The quickest Katana 15 configuration from MSI is now discounted right down to US$1,199.99 on Amazon. Katana is a budget-oriented lineup, so it comes with just a few compromises, however general, the {hardware} elements provide nice worth for the value.
In comparison with the Alder Lake i7-12650H processor, the Raptor Lake i7-13620H from Intel included with this configuration is at the least 15% sooner. It comes with 6 P-cores + 4 E-cores, for a complete of 16 threads, and it’s coupled with 16 GB of DDR5-5200 RAM (upgradable to 64 GB) and a 1 TB PCIe 4.0 SSD. There’s a vacant M.2 slot for potential storage upgrades, as effectively.
The finances high quality is especially noticeable with the show choice. MSI gives a 1080p IPS display with above common response time, fairly dim most brightness of ~240 nits, solely 53% sRGB colour gamut and 144 Hz refresh fee. Nonetheless, customers can output to an exterior display through the HDMI 2.1 video connector that additionally advantages from a MUX swap to straight hook up with the RTX 4070 dGPU. Though the graphics resolution is operating at a most of 105 W TGP, our checks have demonstrated that the RTX 4070 dGPUs don’t present any efficiency positive factors above 115W, so this mannequin just isn’t truly missing an excessive amount of on this division.
Port choice is slim, with 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 1, 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, 1x USB 2.0, HDMI 2.1, audio and GbE jacks. Wi-fi connectivity is obtainable by a Wi-Fi 6E + BT 5.2 card and different options embody a 720p webcam, 4-zone RGB keyboard and a 53.5 Wh battery. Complete system weight is 2.25 kg (4.96 lbs) and profile measures 24.9 mm (0.98 inches).
Disclaimer: Notebookcheck just isn’t accountable for worth adjustments carried out by retailers. The discounted worth or deal talked about on this merchandise was accessible on the time of writing and could also be topic to time restrictions and/or restricted unit availability.
I first stepped into the wondrous IT&C world after I was round seven years previous. I used to be immediately fascinated by computerized graphics, whether or not they have been from video games or 3D purposes like 3D Max. I am additionally an avid reader of science fiction, an astrophysics aficionado, and a crypto geek. I began writing PC-related articles for Softpedia and some blogs again in 2006. I joined the Notebookcheck staff in the summertime of 2017 and am at the moment a senior tech author principally masking processor, GPU, and laptop computer information.
