Coming in a compact 14-inch form factor, the Cyborg 14 is very portable and quite light to boot.
Under the hood, its got some powerful hardware that makes for a very pleasant gaming experience.
Among the best gaming laptops, the Cyborg 14 stands out mostly for its price.
At $1,099, the bargain here certainly exceeded my expectations.
What might polarize a lot of prospective buyers is the Cyborg 14s design.
It sports a transparent look with a rather aggressive aesthetic.
It might appeal to some, but to others, itll be a deal-breaker.
And with the slightly taller aspect ratio, you’re free to get more done outside of gaming.
Of course, its not a perfect laptop.
The battery life leaves much to be desired, often netting less than an hour in AAA titles.
The fan noise is annoyingly loud, which is unfortunate because the mediocre speakers dont do enough to compensate.
Sure, its not all roses and rainbows, but for $1,099, youre getting plenty to enjoy.
What does it cost?The Cyborg 14 as reviewed costs $1,099 atBest Buy.
What dont we like?The subpar battery life, the so-so audio, and the fan noise.
MSI Cyborg 14 review: The ups
Theres a lot to like about the MSI Cyborg 14.
For its reasonable $1,099 price, this gaming laptop knocks it out of the park with its performance.
The design is also very unique with transparent elements, including the WASD keys.
Great performanceRight off the bat, the Cyborg 14 is no slouch.
Our review unit is powered by anInteli7-13620H CPU and an RTX 4060 GPU.
For example, I ran Cyberpunk 2077s benchmark with Medium to High controls and DLSS 3 enabled.
I hit an average frame rate of 65 frames per second (fps), which surprised me.
The 1% lows dipped into the thirties, but that far exceeded my expectations.
Even Black Myth: Wukong ran steady, though it had some noticeable drops and stutters at some points.
And Destiny 2 sat consistently in the 90-110 fps range at Medium options.
Frame rate results (@ 1200p)
Our lab tests further corroborated my experience.
But Cyberpunk 2077 desperately needs DLSS to be playable at the laptops native resolution.
While the Cyborg 14s gaming performance is good, the productivity output isnt bad, either.
An interesting designYoull notice the Cyborg 14s striking design immediately.
Thats not necessarily a bad thing, though.
The sharp angles and solid construction make for a compact package, one that weighs just 3.5 pounds.
What about that webcam lip I mentioned?
Its a unique way to still include a camera while not interfering with the displays attractive slim bezels.
At first, I found it unsightly, much like the notch on the best MacBooks.
But as I used the Cyborg 14, I got used to it and stopped noticing it.
Even better, it functions also as a convenient means of opening the machine without smudging anything.
Opening it up, the Cyborg 14 continues with its aesthetic.
The 14-inch 16:10 display dominates the lid with the aforementioned slim bezels.
Theres very little distracting here, leaving you able to focus (mostly) on your game.
(Going down those few pixels to 1080p can boost the frame rate a tad, too.)
The IPS LCD panel does well with punchy colors and reasonable blacks.
Its no OLED by any means, but it does more than fine for a $1,099 laptop.
The sRGB performance is great, but the more challenging DCI-P3 gamut performance lacked quite a bit.
And the Delta-E color accuracy score (where 0 is perfect) wasnt terrible at 0.31.
All of that means that your games will look good on the Cyborg 14, but not amazing.
For a mid-tier laptop display, these results are right in line with my expectations.
The battery life just isnt up to par in my opinion.
The web surfing test uses Battery Informant while the gaming one utilizes PCMark 10.
The latter is right in line with what I was just saying.
Less than an hour isnt stellar and it can get a lot worse.
Just think: thats not much bigger than what powers the Steam Deck OLED.
The mids are fine, but the highs and lows leave much to be desired.
Music wasnt much better.
This laptop gets loud, perfectly capable of drowning out the sounds from your game.
When under full load, this machine sounds like its trying to take off.
Gaming in public or around others will certainly be disruptive.
So even with all that noise, the laptop still gets quite warm to the touch.
Granted, this is a 14-inch laptop with a powerful mobile CPU and a very good GPU.
So Im not going to harp on this too much, but be forewarned.
Its portable, powerful, and sports a unique style that isnt quite like anything else.
You get the complete package here, and for this price, its a bargain.
