Msi prestige ps341wu review in Spanish (full analysis)

MSI presented at Computex 2019 its new Prestige line of desktop, and we have with us the MSI Prestige PS341WU, the top of the range monitor for professional design. This monitor makes an ideal match with the MSI Prestige P100 9th, although we analyze it in another separate article that you will have here.

This impressive monitor not only stands out for its elegant and refined design and ultra-panoramic format. Additionally, it has 5K resolution (5120 × 2160 UW5K) on a 34-inch Nano IPS panel with no curvature. The MSI proposal offers 98% DCI-P3 and HDR 600 and USB-C connectivity although without Thunderbolt. Let's start with our analysis!

But first, we thank MSI for trusting us by giving us this impressive desktop setup for our analysis.

MSI Prestige PS341WU technical features

Unboxing

Unlike the PC Prestige, MSI does provide a great presentation for the MSI Prestige PS341WU. For this, it has used a long and very narrow rigid cardboard box with the exact measurements of the monitor, at least to improve portability. The entire exterior area is covered by a vinyl-style white print with the corresponding photos of the equipment, as well as its main characteristics.

The opening of the bundle is made at the top, where we will find a double expanded polystyrene cork mold that holds the screen in the central part. Throughout the periphery we have the necessary holes for the different elements, such as the base or trims.

So the bundle is made up of the following elements:

• Monitor MSI Prestige PS341WU Base Support arm Rear bezel HDMI and DisplayPort cables USB-C cable USB-B to USB-A data connector Audio jack Splitter Mounting and instruction manual

Keep in mind that this time the monitor comes completely disassembled, so we will have to spend a few minutes putting the whole puzzle together. Something that strikes us is that this unit at least does not come with the calibration report.

Premium exterior design

First, we will study in detail the design of the MSI Prestige PS341WU, which is one of its strengths.

Base

We start with the base and its assembly, since it is the first thing we will have to do when the monitor comes home.

The system is basically made up of three elements. The first will be the base of support on the floor, which is completely metallic and solid in a rectangular configuration with the hole to put the support right in the back area. Of course it has its respective rubbers to support it on sensitive surfaces.

The next element is the support column, which is also made of metal although the white outer casing is made of plastic so that it can be removed. It is completely cylindrical and has a hydraulic system to move the monitor.

Finally we have a beautifier for the area where the screen is attached to the support, which we will have to place at the end of the process.

And here would be the mounted base and in all its splendor. The system remains fully integrated in a fucking white color with a very minimalist design to delight the user. The column will be attached to the base using a single hand thread screw, and features a movable turning mechanism.

On the part of the support for the screen, the truth is that it is somewhat flimsy. Both wanted to refine the design and in the end this support does not prevent an easy wobble of a screen as wide as this one. Perhaps it is the weak point of the configuration for stability. Of course it implements a mechanism to rotate the screen in orientation, and a VESA type support of 100 x 100 mm

The system of attachment of the monitor to its base is not the typical one that MSI has in gaming. In this case we do have to use 4 star screws. And finally, we will place the bezel before seen and everything will be perfect to use.

Screen and set

The screen of the MSI Prestige PS341WU does not have any type of curvature, something that undoubtedly benefits the needs of designers, by not introducing distortion in the image. What we do have is a clearly Ultra panoramic design in 21: 9 format that, among other things, will allow us to watch movies without the black bands.

As in other similar models of the manufacturer, the physical frames are practically non-existent, especially if we consider their white color. It will be the panel itself that gives us those frames of about 7 mm on all edges, including the bottom and this is great for the final premium finish. The anti-reflective finish is of very good quality as expected.

The rear area of ​​the monitor is made of plastic, on a very smooth full plate with a slight curvature to improve both design and thinness. In fact, the screen is only about 6 cm thick, with the top area finished in a grid to remove heat by natural convection. The lower part is also disassembled to expose all the video ports, which we will see next.

Ergonomics

Regarding the ergonomics of the MSI Prestige PS341WU, we always have movement in all three directions of space.

The hydraulic arm allows us to position the monitor so low that it will almost touch the ground. In this way the range of movement is 100 mm from both positions. The truth is that the arm could hold a little more, at least up to 130 mm, but in this case 100 mm is fine.

