MSI MPG 271QRX QD-OLED Monitor Review

The MSI 271QRX has a gamer-oriented aesthetic with a black plastic body. It has a square-based stand and RGB lighting at the back of the monitor.

The build quality is excellent. The monitor body is all plastic but feels very solid, and the back panel doesn't flex very much.

The ergonomics are fantastic. It has excellent height adjustment, so it's easy to place in your preferred position for a long gaming session. It also has a good swivel range, so it's easy to share your screen with someone else. The stand features a cutout for cable management.

The square-based stand holds the monitor effectively, and there's very little wobble.

The MSI MPG 271QRX has a joystick at the rear of the monitor to control the on-screen display, as well as a macro key and power button.

• HDMI cable
• USB-B to USB-A cable
• Power cable
• VESA wall-mount adapter screws
• Documentation

The MSI 271QRX doesn't come with a DisplayPort cable.

The MSI 271QRX has a near-infinite contrast ratio, as its QD-OLED panel can turn individual pixels on and off. However, in brighter environments, this monitor appears slightly purple instead of black when displaying very dark scenes. As a result, you'll want to minimize the amount of light shining on the monitor to get the best real-world contrast performance.

The monitor doesn't have a backlight, so it doesn't require a local dimming feature. However, with a near-infinite contrast ratio, there isn't any blooming around bright objects, and it's the equivalent of a perfect local dimming feature. We still film these videos on the monitor so you can see how the screen performs and compare it with a monitor that has local dimming.

The SDR brightness is adequate. It gets bright enough to fight glare in rooms with a few lights, though it can't overcome glare if a bright light shines directly on the monitor. It's best used in a darker environment anyway, as deep blacks appear slightly purple when enough light shines on the display. These results are from after calibration in the 'User' Game Mode with the Brightness at its max, Pixel Shift set to 'Slow,' and Static Screen Detection turned 'Off.'

The MSI 271QRX has okay HDR brightness. Very small highlights pop against the rest of the image, though larger highlights don't. The EOTF follows the target curve well, though it has a roll-off near peak brightness, so highlights don't get as bright as they could.

These results are in the 'Peak 1000 nits' DisplayHDR mode, which lets it get bright, but it has an aggressive ABL. If you prefer more consistent brightness, you can also use the 'True Black 400' DisplayHDR mode, for which you can see the results below. It doesn't get as bright, but there's much less variation in brightness across different content.

The horizontal viewing angle is exceptional. The image remains consistent from any angle without inconsistencies, and you can easily share your screen with someone else.

The vertical viewing angle is exceptional, and you won't notice any inconsistencies when standing up and looking down at the monitor.

The MSI 271QRX has superb gray uniformity. The entire screen is extremely uniform, and you won't notice any variation in brightness across the screen.

The monitor has perfect black uniformity. Thanks to its OLED panel, it can turn individual pixels on and off, and there isn't any blooming around bright objects.

The accuracy before calibration in the sRGB mode is great. While some colors are oversaturated, the overall color accuracy is excellent. Additionally, while the color temperature is a bit warm, the white balance is superb. Finally, very dark and very bright scenes are too dark.

However, using the sRGB mode locks some settings like the Contrast and Color Temperature. You have to use another mode to unlock those settings, though other picture modes are less accurate before calibration, as you can see here.

The MSI 271QRX has fantastic accuracy after calibration, and you won't notice any inaccuracies.

The SDR color gamut is fantastic. It fully displays all colors in the sRGB space. It also has excellent coverage of the Adobe RGB space. However, red and green colors are both inaccurate in Adobe RGB, which isn't ideal if you're editing content with those colors.

The HDR color gamut is exceptional. It displays the full range of colors in DCI-P3 and a wide range of colors in Rec. 2020. It performs similarly even after updating it to firmware FW.010, which MSI advertises to fix any gamut clamping, and there isn't a significant difference.

The monitor has an excellent HDR color volume. Colors look exceptionally vivid, and the monitor displays dark and bright colors extremely well.

The text clarity is decent, though it's not as good as some other 27-inch 1440p monitors. This is because of the monitor's triangular subpixel arrangement. Enabling Windows ClearType (top photo) improves the boldness of letters. These photos are in Windows 10, and you can also see them in Windows 11 with ClearType on and with ClearType off.

Due to the triangular subpixel layout, there's some color fringing around letters and at the edge of windows, though it's hard to see unless you look closely at the monitor. Although we didn't experience any eye strain during testing, this changes from person to person, and it depends on how sensitive you are to this subpixel layout.

The reflection handling is incredible. The glossy screen coating reduces glare extremely well while maintaining a clear image. That said, strong ambient light causes the black levels to rise, making blacks look purple, which is a known downside of QD-OLEDs.

