In partnership with a Japanese art studio, MSI has created a beautifully designed lacquered lid for its Prestige 13 AI+ Ukiyo-e Edition laptop. I checked it out in person on the Computex show floor.
TAIPEI—At MSI’sComputex 2025booth, one of the most head-turning products on the show floor caught my eye: a lacquered-finishedlaptoplid that looks like beautiful hand-painted art.
MSI has partnered with Japanese art studio Okadaya to create limited-edition lacquered print laptops in theukiyo-estyle, a recognizable genre of Japanese art, for its Artisan Collection.
The Prestige 13 AI+ Ukiyo-e Edition will be the flagship laptop for this endeavor. However, due to the extra steps required in manufacturing to apply the artwork, MSI can only produce a few hundred per month for the time being. The effect is beautiful in person; read on for photos, video, and more of my impressions.
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A Genuinely Gorgeous Laptop Lid
While I saw a few different designs at the booth, the main piece of art (and that which will occupy this Prestige model’s lid) is Hokusai’s iconic wood block print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa. This highly recognizable piece is a natural pick for this collection’s debut.
While the art and clarity level are fantastic, the glossy finish inherent in this lacquer process sings in person. Hokusai’s art has a pleasant reflectiveness, particularly in its darker portions; the gloss black finish is lovely. The wave is vibrantly colored, too—perhaps more saturated than I’m used to seeing on this piece, but it’s effective.
The gloss also extends to the keyboard, as seen in the photo above, and the laptop package will include a mouse. If you can get your hands on one, this system will undoubtedly be a fingerprint magnet, but it sure is nice to look at.
MSI also showed off another design, but the matter of which of its laptops this artwork will appear on has not yet been settled.
MSI can only produce so many of these units to begin with, and I imagine the reception will determine how much longer MSI will continue to create them. Regardless, since this release also kicks off MSI’s Artisan Collection brand, it’s likely the laptop maker will continue down this path for the near future.
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It’s Beautiful on Paper, Too
Measuring just 0.7 inches thick and weighing only 2.2 pounds, MSI’s first Ukiyo-e Edition laptop is anultraportable laptopthrough and through. MSI also outfitted this Prestige with an array of parts to live up to its beauty.
Having “AI” in the name, the laptop is naturally a Copilot+ PC, housing up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 288V processor backed by as much as 32GB of memory and an M.2 SSD with an unspecified capacity. This is all accessed through a 13.3-inch, 2,880-by-1,800-pixel OLED screen in 16:10 aspect ratio.
A Small Wave (of Laptops)
We sometimes hesitate to share limited-edition laptop designs, but the final effect here is too exciting to pass up. MSI wasn’t able to share too many details about the creation process. I imagine Okadaya also wants to keep its cards close to its chest, but the booth contained a walkthrough of the general method, seen below.
You can see the stages evolve through the series of in-progress lids, starting with applying silver-white ink to the lacquerware magnesium alloy lid. Then, the process applies blue ink, followed by dabs of gold powder to create the accents. Finally, the method applies black line ink to create definition.
This process presumably has a more frequent failure rate using this delicate method than regular laptop manufacturing, contributing to the slower and lighter production rate. If you love the idea (I certainly appreciate the end product), keep your eyes peeled for availability and prices, which MSI haven’t revealed yet.