United States
United Kingdom
Deutschland
France
Canada
España
Belgium
Netherlands
Poland
Sweden
България
Australia
Singapore
Italia
中国
日本[Video Review] MSI Pulse 15 (B13V) – It’s in a good place for 2023
MSI Pulse 15 (B13Vx) in-depth review
MSI Pulse is a laptop that aims to combine affordability with genuine performance. This differentiates the product from its close relative - the Katana. In addition to some visual changes, however, the manufacturer relies on even more powerful hardware.In comparison to the Katana, the processor, you get is the Intel Core i7-13700H. It has the full package of P-cores and E-cores, instead of the limited Core i7-123620H, found on the Katana.This will help with both productivity and gaming, as no bottleneck should be expected. MSI calls the RTX 4070 it puts inside this machine a full powe[...]
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
MSI Pulse 15 (B13Vx) - Specs
- HDD/SSD
- up to 8000GB SSD
- M.2 Slot
- 1x 2280 PCIe NVMe 4.0 x4 See photo
- RAM
- up to 96GB
- OS
- Windows 11 Home, Windows 11 Pro, No OS
- Battery
- 90Wh, 90Wh, 4-cell
- Body material
- Aluminum
- Dimensions
- 359 x 259 x 26.9 mm (14.13" x 10.20" x 1.06")
- Weight
- 2.30 kg (5.1 lbs)
- Ports and connectivity
- 1x USB Type-A
- 2.0
- 2x USB Type-A
- 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
- 1x USB Type-C
- 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), DisplayPort
- HDMI
- 2.1 (8K@60Hz / 4K@120Hz)
- Card reader
- Ethernet LAN
- 10, 100, 1000 Mbit/s
- Wi-Fi
- 802.11ax
- Bluetooth
- 5.2
- Audio jack
- 3.5mm Combo Jack
- Features
- Fingerprint reader
- Web camera
- HD
- Backlit keyboard
- Microphone
- Speakers
- 2x 2W Stereo Speakers, Nahimic Audio
- Optical drive
- Security Lock slot
All MSI Pulse 15 (B13Vx) configurations
[Intro]
The MSI Pulse 15 has never been a top-tier mid-range gaming laptop that we can recommend in a heartbeat, however, 2023 could be the year when MSI finally steps up. We know they can deliver great products, as their Raider and Vector laptops are some of the best, however, the budget and mid-range categories can certainly do with a bit more attention from the manufacturer.
[Design]
The laptop is visually impressive, having a metal lid with a large MSI wordmark, a black Dragon logo, and a bulge in the middle, which gives it an aggressive appearance. Compared to the Katana, it’s much more structurally sound. The additional weight and thickness contribute to that, as the Pulse measures at 26.9 mm while weighing 2.30 kg.
[Input devices]
Going to the base, we find a full-sized backlit keyboard with highlighted WASD and arrow keys, so the backlight bleeds into them for even more color. The typing experience is pretty decent, thanks to the long key travel and clicky feedback. The touchpad has some designs on it, and while the size isn’t ideal, the responsiveness coming from it is great.
[Ports]
For ports, the left side keeps one USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port and a USB 2.0 port, which you should keep for peripherals like a mouse, otherwise, the transfer speeds are just too slow. Switching sides to the right, we have a LAN port, an HDMI 2.1 port, one USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 1) port with DisplayPort and Power Delivery support, one more USB Type-A port, and a 3.5 mm audio jack.
[Display]
The main thing that you’ll be looking at when using the laptop is the QHD 240Hz display. It’s blazing fast with an 8ms response time, while the 304 nits of peak brightness deliver a well-lit image. The display also covers 100% of the sRGB and 99.5% of the DCI-P3 gamut, so everything looks great on it. If you like to take things up a notch, our Design and Gaming profile improves the already great color accuracy, so the display is definitely ready for Creator work straight from the box.
[Sound]
The quality of the speakers isn’t the best, as all tones have deviations from clarity, however, the volume is high, which is a saving grace.
[Performance]
It’s time we get to the serious stuff, mainly the performance of the Core i7-13700H and the 140W RTX 4070. Starting with the CPU, it’s needless to say that it’s powerful, outperforming the i7-13620H inside the Katana 15 and the i7-12700H in last year’s Crosshair 15. The RTX 4070 is ahead of last year’s 3070 by a decent margin, while not even reaching its 140W power limit.
The 4070 is a fine GPU for both 1080p and 1440p gaming, being able to run Shadow of the tomb raider at 110 fps on the Highest setting preset.
If shooters and exploration of an open world is your forte, Ghost Recon: Wildlands runs comfortably at 78 fps on the Ultra preset.
[Cooling]
Almost all RTX 40-series graphics don’t max out their TGPs, which is weird to see and leads us to believe that there’s still performance left on the table. As for the Core i7, it maintains high TDPs and clock speeds on the P-cores, while the E-cores take a break. Compared to the more expensive Vector laptop, the 4070 runs at the same speeds, but is 10 degrees warmer.
All the performance leads to higher outside temperatures and some extra noise, but such is the nature of gaming laptops. The base heats up to 47 degrees, so you might feel some discomfort, but it won’t be as bad as the 60 degrees that we’ve seen on other laptops.
[Battery]
MSI gives you a beefy 90Wh battery, which manages to last for a relatively long time. We got 11 hours of Web browsing, or 8 hours of video playback, which is great.
[Teardown and upgradeability]
Once you open up the laptop, you can check out the cooling setup and the upgradeability slots on the inside. There are two SODIMM slots for DDR5 memory, as well as one M.2 slot for Gen 4 SSDs.
Upgrading the laptop is pretty easy, as long as you follow our teardown video, which shows you how to do it. We’ll have it linked down below.
[Verdict]
The MSI Pulse 15 (B13V) is a fine addition to MSI’s gaming laptop portfolio. It’s certainly better than the Katana in any way imaginable. It’s also got the power and the display to finally be put in the conversation for a quality mid-range machine. However, its price is still crazy high, so if you currently have a serviceable device that can hold on for some more time until prizes stabilize, we advise you to do so.
For more information about the MSI Pulse 15 (B13V), check out the full written review on our website.
