MSI Katana 15 long-term review: Portable power

MSI’s Katana 15 laptop is crammed with an RTX 4070 GPU and Intel Core i9 Processor, but after several months of use, is it really worth your time and money?

I’ve been using the MSI Katana 15 for two months as a dedicated laptop for gaming. Testing and playing games like Horizon Forbidden West, Dragon’s Dogma 2, and Street Fighter 6 using the system, I’ve racked up hundreds of hours using the system at this point.

I’ve also put the system through its paces in several benchmarks, as well as used it for office work. So, can you really use a high-powered gaming laptop as your main system?

Key specs

• CPU: Intel Core i9-13900H
• RAM: 16GB DDR5-5600 MHz
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 (105″)
• Display: 15.6-inch LCD 144Hz (1920×1080)
• Storage: 1TB PCIe 4.0
• OS: Windows 11
• Weight: 2.2 KG
• Connectivity: 1x HDMI 2.1, 2x USB-A 3.2, 1X USB-C, 2x USB 2.0, 3.5mm jack, Gigabit ethernet
• Features: AMUX Switch, HD webcam, Dual 2W speakers
• MSRP: From $1599

Design

Dexerto

The MSI Katana 15 isn’t going to win any design awards, in form and function it’s a bigger, chunkier laptop when compared to the likes of the latest Razer Blade 14, but that doesn’t mean that you’ll miss out on heaps of performance. You just have to consider what you want to use it for.

If you are a student looking for a portable gaming rig, the weight of the system will perfectly fit in any dorm room. But, if you’re someone who is looking to pick it up and take it out and about with you, you might want to opt for something a bit lighter, as the weighty charging brick is a necessity here.

Made out of plastic, this matte black look works well, and it also offers heaps of ports to attach your peripherals like gaming mice, or controllers. With rigid lines and plenty of room for cooling on the underside, you can also upgrade the RAM within this laptop, which is a welcome change compared to so many soldered-on solutions we’ve looked at before.

Dexerto

The MSI Katana 15 isn’t going to win any awards for its overall look and shape, but it’s more than serviceable for those looking for serious power without having a desktop PC, especially given the generous port selection.

Display

Open the system up, and you’ll find a 15.6-inch 144Hz, 1080p display. This LCD-based display is, in a word, a touch disappointing. Viewing angles are awful when looking at the screen off-axis. Its 1080p resolution is also lower than you might expect from a laptop in 2024, with the 144Hz refresh rate very much being a bare minimum standard.

There are no frills here, and what you get isn’t exactly spectacular, especially as there is no G-Sync support here, either. The display is one of the most disappointing aspects of this device, and really, MSI could have improved panel technology here to make the display a bit more true-to-life.

Keyboard & trackpad

The keyboard of the MSI Katana 15 is great, offering up a gamer-ish legend with short throw buttons, which make it very easy to operate, with RGB backlights to illuminate your sessions. This was fantastic, and I was able to do entire days of work and adjust to the board very easily. Again, there are no gimmicks here, much like the rest of the laptop, just pure function.

Dexerto

One area that the Katana 15 abysmally fails, however, is in its trackpad design. It’s minuscule compared to my usual M2 Macbook Air, and there’s plenty of space for a larger pad on the system, which would make it much easier to use in an office environment. The conceit here is that MSI expects you to hook up a gaming mouse here, but a better-integrated solution here would have been incredibly welcome.

Features

MSI Center software is at the heart of configuring the system, but it has always remained one of the worst pieces of Laptop software I have used in recent memory. Compared to Razer’s option, MSI Center is splintered, with individual installations required for features, like RGB control, and system monitoring.

Performance

When it comes down to pure performance, the 1080p display of the Katana 15 will be able to scream past most titles with ease, thanks to the powerful processor and 105W 8GB RTX 4070 GPU housed inside. Needless to say, you’ll be able to handle most modern AAA titles very easily. Proven by our in-house suite of tests. We’ve also benchmarked the same laptop’s DLSS performance.

Game	MSI Katana 15 (4070 / 13900H)	HP Victus 15 2023 (4050/ 12500H)	Razer Blade 14 2024 (4070/ 8945HS)	HP Omen Transcend 14 2024 (4060 / Ultra 7 155H)	Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 X3D (4090 / 7945HX3D)
Forza Horizon 5 (Ultra, RT & DLSS off)	101 FPS	72 FPS	103 FPS	71 FPS	147 FPS
Cyberpunk 2077 (Ultra, RT Ultra, DLSS 3 Performance, Frame Generation / FSR)	67 FPS	43 FPS	72 FPS	45 FPS	161 FPS
Cyberpunk 2077 (Ultra, RT Ultra, DLSS off)	22 FPS	29 FPS	18 FPS	24 FPS	47 FPS
Overwatch 2 (Ultra)	204 FPS	59 FPS	216 FPS	145 FPS	404 FPS

In general titles like Dragon’s Dogma 2, the demanding title was not enough to keep the sheer horsepower of the MSI Katana 15 down, with steady performance even during challenging scenes with a large number of NPCs.

Capcom

In Street Fighter 6, there was no lag detectable, partially thanks to the system-wise Reflex implementation, in addition to the stable 60 FPS in battle, allowing you to enable Input Delay Reduction features from within the game’s menu thanks to the high-refresh monitor.

Synthetic benchmarks

3DMark	MSI Katana 15 (4070 / 13900H)	HP Victus 15 2023 (4050/ 12500H)	Razer Blade 14 2024 (4070/ 8945HS)	HP Omen Transcend 14 (4060 / Ultra 7 155H)	Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 X3D (4090 / 7945HX3D)
Time Spy Extreme	5394	3563	5961	3562	9741
Port Royal	7000	4335	7714	4438	12305
Speed Way	2848	1875	3040	1980	5175

The MSI Katana 15 put in a good effort when compared to its closest competitor we’ve tested: The comparatively much more expensive Razer Blade 14 2024. You should expect to run just about every new AAA title you can think of, considering the 1080p resolution of the panel, the gaming laptop is surprisingly well-balanced.

Thermals & battery

The MSI Kanaa 15 gets very hot while gaming. In our testing, we measured that the system reached up to 88 degrees under extreme synthetic loads, with gaming loads reaching 90 degrees Fahrenheit. As the temperature rises, so does fan noise, and boy does this system get loud. Headphones aren’t just recommended, they are practically required.

Battery life in gaming and workstation workloads is also disappointing. With no taxing applications running, aside from a basic image editor as my main system for work, the laptop lasted around four and a half hours. When running offline sessions of Street Fighter 6, the battery buckles, lasting just two and a half hours before you’ll need to reach for a charger.

Should you buy it?

The MSI Katana 15 is far from fault. Poor battery, a lackluster screen, and meager battery life all come to mind. But, when taking the laptop to my Street Fighter 6 local meetups, or when wanting to get away from my desk but still want to do some serious gaming, the Katana 15 delivers performance where it counts.

This is a thoroughbred traditional gaming laptop in every sense, as you might find from the likes of Gigabyte, warts, and all.

Verdict: 3/5

The Katana 15 should be considered as a portable gaming setup, rather than a traditional laptop that you use to browse the internet on your sofa. It’s built to deal with high-performance tasks, with a wire nearby for a constant supply of juice. Yes, it’s inconvenient, but it offers much more value than a premium option like a Razer Blade 14, for those on a budget.

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