18. Instead of using your CPU primarily, you’ll now have the GPU backing up your exported file. The NVIDIA RTX 2060 will also help with playback times, especially for those color grading and adding effects, filters, and overlays. 

If you've spoken to a video editor, you'll know that Adobe After Effects is known to crash at a moment's notice. The best available remedy is guaranteeing your laptop won't run into any unnecessary freezing with the RAM maxing out. 

Our final two components are storage and battery. The MSI P65 includes a 1TB Teton Glacier SSD, which can be upgraded via the M.2 SSD slot. The SSD has great speeds, transferring data and files within minutes.

Applications open quickly, and loading times while playing video games are short. The 1TB SSD should last you a while, but if your budget is stretched, you can always opt for an external drive should an M.2 SSD upgrade be too pricey. 

The P65 also has a 4-Cell 82 Battery, which MSI claims lasts up to 8 hours. While this statement is somewhat misleading, you can still expect a relatively good battery life out of the laptop.

When viewing the P65 @75% brightness, you can expect 5-6 hours of power while web browsing, typing documents, and viewing images. However, when we get to actual content creation and gaming, well, that's when things get interesting. 

If you're gaming or rendering heavy images/videos, the battery life slows down to 2-4 hours, depending on the extent of render times and GPU demand. If you truly want to get 7-8 hours of playtime, though, you'll need to turn off the backlit keyboard and drop the brightness to 40% while browsing. The bottom line, the P65 lasts for a while, but don't expect to get a full day's work done without having your charger nearby.

Connectivity & Audio

The MSI P65 has a good amount of connectivity options and ports. From the left side of the back, you'll find a Kensington lock, Ethernet port, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, and 2 x 3.5mm headphone and microphone jacks. 

Repositioning to the right from the front, there's a USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, Type-C USB 3.2 Gen 2 port with both DisplayPort and Thunderbolt 3 support, Mini DisplayPort, a 4K HDMI @60Hz, and finally, the power input.

A nice little feature was that the Mini DisplayPort and 4K HDMI were wired directly to the NVIDIA RTX 2060 GPU. If you have an additional screen, you can plug it into one of these ports and change the video settings directly from the NVIDIA control panel. 

In terms of sound quality, the P65 comes with 2 x 2W speakers. These aren't necessarily loud or detailed, so we wouldn't advise relying on them for your projects that include audio. To put the speakers into perspective, a television has around 10 watts; therefore, if you're an audiophile, you'll definitely need to upgrade. 

The MSI P65 Creator also includes a 30 FPS 720p webcam. The video quality is clear, but the built-in microphone will pick up fan/keyboard noise while you're speaking. In conclusion, if you want to listen to high-quality audio and have a good microphone output during video calls, get a headset or, at the very least, a USB-powered speaker.  

Who Is The MSI P65 Creator Best Suited For? 

The MSI P65 Creator is perfect for those looking to edit pictures, create videos, and enjoy gaming. The laptop has amazing specs with powerful components that will likely handle all tasks thrown at it. If you're a student or professional creating content through multimedia applications, then there's a lot on offer here.

The P65 laptop can also get work-related tasks done, in addition to being a casual gaming PC. The laptop can be thought of as an all-arounder and an investment that should last a few years. 

Who Is It Not Suitable For? 

The MSI P65 is not suitable for those on a budget. If you're looking for a basic laptop, the P65 is likely overkill. Sure, you'll probably get all your work done, but affordability-wise, you're going to waste money on features you don't need. If you're looking for a basic budget laptop, you can check out our favorites here.

Although the laptop has impressive components, the 4K display is not recommended for competitive gaming. Those looking for high refresh rates of 144Hz – 240Hz should steer clear.  

Product Specifications