MSI is obviously known for its gaming devices. And as a brand, they build not only laptops but also graphics cards, motherboards, monitors, accessories, and much more. So it’s needless to say that they have quite a lot of fans worldwide. However, not all of them are hardcore gamers. Some people just need an everyday device for their daily work. Others, on the other side, have some specific needs. They are part of the newly bred “content creator” niche, and they need relatively powerful hardware, a lot of features, and perhaps most importantly – an accurate (in terms of colors) display.
This is exactly where the MSI Modern 14 falls. MSI offers it with its “True Color” technology, which gives you a set of presets, aiming to aid you with your concurrent usage – whether it’s going to be image editing, watching a movie or just staying late at night – yes, it also provides a blue light filter. Of course, we are going to put it through our tests and see how effective this display actually is.
As we said, these notebooks have to have some power. Well, since this device comes with the 10th Gen Comet Lake processors, we have a couple of questions to ask. One of them is why? Why provide this potentially great notebook with the wrong 10th Gen CPU family? Is it to keep the price down? Or there was something else… we don’t yet know. On the bright side, you can pick the laptop with a decently fast (for an ultrabook) GeForce MX250 GPU, or the newly announced MX330.
You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/msi-modern-14/
Contents
Specs Sheet
MSI Modern 14 - Specs
What’s in the box?
This device comes in a sleek white package. Inside, we found a 65W power brick, some paper manuals, and the laptop itself – hidden in a black protective cloth.
Design and construction
You can get this unit in two color variations – Silver and Carbon Gray. Regardless of the color you pick, the laptop is going to be made out of brushed aluminum, which looks sick. Not only that, but it weighs only 1.18 kg and has a profile of 15.9mm. This makes it extremely portable and the feeling is really premium. Now, you should expect some flex from the body and the lid, but it is not too much by any means.
Thankfully, you can open the lid with a single hand, despite the light chassis – great balance from the hinges. Sadly, though the camera is a real nose-poker with its positioning below the display. We feel that there was enough space on the top bezel to fit an HD camera, but perhaps MSI thought otherwise.
Next, there is the base. There is a notorious grill above the keyboard, presumably to aid the cooling. Additionally, there is the Power On/Off button right in the middle of it. So, further below, there is the keyboard, which has a good layout, quite big keycaps, and is very comfortable for typing. Sure, as with almost any laptop, you need to get used to the keys, as the travel is a little shallow. Unfortunately, the touchpad is a little small, when compared to the new XPS and MacBook devices. However, its gliding is great, tracking is on point, and you can click it practically everywhere, across the surface. On the other side, the shape is a little weird with the top edges being rounded. It might be a design feature, but in our view, it looks unnecessary.
For deserts, let’s switch the laptop upside down and you’ll see the ventilation grill. Should you get the iGPU-only version, it will look like in the picture below. However, if you get a discrete GPU model, there would be two ventilation grills and two heat exhausts on the back (while there is only one in our case).
Ports
On the left side of the machine, you can see the power plug, an HDMI connector (supporting 4K resolution at 30Hz), a USB Type-C 3.1 (Gen. 1) port, and an audio jack. If you look at the right side, though, you’ll find two USB Type-A 3.1 (Gen. 1) ports, another USB Type-C 3.1 (Gen. 1) port, and an SD card reader.
Display quality
MSI Modern 14’s display has a Full HD IPS panel, model number BOE HV140FHM-N61 (BOE06AO). 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.
The maximum measured brightness is 300 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 285 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of only 3%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 7800K (average) – colder than the 6500K optimum for sRGB.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from uniformity perspective. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 47% Brightness (White level = 140 cd/m2, Black level = 0.155 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 decent – 900:1.
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 in 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’s color gamut coverage.
Its display covers 93% 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 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 = 29 ms.
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’s display doesn’t use PWM only at the maximum level of brightness. Below that, the flickers have low-enough frequency to be uncomfortable.
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.
Conclusions
Now, the MSI Modern 14 comes with a Full HD IPS panel. Naturally, this means good viewing angles and decent contrast ratio. Moreover, it covers 93% of the sRGB color gamut. When it comes to color accuracy, though, the display performs on average, but not-good-enough for color-sensitive work. However, our Gaming and Web design profile push it further to an Average dE of below 2.0. Sadly though, the laptop uses aggressive PWM for brightness adjustment up until the maximum. So, despite the blue-light filter MSI provides with this unit, the display can be considered as unsafe. Thankfully, our Health-Guard profile completely eliminates this issue.
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 configurations with 14.0″ BOE HV140FHM-N61 (BOE06AO) (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
THealth-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.
Sound
MSI Modern 14’s speakers produce a quiet and rather flat sound. Additionally, its low, mid and high tones are clear of deviations.
Drivers
All of the drivers and the utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://www.msi.com/Laptop/support/Modern-14-A10X.html
Battery
Now, we conduct the battery tests with 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. This device’s 50Wh battery provides around 9 hours and 20 minutes of Web browsing and 8 hours and a half of video playback.
In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites.
For every test like this, we use the same video in HD.
We use F1 2017’s built-in benchmark on loop in order to simulate real-life gaming.
CPU options
You can pick this laptop with the 10th Gen Comet Lake processors from Intel. Currently, the choice lays on either the Core i5-10210U or the Core i7-10510U.
Results are from the Cinebench 15 CPU test (the higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Fritz chess benchmark (the higher the score, the better)
Results are from our Photoshop benchmark test (the lower the score, the better)
MSI Modern 14 CPU variants
Here you can see an approximate comparison between the CPUs that can be found in the MSI Modern 14 models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which MSI Modern 14 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.
