Review MSI S20-i541 UltraSlider Ultrabook

The chassis of the MSI S20-i541 UltraSlider is 302.6 millimeters wide, 196.1 millimeters long and 19.8 millimeters thick, making it somewhat smaller than the Toshiba U920t. This still feels clunky in comparison to a tablet or even the Acer W700 which measures no more than 12 millimeters in height.

The materials look more like plastic, although the base unit is supposedly made from aluminum. Unfortunately, the first impression solidifies itself once we touch the device. The white frame around the display shimmers slightly, trying to look like nacre - and failing miserably. The chassis comes with a silver finish which doesn't really fit the white display frame.

Its display is not torsion-resistant at all. Worse: Applying enough pressure from behind is actually sufficient to trigger the touchscreen. At least the sliding mechanism works well, running smoothly. Just a little push against the lower display boundary is enough to force the display back, sliding on two plastic rollers built into the base units. We are also quite impressed by the stiff display hinges which keep the screen safely in its current position. An angle of up to 90 degrees between the base unit and the display is possible.

The build quality of the base unit could be better. Some clearances are rather uneven, especially between the front of the keyboard and the rest of the case. As expected, the base unit is more torsion-resistant than the display, but it creaks noticeably.

Still, the test device rests comfortably in the hand. The rounded edges don't cut into the user's palms. It might be prudent to place the MSI S20 on the ball of the hand since 1160 grams can get unergonomically heavy when stabilized only with the wrist. The battery cannot be replaced and there is no option to connect an external battery to a battery port (such as with the Sony Vaio Duo 11).

Unfortunately, the brightness throttling issue of the S20 while running on battery prevents it from being truly recommendable for outdoor usage, especially in direct sunlight. But even a cloudy sky can be too bright if a wrong viewing angle on the highly reflective screen is chosen. Sitting directly in front of the laptop helps, with the S20 relying on its good contrast ratio. Still, even then a place in the shade might be preferable.

Unfortunately, the CPU performance doesn't manage to match our expectations. While up to 2.40 points could have been reached in the Cinebench R11.5 Multi-CPU benchmark, only 1.82 was measured. This is not due to throttling issues (the Turbo Boost works perfectly with up to 2.5 GHz), but possibly due to the single channel RAM. Even the Acer W700 with its throttling issues yields 2.18 points in the same test thanks to its dual channel RAM - the base frequency which also clocks at higher speeds than that of the S20. This results in a de-facto CPU performance similar to that of an older Core i3-350M. The S20 fares better in the less RAM-demanding wPrime benchmark, yielding similar results to a nominally slightly weaker Core i5-3317U. MSI has saved on the wrong things here - the S20 should definitely have shipped with dual channel RAM.

Waste heat management works reliably, enabling the CPU to always make use of its maximum clock speed during our stress tests. Only while running on battery is the processor clocked down to 2.0 GHz - which is still well within the Turbo Boost range.

MSI uses Intel's integrated HD Graphics 4000 solution. Such an onboard solution is never truly suited for gaming, but more than sufficient for web browsing, office usage and video playback.

The GPU works with a base clock speed of 350 MHz which increases to a constant Turbo Boost level of 1100 MHz under full load. Still, our benchmark results are sobering. When compared to its direct competitors, the MSI S20's GPU fares rather well, but only because Acer's HD 4000 is throttled while the U920t experiences the same single channel RAM problem as the S20 (at least clocking at 800 MHz instead of the S20's 667 MHz). If everything is done right, serious performance improvements are possible - as can be seen by taking a look at the well-performing Sony Vaio Duo 11.

The stress test is no challenge for the S20. GPU and memory clock speeds are always at the maximum. The only issue: The GPU gets up to 90 °C hot. Once this threshold is reached, a loud fan kicks in, cooling the GPU down to 87 °C. It then turns itself off, starting the cycle anew. While running on battery, the GPU is clocked down to its base speed of 350 MHz - leading to a corresponding drop in performance.

As expected, gaming performance is nothing to write home about. High-end games such as Crysis 3 never cease to stutter even with the lowest quality settings, being no fun at all. Only some less demanding, older titles work well with medium details. Of course, the performance is more than sufficient for all the simpler games - such as the pre-installed Pinball FX 2 app - which can be purchased in the Windows Store.

The waste heat management system works rather well, managing to dissipate all heat perfectly while idle, keeping all surface temperatures low. A maximum temperature of 28.6 °C is reached beneath the base unit, next to the CPU. This is also the hottest spot under full load, reaching up to 39.1 °C. Still, both the laptops made by Toshiba (up to 45.6 °C) and Acer (41.2 °C) get noticeably warmer.

The S20 is perfectly capable of handling a multi-hour combined stress test with Prime 95 and FurMark, getting hot (both CPU and GPU reached up to 96 °C during our test) but never crashing or exhibiting any throttling issues. The CPU was still clocked at almost 1900 MHz with the GPU sticking close to its maximum levels at 1050 MHz. Despite all this power, the convertible remains rather cool and silent. The cooling system works well enough so that a subsequent 3DMark06 run yielded the same results as if it had been performed right from the idle state.

The MSI S20-i541 UltraSlider leaves behind very ambivalent impressions. The specifications sound great on paper, but unfortunately, MSI has cheated a bit. The S20 ships with rather slow PC3-10600 DDR3 RAM in single channel mode as well as a sluggish SSD. Both reduce performance while probably increasing profit margins for MSI. The display seems to have been manufactured on the cheap as well - especially its greens come with a strong yellow tint. Its maximum brightness is limited to 233 cd/m² while running on battery and while this does not prevent outdoor usage, it complicates it. Unfortunately, build quality and choice of materials for the chassis are not perfect either.

That being said, for an RRP of 999 Euros (~$1291), the S20-i541 is an affordable convertible ultrabook which has more than enough power for all common applications. Both the Toshiba U920t (1249 Euros, ~$1614) and the Sony Vaio Duo 11 (1399 Euros, ~$1808) are much more expensive. If you don't mind the color rendition inaccuracies of the display and the mediocre build quality while requiring a device with decent battery life then the MSI S20-i541 might be exactly the right device for you. If you want to save even more, the great Acer W700-53334G12as with its stellar runtimes is highly recommendable.