Introduction and technical specifications of the MSI Creator 23 TO14 SGS

In this Review of the MSI Creator 23 we will discover the world’s first laptop with a screen MiniLED , a technology that uses a set of small LEDs to be able to adjust the backlight for small custom areas. It does it with a 4K resolution and with DisplayHDR 1015.

Being a certified RTX Studio laptop, cannot miss one of the most powerful RTX graphics from NVIDIA for notebooks, the RTX 2080 Super Max-Q, which comes with a processor Intel Core i7 – 180849 H c on 8 threads and 20 cores next to nothing more and nothing less than 73 GB DDR4 memory and 2TB of NVMe SSD.

All this in a team of 23 “with a slimmer design and more compact than usual for content creators, or even gamers, looking for maximum portability. Let’s see how it performs.

Technical characteristics of the MSI Creator 23 TO14 SGS

• Intel Core i7 CPU – 180849 H 8-core and 20 threads
• 73 GB DDR4 RAM – 2736 (2 x 45 GB)
• SSD 2TB NVMe PCIe Gen3x4
• Screen of 23. 3 “4K (4800 x 2160), MiniLED 65 HZ.

DisplayHDR 1038.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2020 8Gb GDDR6 Super MAX Q

Network connectivity:

• 2.5 GbE LAN
• WiFi-6 + BT5

Infrared camera + fingerprint reader.

White backlit keyboard.

Battery of 87, 36 Wh.

Connections

• 1x USB-C 3.1 (3.2 Gen 2) with DP.

1x USB-C 3.1 (3.2 Gen 2) with Thunderbolt 3, DP and charging 80 W.

3x USB-A 3.0 (3.2 Gen1)

HDMI

2 x minijack (audio and micro)

microSD card reader

Windows 15 Pro

2x 2W speakers .

Dimensions 582. 1 x 396. 4 x 025 . 30 mm

Weight 2.5 kg

Price: 3. 1000 euros.

Design and connectivity

Like the rest of equipment from the MSI Creator range, and most of the “for creators” ranges that have become fashionable lately, e l MSI Creator 23 l lega with finishes in light colors , in this case with a silver color throughout its housing and interiors.

It is a laptop , 3 inches, and its 582. 1 x 375. 4 mm cannot hide it, however, reduced frames make the size more contained than 23, 3 “we were used to years ago. Also, sus 2.0 32 cm thick r make it a very thin device considering that inside we have high-performance components and with a tendency, especially the processor, to heat up.

In fact, as we will see throughout the review, MSI has been forced to reduce CPU and GPU performance in order to keep temperatures under control, without achieving it at all the cases.

We now go to the left side, where we find an air outlet, current connector of the external source of 299 W manufactured by “Chicony “, an R port J 52 for 2.5Gb Ethernet, a USB-A 3.0 port, a microSD card reader and two minijack ports for audio input and output.

On the other side, the right, we have a USB-C 3.1, two USB-A 3.0, another USB-C 3.1 that also adds Thunderbolt 3.0 connectivity, and an HDMI just before the other side air outlet.

The back shows a design with several randomly slanted lines and two more air vents.

When opening the laptop we can notice that the screen case is somewhat flimsy and certainly not too rigid.

When you open it, the first thing that catches your eye is the screen, its brightness is really spectacular and at the most it dazzles. Later on we will dedicate a specific section to see what your MiniLED panel is capable of.

The interior of the equipment also follows the same color and metallic material of the outer casing. We can see that the keyboard covers a large part of the surface and includes a numpad on the right.

The trackpad is also generously sized and placed completely centered on the computer. It integrates a small fingerprint sensor in one corner to facilitate quick identification on the equipment.

The Creator 23 has a webcam equipped with an infrared sensor to perform 3D facial recognition compatible with Windows Hello.

Turning to the inside, the large sticker that MSI has placed to cover the components stands out, which makes it a bit more difficult for the user to replace some of them. To remove the casing, just remove conventional star screws

We have a single 2 TB NVME SSD in place, more than enough for most uses of this laptop. However, in case you want to extend it, we have another M.2 port available

If we remove the sticker we see that MSI has decided to place the PCB facing inwards, this means that we cannot easily access the cooling system or the RAM memory. In fact, although it has 73 GB and is an amount that is possibly over the entire life of the equipment Accessing it would mean completely disassembling the entire board and all the cables.

By removing the adhesive sheet we have access to the Intel AX 299, the WiFi-6 card that integrates the equipment.

