MSI Sword 15 – Top 5 Pros and Cons

Imagine your laptop as a warrior. This is what MSI has done with their latest notebooks, which take inspiration from weapons, both cold and hot. Today we take a look at the MSI Sword 15, which MSI was quick to transform into an actual character, hiring professional video game artist Nagano Tsuyoshi.

While it is a new and quirky way to market a device, hats off to MSI for the effort and the out-of-the-box approach. The Sword 15 comes in a white exterior, with Blue being the accent color, which is refreshing amidst the Black + Red hegemony that we see nearly everywhere. Powered by the Intel Core i7-11800H and two RTX Ampere GPU options.

Today we are presenting you with LaptopMedia’s top 5 picks about the MSI Sword 15.

MSI Sword 15: Full Specs / In-depth Review


3 reasons to BUY the MSI Sword 15

1. Design and build quality

While the Sword 15 does come with a plastic shell, it is surprisingly durable thanks to the rectangular support structure inside and the metal space which surrounds the battery. In terms of looks, the laptop comes in a very bright white color, which we very much appreciate. The bottom panel and the bezels come in black, which is a nice contrast.

The lid opens easily with one hand, albeit it is more flexible than the base. The bezels are thin, except for the top and bottom ones. The keyboard has a Blue backlight, with no other colors being available. This gives it a very fresh appearance. The unit itself has long key travel, but the feedback is mediocre. The touchpad is quite small when compared to the rest of the device, but it offers smooth gliding and pretty accurate tracking.


2. Upgradeability

The upgradeability is on a great level, with two SODIMM slots, that can fit up to 64GB of dual-channel DDR4 RAM. In terms of storage, there is one M.2 PCIe x4 Gen 3 slot and space for a 2.5-inch SATA drive.

Here is our detailed teardown video, which shows how to access the RAM and SSD slots.


3. Display quality

The laptop offers a single display option, with a 15.6-inch diagonal, Full HD resolution, and an IPS panel. The display also offers a 144Hz refresh rate, which is fantastic for gaming, and great to see come as standard even in budget laptops. The panel has comfortable viewing angles, a max brightness of  261 nits in the middle of the screen and 254 nits as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of only 3%, which is phenomenal and might be one of the most uniform displays that we have seen when it comes to brightness.

The display covers only 52% of the sRGB gamut.

In terms of accuracy, the dE value didn’t improve much even after applying our Design and Gaming profile. Here you can compare the results with the stock settings (left) and with our profile applied (right).


Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for MSI Sword 15 configurations with 15.6″ FHD IPS AUO B156HAN08.4 (AUOAF90).

*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.

Naast het ontvangen van efficiënte en gezondheidsvriendelijke profielen, steunt u door het kopen van LaptopMedia's producten ook de ontwikkeling van onze laboratoria, waar wij apparaten testen om de meest objectieve beoordelingen mogelijk te maken.

Office Work

Office Work moet vooral worden gebruikt door gebruikers die de meeste tijd besteden aan het bekijken van stukken tekst, tabellen of gewoon surfen. Dit profiel is gericht op het leveren van een betere helderheid en duidelijkheid door het behouden van een vlakke gammacurve (2.20), native kleurtemperatuur en perceptueel accurate kleuren.

Ontwerp en spel

Dit profiel is gericht op ontwerpers die beroepsmatig met kleuren werken, en ook voor games en films. Design and Gaming brengt beeldschermen tot het uiterste en maakt ze zo nauwkeurig mogelijk in de sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standaard voor Web en HDTV, bij witpunt D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard elimineert de schadelijke Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) en vermindert het negatieve Blauwe Licht dat onze ogen en ons lichaam aantast. Omdat het op maat is gemaakt voor elk paneel, slaagt het erin de kleuren perceptueel nauwkeurig te houden. Health-Guard simuleert papier zodat de druk op de ogen sterk wordt verminderd.

Krijg alle 3 de profielen met 33% korting


2 reasons NOT to buy the MSI Sword 15

1. Battery life

The battery here seems kind of small for such a laptop, and we would have loved a larger unit like other MSI devices have gotten. The 53.5Wh unit that we have here lasted for 6 hours and 43 minutes of Web browsing, or 4 hours and 29 minutes of video playback. The way we do our test is 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.


2. I/O

Despite offering the latest Tiger Lake H45-based, Core i7-11800H, the laptop doesn’t bring Thunderbolt 4 support, which wouldn’t have hurt to have. You also don’t get an SD card reader. What you get is a total of three USB Type-A ports, with one 2.0 port and two 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports, a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, an HDMI connector, an Ethernet port, and a 3.5 mm audio jack.


All MSI Sword 15 configurations:

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