MSI Modern 15 review: budget in both price and in battery

MSI Modern 15: Two-minute review

Budget laptops like the MSI Modern 15 have to perform a delicate balancing act. They need to be able to deliver good performance and build quality whilst keeping the price as low as possible. Make too many compromises, and no matter how cheap the laptop is, it won't be worth buying.

The best budget laptops make this balance seem easy, and while these might not be the most exciting devices, they are still essential - not all of us can afford premium laptops, but that doesn't mean we have to put up with subpar performance.

Costing just £549 (this model is not yet available in the US or Australia), this laptop is super budget-friendly, making it a great option for those who aren’t looking to spend a lot.

However, as you’d expect for this price point, you’re making some sacrifices when picking up the MSI Modern 15. The battery life really lets this device down, coming in at just over a few hours, meaning you’ll have to lug your charger around with you when you want to take it on the go with you.

While we tested out the 16GB RAM edition of this laptop, which allowed us to multitask, if you pick up the cheapest edition, which features just 8GB of RAM, you might find that you can’t have multiple programs running at once. In 2025, 8GB of RAM really is the absolute minimum amount for a Windows 11 laptop.

However, the design is pretty good, and you can use the MSI Modern 15 to do a majority of simple productivity tasks. While it won’t be the very best laptop you can get in 2025, particularly lacking in terms of performance and battery capacity, for this price point you still get a sleek laptop.

MSI Modern 15 review: Price and availability

• How much does it cost? £549 (around $730 / AU$1,100)
• When is it available? Available now
• Where can you get it? Only available in UK

When compared to alternative laptops on the market, the MSI Modern 15 is definitely a more budget-friendly option.

Coming in at £549, this device is perfect for those who are looking for a cheap and cheerful option which gets the job done. You can pick up other budget options like the Acer Aspire 3 which is less than £500, however, the Acer comes with a very small 128GB SSD, whereas the MSI Modern 15 comes with 512GB of storage. You also get more ports with the MSI Modern 15.

Right now, the laptop is available in the UK. Older versions can be purchased worldwide, but this version should be rolling out across the world soon.

• Value: 5 / 5

MSI Modern 15 review: Specs

There are currently two iterations of the MSI Modern 15, one featuring an i3 processor and one featuring an i7 processor, so you have an option for either more or less processing power based on your needs. Previous models of the MSI Modern 15 have featured AMD Ryzen CPUs, but the new F13M edition only comes with Intel options.

The specifications cannot be mixed and matched, so if you want an i3 processor with 16GB of RAM, unfortunately isn’t an option. However, aside from the processor and RAM, the rest of the specs of the MSI Modern 15 editions are identical anyway.

MSI Modern 15 review: Design

• Very portable
• Fantastic design
• Good selection of ports

As you’d expect from a more budget-friendly machine, the MSI Modern 15 isn’t the lightest device on the market despite being described on the website as ultraportable.

Weighing in at a relatively hefty 1.7kg, this laptop can still be taken on the go with you, but doesn’t compare to more premium options like the Asus Zenbook A14, which comes in at under a kilogram.

This heft is also reflected in the measurements of the MSI Modern 15; while it's not too thick to fit easily in a sleeve, it does come in at almost 2cm. If you like packing light, then this might not be the one for you.

You do get a really good array of ports on this laptop, however, which is perfect for those who plug a load of peripherals into their machine. There are three type-A USB ports, an Ethernet port, a USB-C port which can be used for charging or as a display port, as well as an HDMI port. You also get a microSD card reader.

In terms of aesthetics, you can pick up the MSI Modern 15 in either urban silver or platinum grey. Both are sleek and simple, but the grey edition is more uniform, with the keyboard of the laptop being black on both models, which matches better with the darker shell.

The chassis is made from metal rather than plastic like some lightweight alternatives, making for a more premium feel, but this does add to the overall weight of the laptop.

The keyboard was quite squishy and unsatisfying to use, but it gets the job done perfectly fine. You get a number pad at your disposal, something which I personally never find myself using, but for those who may need one, this is a great option as they are typically missing from laptops. However, I found that this made the device larger than it needed to be.

• Design score: 4 / 5

MSI Modern 15 review: Performance

• Decent performance for the price
• Struggles with more intensive workloads
• Mostly silent - except when watching videos

When using the MSI Modern 15, it worked perfectly fine. For £549, it was a great device, however you do get what you pay for in terms of performance, as you can’t really use this laptop for anything too intense.

While I wasn’t able to use the laptop for tasks like video rendering or animation, it was perfectly suitable for simple tasks, including web browsing, photo editing, and watching videos.

After being used to using more premium laptops recently, booting up the MSI Modern 15 did feel like a step down. The LCD 1080p screen was nothing special, but while it didn’t blow me away, it got the job done perfectly fine. However, I wouldn’t opt to watch videos or movies on this laptop if I had another option.

I did attempt to boot up Adobe Premiere Pro on this machine just to see if it would suffice, and it really didn’t do too well. While it initially worked, when importing too many files, the software began to crash and just wouldn’t reopen, so if you’re looking for a laptop to edit videos on, then I cannot recommend the MSI Modern 15.

I tried multitasking with multiple applications open at once on the MSI Modern 15, and it worked quite well. However, it's worth noting that the model I tested featured 16GB of RAM rather than the 8GB the cheaper model has. It's unlikely you could effectively multitask with just 8GB of RAM.

When using this laptop on the go, it did feel quite hefty and having to lug around the charger didn't help. It did stay cool and quiet until I began to watch videos, and while it didn’t quite sound like a spaceship taking off, it was still relatively loud, which isn’t great when out and about, and can be distracting when watching movies.

• Performance score: 3 / 5

MSI Modern 15 review: Battery life

The biggest downfall of the MSI Modern 15 is definitely the battery life. It managed less than three and a half hours in the PCMark 10 test and just over four hours on the TechRadar movie test, and I found the battery depleted very quickly when using the laptop on a day-to-day basis, even when doing the simplest of tasks.

Spending 20 minutes replying to emails, for example, brought the battery down to 90% which was quite disappointing. If you intend to take this laptop on the go with you, then you’d likely need to lug the charger along too.

• Battery life: 1 / 5

Should I buy the MSI Modern 15?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

MSI Modern 15 review: Also consider

Here are some alternatives if the MSI Modern 15 doesn't sound right for your needs:

How I tested the MSI Modern 15

• Tested for two weeks
• Used for work and for gaming
• Ran benchmarks

I spent two weeks using the MSI Modern 15 as my everyday laptop for work and leisure. I was sure to use the device for my typical work days, and then also watched videos, movies and browsed social media on it in the evenings.

I took it on the go with me to different locations where I needed to work to see how it would feel outside of my workstation. As well as using it every day, I also benchmarked the laptop using a range of different benchmarking software.

• First reviewed: August 2025
• Read more about how we test