I loved the Summit 13 AI Evo before, but a new add-on makes it a must-buy

The MSI Summit 13 AI Evo sitting on a table at the MSI suite at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

For me, one of the biggest selling points of a 2-in-1 laptop is if it comes with a stylus.

If a laptop does come bundled with a stylus, I’ll pick that one over the competition, but it can’t be just any stylus. I make a half-closed fist when I write, so if there are protruding buttons near the tip, I can’t assign actions to them unless I want to rewrite what I accidentally erase constantly.

That brings me to MSI’s gorgeous black, gold-trimmed 2-in-1 Summit laptop. When it debuted, it didn’t come with a stylus that made me say, “Here’s my credit card; now I own you.” But at CES this month, I noticed a stylus attached to the Summit, and it wasn’t just any stylus — it was the MSI Pen 2.

Two years ago, at CES, MSI introduced its Pen 2, a dual stylus and pencil with a graphite tip that can be used to write on a laptop screen. I write as much on my laptop as one might use Post-It notes, so as I tested it out, I couldn’t hide my enthusiasm — especially since the action buttons were flush with the pen’s surface. The only problem was that the Pen 2 only shipped with MSI’s Creator Z17 HX Studio and CreatorPro Z17 HX Studio laptops. It wasn’t available separately or with another MSI laptop.

The Summit 13 AI+ Evo A2VMTG-012US 13.3" FHD+; Copilot+ PC with the Pen 2 stylus. (Image credit: MSI)

Thankfully, the lack of the Pen 2 with the impressive MSI Summit laptop ended in September 2024. At IFA Berlin, the Tawain-based firm announced it would include its Pen 2 with the Summit 13 AI+ Evo, a 13" 2-in-1 laptop with an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V "Lunar Lake" processor.

Fast-forward to CES 2025: I’m standing before a slightly different Summit 13. This one has an Intel Core Ultra 7 255H "Arrow Lake" processor, but I'm really gawking at what's on the outside: An MSI Pen 2 that is magnetically attached to the left of the keyboard.

Anyone with a touchscreen laptop that supports MPP 2.6 (Microsoft Pen Protocol) should be able to use the Pen 2, regardless of whether they have an MSI laptop.

At $130, the MSI Pen 2 is not cheap, but the accessories a company bundles (or doesn’t bundle) with its 2-in-1 laptops can be the final factor in whether to purchase it.

The "Arrow Lake-powered MSI Summit Evo 13 is due out by March 31, 2025, but MSI tells Laptop Mag it has not settled on a price.