Regarding the z axis, the arm can be rotated a total of 35 ° to the right and another 35 ° to the left. The hinge is at the base, and there would be no point in giving it more spin because of the large width of the screen.

Finally we can manipulate the vertical orientation of the screen at an angle of 20 ° degrees up and -5 ° down. More or less the standard movement of such a monitor.

Connection ports

We go to the rear of the MSI Prestige PS341WU, but also lateral, since it has two areas with ports that we will now detail.

The main area we will have as always below, this time protected by a plastic casing that we will remove for this purpose. Here we find the following:

• Three-pin 230V power connector 2x HDMI 2.0 DisplayPort 1.4USB Type-C with Display Port 1.4USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-B1x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-AJack 3.5mm combo for audio and micro

In this place we have all the video connectors available from the monitor, in addition to the power and the USB-B that will be used for normal USB ports. We must bear in mind that the Type-C is not a Thunderbolt, this monitor does not have it.

At this point, it is important to know what capacity each connector has in terms of resolution. For starters, the DisplayPort 1.4, both USB-C and full size support a resolution of 5120 × 2160 @ 60 Hz, while the HDMI connector only supports 3840 × 2160 @ 60 Hz resolution. If we want to use the maximum capacity, then we will opt for a DisplayPort, of course.

In this area we also have a small clamp to route the cables that connect to the monitor, which makes them come out perfectly ordered through the hole in the housing.

We still have the left side area, where we have:

• 3x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A 3.5mm SD2x Jack Card Reader for Separate Audio and Micro

It seems to us a perfect choice to have all the main data ports available on this side, since it will be much more comfortable to connect our flash drives. In addition, the SD card reader will be great to pass the photos from our camera directly to the PC, provided that we have the USB-B connected.

Display and features

We continue with the specifications section of the MSI Prestige PS341WU monitor, which being a design monitor, it will be quite important to know it thoroughly.

We are facing a monitor with a 34-inch screen with nano IPS technology and ultra panoramic design, which means that its image format is 21: 9. Native resolution is one of its main claims, offering nothing less than 5120x2160p or what is the same, 5K2K WUHD, putting almost all the video support of our PC. This makes the pixel pitch or pixel size to be 0.1554 × 0.1554 mm, more or less similar to what a 27-inch would be with 4K resolution, making it a fairly high density.

This monitor is not for gaming, but for design, and for this reason it offers us a standard refresh rate of 60 Hz for its maximum resolution, together with a response time of 8 ms green to green (GTG). The nano IPS technology will offer us a priori optimal performance for precision work, since it has particles capable of filtering light waves, especially in relation to the color red and its tones. We have a pretty good 1200: 1 contrast and a typical brightness of 450 nits. But it also has DisplayHDR 600 certification, so the maximum brightness will offer peaks of 600 nits.

As for specific design features, we have a native 10-bit color depth (1.07 billion colors). This is in addition to its ability to cover 98% of the video-oriented DCI-P3 color space, and 100% of the photography-oriented sRGB. It does not specify its capacity for Adobe RGB, an important space for designers, although later in the calibration we will see all this in detail. Nor could they lack excellent viewing angles of 178 ⁰ both vertically and horizontally.

The MSI Prestige PS341WU also offers us interesting solutions for versatility in addition to the USB stations. Integrated in the OSD we have the PIP mode, with which we can place a second signal in the form of a window in the corner on the main video signal. As well as the PBP mode, to place two video signals on the same screen simultaneously, come on, what has been a split screen. To this we add MSI's own utilities such as OSD Creator, which gives us extra options to manage the monitor directly from the operating system.

Calibration and color proofing

To see in a practical way the pure performance of the MSI Prestige PS341WU and its color calibration, we are going to carry out a series of tests with our X-Rite Colormunki Display colorimeter and the HCFR and DisplayCAL 3 programs, both free and free to use.

All tests have been carried out with the factory monitor settings, we have only modified the brightness up to 200 nits for final profiling and calibration.

Brightness and Contrast

To carry out these brightness tests we have set the brightness to the maximum with HDR activated and deactivated in search of the maximum benefits for its use.

