CES 2023: Hands-on with MSI’s 49in OLED monitor, plus GPUs, routers and more!

After taking a look at new MSI laptops yesterday, today Leo and Luke got hands-on with some of the latest components from the Taiwanese giant. These included a range of graphics cards, peripherals, motherboards and more, with one or two surprises thrown in, like an EV charger and 49in QD-OLED monitor!

Watch via YouTube below:

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction
00:15 MSI PCIe 5.0 and PCIe 4.0 SSDs
02:03 New Mice and Keyboards
03:26 EV Charger
03:56 New AMD and Nvidia GPUs
05:52 MSI Routers / Adapters (wow!)
07:58 MEG 342C QD-OLED Monitor
08:39 MEG Trident X2 13th PC
09:53 49” QD-OLED Monitor (491C – 5120×1440 240hz)
10:58 Motherboards / Fans / Power Supply
13:26 Close out

First of all, Leo stopped by to check out MSI's newest Spatium SSDs. As expected, we got a look at a couple of PCIe Gen5 drives, with the Spatium M570 Pro offering speeds up to 12GBs read and 10GBs write, while the Spatium M570 (non-pro) is slightly slower with 10GBs read/write speeds. We're told both drives use Phison's latest Gen5 controller, but different NAND allows for different speeds – and presumably lower pricing for the non-Pro model.

Both drives have rather large heatsinks too, as we expect Gen5 SSDs to run rather warm – our team on the ground has heard rumours of about 20W of heat from the Phison controller so that requires some cooling. MSI has even configured a vapour chamber plate cooler for the new designs, with an internal aluminium heatsink.

Next the chaps took a look at some new peripherals, starting with the Vigor GK71 Sonic. This offers MSI's own-brand switches, with a choice of Red or Blue variants, and these look to be lower-cost than Cherry MX while offering a similar feel and 45g actuation. We also got a look at the GM51 Clutch Wireless, offering an 85g weight and textured grips known as ‘MSI Diamond Lightgrips'.

One surprise was the reveal that MSI is going to be producing an EV charger known as the MS-XP01 EV Premium offering, up to 13.2kW output. This will be manufactured entirely in-house at MSI and sports a 7in OLED panel to display charging status, while it is also IP55 certified. The MS-XP01 is slated to arrive in the J1772 standard for the US, and Type 1 or Type 2 for European markets.

Of course, MSI also had a range of graphics cards on show, including new RTX 4070 Ti models, and the rather tasteful Gaming X Trio White designs, which are aimed to tap into a growing trend for white hardware, which now has a marketshare of 10-20%. Interestingly, the 7900 XTX Gaming Trio Classic was on show, with MSI opting for a heatpipe cooler instead of a vapour chamber, which may be interesting considering the current drama around the AMD reference design. MSI was also showcasing the RTX 4090 Suprim Liquid X, which we reviewed back in October.

Perhaps one of the more eye-catching products on show, however, is the new range of routers from MSI. Known as the RadiX series, we're told these have a focus on QoS and actually use AI to reduce ping rate. That's alongside the fact the RadiX BE22000 Turbo model has movable antennae to offer the best possible coverage, and it is slated to support WiFi 7 either later this year or early next. We also got a look at the RadiX AXE6600, offering support for WiFi 6E, with an impressive cooling array too, being the world's first router to use heatpipes.

There were a couple of high-end QD-OLED monitors on show too, the first being the 175Hz 3440×1440 MEG 342C. With a suggested price of around $800, making this look like very good value considering the technology, it also sports an ambient light bar underneath the panel itself which can match the colours of whatever is being displayed on screen, without the need for any software.

Even more jaw-dropping is the 32:9 491C QD-OLED display. With a 5120×1440 resolution and massive 240Hz refresh rate, this looks like an absolute monster (and you can bet I'd love to get one in for a review!). The model shown at CES was an early prototype and was sadly non-functional for our visit, but on paper the spec is rather staggering. The stand and design are also quite elegantly done.

If you're in the market for a prebuilt gaming PC, MSI's MEG Trident X2 13th may appeal. The name suggests it uses Intel 13th Gen CPUs, specifically the 13900K, while it uses an inverted RTX 4090 graphics card that intakes air from the roof. The front panel is even home to a built-in touch screen that can be configured to control various PC functions to display system metrics such as temperature.

Rounding out the showcase, Leo took a look at some new B760 motherboards for Intel 13th Gen CPUs. MSI highlighted one Micro-ATX model, in the form of the Mortar Max WiFi, while the MAG B760 Tomahawk WiFi is a standard ATX board priced at $250. There was a mini-ITX board too, the MPG B760i Edge WiFi DDR4, with some large heatsinks on show. MSI was also demonstrating its variety of Silent Gale fans, alongside the MEG Ai1300P ATX 3.0/PCIe 5.0 power supply which we reviewed last year.

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KitGuru says: MSI sure makes a whole heap of products, but what most grabbed your attention from their CES 2023 showcase?

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