MSI Katana 15 15.6" 144Hz FHD Gaming Laptop: 13th Gen Intel Core i7, RTX 4070, 16GB DDR5, 1TB NVMe SSD, USB-Type C, Cooler Boost 5, Win11 Home: Black B13VGK-484US

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.

I have only had this a short time but this has really been a nice machine. I have even used it for VR games and it doesn't bog it down a bit. I haven't decided yet if the problems I'm seeing with it are garbage installed by MSI or garbage from Windows. I don't care for the pop up adds for the junk I don't want or need.Oh I will get it all weeded out eventually, I just miss the days when you all the crap was offered elsewhere and didn't come force installed at new.The laptop itself looks great the display is clean and amazing to look at and use.I'm very pleased with the small weight of this machine, I think its predecessor is 3x heavier.I'm not pleased by the lack of USB ports found on this machine, but I did find a reasonably priced hub that turns one Type C port into 4 USB3 ports so I can get all the dongles plugged in and still have room for the important things.The laptop does seem to put out a lot of heat, but once I got it elevated on my laptop stand it doesn't seem as bad. (Perhaps the vents aren't large enough to allow the heat to escape properly when it's close to the desk) I would even suggest a laptop cooling pad. But I think that would be good in any situation.

Great laptop. storage capacity was pretty good at one TB battery life is what you could expect out of a gaming laptop which is nothing really. Speakers aren't too bad. As long as you set up the fans correctly or just turn on the boost cooling system stay it's pretty cool. Overall one of the easier gaming laptops I've used.

I have now had this laptop for four days over the weekend, and my initial impressions are as follows:Great processor and gpu for the price point, especially if bought on sale. I purchased mine on Prime Day one. I think it was $300 off which was a great deal. Then Prime Day two rolls around and its another $100 off. Slight issue with Amazon because they won't just match the price. At first I tried to cancel the order and wasn't able to so I contacted customer service and they tried to cancel it and told me they couldn't. Since they don't price match, I was suppose to order another one for the cheaper price and return the first order. Kind of a hassle, but saving another $100 was worth it. I guess I got lucky because I got an email a couple hours later saying the original order was successfully cancelled.As far as the laptop itself, I played with it over the weekend and it runs great. High end processor (i-7 13620H) and graphics card (RTX 4070) are the selling points. No much else with that combo for under $1600.The size and weight of the system are pretty good. My last laptop was an Alienware 15, which was bulky and heavy. This is much lighter and has a pretty subtle chassis which is exactly what I wanted. The RGB keyboard is pretty standard, it felt a bit small at first but I'm sure it will just take some getting used to. I haven't played with the customizable colors yet but the function keys allow it to be brightened, dimmed or turned off and on.The screen (15.6 FHD 1,920 x 1,080 pixels) is adequate, just know what you're getting. 1080p is FHD (full high definition). That is most likely why it's price point is less than some other laptops with higher end resolutions like QHD or 4k. That being said, on a smaller 15" screen FHD still looks great. The refresh rate is fast (144Hz) and I ran well above 60fps on max settings flawlessly on CP2077.SSD size (1TB) is pretty standard, it is gen4, currently gen5 is the fastest, but gen4 is plenty fast enough. One issue people are having is the second ssd slot does not come with a mounting bracket or screw to hold it down. I knew of this issue before purchasing and I am planning on installing a second ssd (also ordered on Prime day for big discount). I contacted MSI thru live chat and they are sending me the mounting bracket. The whole process took less than 10 min. Minor irritation but not a big issue.RAM is good (16gb), I plan to upgrade to 32gb soon when the bracket arrives and I am installing the second ssd. I didn't put too much stress on the system while playing it over the weekend but it held decently with only the 16gb of RAM.The major issue I have with this laptop is the battery life, It is absolutely horrendous. I started my gaming session (Diablo4) at 100% and after an hour I was down to 32%, and D4 isn't the most system demanding game. So maybe get an hour and half of straight gaming out of it unplugged. This is the only reason it didn't get 5 stars.Overall, at this price point, (especially if you can find it on sale and stay plugged in) it is well worth it. After upgrading the RAM and installing a second SSD (both less than $100 each) any comparable system would be well over $2k.Update: Received mounting bracket for SSD within a week of contacting MSI customer support. Quick and easy install of SSD and RAM. Battery life still sucks and is only down point of this laptop. If it got 2+ hours of gaming battery life it would be an easy 5 stars.