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日本MSI Katana 15 (B13V) – Top 5 Pros and Cons
The MSI Katana slumbers from its winter hibernation, coming with a new name, the Katana 15. With the naming conventions out of the way, the new laptop brings suitable hardware, with both 12th Gen and 13th Gen Intel processors, as well as GPUs from the 30-series and 40-series, which is fine for a budget notebook. Still, if you’re planning on buying last-gen components, you might as well go for a laptop from last year, which are swiftly going on sale, so you’re sure to find a great deal. However, we still recommend at least checking out what the 40-series Ada Lovelace graphics have to offer, especially the more low-end 4050 and 4060. However, these new laptops are reaching pretty high prices, despite lacking features that are typically offered in this price bracket.
Today we’re giving you a quick overview of the MSI Katana 15 (B13V).
MSI Katana 15 (B13V): Full Specs / In-depth Review
3 reasons to BUY the MSI Katana 15 (B13V)
1. Performance
The configuration of the Katana 15 that we tested comes with the Core i7-13620H and the RTX 4050 with a 105W power limit. From the CPU benchmarks, we can see that the CPU isn’t on the level of the Core i7-12700H in last year’s Katana GF66. We’ll also put the Ryden 7 6800H as well as other Intel CPUs for a more complete performance assessment.
Results are from the Cinebench R23 CPU test (the higher the score, the better)
Results are from our Photoshop benchmark test (the lower the score, the better)
In terms of GPU power, the 4050 with a 105W TGP is pretty quick, offering almost double the power of the RTX 3050 and RTX 3050 Ti in benchmarks. It also matches some high TGP models of the 3060 from last year, which is a win in and of itself.
Results are from the 3DMark: Time Spy (Graphics) benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the 3DMark: Fire Strike (Graphics) benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the 3DMark: Wild Life benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Superposition benchmark (higher the score, the better)
2. Upgradeability
The upgradeability of the laptop needs to be recognized as well, as there are two SODIMM slots for DDR5 memory, along with two M.2 slots for PCIe Gen 4 SSDs.
Here is our detailed teardown video, which shows how to access both the RAM and SSD slots.
3. Keyboard
The keyboard is a big part of the gaming experience, especially on laptops, since you can’t replace it. The unit that we have here does a remarkable job, offering long key travel and clicky feedback. For some added flair, the WASD keys are highlighted, while a 4-zone RGB backlight is also present. It can get a bit hot during gaming, but that’s not a fault of the keyboard and more to the cooling.
2 reasons NOT to buy the MSI Katana 15 (B13V)
1. Build quality
The Katana 15 laptop comes with an all-black plastic chassis. It’s the same as last year’s but with some additional cosmetic changes. Overall, there are more lines now, as well as little holes, dents, and stripes to give the laptop a more gamer-y appearance. In terms of dimensions, it weighs just as much as last year’s notebook did, around 2.25 kg while having a profile of 24.9 mm.
2. Display quality
Lastly, while we know that the Katana is a budget laptop, its price tag has gone high enough that we have to require more from it. One of the requirements is certainly a better display. The Full HD IPS panel that we have here does have a 144Hz refresh rate which is all well and good, however, the response time is slower, at 26 ms. Also, the panel maxes out at 238 nits of brightness, which is too low, in our opinion, even for a budget model. In terms of colors, it covers just 53% of the sRGB color gamut, while the colors by themselves aren’t accurate enough for us to recommend the display for Creator work.
Here are the results of our accuracy test with the stock settings (left) and with our Design and Gaming profile applied (right),
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Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for MSI Katana 15 (B13V) configurations with 15.6″ AUO B156HAN08.4 (AUOAF90) (1920 x 1080) IPS.
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Read more about the profiles HERE.
In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.
Office Work
Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.
Design and Gaming
This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.
Health-Guard
Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.