The monitor has outstanding gradient handling, and you won't see any banding in scenes with shades of a similar color.

After firmware update FW.010, which MSI released in May 2024, you can now enable or display Display Stream Compression (DSC). With it on, you can select a 60Hz, 240Hz, or 360Hz refresh rate over a DisplayPort connection with the monitor's native resolution. Without this update, DSC is always on, and this prevents NVIDIA's deep learning dynamic super resolution (DLDSR) and dynamic super resolution (DSR) technologies from working properly, which can reduce image quality if you would normally use DLDSR/DSR.

On top of supporting FreeSync VRR and G-SYNC compatibility, it also supports HDMI Forum VRR.

The MSI MPG 271QRX has outstanding motion handling across its entire refresh rate range with VRR enabled. CAD remains low throughout and there's minimal blur with fast-moving objects.

The refresh rate compliance is outstanding. As it has a near-instantaneous response time, it makes full color transitions before drawing the next frame.

The CAD at the maximum refresh rate is outstanding. It displays fast-moving objects as intended and motion is extremely sharp.

The CAD at 120Hz is outstanding. Pixels transition to their target RGB level almost instantly, so there isn't any blur trail or noticeable inverse ghosting.

The CAD at 60Hz is outstanding. Pixels transition colors almost perfectly, and any noticeable blur is persistence.

The monitor doesn't have an optional black frame insertion feature to reduce persistence blur further.

The MSI MPG 271QRX has noticeable VRR flicker with changing frame rates, and it's especially noticeable in dark scenes and dark areas of brighter scenes. This can be distracting while gaming, but it's common with most OLEDs and isn't a problem if your PC can maintain a consistent frame rate. Although MSI released firmware update FW.010 on May 6, 2024, to reduce this VRR flicker, it doesn't improve it.

The backlight isn't technically flicker-free because it has a slight dip in brightness that corresponds to the 360Hz refresh rate. However, it isn't considered pulse-width modulation like on LED-backlit monitors because it isn't a full-screen on-and-off flicker, and you won't notice it.

The MSI MPG 271QRX has very low input lag as long as you have the firmware updated to FW.011, which MSI released in July 2024. Before this update, the input lag increased a lot more at 120Hz and 60Hz, especially with VRR disabled, and it changed depending on the combination of settings used, as you can see here. After the update, the input lag remains low regardless of the combination of settings or connection you use, including if you use VRR or DSC.

The MSI MPG 271QRX works well with the PS5 and supports all the console's features, as long as you have Console Mode enabled. It can also downscale 4k signals, which results in a more detailed image than native 1440p.

The MSI MPG 271QRX works well with the Xbox Series X|S and supports all the console's features as long as you have Console Mode enabled. This includes downscaling a 4k signal so you can use HDR with the Xbox, as the console doesn't support HDR with 1080p and 1440p signals.

With the USB-C port, you can connect your laptop and charge it simultaneously, as the 90W of power delivery is enough to charge most laptops while they're running.

The MSI MPG 271QRX works well with macOS. HDR works properly, and the Automatic Brightness Limiter (ABL) doesn't cause noticeable problems during desktop use. The KVM switch also works well, even when switching between a macOS device and a PC, and automatically switches between devices in 2-3 seconds if one computer goes to sleep. When using a MacBook, windows return to their original position when waking the laptop up from sleep.

The MSI MPG 271QRX has several extra features to improve the user experience. It has a KVM switch that makes it easy to switch between sources and use the same keyboard and mouse connected to the monitor. It works well and is responsive even if changing sources takes a couple of seconds.

As with other OLED panels, this monitor has a few settings to help mitigate the risk of permanent burn-in when exposed to the same static elements over time. Some of these include:

• Pixel Shift: This moves the image a few pixels at a time so that each pixel isn't always displaying the same thing. You can set it to 'Slow,' 'Normal', or 'Fast'.
• Multi Logo Detection: Reduces the brightness of static elements, like logos, that stay on the screen for a long time.
• Panel Protect: This feature activates a pixel refresh cycle to reduce the risk of permanent burn-in. A message pops up every four hours of usage to run the cycle, which takes a couple of minutes to complete. However, the message can pop up at any time, including while you're gaming. You can adjust the feature to activate after 16 hours instead of 4, though this may make your screen more prone to burn-in.

The monitor has some other extra features, including:

• Mystic Light: A soft ambient light that you can sync with other Mystic Light products.
• HDMI CEC: It supports the HDMI CEC standard, so it will automatically turn on when you power up compatible devices like consoles.
• Smart Crosshair and Optix Scope: These are two different settings for various crosshairs and scope features, making it easier to see opponents in games. Your games' anti-cheating tools won't detect it, giving you a competitive advantage.