MSI Modern 14 Review: One of the Best Releases in 2021!

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MSI Modern 14: At First Glance

MSI is a brand that is popularly known for manufacturing gaming laptops. However, the brand took a different turn with the release of the MSI Modern 14 in 2021.

To be precise, this laptop is an excellent productivity laptop for professionals, students, and business owners. In fact, the laptop can also double as a decent gaming laptop thanks to its dedicated NVIDIA GeForce MX450 graphics card.

To make things better, the MSI Modern 14 features a reasonable price tag of $887.46 (price valid as of November 2022). Having mentioned a few details about this MSI laptop, why not move to the other sections below to know more?

MSI Modern 14: Design, Display, Ports, and Connectivity

The MSI Modern 14 comes with a stylish design that will catch your attention at first glance. To give more details, the laptop features an elegant aluminum chassis and offers a variety of color options.

These color options include carbon grey, beige mousse, and bluestone. Whichever color option you choose, the MSI Modern 14 will look stunning and stand out when placed among other laptops.

Besides, the lid of the laptop features a gorgeous “MSI” inscription slightly above the center to add more style to the laptop’s overall look. Moreover, this lid connects to the laptop’s base with the help of two sturdy hinges.

These hinges provide enough stability and allow the lid to open up to 180 degrees. Opening the lid reveals the MSI Modern 14’s 14-inch display.

This beautiful display has an FHD (1920 x 1080 pixels) resolution that allows it to produce good picture quality and accurate colors. In addition to the FHD resolution, the display features an IPS (In-Plane Switching) panel that allows for wide viewing angles.

Therefore, viewing the display off-center shouldn’t be a problem as colors will remain accurate, and pictures won’t lose quality.

Surrounding the MSI Modern 14’s display are slim bezels, with the top and bottom bezels being slightly thick. Similar to the lid, the bottom bezel features a beautiful “MSI” inscription at the center.

Meanwhile, the top bezel houses an HD webcam. Sadly, this webcam isn’t ideal for taking selfies, as images appear blurry and grainy.

Nonetheless, the webcam offers good performance during video conference calls.

That said, the MSI Modern 14 comes with a chiclet-type keyboard with well-spaced keys that offers excellent feedback. Hence, the keyboard should offer a comfortable typing experience.

In fact, the keyboard is backlit. As a result, you shouldn’t have any problem typing in dark areas.

Below the MSI Modern 14’s keyboard is a spacious touchpad with integrated click buttons. This touchpad has a smooth surface and responds to touch accurately.

Also, the touchpad’s click buttons are responsive.

Unfortunately, the MSI Modern 14 doesn’t come with enough ports. Precisely, the left side of the laptop houses a charging port, one HDMI port, and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port.

Meanwhile, the laptop’s right side houses two USB 3.2 Type-A ports and a combo audio jack.

In terms of wireless connectivity, the MSI Modern 14 features Wi-Fi 6 802.11 ax and Bluetooth 5.1.

That being said, the MSI Modern 14 is a lightweight and slim laptop that you can carry around with ease. To be specific, the laptop weighs 1300 g and measures 319 x 219 x 16.9 – 18.1 mm (W x D x H).

Honestly, the MSI Modern 14 is one of the lightest and slimmest 14-inch laptops you will find on the market today. Comparatively, this laptop is lighter and slimmer than most of its competitors, such as the Lenovo IdeaPad 5.

Specifically, the Lenovo IdeaPad 5 weighs 1380 g and measures 321.5 x 211.5 x 16.9 – 19.1 mm (W x D x H).

In conclusion, the MSI Modern 14 offers a stunning design with a lightweight build and an impressive FHD display. However, the laptop doesn’t come with sufficient ports.

Hence, I will be offering the MSI Modern 14 a rating of eight out of ten in this design review section.

MSI Modern 14: Processor (CPU) Performance

The MSI Modern 14 features an 11-generation quad-core Intel Core i7-1165G7 processor that has a 12 MB cache memory. This processor also offers a base frequency of 2.80 GHz and a boost frequency of 4.70 GHz.

Performance-wise, with this processor, the MSI Modern 14 should be able to process most tasks you throw at it, if not all. To give more information regarding this laptop’s processing performance, I will now share its Cinebench R20 test result.

For clarity, the Cinebench R20 benchmark test evaluates a computer’s processing power by putting its CPU through intensive workloads. Furthermore, the test involves two tests, which comprise the single-core test and the multi-core test.

In case you don’t know, the single-core test measures the processing ability of a computer when using one of its CPU cores. On the other hand, the multi-core test measures the computer’s processing performance when all its CPU cores are being employed.

Moreover, a high score on these tests equates to good performance. With that in mind, the MSI Modern 14 tops its category with a single-core test score of 581 points and a multi-score test score of 2108.

Hence, it outperformed laptops such as the ASUS ZenBook 14 UX435EG, which uses the same processor. Specifically, this ASUS laptop scored 1452 points on the Cinebench R20 multi-core test and 548 points on the single-core test.

Therefore, the MSI Modern 14 deserves a rating of nine out of ten in this processor review section.

MSI Modern 14: Memory (RAM) Performance

The MSI Modern 14 comes with a DDR4-3200 MHz memory type and a standard memory of 16 GB RAM. Furthermore, the laptop features one memory slot and supports a maximum memory capacity of 32 GB RAM.

