MSI Modern 14 (C12M) review

MSI is slowly becoming a powerful player in the everyday and business notebook market. Albeit it’s known for its gaming series of devices, the company’s push on the budget daily driver front can’t be overlooked. We went as far as stating that the brand new Modern 15 may be one of the best daily drivers in terms of value.

Today, our office is occupied by the 14-inch iteration of the Modern family. Like its larger cousin, it comes with Intel’s 12th Gen processors. This includes three options coming from the Alder Lake-U family. The lack of P-series options doesn’t mean that the laptop won’t provide a good performance output – more on that, later.

By now, we already have information on the pricing – starting at about $750 it does not come cheap. On the other hand, it slots right in between IdeaPad 3 and IdeaPad 5 (if we have to compare it to another brand’s roster).

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/msi-modern-14-c12mx/

Contents


Specs Sheet

MSI Modern 14 (C11Mx / C12Mx) - Specs

  • BOE NV140FHM-N4V (BOE08D7)
  • Color accuracy  4.4  3.8
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 8000GB SSD
  • RAM
  • up to 32GB
  • OS
  • Windows 11 Home, Windows 11 Pro, No OS
  • Battery
  • 39Wh, 3-cell, 52Wh, 3-cell, 39.3Wh, 3-cell, 39Wh, 3-cell
  • Body material
  • Plastic / Polycarbonate
  • Dimensions
  • 319.9 x 223 x 19.35 mm (12.59" x 8.78" x 0.76")
  • Weight
  • 1.40 kg (3.1 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 2x USB Type-A
  • 2.0
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-C
  • 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps), Power Delivery (PD), DisplayPort
  • HDMI
  • 2.0
  • Card reader
  • MicroSD
  • Ethernet LAN
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.2
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5mm Combo Jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • optional
  • Web camera
  • HD
  • Backlit keyboard
  • Microphone
  • Speakers
  • 2x 2W, Stereo Speakers
  • Optical drive

All MSI Modern 14 (C11Mx / C12Mx) configurations

#CommissionsEarned

What’s in the box?

Inside the package, we found some paperwork, as well as a 65W barrel plug power adapter.


Design and construction

So, the laptop is entirely made out of plastic. This is good for the weight of the product, as the Modern 14 (C12M) stops the scales at 1.40 kg. However, the body panels are very flexy – especially the base.

Interestingly, this is not exactly the thinnest notebook on the market, with its profile of 19.35mm. Ultimately, it would have been great to have some internal structural support, but we won’t be too harsh on MSI for this.

After all, the lid can be opened with a single hand, and what is more interesting is that when you pass a certain angle, the backside of the base gets lifted from the ground. Ultimately, the side bezels are really slim, while the top and bottom ones are quite thick. The former one features an HD Web camera.

Next, let’s talk about the keyboard. It lacks a NumPad, which is nothing uncommon for a 14-inch laptop. On the bright side, you get a backlight, decent key travel, and clicky feedback. At the end of the day, the keyboard is really comfortable.

See, the touchpad is an extremely good unit with smooth gliding and very fast, accurate tracking. But… the clicking mechanism has a huge dead zone on the far edges of both “keys”.

Anyway, the bottom panel features two speaker cutouts and a ventilation grill. The hot air is being blown towards the bottom side of the display.

Ports

On the left side, there is the power plug, an HDMI connector, a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 2) port, a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2) port with Power Delivery support, and an audio jack. Then, on the right, you get two USB Type-A 2.0 ports, and a MicroSD card slot.


Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

There are 9 Phillips-head screws that you need to undo in order to access this laptop’s internals. After that, pry the bottom panel with a plastic tool, and lift it away from the chassis.

Our unit comes with the smaller 39Wh battery pack. It lasts for 9 hours of Web browsing, or 6 hours of video playback on a single charge. To take it out, undo the 5 Phillips-head screws that keep it in place, and unplug the connector from the motherboard.

The memory here is soldered to the motherboard. You can get the device with a maximum of 16GB of DDR4 RAM, working at 3200MHz. Storage-wise, there is one M.2 PCIe x4 slot, which only supports Gen 3 drives.

As you can see, the cooling looks pretty impressive. It uses two heat pipes, a long heat sink, and a fan. Furthermore, the VRMs are cooled by a metal heat spreader.


Display quality

MSI Modern 14 (C12M) features a Full HD IPS screen, model number BOE NV140FHM-N4V (BOE08D7). Its diagonal is 14″ (35.56 cm), and the resolution – 1920 х 1080. Additionally, the screen ratio is 16:9, the pixel density – 157 ppi, their pitch – 0.161 x 0.161 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 56 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels).

It has comfortable viewing angles. We have provided images at 45 degrees to evaluate quality.

Also, a video with locked focus and exposure.

The maximum measured brightness is 360 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 337 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of 10%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6480K (average) – basically matching the 6500K optimum for sRGB.

In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 39% Brightness (White level = 143 cd/m2, Black level = 0.11 cd/m2).

Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work (a maximum tolerance of 2.0 ). The contrast ratio is good – 1270:1.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people on HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows MSI Modern 14 (C12M)’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers only 51% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of MSI Modern 14 (C12M) with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale, and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 17 ms.

After that, we test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “Gray-to-Gray” method from 50% White to 80% White and vice versa between 10% and 90% of the amplitude.


