The newest laptops in MSI's highest-end productivity and business lineup should now be easier to locate should you misplace them. The refreshed Summit laptops include a new model, the Summit E14 Flip Evo, and they take a page from HP and Lenovo laptops by integrating Tile's Bluetooth trackers.

Once users activate the feature in the preloaded Windows Tile app (which requires the Internet), they can use Tile's smartphone app to track down their missing PC. The distance from which the phone can track the laptop varies by the phone's Bluetooth version, an MSI rep told Ars Technica. For example, with Bluetooth 5.0, tracking will work from up to 400 feet away, MSI said.

MSI's new Summit laptops will be able to use Tile's Ring My PC feature, which makes the PC emit a noise if it's within Bluetooth range, even if the PC is off.

Tile also supports a proximity meter and can show you the lost PC's most recent tracked location. The Tile Network can also alert you if someone with a smartphone using the Tile app goes near the laptop.

MSI's inclusion of Tile puts the Summit series in line with the likes of business and power user-ready productivity laptops from HP, such as the EliteBook 1000, the EliteBook 800 G8, and the Zbook Firefly G8 series. HP was the first brand to sell laptops with built-in Tile trackers, and Lenovo followed suit with its ThinkPad lineup (X1 and T series). With people doing more work on the go, now is a good time to cash in by making powerful laptops, which keep getting smaller, a little easier to find.

Other security considerations for the new Summit laptops include physical covers for the 1080p webcams, support for fingerprint and facial recognition logins, and Tobii Aware. The latter is similar to a feature Lenovo uses, including in some nonbusiness laptops, which locks the laptop or blurs its screen once the camera sees you're not looking anymore or someone is peeking over your shoulder,

MSI's announcement today includes the introduction of a 14-inch version of the Summit Flip Evo lineup of 2-in-1 laptops.

The Summit E14 Flip Evo, like the refreshed Summit E14 Evo, Summit E13 Flip Evo, Summit E16 Flip, and Summit E16 Flip Evo, goes up to an Intel 12th Gen Core i7-1260P. While the broader Summit lineup includes offerings for both integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics or a bump to an Nvidia RTX 3050 or 3050 Ti laptop GPU, the new Summit E14 Flip Evo only has integrated Iris Xe graphics. Its screen, however, has the highest resolution in the Summit lineup: 2880x1800. RAM is up to 32GB of LPDDR5-4800, and the 14-inch convertible comes with a PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD up to 1TB.

MSI's Summit E14 Flip Evo has the same ports as its nonflip counterpart: two Thunderbolt 4 ports, USB-A (3.2 Gen 2, a microSD card reader, HDMI, and a 3.5mm audio jack.

MSI's highest configured Summit E14 Flip Evo will be the most expensive in the Summit lineup at $1,800 ($1,500 starting price). The E16 series will be $1,549-$2,199, and the E13 Flip Evo is $1,400-$1,700.

Source: Ars Technica

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