MSI Modern MD271UL review: a modern 4K office monitor

MSI Modern MD271UL is an interesting monitor designed for business users. First of all, its main advantage is a high-quality 27-inch IPS display with a resolution of 3840x2160, excellent colour reproduction, high brightness and good anti-reflective coating. This allows it to be used for office tasks as well as for working with photos or videos. It is very simple and easy to use, and has a good set of connectors. Of these, Type-C with Power Delivery support is worth highlighting, thanks to which the modern ultrabook can be connected without additional power. The MSI Modern MD271UL looks stylish and minimalist, and doesn't take up much space on the desktop. The only complaint about the monitor is its stand. Yes, it looks great, but it doesn't allow you to adjust the height and swivel of the monitor. Portrait mode and wall mounting are also out of the question.

5 reasons to buy MSI Modern MD271UL:

• Excellent IPS matrix with a resolution of 3840x2160
• Many connectors, including Type-C, which supports Power Delivery
• Flicker reduction and blue filter
• Stylish appearance
• Ease and convenience of connection and use

2 reasons not to buy MSI Modern MD271UL:

• You are looking for a larger monitor
• Very limited functionality of the stand

Quick transition:

• What's in the box?
• What does the MSI Modern MD271UL look like?
• What about usability, adjustability, and connectors?
• How does the MSI Modern MD271UL do in terms of picture quality?
• How did it perform in operation?
• In dry residue

What's in the box?

The MSI Modern MD271UL comes in a large mustard-coloured box with the model name and all the basic information. The package includes the monitor itself, a removable stand, a power supply, a power cable, HDMI, a plastic cable management bracket, and documentation.

What does MSI Modern MD271UL look like?

MSI Modern MD271UL is positioned as an office business model and it looks like it. Very stylish and minimalistic: thin bezels on three sides, a plastic insert with the MSI logo and control button markings under the screen. The monitor is almost entirely made of matte dark grey plastic with a texture. Only the stand is metal.

The stand has a simple rectangular shape with curved corners and a 64.4° tilt angle. It is made of silver aluminium alloy. It's heavy and wide enough to hold your monitor securely on your desk.

The back has a streamlined shape with a taper at the edges of the monitor. At its thinnest point, the monitor is only 1.17 cm thick. The back cover features the MSI logo, a recessed area with connectors and a stand attachment point. No screws are required to install the monitor, and the stand is simply attached with the appropriate clip. So it takes just minutes to set up the monitor.

Thanks to its shallow depth, the MSI Modern MD271UL takes up minimal desk space.

Unlike the vast majority of modern monitors, five buttons are used for setting up the monitor instead of a joystick. They are located at the bottom on the right side of the monitor.

All the connectors are located in a small recess just above the stand mount and point to the rear. This solution is very convenient if you need to switch cables frequently: there is no need to move or tilt the monitor.

A plastic bracket is attached to the leg, which is used for cable management.

MSI Modern MD271UL looks very nice and will look great in the workplace.

What about usability, adjustability, and connectors?

There are 5 buttons for setting up the monitor, located next to the LED indicator. Menu, navigation buttons, confirmation and power. A joystick would have been more convenient and intuitive, but this solution has the right to live. You need to get used to the buttons: they are quite tight and the monitor wobbles a little when pressed.

There are enough connectors. There are 2xHDMI 2.0b, 1xType-C (with DisplayPort support), DisplayPort 1.2a, 3.5mm audio, and USB Type-C with support for video transmission and 65W charging. This is very convenient for use with modern ultrabooks. A single cable can be used to connect and supply power, eliminating the need to carry a laptop power supply with you to the office.

We had to make some sacrifices for the sake of minimalism. The stand doesn't allow you to adjust the monitor's height or swivel angle. Only the tilt angle can be adjusted from +20° to -5°. There is also no possibility of wall mounting. This may not be very convenient in some workplaces.

All connectors are located at a 90° angle to the rear of the monitor, and a plastic bracket on the stand allows you to neatly organise all the cables connected to the monitor.

