The MSI Modern 15 H is the company's 2024 refresh of its business and work-oriented laptop. Coming in at only 1.6kg, it’s easy to pick up and carry and this is a great selling point. Portability is key here and the Modern 15 H isn’t going to break your back if you intend to travel around with it.



Right out of the box, the Modern 15 H looks trendy. Users will immediately be impressed by how sleek and stylish the laptop is. It’s a remarkable 18.6mm thin but packs a lot of performance into its tiny body. This thin chassis also feels quite sturdy and seems like it could survive being thrown around a bit inside a bag.



The laptop display can be placed into a flat horizontal position which is great if you want to show other people something on its 14" FHD+ IPS-level screen. I do however wish that it could go the full distance and completely fold over into a tablet-esque mode but alas, that isn’t the case here. The display isn’t a touchscreen either and this might annoy some people who have gotten used to these kinds of displays on business laptops over the years.

It’s a remarkable 18.6mm thin but packs a lot of performance into its tiny body. This thin chassis also feels quite sturdy and seems like it could survive being thrown around a bit inside a bag.

The actual surface of the laptop could use some work. Within minutes of using it, I already noticed that the laptop is extremely prone to picking up fingerprints. MSI could have opted for a different finish on the chassis to prevent fingerprints and dust from being noticeable but they didn’t here. You may want to carry around some tissue paper to wipe this thing down after use because you will see a tonne of fingerprints on it in no time, even if your hands are clean. What were you thinking, MSI?



Moving onto the more important things though, the laptop is extremely powerful with Intel’s 13th generation Core i9-13900H doing all the heavy lifting here. Disappointingly, there is no dedicated NVIDIA or AMD GPU.

Instead, we have Intel’s Iris XE graphics handling the display adapter and graphics side of things. It’s always mind-boggling to me how manufacturers can cram a powerful processor and a lot of RAM into a tiny device and then neglect the fact that a dedicated GPU would immensely alter and benefit the device’s performance. Heck, even a laptop RTX 3050 would have even been appreciated here and would have made a world of difference to this laptop. Unfortunately for multi-tasking users, this laptop is definitely not meant for gaming. The Iris XE isn’t meant for hardcore gamers but it will run some older titles on low settings.



The laptop’s full specifications can be seen below:

CPU: Up to 13th Gen Intel® Core™ i9 Processor (Intel 13th gen Core i9-13900H)
OS: Windows 11 Home (MSI recommends Windows 11 Pro for business.)
Windows 11 Pro
Display: 14” FHD+ (1920x1200), IPS-Level
Graphics: Up to Intel® Iris® Xe graphics
I/O Ports:
1x Thunderbolt™ 4 (DisplayPort™/ Power Delivery 3.0)
3x Type-A USB3.2 Gen1
1x HDMI™ 2.1 (4K @ 60Hz)
1x RJ45
*Smart Card Reader is an optional feature
*SD Card Reader is an optional feature
*RJ45 is an optional feature
Memory: DDR4-3200
Max 64GB
2 Slots
Storage Capability: 1x M.2 SSD slot (NVMe PCIe Gen4)
Security: Firmware Trusted Platform Module(fTPM) 2.0
Webcam Shutter
Kensington Lock
Webcam: HD type (30fps@720p)
3D Noise Reduction (3DNR)
Keyboard: Single Backlit Keyboard (White)
Communication: Gb LAN
802.11 ax Wi-Fi 6E + Bluetooth v5.3
Audio: 2x 2W Speaker
Audio Jack: 1x Mic-in/Headphone-out Combo Jack
Sensor: 1x NFC (Optional)
x1 Fingerprint (Optional)
Battery: 3-Cell
39.3/53.8 Battery (Whr)
AC Adapter: 90W adapter
Dimension (WxDxH): 313.7 x 236 x 18.6 mm
Weight (w/ Battery): 1.6 kg
Color: Classic Black

Intel’s 13th generation i9-13900H is featured in the device and its raw processing power is great for work-related tasks. If you want to crunch some numbers in Microsoft Excel or need to do some CPU intensive work, the i9 will perform blisteringly fast as expected. To test this out, I ran Cinebench 2024’s CPU benchmarks. I first ran the test with the laptop on battery power to see how it would perform without the additional power from the power brick being supplied to it. I obtained the following result:



The result was disappointingly low since the CPU is heavily throttled without the extra juice flowing to it.