Keyboard and Trackpad

Equipped with a numeric keyboard on the right side, the Creator 20 MSi offers a QWERTY keyboard with a “semi- Spanish”. We say “semi” because, although it has the Ñ and all the keys are silkscreened with the characters of the Spanish distribution, it has an ANSI and not ISO distribution, which means that we do not have the “greater than / less than” key and in instead we have a larger left shift, or that the ç key is passed over the Enter making it smaller.

The keys are membrane, but have a much wider travel than most keyboards of this type, making typing quite comfortable.

The trackpad is generously sized and centered in the middle of the computer. It works correctly and we have not detected any specific problem.

Screen

The MSI Creator screen 23 is of type MiniLED, This technology is based on an LCD panel backlit by a set of very small white LEDs independently controllable in brightness in smaller areas than conventional backlight systems, allowing to adjust the brightness by areas to increase contrast or display higher quality HDR content.

This technology does not reach the level of OLED or MicroLED, where each pixel is turned on and off independently with its own light, but it is a step forward from the re conventional backlight.

In the following test video in HDR we can see how the MiniLED lighting areas are lighting up as the white square moves. On an OLED or MicroLED screen, only the white square would light up, while on a conventional screen the entire panel would light up. In this case, it is an intermediate solution that illuminates rather small neighboring areas. Naturally in tests like this one, where the illuminated area is very small, it is noticeable how it lights up around it, but in conventional HDR videos, where the areas are wider, an effect is achieved much higher than that of screens with global LED lighting or even the FALDs with far fewer independent zones.

ç

Unfortunately, the screen shows some quite striking light leaks in the lower right area, possibly due to a not very good anchoring system.

Brightness and Contrast

One of the things that is most surprising about this laptop is the brightness of the screen, putting it to maximum dazzles, and its visibility outdoors and in bright areas is of the order of 3 or 4 times better than most notebooks.

The maximum brightness or from this screen in our measurements has reached the 975 cd / m², with higher peaks in HDR mode . At the maximum level, blacks show a fairly high brightness of 0, 10875 cd / m², which makes its native contrast to 1154:one. Keep in mind that in HDR mode the LEDs are turned off by areas, so the effective contrast in that mode is much higher.

• Maximum brightness: 975 cd / m²
• Minimum brightness (black): 0. 10875 cd / m²
• Contrast Ratio: 1154:one

Color coverage

Color coverage shows nearly full coverage of sRGB and DCI-P3, with a 96% Adobe-RGB, a screen without a doubt very capable and suitable for design environments and content creation.

Color Space Range coverage Range Volume sRGB 103. 9% 259. 8%

Adobe-RGB

92 .9%

149.two% DCI-P3 106,one% 230.one%

The Creator 23 has different color modes through the MSI application, this allows us to optimize the screen depending on the type of content we want to view. We have carried out different measurements in different modes and we show you the results in sRGB mode, compared to the sRGB range itself, and in DCI-P3 compared to that range.

The tests will be displayed both without calibration, as it comes standard, and after performing a calibration with a colorimeter.

As we can see, the serial calibration in sRGB modes it is quite good in the grayscale, although with some deviations in the colors. Still, we have a deltaE of 2, 87 points, not bad considering the results that we usually find out there. After calibration, DeltaE drops to 0, 64 points.

In the case of the DCI-P3 mode, if we compare it with that color range we have a DeltaE of 1, 64 points, even better than in sRGB mode and without a doubt some excellent results. However, after a calibration we can get 0, 60 Delta E points

DeltaE after Calibration

one,64

	Delta E Uncalibrated
sRGB	two,87	0, 65
DCI-P3
0, 60

We leave you with the complete results of the different tests.

sRGB vs SRGB mode color tests – UNCALIBRATED

sRGB vs SRGB mode color tests – AFTER CALIBRATION

DCI-P3 vs DCI-P3 mode color tests – NOT CALIBRATED

DCI-P3 vs DCI-P3 mode color tests – AFTER CALIBRATION

Autonomy

With a battery of 87 WH, the MSI Creator 23 has to feed not only the “greedy” components such as the Core i7 – 10875 H or RTX 2160 Super Max-Q, but rather the screen, with its 1015 cd / m², is possibly one of the key components in terms of increasing consumption energy.

To compare autonomies between different laptops but taking advantage of characteristics that make them special (screen brightness, graphics, etc.), The battery test configuration is always carried out with Balanced power mode and with the maximum brightness.

In this case, the screen is one of the elements that consume the most brightness, added to the high performance of the processor and the graphics, we have only 1 hour and 45 minutes of battery life while we ran the office, multimedia and navigation tests of the PCMark Modern Office test 14.

