CES 2020 | MSI Creator 17 will introduce mini-LED backlighting, gets recognized for the “Digital Imaging or Photography” CES innovation award

Teased late last month, the upcoming MSI Creator 17 is essentially the MSI P75 Creator but with a different name. Both models share the same chassis, ports, and core internal motherboard components. Instead, the main difference between them lie in their displays as the Creator 17 will utilize mini-LED backlighting for the first time in a laptop form factor.

When compared to "large" conventional LEDs, mini LEDs will allow for improved localized dimming, better brightness uniformity, and an overall brighter display since there are more individual LEDs per square area. On TV's, for example, mini LEDs can be just tenths of a millimeter in width. As of a result of these advantages, MSI is promising both HDR1000 4K UHD certification and full DCI-P3 coverage on the upcoming Creator 17 for the first time on a laptop. MSI's implementation of mini LEDs has won it the honoree of the CES 2020 "Digital Imaging or Photography" award.

We suspect that the technology won't be exclusive to MSI and that more laptop OEMs will utilize mini LEDs in the future. A potential drawback to mini LEDs is that the chance of receiving a "dead" LED could be higher since there are now more individual LEDs behind the display. Still, it's great to see MSI being the catalyst for advanced display technologies on laptops and not just Samsung.

The Creator 17 should not be confused with the already available Creator 17M that utilizes a different chassis design.