Contents
- 1 MSI Katana 17 B12V
- 2 Quick transition:
- 3 What's included?
- 4 What about the appearance and design of the MSI Katana 17 B12V?
- 5 How convenient is it to use the MSI Katana 17 B12V?
- 6 How good is the screen?
- 7 What about performance and autonomy?
- 8 Dry residue. Three things you need to know about the MSI Katana 17 B12V.
- 9
MSI Katana 17 B12V is a very nice gaming laptop with a modern, balanced configuration and high performance that allows you to comfortably play all modern games. It is possible to upgrade SSD drives, RAM and replace the wireless adapter. Thanks to an effective cooling system, the laptop operates stably even under long-term high loads. The laptop's display has both pros and cons: it has a 144Hz refresh rate and very good calibration out of the box. But the brightness level is quite modest, as is the color gamut. The keyboard has very nice buttons and 4-zone RGB backlighting. But you'll have to get used to the layout. Now a laptop can be bought for 82 500 UAH.
MSI Katana 17 B12V
Gaming laptop with a 17.3-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1920×1080 and a refresh rate of 144 Hz. Inside is a 12th generation Intel Core i7 processor, 16 GB of RAM, a discrete NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 graphics card and a fast PCIe 4.0 x4
SSD
5 reasons to buy MSI Katana 17 B12V:
- high performance;
- screen with a refresh rate of 144 Hz and good calibration;
- efficient cooling system;
- opportunities for upgrading storage and RAM;
- comfortable keyboard buttons with RGB backlight.
2 reasons not to buy MSI Katana 17 B12V:
- narrow color gamut and low screen brightness;
- a bit unusual keyboard layout.
Quick transition:
- What's in the box?
- What about the appearance and design of the MSI Katana 17 B12V?
- How convenient is it to use the MSI Katana 17 B12V?
- How good is the screen?
- What about performance and autonomy?
- Dry residue
What's included?
MSI Katana 17 B12V is packed in two relatively small boxes made of the usual mustard-colored cardboard. The content is also quite familiar. The laptop itself, 200 W power supply, power cable and documentation.
What about the appearance and design of the MSI Katana 17 B12V?
MSI Katana 17 B12V looks quite discreet, like for a gaming model. It is made entirely of matte black plastic, and only the keyboard is RGB-lit. As for a 17-inch gaming model, the laptop turned out to be quite thin: 25.2 mm. And the use of plastic allowed it to be not heavy: 2.6 kg. Again, taking into account the display diagonal and powerful components. The working surface is pleasant to the touch and hardly flexes. But traces of work and fingerprints remain on it quite actively. The material of the top cover looks similar. But it seems that a slightly different coating is used: there are almost no fingerprints on it. The cover is decorated with the MSI logo and several lines.
Decorative elements include a geometric pattern of small dots along the perimeter of the body. The company calls it Digital Bricks Texture. On the left side of the laptop there are ventilation holes, a socket for connecting a power supply, as well as full-size USB 3.2 Gen1 and USB 2.0 ports:
On the right side there is a combined 3.5 mm audio jack for connecting a headset, full-size USB 3.2 Gen1, USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-C (with DisplayPort support), HDMI 2.1 and network RJ-45. There are no ventilation holes, so there will be no hot air blowing on your hand with the mouse.
The front edge of the laptop does not have any functional elements. At the back there are two zones for blowing out hot air by a cooling system and hinges.
The frame on the sides of the screen is thin. Above and below – significantly wider. There are wide rubber inserts around the perimeter for additional protection of the display unit. Webcam (720p) with two microphones and an indicator in its usual place.
The bottom of the laptop is made of a different, rough plastic. At the bottom there are massive rubber feet and many ventilation holes, which are made in the form of a honeycomb. Below them you can see the copper heat pipes of the cooling system. The laptop has upgrade capabilities, but the information on the official website (and the presence of a seal) suggests that this should be done at an official service center. But by removing the cover, you can access two SO-DIMM slots (supports up to 64 GB of RAM), a wireless adapter and an SSD. The laptop has two M.2 connectors for storage.
