MSI Katana 15 15.6” 165Hz QHD Gaming Laptop: Intel Core i7-13620H, NVIDIA Geforce RTX 4070, 16GB DDR5, 1TB NVMe SSD, Cooler Boost 5, Win 11: Black B13VGK-2000US

Desktop performance in a laptop
I bought the Katana 15 B13V with 16 GB of DDR5 Ram, RTX 4070 gpu, and i7-13620H cpu on Prime Day marked down to $1349 from $1599.I primarily bought this because my desktop’s motherboard uses DDR4 and is becoming dated and I wanted to play Baldur’s Gate 3 at max settings. I’d like to build another desktop, but want to drop that kind of money until DDR6 is a thing instead of building it in the middle of the DDR5 Lifecycle. That’s still a few years out.So this was a great purchase for my needs. It is literally desktop performance in a laptop at a mid-range price.Let’s start with the cons and why I don’t careThe display isn’t the best. Don’t get me wrong, its great, but not anything special. That doesn’t bother me, because its connected to my 4k monitor. Who cares about laptop screens anyway. 4k resolution doesn’t make much of a functional difference on a small screen. Costs were cut there for sure. Costs were probably also cut on the battery. It doesn’t last long not plugged in on normal loads, and its probably not even feasible to use it unplugged while gaming. This would suck if I planned to use it unplugged, but again, this matters not to me. There is also a technology implemented called CoolerBoost 5. Its pretty necessary to run when gaming newer games at max settings. It gets PlayStation loud. If you’re an audiophile, then you’re going to need some good noise-canceling headphones to really enjoy anything on this machine. This doesn’t bother me, because I’m not an audiophile, and even if I was, I have a couple great sets of noise-canceling headphones. It also doesn’t bother me because without it, all of the great things about this thing wouldn’t mean squat…. let me explain…Now for the Pro’sThis thing runs great without load on balanced power settings (No CoolerBoost). Without CoolerBoost, its about as quiet as it comes. I only use it for browsing and playing music outside of gaming. It does great. I haven’t tried watching any 4k videos on it yet, but I imagine it would handle that well on balanced power settings as well.Remember when I mentioned the noise level from the CoolerBoost 5 as a con. Well, Coolerboost is probably just as important of a feature as any of the hardware this machine packs. Gaming laptops get a bad rep, mostly because they literally burn up a lot faster than a desktop and are difficult and expensive to fix when they do. The reason being is inadequate cooling. This is a tiny box to fit all of those extreme heat producing components in. Getting desktop-like cpu temps and gpu temps in a laptop should be a pipedream. Seeing temps in the 85-90 degree Celsius range or higher is just part of the territory. With CoolerBoost on, this thing hangs in the 60-75 degree range with BG3 running max settings. That’s as good or better than my desktop. Have you heard of temp-throttling? Yeah, that’s only a thing if you let it be a thing with this machine. That said, without CoolerBoost active while running BG3 at max settings, I watch those temps move to the Upper 80s and low 90s, like one would expect with this kind of hardware in such a small box. It is well worth the noise to have a machine packing an i7 13th gen chip and RTX 4070 gpu that can sport desktop temps while actually using the hardware at its potential.Final ThoughtsThis machine is fantastic if you’re looking to replace a desktop with a laptop that will likely last. All of the right corners have been cut. Due to the temps sitting at desktop level, I anticipate the hardware components to potentially last indefinitely. This will still be a very serviceable and more portable machine when I do get my desktop built. The potential issues I see are needing to replace fans at some point due to the CoolerBoost. They could also last too, its just a possible logical consequence of running the fans at high RPMS. I imagine the most important fix that I’ll run across is replacing the battery. Those things will always go bad eventually, but more quickly if there are periods of high humidity in your gaming area. Think about spring or fall days where the AC isn’t running. Years of that will kill a battery.

Great Budget laptop
Considering I’m upgrading from a msi gf63, I have no complaints. Just needs a ram upgrade and then it’ll be perfect. The battery health is concerning as even when its plugged in and off, it percentage doesn’t change and even reduces. (I’ve owned the laptop for a few months now and its at a steady 92%). I’m Capable of playing any game I want to at max graphics though so I can’t complain too much for a budget laptop.

Compact power
Everything I was looking for in a gaming laptop!

Después de un año y medio puedo decir con certeza que es una excelente laptop. Me gusta que es silenciosa y no se calienta mucho. Corriendo un juego pesado llega a los 72 grados pero si le pongo turbo al ventilador, baja aun más. Lo uso normalmente para trabajar pues soy arquitecto y manejo programas pesados, 3D y renders y la verdad es que no flaquea. El único inconveniente es que al querer anexar una SSD, no viene con la base y adaptador con la que debe de venir. Le tuve que adaptar una especie de esponja para que se sostuviera. Por ahí leí que debes de pedir a MSI la pieza y que no te cobran ni nada y te lo mandan pero… nunca encontré el modo de hacerlo. En todo lo demás, esta perfecto.Si sirve de referencia a algún arquitecto, corre Lumion perfectamente y cualquier programa de 3D básicamente, pues Lumion es de los más pesados.P.D. me encantó su RGB, se va modificando gradualmente por si solo.

La mejor computadora que he tenido en muchisimo tiempo. Viene perfecta para todo lo que uno necesite