MSI Katana 15 (type B13VGK-484US) doesn’t stand out in terms of looks, as it stays true to its low-cost design. Most of the laptop is made of black plastic, but there are a few carbon-fiber accents around the sides. Some of the plastic is made to look like sheets of metal, but it doesn’t work. It weighs 4.96 pounds and is almost an inch thick (0.98 by 14.1 by 10.2 inches). Its width is normal for a 15.6-inch laptop, but it’s on the tall side because the space above and below the screen is pretty big. The base feels pretty strong, and the four rubber feet on the bottom keep it in place on a desk or table, but the hinge for the screen moves around a bit.
Specifications
- Processor Intel Core i7-13620H
- RAM (as Tested) 16 GB
- Boot Drive Type SSD
- Boot Drive Capacity (as Tested) 1 TB
- Screen Size 15.6 inches
- Native Display Resolution 1,920 by 1,080
MSI made room next to the keyboard for a smaller number pad. Unfortunately, it had to move the math function keys from where they usually are, so it took some time to get used to them. The company also made the strange choice not to move the cursor arrow keys, which are stuck between the main keyboard and the number pad, but to make them smaller.
The Katana 15 comes in a lot of different combinations that can be hard to understand. These configurations mix 12th and 13th Generation Intel Core processors with Nvidia GeForce RTX 40 series GPUs. The Core i5-12450H goes all the way up to the Core i9-13900H, and the RTX 4050 goes all the way up to the RTX 4070. Strangely, the choice with the lowest CPU is not paired with the option with the lowest GPU.
Where to get MSI Katana 15 gaming laptop?
All versions come with either 16GB or 32GB of DDR5 memory running at 4,000MHz on 12th Gen systems and 5,200MHz on 13th Gen models. Almost all of them come with a 1TB PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe solid-state drive, but one only comes with a 512GB drive. MSI uses tricky numbers to tell the difference between the different models. For example, the B13V model has 13th Gen Intel and Nvidia GeForce RTX 40 series components, while the B13U model has 13th Gen Intel and GeForce RTX 30 or 20 series components. The B12V label is for 12th Generation Intel and RTX 40 series, while the B12U label is for 12th Generation Intel and RTX 30 or 20 series.