Deal | MSI Katana 15 gaming laptop with Intel i7-13620H and RTX 4070 down to US$1,199.99

The fastest Katana 15 configuration from MSI is now discounted down to US$1,199.99 on Amazon. Katana is a budget-oriented lineup, so it comes with a few compromises, but overall, the hardware components offer great value for the price.

Compared to the Alder Lake i7-12650H processor, the Raptor Lake i7-13620H from Intel included with this configuration is at least 15% faster. It comes with 6 P-cores + 4 E-cores, for a total of 16 threads, and it is coupled with 16 GB of DDR5-5200 RAM (upgradable to 64 GB) and a 1 TB PCIe 4.0 SSD. There is a vacant M.2 slot for potential storage upgrades, as well.

The budget quality is particularly noticeable with the display option. MSI provides a 1080p IPS screen with above average response time, quite dim maximum brightness of ~240 nits, only 53% sRGB color gamut and 144 Hz refresh rate. However, users can output to an external screen via the HDMI 2.1 video connector that also benefits from a MUX switch to directly connect to the RTX 4070 dGPU. Even though the graphics solution is running at a maximum of 105 W TGP, our tests have demonstrated that the RTX 4070 dGPUs do not show any performance gains above 115W, so this model is not actually lacking too much in this department.

Port selection is slim, with 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 1, 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, 1x USB 2.0, HDMI 2.1, audio and GbE jacks. Wireless connectivity is offered through a Wi-Fi 6E + BT 5.2 card and other features include a 720p webcam, 4-zone RGB keyboard and a 53.5 Wh battery. Total system weight is 2.25 kg (4.96 lbs) and profile measures 24.9 mm (0.98 inches).

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