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日本[Video Review] MSI Sword 17 (A12UD) – Perhaps one too many sacrifices?
MSI Sword 17 (A12UD) in-depth review
If there is a brand known for its gaming devices, this surely has to be MSI. Its gamut consists of budget machines, premium laptops, and everything in between. Today, we are going to review a gaming notebook, which sits closer to the first part of the brand's portfolio.It is the MSI Sword 17 (A12UD). Interestingly, this particular notebook can be found by the (A12UDX) and (A12UCX). The last two come with DDR5 RAM and two M.2 slots on the inside, while the one we have, has DDR4 memory, and only one storage slot.Regardless of that, our particular configuration features the Intel Core i7[...]
Pros
- Competitively priced
- Two SODIMM slots, and one M.2 PCIe x4 slot
- Rigid structure
- No PWM (AUO B173HAN04.9 (AUO978F))
- 144Hz refresh rate (AUO B173HAN04.9 (AUO978F))
Cons
- 53% sRGB coverage (AUO B173HAN04.9 (AUO978F))
- Slow pixel response times (AUO B173HAN04.9 (AUO978F))
- No SD card reader and limited USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 1)
- Short battery life
- Keyboard gets quite warm during gaming
MSI Sword 17 (A12UD) - Specs
- HDD/SSD
- up to 1000GB SSD
- M.2 Slot
- 1x 2280 PCIe NVMe 4.0 x4 See photo
- RAM
- up to 64GB
- OS
- No OS, Windows 11 Pro, Windows 11 Home
- Battery
- 53.5Wh, 3-cell
- Body material
- Plastic / Polycarbonate
- Dimensions
- 398 x 273 x 25.2 mm (15.67" x 10.75" x 0.99")
- Weight
- 2.60 kg (5.7 lbs)
- Ports and connectivity
- 1x USB Type-A
- 2.0
- 2x USB Type-A
- 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
- 1x USB Type-C
- 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
- HDMI
- 2.0
- Card reader
- Ethernet LAN
- 10, 100, 1000 Mbit/s
- Wi-Fi
- 802.11ax
- Bluetooth
- 5.2
- Audio jack
- 3.5mm Combo Jack
- Features
- Fingerprint reader
- Web camera
- HD
- Backlit keyboard
- Microphone
- Speakers
- 2x 2W Stereo Speakers, Nahimic Audio
- Optical drive
- Security Lock slot
All MSI Sword 17 (A12UD) configurations
[Intro]
How far should you go when making a budget gaming laptop? MSI’s Sword 17 comes powered by Alder Lake processors and RTX 30-series graphics, but has the manufacturer cut too many corners in order to get to such a low price point? Keep on watching to find out.
[Design]
On the outside, the Sword 15 is an eye-catcher. We don’t see many white gaming laptops, so we salute MSI for its boldness. Still, the bottom panel is black as well as the bezels, giving stormtroopers a run for their money. The laptop is entirely made from plastic, but there’s no flex from both the lid or the base, thanks to a metal frame on the inside. The laptop is pretty portable for a 17-inch machine, weighing only 2.60 kg and having a profile of 25.2 mm.
[Input devices]
Due to its bigger stature, the lid opens with one hand, showing off a full-sized keyboard and a blue backlight, which perfectly matches the white paint job. The keys could have used a bit more spacing between them, as there’s a lot of spare room on the base. The keyboard has long key travel, but the feedback is a bit too soft for our liking. The touchpad’s also small considering the amount of space that’s available. Size isn’t everything though, as the surface is smooth and the pad is responsive.
[Ports]
Going to the sides, the left keeps a LAN port, an HDMI 2.0 port, one USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, one full-sized 5-gigabit USB port, and a 3.5 mm audio jack. Turn the laptop over and you get two full-sized USB ports, one 2.0 port, and one 5-gigabit port.
[Display]
There’s only one display option, a Full HD 144Hz IPS panel. It’s a fine display for a budget gaming laptop, with 260 nits of peak brightness and great uniformity. It covers 53% of the sRGB gamut, so while the large screen and hardware can definitely be used for rendering videos, you’d have to sacrifice color grading.
The accuracy of the display doesn’t improve much, even with our Design and Gaming profile, which lowers the dE value from 4.9 to 3.7. For example, we’d consider a good result anything around 2.0 or lower, since the human eye can’t see a difference below 1.0. This is good to have if you’re a professional and work with clients that really value their brands and recognition.
We’ll leave links to our profiles in the description below.
[Sound]
The speakers could have been moved to the front, but then you’d have to rearrange the internals, which adds to the price, so sticking them on the bottom is the more budget-conscious choice. The sound coming off of the stereo setup comes with okay quality, while the lows and highs show some deviations. On the other hand, the mids are clear.
[Performance]
In terms of CPU horsepower, you’re left with the Core i5-12500H and Core i7-12700H, which are fantastic options to have. We tested the Core i7, which doesn’t perform as well as some competitors, like the Dell G15 5520. Even the Katana 15, which is a carbon copy of the Sword 17, albeit a bit smaller, scores higher in Cinebench R23.
On the GPU end, you’ve got the RTX 2050, RTX 3050, 3050 Ti, and RTX 3060. We tested the 3050 Ti, which has a 60W power limit. Yes, it does sound low, but the GPU manages to run modern games at good settings and framerates.
[Cooling]
The GPU maintains the 60W power limit for more than 30 minutes while reaching clock speeds as high as 1723MHz. The Core i7-12700H does well in the stress test, maintaining sub 3.00GHz clock speeds on the P-cores and a 79W TDP in long runs. This is thanks to the cooling setup, which has two heat pipes for the CPU and two pipes for the GPU, for a total of four.
In terms of comfort, even with a larger chassis, some heat manages to make its way onto the keyboard. At the peak of the stress test, the base reaches 54°C, which might make your palms sweaty. Noise can be a problem if you want max performance, however, that comes with the territory.
[Battery]
As for the efficiency of the components, they don’t go easy on the 53.5 Wh battery, lasting for 4 hours and 3 minutes of Web browsing, or 4 hours and 1 minute of video playback.
[Teardown and upgradeability]
The upgradeability is there, but why isn’t there a second SSD slot with so much space on the board? At least you can get as much DDR4 RAM as you want, with two SODIMM slots for up to 64GB.
We’ll leave our teardown video linked down below, which also shows how to take the battery and cooling out.
[Verdict]
The MSI Sword 17 cuts a bit too many corners. While that may help with lowering the price point, the sacrifices might turn away potential consumers, with Lenovo and Acer being totally open to offering the Nitro 5 and the IdeaPad Gaming 3i.
For more information about the MSI Sword 17, check out our written review. You can find it in the video description.
