MSI Modern 14 A10RB Laptop Review: Lighter than it Looks

[Redaktion]

MSI's latest mid-range office laptop for content creators offers Comet Lake-U, GeForce MX250 graphics, and a well-calibrated 14-inch 1080p display all for under $900 USD and at a weight of just 1.2 kg. Its advantages are clear, but some of its disadvantages are just glaring.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/MSI-Modern-14-A10RB-Laptop-Review-Lighter-than-it-Looks.451093.0.html

[anon]

An AC port, what the hell. Doesn't charge at all over type-C. Just walk away.

This has to be on purpose, right? Market segmentation? Cripple your products that you wish to be perceived as budget options? Then again I don't think that MSI in particular are that conniving; they're just behind the curve.

Why did I think the 10th gen Intel CPUs would bring a wave of type-C suppoort with it? Oh, right, 10th gen is made up of Ice Lake (with integrated Thunderbolt 3 support) and Comet Lake (which doesn't have built-in TBT) and this is a "product formerly known as Comet Lake" CPU. Thanks for getting my hopes up, Intel.

[william blake]

modern? cooling look pretty 20yo ish.
40ms 60fps screen also not from the future.
..
and look at another ice lake, we just discussed intel's high geekbench numbers. reality-2,5 ghz sustained load. 500+cinebench.
renoir is the chip of the year im warning you again.

[_MT_]

An AC port, what the hell. Doesn't charge at all over type-C. Just walk away.

Frankly, I would take a robust barrel any day of the week. It's a solution that's going to work for years and years without risking writing of the motherboard (to which everything is soldered). Also, why take up a valuable port by something as mundane as charging? That only makes sense for single cable replacements for proper docking stations.

[Abd. Razak]

In my point of view, this MSI Modern 14 is a kind of rebirth of the MSI PS42.  :)

Both of them have the similarity in the case model, size and weight, all ports and camera location, led indicator, keyboard and touchpad position, top and fan grilles, fan layout, motherboard (incl. ssd, wifi) layout, LCD, etc, they are looks like twin inside and outside.. Even PS42 also offered MX250 in one of its GPU selection.
Probably the most notable difference are CPU (refreshed to 10th gen), color, and fingerprint option.  :D

Of course, motherboard's model name also different here (MS-14B11 vs MS-14B31), since they have a different marketing name.
But, it is a little bit strange that all of these "twin like" similarity are not mentioned in the article (except for the LCD type only).  :)

[Eiraku]

TBH, it's not even a decent retooling of the PS42, considering that my own unit came with a 1050 (MQ or otherwise), which - with careful undervolting/underclocking for stable extended performance - can very easily show this "rebirth" unit the door when it comes to games (and other GPU intensive workloads).

Of course it also came with a (now aged) 8th-Gen i5 so proc (and power consumption-wise) it's probably not as good... though considering the limited cooling capabilities of the chassis the gap might be lesser than one would think (at least in terms of performance). Though being limited to 16GB single-channel max kinda blows.

At the very least, however, having the Modern 14 around guarantees a stable supply of compatible spare parts if stuff decides to break on this thing.... if the mobo holds up that long anyway.

And those dark grey keyboard caps would probably provide a nice contrast against the otherwise boring silver body of my PS42... if only I could find some for not too much money.

[Hale]

The panel type cannot be AUO123B.
AUO paces diagonal in first two digits, so 123B (or B123) should be 12.3", which is not the case.
MSI uses panel from AUO and ChiMei, which can be anything, but generally cheaper TN and xVA (yes, AUO has 14" IPS in its portfolio, which is quite an old model)