I purchased this laptop to replace my 2021 ASUS ROG Strix G15 gaming laptop, and I am not disappointed. Pros: - Not too heavy. Definitely lighter than the ASUS! - Not as loud as my ASUS when the fan kicks on - For the price, it is pretty snappy! I got 1TB of SSD space, and 16GB RAM, and so far, I've played games like Starfield at high or higher settings. - The Gaming Mode is intelligent enough to clock down when the laptop is under light load, and clock up when a game starts, which is nice Cons: - The battery life sucks. I expected that, so I'm not upset about it. Kinda par for the course for gaming laptops - The screen is 1080p. It looks fine, not the nicest I've seen, but it is decent and has a good refresh rate, so it isn't a *big* deal. - The fan does get loud when playing game. Once again, I kind of expected that. - When playing a game, and the fan spins up, the left side of the laptop gets pretty warm, so watch your hand! Overall I am very pleased with this purchase!
Brandon
6/27/2024, 12:00:00 AM
Best laptop for the price, excellent performance just wish it was 1440p. Msi’s software for configuring the system aren’t that great but it isn’t a big deal
The Bearcat
8/11/2023, 12:00:00 AM
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 care The 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's This 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 Thoughts This 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.
Daniel G.
10/20/2023, 12:00:00 AM
Si tienen oportunidad de agarrar este equipo en descuento, la verdad lo recomiendo mucho, para mucha gente, incluyendome, es un precio a considerar la verdad. Sin embargo estoy super encantado con todo lo que ofrece por ser una laptop. Tengan en cuenta que no le dura la batería si la poner en alto rendimiento, ya que es capaz de todo lo exigente para un estudiante que necesite un equipo demandante (arqui, ing, etc) o un gamer (no demandante tipo profesional, porque yo no lo soy y no se si te lo da) sin embargo es buenísima, no tiene opción de iluminación independiente por tecla pero si tiene configuraciones predeterminadas de iluminación como ola de luz en el teclado. Honestamente dure muuuucho tiempo buscando calidad precio, la encontré en descuento y fue la mejor decisión que tomé. Estoy muy seguro de que me servirá por mucho tiempo. Te recomiendo comprar una base con ventilador por que si avienta aire caliente si le exijes. 😅
Marcos David
5/15/2024, 12:00:00 AM
Excelente computadora con un gran desempeño para jugar y realizar renders