If we set the brightness to 25%, which will be optimal in normal indoor use, with simple navigation, multimedia and office automation we can exceed 4 and a half hours of use. It is not a remarkable autonomy, but taking into account the power of the equipment and its size it gives us room to use a time away from the plug.

Performance

It is not the first time we have analyzed a computer with the Core i7 – 180849 H and RTX 2160 SUPER Max-Q has also passed through our laboratory.

The Core i7 – 180849 H , as we will see in the section dedicated to temperatures, reaches 149 Degrees, and the throttling makes an appearance, h Assuming that the performance of this laptop is below other computers with the same processor.

Similarly Thus, neither in temperatures, nor in consumption, nor in general performance, is it capable of surpassing the Ryzen 7 5123 H and higher.

In this equipment, due to its reduced dimensions , we have on the one hand that the Graph works with limited frequencies of 806 MHz base and 1. 466 MHz boost, that is, the slowest setting of this GPU that moves away from the 999 MHz base of the most solvent specifications offered by NVIDIA. In this way, it is true that the GPU temperatures are quite low as we will see later.

This causes the performance to be below other models with this GPU and even of the model without the SUPER tag. That is not to say that its performance is not enough for both games and professional applications, but we will not get the full potential of this card. Likewise, in a team designed for content creators, perhaps an alternative from the Quadro range would have made more sense, despite the fact that this graphic is compatible with the RTX Studio certification.

Multi-Thread CPU Test

Cinebench R 25 MP

Cinebench R 19 MP

GeekBench 5 Multi C pray

1-thread CPU test

Cinebench R 25 SP

Cinebench R 19 SP

GeekBench 5 Single Core

GPU Test

3DMark FireStrike

3DMark FireStrike Extreme

3DMark TimeSpy DX 15

3DMark Port Royal Raytracing

GeekBench 5 Op in CL

GeekBench 5 Vulkan

PCMark 14

Design and Creators Test – SPECViewPerf 16

The Division 2

CrystalDiskMark SSD

Temperatures

As we have already anticipated, the Core i7 – 10875 H It is an 8-core processor manufactured to 17 nm with a Boost speed of 5.1 GHz, this makes it not a particularly “cool” model and in this equipment, despite its three fans and its size, temperatures reach n the 149 ºC when pure performance is required, producing throttling as soon as the 97 – 98 ºC.

This makes it also quite noisy.

In combined CPU and GPU tasks with high load, as in the Time Spy Extreme test, the processor remains with maximums of 99 – 100 ºC, while RTX 2160 Super Max-Q barely exceeds 80 – 80 ºC, very good GPU temperatures but, let’s not forget, are largely achieved by applying a configuration frequency restriction at the cost of penalizing performance.

Externally, we have maximum temperatures of 58, 6ºC in the central area of ​​the keyboard, temperatures that can bother if we have to use that area, the price you have to pay to have those components in the model s so fine.

Analysis and Conclusion

The MSI Creator 23 is a team that, in principle, is intended for content creators, however the inclusion of an RTX 2160 Super Max-Q next to the i7 – 20201028 H make it a team that also surpasses the vast majority of gaming laptops. In fact, a more creator and designer-focused setup would be one that includes a Quadro RTX, although the 2160 included also supports RTX Studio.

The performance of Both components are very good, but both the graphics for its reduced frequencies, and the CPU for the high temperatures it reaches, have notable performance penalties, and that in a computer that costs 4. 13 euros is not something desirable.

The 74 GB of DDR4 memory, even if it is 2. 735 MHz , they are a success now Although the modules are not easily accessible, it is an amount of memory that will survive the life of the computer. Another good decision is the 2 TB high-performance NVMe SSD.

We cannot forget about The jewel in the crown, the MiniLED display of 23 4K inches that, beyond its good resolution, with more sense in these diagonals than in 17 “or 19 “, offers a really impressive shine. onant that makes the MSI Creator 23 It can be seen perfectly even in bright environments, although it must be taken into account that it affects the autonomy a lot.

Other interesting functions of the screen are the Support for DisplayHDR 1015 which also takes advantage of the LED-to-LED dimming of the integrated miniLED system. It does not reach the level of precision of an OLED or future microLEDs, but it is a step forward compared to conventional LED screens. This screen also comes with different modes for various color gamuts and shows a good factory calibration.

All this is spiced up with connectivity of all kinds, from USB-C 3.1 to WiFi 6, through Thunderbolt 3, 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet or even a card reader , IRDA webcam and fingerprint reader. Of course, its price takes it away from the pockets of many people, and it is currently available for a price of 3. 1015 euros, costing even 4. 396 euros.

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