Inside MSI Prestige 15 (A12Ux) – disassembly and upgrade options

MSI’s Prestige 15 is growing stronger and stronger every year. This is not only courtesy of the better processors Intel comes up with but also, due to the efforts of the marque in the cooling department.

Check out all MSI Prestige 15 (A12Ux) prices and configurations in our Specs System or read more in our In-Depth review.


1. Remove the bottom plate

To access this laptop’s internals, you need to undo a total of 7 Phillips-head screws. Then, pry the bottom panel with a plastic tool and lift it away from the device.


2. Battery

Inside, there is an 82Wh battery pack. It lasts for 13 hours of Web browsing, or 11 hours of video playback. To remove it, you have to undo the three Phillips-head screws holding it in place and unplug the battery connector from the motherboard.


3. Memory and storage

Here, the memory comes soldered to the motherboard. The maximum amount you can get is 32GB of LPDDR4x RAM. Storage-wise, there are two M.2 PCIe x4 slots, one of which supports Gen 4 drives.


4. Cooling system

The cooling system comprises two heat pipes shared between the CPU and the GPU. In addition, you get two fans and some cooling elements over the VRMs and the graphics memory.

Check out all MSI Prestige 15 (A12Ux) prices and configurations in our Specs System or read more in our In-Depth review.

MSI Prestige 15 (A12Sx / A12Ux) in-depth review

Workhorse laptops don't need to look ugly, or boring. The MSI Prestige 15 (A12Ux) is here to show us how and why. Ultimately, the Prestige series has always advocated for style and productivity. This puts it in a weird position, where it has competitors from both the gaming, ultrabook, and business segments.This year, it looks like the odds have turned in MSI's favor, as Intel has released the Alder Lake P-series processors. They offer a nice balance between the H-series and the low-voltage U-series. Nevertheless, we're going to check this more in-depth down below, so be patient.In ad[...]

Pros

  • Two Thunderbolt 4 ports (either of which can charge the laptop) and a MicroSD card reader
  • A backlit keyboard with big keycaps, and a huge touchpad
  • 2x M.2 NVMe drives
  • Doesn't use PWM for brightness adjustment (Innolux N156HCE-EN1)
  • Has a good contrast ratio and comfortable viewing angles (Innolux N156HCE-EN1)
  • 96% sRGB coverage and great color accuracy thanks to our Gaming and Web design profile (Innolux N156HCE-EN1)
  • Thin and light aluminum body
  • 13+ hours of Web browsing on battery
  • IR face recognition scanner + fingerprint reader

Cons

  • Gets pretty warm when gaming
  • Quiet speakers
  • Soldered memory
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