Measurements	Contrast	Gamma value	Color temperature	Black level
@ 100% gloss	1205: 1	2.22	7093K	0.3013 cd / m 2
@ HDR10	1223: 1	1.92	7045K	0.3738 cd / m 2

Without HDR

With HDR

First of all, we have the table with the different main values ​​of the monitor in both normal and HDR mode. We observe that the contrast is perfectly adjusted to the specifications as is the gamma value, especially in normal mode. The color temperature is slightly above the fucking D65, while the black depth is very good even at maximum brightness, never exceeding 0.5 nits.

On the other hand, we see that the uniformity of the panel is not entirely optimal, since we observe how in the far left the light output drops approximately 100 nits with respect to the central part, the most powerful at 430 nits. In the second capture we have the HDR mode, which we have activated from the OSD panel of the monitor with the maximum brightness. And the truth is that we have not seen those promised 600 nits, which is because the analysis model is experimental and not completely polished. In any case, the maximum brightness does not exceed 500 nits, and we expected better results in this regard.

SRGB color space

We start as usual with the sRGB space, which offers a medium range of colors and is oriented to graphic design and photography. It is the easiest to cover because it is the smallest. And in this case, the mean Delta E value recorded in Diplay CAL is 2.48, when it should be below 2. We see a palette with very good gray values, which is very good, although higher in saturated tones.

We can see that the space is fulfilled without major problems by 100%, and is expanded to 143% in its maximum volume. In the case of Adobe RGB, the calibration has shown a coverage of 82.4%, which is not bad at all being a fairly demanding space.

Finally, the color curves more or less reflect what we saw in the previous table, a somewhat high color temperature, a fairly good average gamma and in general a very good RGB adjustment that can still be polished with a calibration.

DCI-P3 color space

The DCI-P3 color space is more demanding than the previous one, with a much wider range that in this monitor has yielded a coverage of 97.7%, practically nailing the specifications. Similarly, the Delta E adjustment of this space is much better than the previous one, with an average of 1.64 only exceeded in some blue tones.

We continue with the graphic curves that are even better in adjustment than in the previous case, although there are obviously repeating results such as color temperature or RGB levels, identical for all spaces.

Curves in HDR mode

In HDR mode, the monitor setting raises the contrast to 60%, the sharpness value to 2 instead of 0 and of course the brightness at maximum. What this allows is to achieve a slightly higher contrast to keep the calibration as correct as possible at a very high brightness.

And as we see in these curves, we are practically in the same cases as before. The gamma is lower, we already know this from the previous table, and the color temperature also adjusts a little better. While the black and white level is quite good, although it does not follow an ideal straight line.

Calibration

Finally, we are going to carry out a calibration for the MSI Prestige PS341WU providing the final data of the delta values ​​for the checked spaces.

We have been able to do the profiling without any problem and the calibration has been carried out at around 200 nits, an average value of brightness good both for day and night in dimly lit environments. In either case, the values ​​will still be just as good, even if we raise the brightness, as the color profile adjusts the mathematical values ​​for the entire dynamic range. Of course it has been done at a depth of 10 bits.

We can see that in both cases the average Delta E has decreased to less than 1, which means that the colors shown match very well with the colors of an ideal profile for those spaces.

Next, we leave you the ICC calibration file to upload to your computer if you have this monitor.

• ICC file

Software Creator OSD

This program will not be missing if we buy this monitor, since it is basically an extension of the OSD panel of the monitor transferred to the operating system. We will only have to connect the monitor with USB-B to our PC and install the software.

It offers us a fairly wide range of functions, among which we see the basic parameters of the monitor, such as brightness, contrast, sharpness or color temperatures. We can even modify the levels of color saturation in the 6 axes that the monitor allows (RGBCYM). Also PIP and PBP modes will be available from this window, along with grids to divide the screen into zones and guide us better.

The tools section is a little more generic, being able to modify the DPI of the mouse to adjust it to our liking, activate the on-screen keyboard or other typical Windows functions such as screen sharing. In the configuration section we can choose the video source and even modify the size of the OSD or the waiting time.

OSD panel

In addition to the software that we have seen before, we have the integrated OSD panel of the MSI Prestige PS341WU, which we can manage very easily using a single joystick that allows complete navigation on it.

Likewise, if we directly move this control to the right, up or down, we will obtain three quick menus to change the video source, program an alarm or modify certain display parameters, such as rules, meshes, etc.

