MSI have a new 5K monitor in their Prestige series aimed at content creators, the PS341WU,
so let’s find out what’s on offer aside from a crazy high resolution in this detailed
review.
The Nano IPS panel is 34 inches with a 21 by 9 aspect ratio and runs with a 5K resolution,
ok well what they’re calling 5K2K, basically 5120 pixels across and 2160 pixels up, around
33% more pixels when compared to 4K. It’s just got a 60Hz refresh rate and 8ms GTG response
time, so obviously not for hardcore gamers, not that you could push many games high enough
at 5K anyway.
MSI claim that the monitor has 99.5% sRGB and 98% DCI-P3 coverage, in my testing with
the Spyder 5 I found 100% of sRGB, 84% of NTSC, and 89% of AdobeRGB, fairly good results.
MSI also list a typical contrast ratio of 1200:1, and I measured mine at 960:1. They
note that it’s got a 450 nit typical brightness and I found mine close to this when at 100%
in the center.
Ghosting isn’t something I am personally sensitive to, but you can see the differences
between normal, fast and fastest modes here.
Viewing angles were fine regardless of angle, MSI note that it’s good for up to 178 degrees
both horizontally and vertically.
As you may have noticed the screen is flat rather than curved. While that’s probably
going to be preferable in many cases for content creators, I noticed that I get used to curved
wide screen monitors quicker, it just feels like the corners are much closer and easier
to see.
The monitor is certified for DisplayHDR 600, and HDR content looked good to me. Well at
least better compared to not using HDR, though I still don’t have a great deal of experience
in this area, and it’s not really something I can show you, my camera isn’t recording
in HDR and you likely don’t have a HDR monitor to view the result anyway.
With HDR mode enabled it enables local dimming, there don’t appear to be many zones however
I didn’t see the count listed in the specs.
The bezels aren’t too thick, I measured them at around 1.2cm, though I honestly can’t
say I noticed them given how large the panel is.
Backlight bleed looked perfectly fine to me, I couldn’t see any issues with my own eyes,
but this will vary between monitor.
It’s not all just about the panel though, taking a look at the rest of the monitor it’s
got a metal matte white rectangular base and overall the stand seemed solid enough, it
kept the panel stable when bumping my desk. The stand connects to the back panel with
4 screws, it’s got a standard 100mm VESA mount so you can attach third party stands
or arms.
The back is all white plastic with a clean professional look. There’s a gold MSI logo
towards the corner, then on the bottom corner there are the buttons including a joystick
for OSD navigation, and a shortcut to the Creator OSD software, more on that shortly,
otherwise there’s also a Kensington lock here. The power button is found underneath
here below the screen.
The IO is on the back toward the bottom and faces down. From left to right there are two
HDMI 2.0 outputs, DisplayPort 1.4, Type-C DisplayPort, USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-B port which
is the input from your PC to use the rest of the Type-A ports, followed by a USB 3.2
Gen1 Type-A port, and 3.5mm audio jack.
In order to actually use the 5K resolution at 60Hz you have to either use DisplayPort,
or the Type-C port which is also DisplayPort, the HDMI port only supports up to 4K at 60Hz.
The power input is found towards the left, and there’s a clasp for holding the cables
in place, and this area gets hidden by a white plastic cover.
There are two more USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports on the left hand side of the screen, along
with mic in and headphone out, and even an SD card slot which was nice to see. You do
of course need that USB Type-B cable connected to the monitor, but at least this way I have
an SD card slot when using the P65 Creator laptop which is missing one. In terms of speed
while not able to take full advantage of my V90 card the results were acceptable.
The on screen display was easy to navigate in terms of finding different options, but
I wasn’t personally a fan of using the joystick behind the screen to move through the options.
No matter though, if you connect the included USB Type-B cable to your PC you can use MSI’s
Creator OSD software to manage all of these settings in Windows with the mouse once you
install it, much easier. I did however notice some issues with the software, some options
didn’t seem to work properly so hopefully this gets fixed in future.
Once installed you can access quickly open the software with the P button on the back
of the screen below the joystick, however you can also customize this as a macro button
between a few different options.
The monitor comes with a nice assortment of cables,
including Type-C, DisplayPort, HDMI, USB Type-B to A, audio cable and a power cable, no power
brick as the adapter is internal and built into the monitor.
There’s a few adjustments available, including -5 to 20 degrees of tilt, 35 degrees of swivel
in either direction, and between 0 and 100mm of height adjustment, no pivot here due to
how wide the screen is.
So far the monitor looks pretty good, but how was it to actually use day to day? It
definitely took a bit of getting used to coming from my 32” 4K monitor. The length wasn’t
really the issue, for me personally it was just that it’s flat so the far corners are
further away from my eyes.
Apart from that in just about every other aspect it looked great to me, it was definitely
bright enough and the colours looked excellent. Maybe my old monitor just sucks though. I
edited a couple of my videos using it and it went well, I stack a lot of windows side
by side so having the extra real estate was a nice bonus.
For updated pricing check the links in the description, as prices will change over time.
MSI have advised me that the monitor will go for $1300 USD, while here in Australia
we’re looking at $2300 AUD with availability in September. While definitely not cheap,
it’s offering some nice features for a monitor, granted I haven’t personally ever tested
any other 5K2K ultrawides yet so I don’t have too much to compare against just yet.
Overall I liked using it content creation, for me personally I think I’d prefer a curved
screen at this length, however if given the choice I’d happily keep it over my usual
32” 4K monitor, simply because of how much better everything on screen looked compared
to my older monitor, but also just the massive space of the 5K2K resolution.
Let me know what you thought of MSI’s Prestige PS341WU creator monitor down in the comments,
and also let me know if you’ve found any monitors that are great for video editing,
I’ve got a few more here to test out at the moment as I’m keen to work out what’s
best for me, so if you’re new here consider getting subscribed for those upcoming monitor
reviews.