For the purpose of this review, we will focus on the MSI Modern 14 with the standard 16 GB RAM. With 16 GB RAM, this laptop should be able to handle most tasks and run powerful applications like Adobe Premiere Pro.

Also, the MSI Modern 14 should be a great multitasker. For instance, it will be able to run about 20 Chrome tabs simultaneously without glitching or slowing down a bit.

In fact, you can decide to stream multiple YouTube videos while these browser tabs are open, and the laptop still won’t budge. For more insight into the MSI Modern 14’s performance with 16 GB RAM, I will now highlight its PCMark 10 test result.

Briefly, PCMark 10 is a benchmark that evaluates a computer’s overall performance by simulating numerous real-world productivity tasks. Besides, the higher the score on the test, the better the performance of the computer.

On that note, the MSI Modern 14 delivered a score of 4823 points. Sadly, this laptop was outperformed by most of its competitors.

For example, the HP Envy 14-eb0010nr scored 5410 points on the benchmark test. Also, ASUS Zenbook 14 UX435EG scored 5150 points.

Hence, I will be rating the MSI Modern 14 an eight out of ten in this memory review section.

MSI Modern 14: Storage Options and Performance

It will interest you to know that the MSI Modern 14 comes with M.2 PCIe SSD. Also, the laptop supports a max storage capacity of 1 TB, which I believe should be enough for most users.

Besides, you can employ the laptop’s SD card reader for storage expansion. To know how well this laptop can perform with its M.2 PCIe SSD, let us discuss its result on the CrystalDiskMark 5.2 test.

For your information, CrystalDiskMark 5.2 measures the read and write speed of a computer’s storage drive. If you’re curious, read speed refers to how quickly a storage drive is able to open a file.

Meanwhile, write speed refers to how fast the storage drive can save a file. Moreover, the higher the “MBps” value on the CrystalDiskMark 5.2 test, the quicker the read and write speed of the PC’s storage drive.

On that note, the MSI Modern 14 delivered a read speed of 1043 MBps and a write speed of 974 MBps. In comparison, the Schenker Vision 14, which uses a similar storage type, offers a faster read and write speed.

Specifically, the Schenker Vision 14 recorded a read speed of 4101 MBps and a write speed of 4236 MBps.

All things considered, I will be rating the MSI Modern 14 an eight out of ten in this storage review section.

MSI Modern 14: Graphics Card Performance

Impressively, even though MSI Modern 14 is not a gaming laptop, it comes with a dedicated graphics card. Specifically, the laptop features an NVIDIA GeForce MX450 graphics card.

This graphics card has a 1395 MHz base frequency and a boost frequency of 1575 MHz. Furthermore, the graphics card has a 2 GB GDDR5 dedicated VRAM.

Hence, with this graphics card, the MSI Modern 14 will be able to handle graphics-demanding workloads like video editing. Also, it should be able to run some title AAA games.

For example, the laptop should deliver about 135 fps while playing The Witcher 3 (2015) at 135 fps. Also, while playing FIFA 21, it should render up to 93.7 fps.

To further evaluate the laptop’s graphics performance, I will now share its result on the 3DMark benchmark test. For clarity, 3DMark is a benchmarking tool that determines how well a computer is able to render 3D and 2D graphics.

Furthermore, a high score on the test represents good performance. In that regard, the MSI Modern 14 delivered a score of 8435 points, which is significantly below the category average of 12928 points.

Nonetheless, the laptop was able to outperform most laptops in its category, such as the ASUS Zenbook 14 UX435EG. Specifically, this ASUS laptop that also uses an NVIDIA GeForce MX450 scored 6524 points on the 3DMark 11 test.

As a result, I will rate the MSI Modern 14 an eight out of ten in this graphics review section.

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MSI Modern 14: Battery Life and Performance

The MSI Modern 14 comes with a 3-cell 52 WHr battery. Unfortunately, MSI did not include how long this battery can last after a full charge.

So, to find out, we will now examine the laptop’s result on a battery rundown test. This test entails surfing the web over a Wi-Fi network continuously until the laptop runs low.

At the end of the test, the MSI Modern 14 delivered an outstanding battery life of 8 hours and 43 minutes. Impressively, this laptop has longer battery life compared to the Schenker Vision 14 and ASUS Zenbook 14 UX435EG.

Precisely, the Schenker Vision 14 delivered a battery life of 6 hours on the battery rundown test. Meanwhile, the ASUS Zenbook 14 UX435EG lasted for about 8 hours and 16 minutes on the battery rundown test.

Putting all that into consideration, the MSI Modern 14 deserves a rating of nine out of ten in this battery life and performance review section.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

Honestly, apart from its insufficient ports, the MSI Modern 14 barely has any major flaws. The laptop offers a powerful 11-generation Intel processor and a dedicated GPU.

Also, it comes with an elegant design and a lightweight build that allows it to be carried around with ease. Additionally, the MSI Modern 14 offers sufficient storage space and an SD card reader for storage expansion.

That’s not all; the laptop also features a long battery life. To be sincere, the MSI Modern 14 is highly recommended and worth every penny of its $887.46 price tag.

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