Monitors usually offer a very similar and rather unremarkable design in black or grey. Gaming models are trying to break out of this stereotype, with various red elements or RGB lighting. However, the world of professional monitors is virtually black and white, and MSI thought it would bring some colour to this environment, and not a grey one, but an “Ultramarine” one at that. That’s a colour particularly associated with Renaissance artwork.
Basic parameters
| Parameters | MSI |
| Modern MD272QP Ultramarine | |
| 27E1N5600HE | |
| Display | 27" IPS, 16:9, flat, matte |
| Resolution | 2560 × 1440 px |
| Refresh rate | 75 Hz |
| Colors | 8-bit |
| AMD FreeSync Premium Pro | yes |
| Response time | 4 ms GTG |
| Brightness | 300 nits |
| Contrast | 1000:1 |
| Color spaces | sRGB: 95 % |
| Outputs | 1× HDMI 1.4, 1× DisplayPort 1.2, 1× USB-C |
| USB hub | yes |
| Audio input/output | no/yes |
| Speakers | yes, 2× 2 W |
| VESA | yes (100 × 100) |
| Approximate price | € 300 |
Packaging and equipment
MSI has dressed the Modern MD272QP monitor in an unconventional dress. The focus on design is already visible on the packaging, which is surprisingly colorful and detailed. Next to the usual monochromatic cardboard boxes, this is definitely a nice diversification. The question is, however, whether a colourful box with high-quality printing is exactly the priority when buying a monitor…
The contents of the test piece package are more modest than they should be. Absent are any video cables, which, however, should not be missing from a normal sales piece. So all we found in the package was a power adapter, a cable organizer, and VESA mounting screws.
The monitor has been given a square base with rounded corners. You can already see that the monitor will be able to rotate sideways.
The second part of the stand will attract attention with a large circular head, which will be used for attachment to the monitor body. Due to the circular design and overall larger dimensions, in addition to height adjustment, we can also expect a pivot, we will see to which side.
Connecting the two parts of the stand is quick and easy, as you just push the two parts of the stand together and tighten the screw with your fingers, without the need for a screwdriver.
The design of the back is very simple and elegant. Apart from the hole for the stand mounting, we can only see the modern MSI logo and a cutout for the port assembly on the bright-blue surface.
Connecting the monitor to the stand is quick and easy, just slide the stand into the trio of holes and click the bottom. The speed and ease of assembly here is spot on, but it’s nothing exceptional. The same solution is offered by most of the competition. As soon as some tools need to be used or the procedure requires several steps, it would certainly be a target of my criticism, but nothing like that is the case here.
Let’s move on to connectivity, which is located in the middle of the bottom part. You’ll find one HDMI, DisplayPort and USB-C port each, followed by a pair of classic USB Type-A and one Type-B connectors. The 3.5 audio jack is for audio output, and the last connector is the power one. The monitor doesn’t have an integrated power supply, so it only connects to a thin cable that leads to an external power supply.
Once the monitor is erected, we can enjoy its uniqueness. The blue colour looks good from the front but especially from the back.
Turning on the display will show us the “bezel-less” design in practice, the bottom chin bearing the manufacturer’s logo also has standard dimensions and at first glance you will not find any distracting elements.
As the stand itself told us when assembling, the MD272QP offers a wide range of positioning options. We’ll start with the height one, which is 110 mm.
At the lowest point, the monitor is 35 mm from the base with the bottom edge, the top edge is then at 395 mm. It is 145 mm in the highest position and 505 mm for the top of the display. The panel itself has a height of 360 mm.
You can also tilt the display between -5 and +20 degrees, which are fairly common values.
I give praise for the presence of the pivot, i.e. the possibility of changing the orientation to portrait. This is also possible in both directions, which is also not a given, and some monitors only offer a pivot to one side, which can be a problem when using multiple monitors at the same time.
If this positioning wasn’t enough, the monitor also offers sideways rotation of 30 degrees to both the right and left.
The backlight bleed of the tested piece is very good, and apart from slight variations at the top and bottom right, it is definitely one of the better results we have seen with IPS panels. Of course as always, every panel is different and your piece may be better or worse. We’ll also measure uniformity with a colorimetric probe in the next chapter.