Health impact – PWM / Blue Light

PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

MSI Modern 14 (C12M)’s display doesn’t use PWM, whatsoever. This makes it comfortable to use for extended periods of time.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Gloss level measurement

Glossy-coated displays are sometimes inconvenient in high ambient light conditions. We show the level of reflection on the screen for the respective laptop when the display is turned off and the measurement angle is 60° (in this case, the result is 49.4 GU).


Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for MSI Modern 14 (C12M) configurations with 14.0″ BOE NV140FHM-N4V (FHD, 1920 × 1080) IPS.

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Drivers

All drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://www.msi.com/Business-Productivity/Modern-14-C12X/support

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with the Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits, and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with.


CPU options

As of the moment of writing this review, the Modern 14 (C12M) can be found with the Core i3-1215U, Core i5-1235U, or Core i7-1255U.

MSI Modern 14 (C11Mx / C12Mx) CPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the CPUs that can be found in the MSI Modern 14 (C11Mx / C12Mx) models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which MSI Modern 14 (C11Mx / C12Mx) model is the best bang for your buck.

Note: The chart shows the cheapest different CPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / CPU.


GPU options

Graphics-wise there is practically no choice, as you only get what’s integrated inside your processor.

MSI Modern 14 (C11Mx / C12Mx) GPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the GPUs that can be found in the MSI Modern 14 (C11Mx / C12Mx) models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which MSI Modern 14 (C11Mx / C12Mx) model is the best bang for your buck.

Note: The chart shows the cheapest different GPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / GPU.


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS102 fps76 fps45 fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS106 fps72 fps40 fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average P-core frequency; Average E-core frequency; CPU temp.; Package Power

Intel Core i5-1235U (15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
MSI Modern 14 (C12M)3.17 GHz @ 2.69 GHz @ 77°C @ 45W3.10 GHz @ 2.61 GHz @ 81°C @ 45W2.69 GHz @ 2.45 GHz @ 78°C @ 35W
Dell Latitude 15 55303.57 GHz @ 3.02 GHz @ 94°C @ 52W2.03 GHz @ 2.09 GHz @ 76°C @ 21W2.24 GHz @ 2.19 GHz @ 64°C @ 23W

Interestingly, MSI has decided to play the long game with this laptop. In short loads, it performs worse than the Latitude 15 5530. However, once we pass 20 seconds into the test, the Dell quickly lowers its clock speed, while the Modern 14 retains it. Thanks to its cooling solution, it manages to run at 35W sustained, while the average temperature doesn’t surpass 80°C.

Comfort during full load

Of course, the single fan is trying hard to earn its money, which results in a bit of noise under extreme workloads. Also, the maximum temperature we measured on the keyboard is not too low and happens to be a bit close to the “WASD” area.


Verdict

Do you need to be running down the store with your hard-earned money in your right hand, slapping on the counter and shouting at the cashier – “give me the latest MSI Modern 14 (C12M)”? No. You don’t need to do that. After all, you can order it online. But seriously, is this notebook worth buying?

If you want to have all of the performance your mobile processor is capable of, then yes. MSI never fails to provide a decent cooling solution to its “office” machines. See, the gaming segment is an entirely different thing.

Nevertheless, the laptop hits a 35W power target quite easily and manages to maintain it pretty much indefinitely. Its keyboard is also really comfortable, while the touchpad could have been great if it wasn’t for a weird bend in the bottom left and right corners.

MSI Modern 14 (C12M)’s IPS panel has a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, a good contrast ratio, and a non-flickering backlight. Unfortunately, it covers only half of the colors found on the Internet. This results in a rather unattractive image.

Also, its speakers aren’t something to write home about. The I/O is not bad, as it features a MicroSD card slot, four USB ports (one of which is Type-C), and an HDMI connector. The problem here is that two of the USB Type-A ports run at 2.0 speeds, which is simply unacceptable in 2022.

Furthermore, the situation on the inside is equally unimpressive – only a single M.2 PCIe x4 slot for storage, which doesn’t support Gen 4 drives. And you can’t upgrade the memory, as it is soldered to the motherboard.

So, there are a lot of limiting factors that are not ideal in the grand scheme of things. Yes, the laptop is technically sound, and has a surprisingly good battery life, considering its small battery (9 hours of Web browsing, or 6 hours of video playback). However, if you search for good build quality, you better focus your attention elsewhere.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/msi-modern-14-c12mx/

Pros

  • MicroSD card reader
  • A backlit keyboard with big keycaps, and a large touchpad
  • Doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment (BOE NV140FHM-N4V (BOE08D7))
  • Has a good contrast ratio and comfortable viewing angles (BOE NV140FHM-N4V (BOE08D7))
  • Sleek design
  • Great cooling


Cons

  • 54% sRGB coverage (BOE NV140FHM-N4V (BOE08D7))
  • No Thunderbolt
  • Two out of three USB Type-As work at 2.0 speeds
  • Soldered memory

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John
John
1 year ago

I have an older Modern 14 with 10th gen core i3 (10110u) it’s not a great performer given the dual core. I bought it heavily discounted which made its short comings more acceptable. Its, a nicely designed laptop, but MSI cut corners with hardware specs. I have a 39Wh battery as well and get about 4 hours after 5 months of use. Disappointed in this with a core i3 U series laptop. Also, MSI is really bad on support and that alone has convinced me not to buy another MSI product.

Unhappy customer
Unhappy customer
1 month ago

its shit, im using one right now and the batter quite literally gets eaten. Dont buy this crap it only lasts 2 hours.