MSI MPG 271QRX QD-OLED review: Super-fast OLED gaming ahoy

All the 27in OLED gaming monitors we’ve looked at recently are similar in performance and price. There’s a good reason for that: many of them, including the AOC Agon Pro AG276QZD, the Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQDM and the LG UltraGear 27GR95QE OLED, use the same LG-made 27in, 2,560 x 1,440, 240Hz W-OLED panel.

MSI’s MPG 271QRX QD-OLED, however, uses a Samsung Quantum Dot OLED panel. Despite the size and resolution being the same as the opposition’s, the refresh rate is higher, at 360Hz rather than 240Hz. That makes it state-of-the-art when it comes to OLED gaming displays, and it has a price to match, but does that justify that premium? Let’s find out.

MSI MPG 271QRX QD-OLED review: What do you get for your money?

While the 271QRX is not a cheap monitor – the launch price is £999, which is a lot for a 27in screen – it feels and looks like a high-quality piece of machinery.

The panel is only 5mm deep thanks to all the electronics being confined to a 45mm deep box that sits well inboard. The side and bottom bezels are relatively broad at 9mm and 15mm, and an ultra-narrow top bezel of just 6mm plays a visual trick to make the entire surround seem thinner than it actually is.

The rear of the monitor and the stand are both largely plastic, but they are solid and squeak-free, and at 8.3kg, the whole thing has a fair amount of heft to it.

It’s nicely minimalist, too, at least as far as gaming monitors are concerned, the only lighting effect being the static red MSI logo on the back of the cabinet. It’s purely cosmetic. You can turn the light off in the settings menu, but you can’t see it from the front anyway.

The 271QRX doesn’t have built-in speakers and I’m conflicted about it. On the one hand, a good set of external speakers will sound much better than anything built-in, but on the other hand, charging this much and not ponying up for a sound system seems like a bit of a cheek.

MSI hasn’t skimped on the adjustability, though, with the MPG 271QRX offering 90-degrees of left and right pivot, 30-degrees of left and right swivel, -5/+15-degree tilt and a healthy 110mm of height adjustment.

It’s an easy-to-use monitor, too, with all the controls grouped together below the centre of the screen. These take the form of a small five-way joystick and two push buttons, one on either side of the joystick: the left for power and the right for a range of user-programmable tasks. Usefully, the four compass point movements of the joystick are also user-programmable.

It’s a well-planned and easy-to-master arrangement with only one small problem: you need to keep some clear space below the joystick. I had to continually move my soundbar and keyboard to use it for anything other than quick shortcut inputs.

Thankfully, you can also control the monitor via MSI’s Gaming Intelligence app, which lets you manage the system from the Windows desktop. As monitor control apps go, Gaming Intelligence is impressive and offers a range of features like managing the speed of your mouse or creating bespoke user display profiles with, for example, different contrast, brightness or gamma levels. Some of these features are not available through the OSD menu so downloading Gaming Intelligence is certainly worth doing.

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MSI MPG 271QRX QD-OLED review: What connections does it have?

As is typical of the breed, all the ports are tucked away at the back, facing downwards. The selection is good, with two HDMI 2.1 and one DisplayPort 1.4 video inputs, accompanied by a DP Alt Mode USB-C port supporting 90W PD charging, two 5Gbit/sec USB-A ports and a similar speed USB-B port.

That lineup indicates the 271QRX supports proper KVM implementation, meaning you can connect two sources and jump between them using the same keyboard and mouse, and if one of those sources is a laptop, charge it simultaneously. In fact, the  wide range of user-programmable options for the joystick makes setting this system up very straightforward. On this front, the MPG 271QRX puts many high-end office monitors to shame.

Another unusual feature for a gaming monitor, is picture-in-picture and picture-by-picture modes, ideally though, you need more space for the former than a 27in panel can offer.

MSI MPG 271QRX QD-OLED review: How good is the image quality?

The first thing you’ll notice about the new MSI is how supremely crisp small text appears. This is because the sub-pixel arrangement in Samsung-made QD-OLED panels more closely conforms to what Windows expects than that in LG’s WOLED panels as used in the competition from Agon, LG and Asus ROG.

The result is text clarity closer to a high-quality IPS display. For gaming use, this is not much of an issue – you have to look really, really closely at a WOLED screen to notice the slightly fuzzy edges – but if you need a display for really detailed work as well as gaming, the extra clarity of the Samsung-made panel is worth considering.

