MSI PS42 8RB [PS42 8RB-205RU] (9S7-14B121-205)

Calmness and focus

MSI PS42 is not one of those devices that immediately amaze with bold design decisions. According to MSI designers, they sought to reflect calmness and concentration in the appearance of laptops. Therefore, the entire aluminium case, keyboard and interior are painted in one colour, and there are a minimum of identification marks on the case. To prevent calmness from slipping into boredom, the metal of the case has a texture that is pleasant to the touch, and a rather catchy radiator grille is located under the screen.

14" with ultrabook dimensions

What the new MSI PS42 captivates from the first minutes is its modest dimensions. Looking at the laptop, it is difficult to guess the model with a 14-inch display. This effect is achieved due to the minimal frames around the screen and a thin body. And it weighs less than many 13-inch models, only 1.19 kg. The screen itself is good not only with thin frames. The matrix is distinguished by high-quality uniform illumination and natural colour reproduction, which, if necessary, can be corrected using the MSI True Colour utility. Full HD resolution for a 14-inch screen is more than enough.

Eight-thread processor and powerful graphics card

Inside the compact case, a modern and performant hardware is hidden. The “heart” of the system is the energy-efficient eight-thread Intel Core i5-8250U. Paired with the processor is a discrete video accelerator GeForce MX150 with two gigabytes of its own memory. By ultrabook standards, this is a decent graphics card that will allow you to play FIFA or Fortnite after work. The RAM in this configuration of the laptop is 8 gigabytes. The SSD deserves special mention, which, thanks to the NVMe interface, provides a data read speed of 3000 MB / s.

A complete set of USB ports

MSI engineers deserve special praise for avoiding the common curse of compact laptops — a stingy set of interfaces. The MSI PS42 has 4 of them — two regular USB third versions and two USB-C each. Plus, there is HDMI, which ultrabook manufacturers usually cut out in order to save space. Now for the disadvantages. There are few of them and they concern ergonomics. The first is a smallish touchpad, which also has a fingerprint scanner. Given the small area of the laptop, working with it is not very convenient. The second claim may sound strange, but what can you do. Due to the nature of the hinge, this Ultrabook cannot be opened with one hand like most Ultrabooks. However, this is not so much a minus as a nitpick.