MSI Katana 15 Series

MSI Katana 15 B12VEK

Specifications

Price comparison

Reviews

MSI Katana 15 Laptop Review (2023)
Source: Hubwood
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 03/04/2023

MSI Katana 15 Laptop Review (2023)
Source: Hubwood
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 03/04/2023

MSI Katana 15 HX B14WEK

Specifications

Price comparison

Average Score: 74% - average

Reviews

70% MSI Katana 15 HX Review: A Good Enough Gaming Laptop for Under $1,000
Source: Life Hacker
The Katana is far from a perfect machine or the golden ideal of laptop gestalt. It is, however, priced very appropriately for what's on offer. While the Walmart website (the primary and perhaps only retailer for the model I tested in the US) lists the MSRP at $1,200, the actual price has been frozen at $999 since launch. In fact, according to price tracker aislegopher.com, it was originally listed at $999 MSRP, with the new higher MSRP and "sale" price being recent additions. It's a good thing, too, because at $1,200, I'd look askance at this machine. For that price, your options begin to get a bit wider, and the competition fiercer. But at the sub-$1,000 mark, the Katana has far fewer reasonably-specced competitors. It's also worth noting that the Katana comes in a number of other configs, including those with better processors, more RAM, additional storage or up to an RTX 5070 GPU.
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 10/13/2025
Rating: Total score: 70%

80% MSI Katana 15 HX Review: A Surprisingly Effective Budget Gamer
Source: PC Mag
For entry-level shoppers, the MSI Katana 15 HX gives gamers most of what they need. A larger SSD would be better, but that’s how the cost quickly rises away from the $1,000 mark. That’s its biggest limitation, though the chunkier plastic body and dim screen are also worth noting. The biggest offset to all that? The RTX 5050 GPU serves up quite a bit of gaming performance for the price, though, as we see more laptops with the lower-tier RTX 5050 and 5060 GPUs roll out, that won’t be unique to the Katana. Despite all that, the Katana hits the main marks for a budget gaming laptop. The battery life is decent, the inputs are comfortable, the ports are plentiful, and the parts generate potent mainstream computing performance.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 09/18/2025
Rating: Total score: 80%

72% I Tested MSI's $999 Gaming Laptop and Liked Its 1080p Performance but Little Else
Source: CNet
If you want the best frame rates for the lowest price, then it's a solid pick. But you'll need to live with some budget touches, the worst of which is the dim display. If you can extend your gaming laptop budget from $1,000 to around $1,300, then the Acer Nitro V 16S AI or Lenovo Legion 5i provides a brighter display, lighter design, higher-resolution webcam and bump to RTX 5060 graphics along with double the RAM and storage.
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 08/21/2025
Rating: Total score: 72%

MSI Katana 15 HX B14WGK

Specifications

Price comparison

Average Score: 78.5% - good

Reviews

How to open MSI Katana 15 HX B14W - disassembly and upgrade options
Source: Laptop Media
Support, online available, Long, Date: 12/16/2025

MSI Katana 15 HX B14W Review – The Surprise of the Year!
Source: Laptop Media
The MSI Katana 15 HX (B14Wx) is a gaming laptop that knows exactly what it wants to be: a no-nonsense performance machine. It doesn’t rely on flashy metal exteriors or gimmicky features. Instead, it focuses almost entirely on delivering the best possible gaming experience for the price, punching well above its weight class in raw performance. It’s a laptop that feels like a hidden gem for the pragmatist who values frame rates over frills. While it makes some clear compromises in build materials and features to hit its price point, the sheer power and surprising quality of its display make it an incredibly compelling option for gamers who want top-tier performance without breaking the bank.
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 12/15/2025

Foreign Reviews

82% MSI Katana 15 HX B14W Review en Español (Análisis completo)
Source: Profesional Review ES→EN
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 09/29/2025
Rating: Total score: 82% price: 87% performance: 80% display: 80% mobility: 88% workmanship: 70%

MSI Katana 15 HX B14W Review: un portátil para jugar y estudiar equilibrado, versátil y económico
Source: Noticias 3D ES→EN
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 08/25/2025

75% MSI Katana 15 HX: la recensione del laptop con GeForce RTX 5060 ad un prezzo accessibile
Source: Multiplayer IT IT→EN
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 10/23/2025
Rating: Total score: 75%

MSI Katana 15 HX B14WFK

Specifications

Price comparison

Average Score: 70% - average

Foreign Reviews

70% Test du MSI Katana 15 : un PC portable gaming à moins de 1500€, ça vaut quoi ?
Source: Frandroid FR→EN
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 12/19/2025
Rating: Total score: 70% performance: 70% display: 60% mobility: 40% workmanship: 60%

Comment

MSI: Micro-Star International (MSI) was founded in 1986 in Taiwan. MSI is especially known as a manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards for PCs, but also offers computer accessories, complete systems, motherboards, graphics cards, laptops, desktop PCs, monitors and other components. However, the Microstar brand name in Germany belongs to the Medion company. MSI is known for its gaming products and has developed a wide range of gaming laptops and desktop PCs. The company is also active in workstations, servers and industrial automation. MSI has offices in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

With these GPUs you are able to play modern and demanding games fluently at medium detail settings and HD resolution.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU: Mid-range graphics card for laptops based on the Ada Lovelace architecture. Offers 6 GB of GDDR6 VRAM (96 Bit) and is configurable with a TGP of 35 - 115W (+ Dynamic Boost).

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Laptop: Entry-level graphics card from the Blackwell family for Laptops with 2,560 unified shaders (CUDA cores) and a clock rate of 1500 - 2662 MHz depending on the TDP setting. According to Nvidia, the performance without DLSS and frame generation should be comparable to an RTX 4060.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Laptop: Mobile mid-range graphics card from the Blackwell family based on the GB206 chip with 3328 shaders and 8 GB GDDR7 graphics memory (128 bit).

These graphics cards are able to play the latest and most demanding games in high resolutions and full detail settings with enabled Anti-Aliasing.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Laptop: An upcoming graphics card from the Blackwell family for laptops, which Team Green will most likely present at CES 2025. Considering that the 4070 laptop has 4,608 unified shaders (CUDA cores), the 5070 will most likely have well over 5,000 shaders.

» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Graphics Cards and the corresponding Benchmark List.

Intel Alder Lake-P:

i7-12650H: Alder Lake based mobile CPU with 6 performance cores and 4 efficient cores. The performance cores offer hyper threading, leading to 16 threads that can be processed. The CPU clocks from 1.7 to 4.7 GHz and supports vPro.

Intel Raptor Lake-HX:

i7-14650HX: High-end mobile hybrid processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture with 16 cores (8 performance and 8 efficiency cores) and 24 threads. Based on the Raptor Lake S 13700K chip.

i9-14900HX: High-end mobile hybrid processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture with 24 cores and 32 threads. Clocks at a maximum of 5.8 GHz (P cores).

» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Processsors.

» To find out how fine a display is, see our DPI List.

No weight comment found (one expected)!

75.99%: This rating is not earth-shattering. This rating must actually be seen as average, since there are about as many devices with worse ratings as better ones. A purchase recommendation can only be seen with a lot of goodwill, unless it is about websites that generally rate strictly.

» Further information can be found in our Notebook Purchase Guide.

Devices from a different Manufacturer and/or with a different CPU

Devices with the same GPU

Devices with Same Screen Size and/or Weight

Devices from the same Manufacturer