The new MSI does well when it comes to colour and brightness levels, too. In fact, the performance for an OLED display is nothing less than outstanding.

The broad gamut volumes of 139.6% sRGB, 96.2% for AdobeRGB, and 98.9% for DCI-P3 are matched by exceptional levels of accuracy. Using the monitor’s built-in DisplayP3, sRGB and Adobe RGB colour profiles, the 271QRX recorded Delta E variances of just 0.95, 0.76 and 1.27, respectively. These are exceptionally strong results.

In SDR mode brightness varied slightly depending on the colour profile. Recordings were 254cd/m2 in DisplayP3 mode, 245cd/m2 in AdobeRGB, and 255cd/m2 in sRGB. The 271QRX has two HDR modes: TrueBlack 400 and Peak 1000. Maximum brightness from a 10% screen area peaked at 455cd/m2 in the former mode and 989cd/m2 in the latter.

Like most OLED monitors, the 271QRX has an automatic brightness limiter, which kicks in as the amount of bright content increases. It’s surprisingly unobtrusive, though, so you seldom get surprised by a sharp change in brightness as you transition from dark to bright scenes.

Which HDR mode you use will be a matter of personal choice. In Peak 1000, you benefit from superb levels of contrast and a punchy image, while in TrueBlack 400, there’s less black crush and, hence a little more detail. It was always Peak 1000 for me, but your mileage may differ. Either way, it’s great to have a choice.

The monitor performs brilliantly elsewhere, too. Its 360Hz refresh rate and 0.03s GtG response time mean motion handling is hugely impressive – there isn’t even a hint of ghosting or smearing. The 271QRX is absolutely a tournament-grade bit of kit.

Panel uniformity is also superb, with minimal variance across the 25 brightness and ISO 14861 swatches.

Regarding adaptive sync, the MPG 271QRX is certified for AMD FreeSync Premium Pro but worked equally well with Nvidia’s G-Sync. Thanks to the HDMI 2.1 rating, there aren’t any tearing issues with the latest generation consoles.

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MSI MPG 271QRX QD-OLED review: Are there any other features I should know about?

The MPG 271QRX has a healthy range of gaming extras, including six styles of smart crosshair and a sniper scope that can be adjusted between three sizes and magnification levels. Two points to note about the sniper scope: one, it’s cheating; two, you have to disable active sync to use it.

There’s also a four-level night vision setting and a separate effect called AI Vision. This smart night vision setting adjusts the contrast on the fly to give you a better view of things lurking in dark corners.

Lastly, there’s a handy countdown-cum-alarm clock, which can be set to any time up to 100 minutes and located anywhere on the screen.

The new MSI also comes loaded with OLED panel care features. Open the MSI OLED Care menu, and you’ll find settings such as Pixel Shift, Panel Protect, Static Screen Detection, Multi Logo Detection, Taskbar Detection and Boundary Detection. The detection modes analyse when the screen has been showing a static element for a long time and dim it to reduce the chances of burn-in.

Pixel Shift as the name suggests works by shifting individual pixels across the whole screen to ensure any one pixel isn’t shining too brightly for too long. Panel Protect, meanwhile, is a panel refresh feature that can’t be turned off so it’s worth keeping an eye on when it’s next due to run and, if that’s going to coincide with something important, run it manually beforehand. Incidentally, MSI offers a full three-year guarantee against burn-in issues, so it’s clearly confident in its suite of protective features.

MSI MPG 271QRX QD-OLED review: Should you buy it?

The new MPG 271QRX QD-OLED is undoubtedly a very impressive monitor. It’s fast, sharp, colourful and has a great range of features. The issue is price. Being new, the MPG 271QRX QD-OLED still costs close to the manufacturer’s recommended RRP of £999.

At the time of writing, the AOC Agon Pro AG276QZD can be picked up for £650, while plagued by an intermittent supply, the LG UltraGear 27GR95QE is £999 and the Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQDM is £779. None of the trio can match the MSI’s blistering refresh rate, nor are they quite as feature-laden, but for the average gamer they are more than up to the job.

It’s also worth noting that Alienware makes a 360Hz OLED monitor using the same Samsung QD-OLED panel as the MPG 271QRX, which we’ve yet to test. It will only set you back £779.

With the cheaper competition to one side, I can’t imagine anyone feeling short-changed if they buy the new MSI. In every way, it’s a thoroughly high-end monitor and worth every penny.