Results are from the Cinebench 15 CPU test (the higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Fritz chess benchmark (the higher the score, the better)
Results are from our Photoshop benchmark test (the lower the score, the better)
GPU options
Depending on the model, you either receive the notebook with only the integrated graphics card, or you can get the GeForce MX250 or the MX330.
Results are from the 3DMark: Fire Strike (Graphics) benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Heaven 3.0 benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Heaven 4.0 benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Superposition benchmark (higher the score, the better)
MSI Modern 14 GPU variants
Here you can see an approximate comparison between the GPUs that can be found in the MSI Modern 14 models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which MSI Modern 14 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.
Results are from the 3DMark: Fire Strike (Graphics) benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Heaven 3.0 benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Heaven 4.0 benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Superposition benchmark (higher the score, the better)
| CS:GO | HD 1080p, Low (Check settings) | HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings) | HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average FPS | 34 fps | 21 fps | – fps |
| DOTA 2 | HD 1080p, Low (Check settings) | HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings) | HD 1080p, High (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average FPS | 57 fps | 29 fps | – 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 core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.
| Intel Core i5-10210U (15W TDP) | 0:02 – 0:10 sec | 0:15 – 0:30 sec | 10:00 – 15:00 min |
|---|---|---|---|
| MSI Modern 14 | 2.33 GHz (B+46%) @ 61°C | 2.32 GHz (B+45%) @ 71°C | 2.07 GHz (B+29%) @ 80°C |
| HP ProBook 430 G7 | 2.59 GHz (B+62%) @ 71°C | 2.46 GHz (B+54%) @ 78°C | 2.07 GHz (B+29%) @ 74°C |
| Lenovo ThinkPad E15 | 2.47 GHz (B+54%) @ 76°C | 2.50 GHz (B+56%) @ 91°C | 1.97 GHz (B+23%) @ 79°C |
| HP Probook 450 G7 | 2.54 GHz (B+59%) @ 59°C | 2.12 GHz (B+33%) @ 67°C | 1.81 GHz (B+13%) @ 72°C |
| HP Probook 440 G7 | 2.68 GHz (B+68%) @ 59°C | 2.68 GHz (B+68%) @ 67°C | 2.20 GHz (B+38%) @ 72°C |
| Lenovo ThinkBook 15-IML | 3.08 GHz (B+93%) @ 73°C | 3.00 GHz (B+88%) @ 82°C | 2.55 GHz (B+59%) @ 80°C |
| Lenovo ThinkPad L13 | 3.04 GHz (B+90%) @ 97°C | 2.10 GHz (B+31%) @ 97°C | 2.12 GHz (B+33%) @ 79°C |
| ASUS ZenBook Duo UX481 | 3.26 GHz (B+104%) @ 94°C | 2.77 GHz (B+73%) @ 98°C | 2.06 GHz (B+29%) @ 71°C |
| Dell Vostro 5590 | 3.50 GHz (B+119%) @ 94°C | 2.68 GHz (B+68%) @ 97°C | 2.36 GHz (B+48%) @ 79°C |
Well, this is a little slow. Sadly, we were never able to hit even 2.50 GHz under full load with this device. On the bright side, it remains quiet throughout the entire test. Additionally, MSI is offering a few performance presets, and the most powerful one doesn’t make any difference to the default setup.
Comfort during full load
Cool and quiet. No more than 39C and the noise from the single fan on this unit is almost nonexistent.
Verdict
Indeed the MSI Modern 14 is a great ultrabook. It is light, thin, and definitely feels premium – something its price doesn’t really reflect on, which is good. Sadly, the performance is not on par with other productive ultrabooks, but what matters more in this case, is that the laptop remains quiet and relatively cool at all times.
Now, the MSI Modern 14 comes with a Full HD IPS panel. Naturally, this means good viewing angles and decent contrast ratio. Moreover, it covers 93% of the sRGB color gamut. When it comes to color accuracy, though, the display performs on average, but not-good-enough for color-sensitive work. However, our Gaming and Web design profile push it further to an Average dE of below 2.0. Sadly though, the laptop uses aggressive PWM for brightness adjustment up until the maximum. So, despite the blue-light filter MSI provides with this unit, the display can be considered as unsafe. Thankfully, our Health-Guard profile completely eliminates this issue.
And it is not like we are pushing you to get our profiles, but in this case, you can greatly benefit from them (and the panel on your unit is the same as ours).
Additionally, the laptop is equipped with a 50Wh battery, and we got very close to the suggested 10 hours of battery life on MSI’s website. Our exact results were 9 hours and 23 minutes of Web browsing and 8 hours and a half of video playback – providing pretty much an entire workday. Keep in mind that if you use power-intensive programs like Photoshop, the figures may vary greatly.
Moreover, the notebook comes with two USB Type-C ports, an SD card reader, and many more other I/O. It also has a single M.2 slot, which fits PCIe and SATA drives, and you can upgrade the memory up to 32GB of DDR4 RAM via one SODIMM slot.
Generally, MSI Modern 14 is a good laptop. Sadly, there are issues like the PWM, poor speakers, and bizarre camera placement, which would refrain some people from getting it.
Pros
- Cool and quiet even under load
- Comfortable keyboard
- Two USB Type-C ports and an SD card reader
- Fairly long battery life
- Its Full HD IPS panel has comfortable viewing angles and good contrast ratio (LG LP140WFA-SPD3)
- Covers 93% of sRGB and our Gaming and Web design profile helps it reach an Average dE of <2.0 (LG LP140WFA-SPD3)
- Some upgradability with one RAM SODIMM slot and an M.2 slot
Cons
- Uses aggressive PWM for all brightness levels but the maximum (our Health-Guard profile fixes this)
- Its camera faces your nose
- Quiet speakers
You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/msi-modern-14/
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