What separates a great business or productivity laptop from the rest? Years ago, you might have said an ultra-clean design or a Kensington lock port, but times have changed. Most of us don’t want to actually lock our laptops to a desk, removing part of the appeal of a portable PC.
There are now many more ways to make a laptop seem tailor-made for work, with features that will appeal to everyone from the CIOs of companies to sole traders and those who want a device for at-home admin.
More recent laptop must-haves include baked-in support for trackers such as Tile, which makes finding your PC an order of magnitude easier; face-sensors like Tobii Aware, which stop others from peeking at your display—essential for those working on sensitive or private documents—and even advanced fan-controls to help you focus by controlling speed and noise output of the machine’s cooling systems.
MSI has included all these features and more in some of its latest business-focused laptops in the Summit, Prestige and Modern ranges. Here’s how they work.
Tile integration
You may be familiar with Tile’s devices—those small, flat trackers you attach to your keys, or slot in a wallet. Lose them, and they can easily be located using the Tile app, which can show their last known location and set off a ring alert to help you home in without turning your office upside-down.
Find with Tile offers that same experience for your laptop: tap the Find button in the Tile app and the laptop will play a tune. And if you happen to leave it somewhere away from home, the Tile network will help you track it down by interfacing with the entire Tile network of standalone trackers and other Tile-supported devices—it means you can pinpoint the laptop’s location without needing a GPS signal. Find with Tile comes in laptops from the MSI Summit series.
Tobii Aware
A laptop lets you work from anywhere, but doing so in a public place risks putting sensitive documents in front of the eyes of hundreds of passing strangers. And even if they would have no interest in their contents, it can make you feel self conscious while working.
Tobii Aware solves this problem using a laptop’s webcam. It recognizes your face, and when you look or step away from the screen, it blurs the display’s contents. You can also set Tobii Aware to automatically lock the laptop when you step away to, say, make a cup of tea at the office.
This provides advanced privacy, without you even having to think about it. Tobii Aware can also show subtle visual cues when it detects someone else looking over at your screen. This feature is available in MSI’s latest Summit EVO series and Prestige 14 EVO models.
Smart Auto and Ambient Silent AI
Being able to focus when you need to is crucial, and clever software that helps you get on with your job is a must.
Smart Auto, for example, dynamically alters how the laptop behaves, based on how it is used. This switches between performance modes—to optimize battery life—and cooling profiles, for quieter operation. Manual control of these elements is a popular feature in gaming laptops, but Smart Auto does the job for you.
Ambient Silent AI is even more appealing. This uses the laptop’s microphone to monitor the noise of the outside environment, and scales performance and fan speed to minimize distraction without impacting your workflow.
MSI AI Noise Cancellation
Noise can also be a major factor when you take video meetings. MSI AI Noise Cancellation uses up to four microphones to separate the sound of your voice from the clamor of whatever environment you are in. The result is your speech comes through clearly, without unwanted background buzz and chatter entering the conversation.
Much like the other productivity-led features we’ve talked about here, MSI Noise Cancellation lets you forget about the tech you use, and simply get on with your work. You’ll find all these features and more in select laptops from the MSI Prestige, Summit and Modern ranges.
Discover more of the MSI range here.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
