The MSP430 can be used for low powered embedded devices. The current drawn in idle mode can be less than 1 µA. The top CPU speed is 25 MHz. It can be throttled back for lower power consumption. The MSP430 also uses six different low-power modes, which can disable unneeded clocks and CPU. Additionally, the MSP430 is capable of wake-up times below 1 microsecond, allowing the microcontroller to stay in sleep mode longer, minimizing its average current consumption. The device comes in a variety of configurations featuring the usual peripherals: internal oscillator, timer including PWM, watchdog, USART, SPI, I²C, 10/12/14/16/24-bit ADCs, and brownout reset circuitry. Some less usual peripheral options include comparators (that can be used with the timers to do simple ADC), on-chip op-amps for signal conditioning, 12-bit DAC, LCD driver, hardware multiplier, USB, and DMA for ADC results. Apart from some older EPROM (MSP430E3xx) and high volume mask ROM (MSP430Cxxx) versions, all of the devices are in-system programmable via JTAG (full four-wire or Spy-Bi-Wire) or a built in bootstrap loader (BSL) using UART such as RS232, or USB on devices with USB support.

There are, however, limitations that preclude its use in more complex embedded systems. The MSP430 does not have an external memory bus, so it is limited to on-chip memory (up to 512 KB flash memory and 66 KB RAM) which may be too small for applications that require large buffers or data tables. Also, although it has a DMA controller, it is very difficult to use it to move data off the chip due to a lack of a DMA output strobe.