Next I tried the same benchmark test but with the laptop plugged in. As expected, the difference in performance was exponentially larger. You can see the score obtained below:



Running the single core benchmark yielded the following result and the ratio between the single and multi-core tests was 6.96. The laptop will therefore handle CPU intensive tasks with ease so long as it's plugged in.



The laptop features a 1TB Samsung NVME PCIe 4.0 drive which ensures a fast boot up sequence and it has 64GB of DDR4 RAM which is more than enough to handle any programmes that are RAM intensive such as Google Chrome or Adobe Photoshop. Unfortunately, it’s once again extremely perplexing as to why MSI made the decision to stick with DDR4 when their competitors have DDR5 RAM, even in some of their lower-tier laptop models. DDR5 RAM would have made more sense and been a more future-proof option ensuring greater longevity for the laptop.



The MSI Modern 15 H features some good I/O practice with the ports located in the right positions on the laptop’s chassis. The charging port is on the left corner in a great spot and there’s an HDMI port and a Type-C USB port as well as a headphone jack nearby. On the other side of the laptop there’s more USB ports and even a micro-SD card slot which is great to see. Bafflingly though, there is no ethernet port so if you want to use this laptop with a LAN cable, be sure to check that you’re purchasing the version that has an RJ45 port.



The IPS-level 14" inch screen has extremely thin bezels and the display itself is incredibly crisp and vibrant. As mentioned above, the screen can also be laid horizontally flat and this is an underrated feature in business laptops. Being able to place the laptop on a table completely flat while a presentation is open is great when trying to explain something to multiple people. The laptop’s IPS-level display also means that the viewing angle is quite large and there’s a dedicated button on the keyboard which flips the display image 180 degrees. This was a nice touch from MSI and something that I would use a lot during meetings.



The laptop’s keyboard is located right in the middle of the laptop with a full numpad included and the touchpad located beneath the spacebar. This is a fairly standard MSI laptop keyboard with white LED backlighting that can be dimmed and switched off (No RGB here). Typing on the keyboard felt good and I never really had any issues with the key placement or the touchpad placement. The touchpad is the right size and felt very responsive. The power button is located towards the back right and has a miniscule power indicator LED located on it.

The IPS-level 14" inch screen has extremely thin bezels and the display itself is incredibly crisp and vibrant.

The MSI Modern 15 H’s built-in speakers were adequate and delivered good quality sound but don’t expect it to be amazing. There’s only two 2W speakers here. If you want to have a better auditory experience, I would suggest using the built-in headphone jack and plugging in some wired headphones.



The MSI Modern 15 H’s battery life is quite good, coming in at around 6 to 8 hours of usage depending on what you’re doing with the laptop. If you’re running intensive software, the battery will drain faster. Thankfully, you’ll get around 50% worth of battery charge back in around 30 minutes of it being plugged into its charger. MSI have included their new “MSI Center” software on the device which allows you to monitor in real-time a variety of statistics regarding the laptop’s performance and more. MSI Center is a massive step up over their older Dragon Center software and is a lot more user-friendly.

Surprisingly, the laptop ships with very little bloatware installed onto it. This is a good thing since other competing brands often include a lot of unnecessary software that just eats up space and resources. The desktop wallpapers are set by default to artwork created by French artist Lorraine Sorlet which looks quite visually appealing.



Overall, the MSI Modern 15 H laptop is a good, no-nonsense laptop aimed at business professionals or non-gamer users that lives up to its name. The 1TB NVME, i9 CPU and 64GB RAM make for a formidable professional work laptop with a little bit of extra 'oomph' to get some heavier work tasks done. However, it is a bit hard to recommend it when competing brands and MSI themselves have laptop models that include a more powerful GPU and have DDR5 RAM instead in a similar price bracket. The MSI Modern 15 H laptop therefore falls into the category of “straight and to-the-point” business laptops. If that’s what you’re after then great, this is the laptop for you. For everyone else though, I suggest picking up a laptop from the MSI Cyborg range instead for more bang for your buck.