The laptop has dimensions of 398x273x25.2 mm and a weight of 2.6 kg. The build quality and materials are very good. Nothing creaks or wobbles, the parts are fitted very precisely. The covers hardly bend.
How convenient is it to use the MSI Katana 17 B12V?
Hinges allow you to open the laptop 180°. At the same time, the display unit is securely fixed in the desired position. Yes, it may shake a little when accidentally touched. But this is quite normal, given the diagonal of the display.
The MSI Katana 17 B12V uses a full-size keyboard with an additional number pad, but some unusual features. Given the width of the laptop, it could have been made a little wider and more familiar. The top row is usually reduced in height and ends with a transparent power button with a built-in LED. The WASD buttons are also made transparent. The left Shift and Ctrl are a little longer than the standard ones, but this forced us to abandon the Fn button. It is only on the right side of the main block, which is not very convenient when using function keys. Enter single-level long. The navigation block is not separated from the main one and has standard-sized buttons, which forced the right Shift to be slightly reduced. The number pad has three rather than four columns. An additional Enter is placed below the block, and “+” and “-” above it, next to NumLock. In general, nothing critical, and the additional number pad can be useful during operation. But it takes some time to get used to.
The buttons have a full travel of 1.7 mm. They work very nicely, the stroke is elastic, soft and informative. There is RGB lighting with multiple brightness levels and four zones, which can be adjusted in the MSI Center app.
The size of the touchpad is small, 105×65 mm. Considering the diagonal and the total area of the working surface, a slightly larger one would fit quite well. But in general, thanks to its good surface and good sensitivity, it is enough for everyday tasks (web surfing, music, movies) and working with documents.
How good is the screen?
MSI Katana 17 B12V only comes with one display option. This is a 17.3-inch IPS with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels and a screen refresh rate of 144 Hz. Brightness, contrast and pixel response time are not specified. The brightness is quite enough for comfortable work indoors. It is doubtful that anyone will use such a laptop outdoors. Viewing angles are maximum. But, naturally, at the extreme points the contrast drops and the black color turns a little gray. Visually, the color rendition is quite normal, but not amazing.
Hardware measurements showed that a fairly budget matrix is used. The maximum brightness is 252.085 cd/m2, the black field brightness is 0.275 cd/m2, and the static contrast is 917:1. The color gamut is significantly narrower than the sRGB space. At the same time, it is worth noting that the display calibration is quite accurate: color temperature is about 7000K with a reference value of 6500K, all other indicators are also close to the reference values.
What about performance and autonomy?
Inside our MSI Katana 17 B12V configuration is a 12th Gen Intel processor. Namely, Intel Core i7-12650H Alder Lake. It is manufactured using the Intel 7 process technology and includes 10 cores. 6 productive and 4 energy-efficient cores, supports calculations of up to 16 threads. The base clock frequency is 2.3 GHz, the maximum frequency is up to 4.7 GHz, the third level cache is 24 MB, and the TDP is 45 W. There is a built-in UHD Intel graphics accelerator with a base frequency of 350 MHz and a maximum frequency of 1.40 GHz for unpretentious tasks and battery operation. The discrete video card is NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop with 8 GB of GDDR6 video memory. In our case, the TGP level can reach 105 W with Dynamic Boost. Base frequency – 1920 MHz, boost – up to 2250 MHz. The laptop is equipped with a MUX Switch multiplexer to directly connect the video card to the display, bypassing the integrated graphics. In this mode, the integrated graphics are disabled, which increases performance and reduces latency. Switching occurs in the MSI Center application (GPU Switch) and requires a system reboot. The amount of RAM in our configuration is 16 GB DDR5-4800, there is access to both slots, up to 64 GB is supported. Communication capabilities: 802.11 ax Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth v5.2 and Gigabit Ethernet.
