MSI Katana 17 (B12V) review – affordable notebook with a MUX switch

LaptopMedia.com Reviews and Analysis MSI Katana 17 (B12V) review - affordable notebook with a MUX switch Page 9

From: Alex Iliev 26 May 2023 / 17:32 | 2

9. Verdict

8. Disassembly, Upgrade options, and Maintenance Previous page Next page

Verdict

As a gaming notebook in 2023, the Katana 17 (B12V) is fairly competitively priced. It offers wide configuration options based on capable GPUs from NVIDIA’s RTX 4000 roster.

It’s worth mentioning that its RTX 4060 didn’t manage to fill its 105W TGP limit, but it ran pretty close with 85W detected by GPU-Z during full load. For all performance-based tests, we used the Extreme Performance preset through the MSI Center.

Interestingly, there is a function that allows the use of a battery-saving display mode, which runs the screen at 60Hz. As a result, the device offers 6 hours and 30 minutes of Web browsing, or 5 hours and 30 minutes of video playback – about 50% better than the MSI Sword 17 (A12V), which lacks this function.

MSI Katana 17 (B12V)’s IPS panel has a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, and good contrast. Unfortunately, it covers only 51% of the sRGB color gamut, and has slow pixel response times, despite the 144Hz refresh rate. On the bright side, the panel doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment.

Thankfully, there is a MUX switch, too, which provides even better performance, enabling the GPU its full bandwidth. Let’s not forget the two SODIMM slots for memory expansion, as well as the two M.2 PCIe x4 slots for storage. Weirdly, the second M.2 slot doesn’t have a mounting bit of a screw, which means you might need some additional accessories to mount an SSD there.

We are also not extremely happy about the fact that there is no SD card slot, and one of the USB Type-As runs at 2.0 speeds. On the other hand, the USB Type-C port now outputs a DisplayPort signal, while the HDMI connector is a real 2.1.

At the end of the day, MSI has done a good job with cooling it’s Katana 17 (B12V). This is always an issue with gaming machines, and we are glad that the manufacturer has dealt with this. Even though it is slightly more expensive than it has ever been, we feel that you might want to consider this machine for an eventual purchase.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/msi-katana-17-b12ux-b12vx-b13ux-b13vx/