The on-screen menu of the monitor is divided into 5 main sections. The first one, which for some reason is called "Professional", includes the largest number of functions: colour modes, pixel response time, refresh rate (although the maximum monitor frequency is 60 Hz, you can set it lower), timer, Screen Assastance (more about it below), screen size and Adaptive Sync switch. The second section is responsible for the picture settings, including brightness, contrast, colour temperature, blue filter, sharpness and Image Enhancement. The third section contains settings for the monitor inputs. The NaviKey section allows you to configure shortcuts to the arrows and the enter button. The last section contains all the other settings: interface language, menu transparency, reset, Type-C power switch, etc.

Now let's talk a little more about the Screen Assastance item. It has one function that is quite familiar to gaming models - the screen reticle - and a less familiar option called Eye-Q Check. It includes 3 simple functions. The Amsler grid and Astigmatism show the first pictures with lines on the screen. It's very simple: if something is blurry, you should take a break for 20 minutes and do something else. The last function is posture correction. A horizontal line is displayed near the top of the screen. The eyes should be opposite or slightly below it.

The MSI Display Kit is also available. It allows you to configure the picture on the screen, as well as some additional functions. For example, you can set up a tower-window mode with the ability to make ready-made presets with the first applications. Additionally, there is an on-screen keyboard, mouse cursor speed settings, connection to wireless monitors (if possible), and multi-monitor configurations.

How's the MSI Modern MD271UL's image quality?

The MSI Modern MD271UL has a 27-inch IPS matrix with a resolution of 3840 x 2160 (4K UHD). It uses a 10-bit (8+FRC) matrix with W-LED backlighting, 60Hz refresh rate and 4ms response time. The maximum declared brightness is 400 cd/m², and the static contrast is 1000:1. The screen is claimed to be capable of reproducing 1.07 billion shades, with 99% colour coverage of the DCI-P3 colour space, 95% Adobe RGB and 139% sRGB. The monitor has an anti-glare coating, flicker reduction and blue filtering technologies .

The MSI Modern MD271UL produces a very nice and clear picture with high brightness levels and natural colours. Viewing angles are maximum both horizontally and vertically, although, of course, the contrast is reduced. The glow effect is almost absent, and thanks to the anti-glare coating, it is comfortable to work with the monitor even if there is a light source nearby. The backlighting is quite uniform, without any obvious glare. Measurements have shown that the maximum brightness of the monitor in sRGB mode is 375.777 cd/m², the black field brightness is 0.41 cd/m², and the static contrast is 917:1, which is close to the declared indicators. The colour gamut is close to the sRGB colour space, and overall the calibration out of the box is quite good. The colour temperature is only slightly higher than the reference value, the average colour error ΔE is about 4, which is a good indicator.

In general, the monitor demonstrates similar colour accuracy results in all modes. Only the colour gamut and brightness differ. In Movie mode, the brightness level is locked at 269.507 cd/m², the black field brightness is 0.257 cd/m², and the static contrast is 1049:1, and the colour gamut is noticeably wider than sRGB.

The widest colour gamut is in Office mode. In this case, the brightness is 372.285 cd/m², the black field brightness is 0.397 cd/m², and the static contrast is 938:1.

In User mode, with the default settings, the results are close to Movie mode. Brightness: 372.86 cd/m², black field brightness 0.404 cd/m², and static contrast ratio 923:1.

How did it perform in the field?

The MSI Modern MD271UL is great for work. It has a high-quality IPS matrix with good colour reproduction, which allows you to use it not only for office applications, but also for editing photo or video content. When it comes to entertainment, it is comfortable to watch films and videos. But it's not the best option for gaming. The native resolution of 3840x2160 requires a fairly powerful gaming system. At the same time, the 60Hz refresh rate is also not very suitable for gaming. The monitor is very easy and convenient to use, and can be set up in minutes. But the stand has limited functionality, which can be inconvenient in some cases.

Bottom line. Three things you need to know about the MSI Modern MD271UL:

• The monitor is equipped with a high-quality IPS matrix with a resolution of 3840x2160 and high brightness.
• It has all the necessary connectors, as well as Type-C with Power Delivery for connecting a laptop with a single cable.
• The monitor is equipped with flicker and blue filter technologies.

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