The laptop has a fairly balanced and productive configuration. Performance may not be maximum at the moment, but at a high level, both in processor and graphics tests.
The Cooler Boost 5 cooling system includes 2 fans and 6 heat pipes with a Shared-Pipe design (common heat pipes for the CPU and GPU). During high loads, CO noise becomes typical for gaming models. Of course, this is not the drone of an airplane, but it is more comfortable to play with a headset. The keyboard remains cold, only the area above it becomes warm.
In the AIDA64 stress test, the temperature of the internal components did not exceed 85°. So the system works stably, no throttling is observed.
The current model SSD Micron 2400 with a PCI-E 4.0 4x interface for 1 TB, which is quite common in modern laptops, is used as a drive. This is not a top-end solution, but it is quite fast. The manufacturer promises read speeds up to 4500 MB/s and write speeds up to 3600 MB/s.
In tests, the drive demonstrates the stated speed indicators: about 4700 MB/s when reading, and 3600 MB/s when writing.
The laptop's performance is quite enough to play in native FullHD resolution with a pleasant FPS level, without giving up ray tracing and high graphics settings.
- Cyberpunk 2077. Maximum settings, including ray tracing. DLSS in auto mode: 47-63 FPS.
- Gears 5. Ultra settings: 100-130 FPS
- God of War. Maximum settings: 60-70 FPS
- Callisto Protocol. Maximum settings, tracing at maximum: 37-63 FPS
- The Ascent. Maximum settings, with ray tracing, DLSS in quality mode: about 60-70 FPS.
- Witcher 3 (updated version). Maximum settings with tracing: 37-55 FPS.
The sound in the MSI Katana 17 B12V is provided by a stereo system with 2 W speakers. They are loud enough for videos and movies. But the low frequencies are not enough for comfortable listening to music.
To customize the sound, the Nahimic application is provided, in which you can select sound presets for various scenarios and adjust frequencies. Additional features include noise reduction and removal of microphone echoes, virtual surround sound settings, and the like.
A three-cell 53.5 Wh battery is responsible for autonomous operation, which is quite modest for a gaming model. In “office” mode: Wi-Fi, working with documents and a browser with low brightness, the laptop works for about three hours.
Almost all laptop settings are collected in the MSI Center application. Namely: switching video card operating modes (MUX Switch), performance scenarios, system monitoring and diagnostics, backlight settings and much more. Among the interesting additional features, it is worth mentioning MSI App Player. In fact, it is an emulator for playing Android games with increased performance, gamepad support and console mode.
Dry residue. Three things you need to know about the MSI Katana 17 B12V.
- MSI Katana 17 B12V has a balanced and powerful configuration that allows you to play all modern games at high graphics settings.
- The laptop is equipped with a FullHD screen with a refresh rate of 144 Hz.
- It is possible to upgrade SSD drives, RAM and replace the wireless adapter.
| Specifications MSI Katana 17 B12V | |
|---|---|
| Display | 17.3 inches, 1920×1080 16:9, IPS, 144 Hz |
| Sizes | 398x273x25.2 mm |
| Weight | 2.6 kg |
| Operating system | No |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-12650H (2.3-4.7 GHz), 10 cores (6P+4E), 16 threads, (Alder Lake, Intel 7) |
| RAM | 16 GB DDR5 4800 MHz |
| Graphics | nVidia GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop, 8 GB GDDR6, Intel UHD Graphics |
| Accumulator | 1 TB SSD M.2 NVMe PCIe Gen4 x4 |
| Communications | Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax 2×2, Bluetooth 5.2, Gigabit Ethernet |
| Connectors | HDMI 2.1, 2xUSB3.2 Gen1, 1x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-C (DisplayPort), USB 2.0, RJ-45, 3.5 mm audio jack |
| Optical drive | No |
| Battery | 53.5 W*h |