The main OSD is quite complete, divided into a total of 6 sections. Of these, the most important will undoubtedly be the image or configuration. Likewise, the PIP and PBP menu will be available as long as we have two video sources connected.

The interaction may not be entirely intuitive in the sense of modifying parameters, since we will have to press the joystick to confirm the changes, otherwise the bar to be modified will return to its previous state. In any case, it is very complete, very well designed and with everything necessary for the user.

User experience

After a few days of use, these are the feelings that this MSI Prestige PS341WU brings me .

Built for design

Perhaps it does not have such extreme benefits as for example the Asus PA32UCX, but its price is not so high for what it offers us. As we have already mentioned, its main claim is to have a resolution of no less than 5K, with an IPS panel of an enormous quality and that perfectly meets all its specifications… except brightness, at least in this unit.

We do not have DisplayHDR 1000, although it is not something extremely necessary for a designer as quality in color representation is, and we do have that with the nano IPS panel. We have lacked greater coverage in Adobe RGB, a space that many graphic designers do use, although we have more than 80%, which is very satisfactory.

Likewise, the ultra panoramic format is perfect for using CAD / CAM / BIM programs of architectural design, where size and resolution are very important for precision. I can only get one cons, and it is that specifically in Windows 10, the representation of characters is not too good, so we would have to pull the own image calibration wizard to try to adjust this and improve the experience.

Few gaming features

Of course, playing at 5K resolution on a monitor of this size is a real joy. If your thing is to dedicate yourself to creating gaming content for social networks, go ahead, in short, you can choose any resolution to play and improve those FPS, but the limitation is set by the monitor with its 60 Hz.

Enjoying games that are not competitive is guaranteed, but if ours is to compete and record our exploits against other players, then yes or yes we will have to go to one of 144 Hz or more and a much more discreet resolution. This monitor would not make any sense here except to have a large desk to do everything.

Final words and conclusion about MSI Prestige PS341WU

Anyone would love to lay hands on such a wonder. The MSI Prestige PS341WU is one of the best monitors MSI has ever made for designers, and now with 5K resolution and a huge 34-inch ultra-wide desktop.

All this with an exquisite design in pure white and simple lines that can not give more to give it that premium style it deserves. And they have simplified them so much that, in the end , the screen support is not very rigid and it wobbles with very little. Ergonomics is at a great level and we have perfectly located USB ports for greater user ease.

Perhaps we are missing a Thunderbolt 3, widely used in professional environments for example to connect the monitor to compatible laptops. The USB-C that it has, at least it does have DisplayPort 1.4, so we can work in the native 5K resolution. PIP and PBP mode is also very useful for working with different video sources.

Visit our updated guide to the best PC monitors on the market

Regarding the benefits of the Nano IPS panel, they are practically impeccable. It fulfills everything it promises, with a perfect calibration and great coverage in the most used spaces, although we did not reach that 90% in Adobe RGB. Only the brightness has failed us a little, not exceeding 500 nits in HDR. This does not mar the great quality in the colors and the great sharpness when having pixels smaller than 2 microns.

Finally we must talk about the availability and price of the MSI Prestige PS341WU. It has been on the market for a while for an approximate price of 1, 269 euros, which is not bad for what it offers and compared to the competition. If we have a little left over, we can complement it with the MSI Prestige P100 for a symbolic 3, 700 euros to assemble the final design PC.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ IMAGE QUALITY WITH 5K AND NANO IPS PANEL	- BRIGHTNESS LEVEL BELOW 600 NITS
+ WIDE COVERAGE IN SRGB AND DCI-P3 AND EXCELLENT CALIBRATION	- DRUMS EASILY
+ ULTRA WIDE PLANE DESIGN	- WITHOUT THUNDERBOLT 3
+ COMPLETE AND ACCESSIBLE PORT PANEL
+ GREAT QUALITY / PRICE FOR PROFESSIONAL DESIGN

The Professional Review team awards you the platinum medal:

MSI Prestige PS341WU

DESIGN - 96%

PANEL - 93%

CALIBRATION - 91%

BASE - 87%

MENU OSD - 90%

GAMES - 87%

PRICE - 89%

90%