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日本MSI Katana 15 (B13V) review – the generational leap is huge but the price is not very pleasant
Verdict
Like in the past, MSI’s Katana 15 has its downsides. But thanks to the early adoption of the RTX 4000 GPUs, this device can become a best seller in no time. In fact, NVIDIA’s RTX 4050 shows an incredible performance jump, making it not only obliterate the RTX 3050 and RTX 3050 Ti, but also trade blows, and even beat the RTX 3060.
Unfortunately, this leads to some shenanigans with the pricing of the new laptops. The Katana, which was known for its low price (hence more than one cost-cutting compromise), now is not so friendly towards your budget. This makes it pretty hard to recommend.
But what are the aforementioned compromises in the case of the Katana 15 (B13V)? Well, let’s start with the all-plastic build. It doesn’t feel cheap, but its chassis is a little flexy. Not to mention the bouncy lid. Indeed, now all models receive a 4-zone RGB backlit keyboard, but the touchpad is far from the likes of the Lenovo Legion 5 from 2022 for example.
Not only that, but there is no Thunderbolt 4 connection, and one of the USB Type-As runs at 2.0 speeds. In addition, the battery life is nothing more than average with 6 hours and 30 minutes of Web browsing or 5 hours of video playback on a single charge.
MSI Katana 15 (B13V)’s IPS display has a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, and a good contrast ratio. Thankfully, it doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment and can be run at both 144Hz and 60Hz to save battery. Unfortunately, the pixel response times are slow, which leads to ghosting, while the color coverage of only 53% of sRGB means the picture looks a bit dull.
Let’s continue with the upgradeability, which definitely makes up for some of the shortcomings. You get two DDR5 SODIMM slots, which fit up to 64GB of RAM in total. Storage-wise, there are two M.2 PCIe x4 slots, that support Gen 4 SSDs.
Then again, we have to mention the Core i7-13620H, which is a good CPU but can’t really match the Core i7-12700H from last year (due to the lower core count). If you’re looking for an affordable gaming machine, you can find good deals on the Legion 5 (15″, 2022), as well as the ASUS TUF Gaming A15 (FA507) with an RTX 3060.
As of the time of writing this review, the MSI Katana 15 (B13V) is not a very appetizing machine. However, with time passing, we expect its price to drastically drop, which should make the device significantly more recommendable.
You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/msi-katana-15-b12ux-b12vx-b13ux-b13vx/
Pros
- Pretty good gaming performance
- 2x M.2 PCIe x4 Gen 4 slots, 2x DDR5 RAM SODIMM slots in dual channel
- 144Hz refresh rate (AUO B156HAN08.4 (AUOAF90))
- No PWM (AUO B156HAN08.4 (AUOAF90))
- MUX Switch
- Great keyboard
Cons
- No SD card
- No Thunderbolt 4
- Covers only 53% of sRGB (AUO B156HAN08.4 (AUOAF90))
- All-plastic build
- Keyboard gets pretty warm during gaming
- Gets more and more expensive
can you charge the laptop by usb-c?
Is there a manual to shows how to dissemble the laptop? NOT a user manual that mentions basic uses of the laptop. But rather a manual that discusses how to remove certain components from the laptop.