A steel piston for coupling to a connecting rod and wrist pin is provided. The piston includes a body with an upper crown presenting a combustion surface for exposure to a combustion chamber. The upper crown presents an undercrown surface which is openly exposed as viewed from an underside of the piston and not bounded by a cooling gallery. The body includes a ring belt and pin bosses depending from the ring belt and presenting a pin bore for receiving the wrist pin. The body also includes ribs disposed along the undercrown surface. The body includes a ratio of compression height to outer diameter (CH/D) ranging from 34.8% to 42.0%. The piston also includes a low heat transfer coating on the combustion surface, and the low heat transfer coating has a thermal conductivity of about 0.20 to 0.80 W/m·K.