United States
United Kingdom
India
Deutschland
France
España
Belgium
Netherlands
Poland
Sweden
България
Australia
Singapore
Italia
中国
日本MSI Pulse 15 (B13V) review – climbing up through the ranks
Verdict
It is great to see that MSI is all in on the MUX switch train. Like the Raider, Vector, and Katana before it, the Pulse series now come with this feature, which lets you use the full bandwidth of the dedicated GPU. This happens by connecting it directly to the display, instead of having to run the signal through the integrated graphics card.
Of course, in day-to-day use, you would want that, though, because it would have an impact on battery life. And this is one area, where the Pulse 15 (B13V) really excels. We got 11 hours of Web browsing or 8 hours of video playback on a single charge. Not bad, right? Well, that’s not only because of the efficiency of the setup but also because MSI has finally given the model a beefy battery pack – 90Wh.
Unfortunately, the motherboard design (which is the same as the one on the Katana series), means that you have only one M.2 PCIe x4 slot. Although it supports Gen 4 drives, the laptop can’t match the more affordable cousin, which has a useful second slot. Another good thing is the DDR5 memory support. It operates at 5200MHz and has a maximum capacity of 64GB.
MSI Pulse 15 (B13V)’s IPS panel has a QHD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, and a good contrast ratio. Its backlight doesn’t use PWM, and the display covers 99.5% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. We are also happy with the color accuracy, especially with our Gaming and Web design profile.
In addition, the screen refreshes at 240Hz, and sports quick pixel response times. This results in a very smooth gaming experience. And if you add the MUX switch to the table, you receive a machine that can extract every bit of performance out of its dedicated graphics card.
To further add to the fantastic impression, the keyboard is great for typing and gaming, while the touchpad is pretty smooth and responsive. On the other hand, the latter is a bit small.
Also, you won’t be ecstatic to hear that there is no Thunderbolt 4 connector, or an SD card reader. Moreover, one of the USB Type-As is a 2.0. But hey, there should be a compromise somewhere, right?
In a similar fashion to the MSI Katana 15 (B13V), the Pulse 15 (B13V) is also a bit expensive right now (end of March 2023). But we hope that in the future, as all brands flood the market with RTX 4000 GPUs, the prices will fall to more budget-friendly figures.
You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/msi-pulse-15-b13vx/
Pros
- Pretty good gaming performance
- 1x M.2 PCIe x4 Gen 4 slots, 2x DDR5 RAM SODIMM slots in dual channel
- Covers only 99.5% of DCI-P3 (Sharp LQ156T1JW04 (SHP153C))
- 240Hz refresh rate (Sharp LQ156T1JW04 (SHP153C))
- No PWM (Sharp LQ156T1JW04 (SHP153C))
- MUX Switch
- Great keyboard
Cons
- No SD card
- No Thunderbolt 4
- Gets more and more expensive
but what is the cpu wat ?
4060’s sit at about 97 watts and 4070’s at 110 watts
I was completely surprised (in a good way) by MSI Pulse 15 B13V. I had never thought about buying an MSI laptop as it’s brand is not among the top famous in the category. I bought it at a computer store in Chicago and the sales person was skilfull enough to convince me it would be the best option when you’re looking for performance at an afordable price. The cost-effectiveness is the highest. The new Intel 13th generation CPU with 2 types of cores delivers an astonishing performance in all kinds of situations/uses. The MSI software embedded with the factory… Read more »
How many ohm can the motherboard provide at maximum ?