Katana A15 AI Gaming Laptop 15.6” QHD 165Hz – Ryzen 9-8945HS, RTX 4070, 32GB DDR5, 1TB SSD, Cooler Boost 5, Windows 11: Black B8VG-450US

I had another laptop previously and it just wasn't sparking joy. I wanted this one but it was a bit heavier so I opted for the other. I regretted it. It was so buggy. So I sprung for this one. Beautiful, fast, no problems out of the box. Love it.

I felt like I did plenty of research going into this computer purchase, compared benchmarks and hardware to ensure I was making a choice in product that would last 3-5 years. Let me tell you, this laptop isn’t it for my application. I needed a laptop to be mobile and edit content, primarily graphic design and 1-5 minute video editing. This includes using the entire Adobe suite with either one or multiple programs (not all at once). I found my experience with this laptop to be subpar at best. Right away I was leery of the AMD processor, I much prefer Intel. I cannot prove that this CPU was the root cause of all my issues, but I have a feeling it was a contributor. I was very disappointed with the lack of reliability, and it seemed every time I needed to use the laptop, there was some issue. And then of course if I gave it a little time it would finally come around, just enough for me to question if I could “make it work” in the long run. It got to the point where I started documenting the issues 2 days in and noted weird things I was finding since this laptop just didn’t feel right. Below were several of the things I noticed in just over a week of owning and using daily. Keep in mind I came from a M3 Pro MacBook Pro prior to this. Delivered: 9/20/24 Issues with laptop: Google chrome opens first search with bold text every time, super annoying. Incognito mode does same thing so doesn’t seem to be an account setting/issue Initially opened using Yahoo as search engine with brand new Google Chrome download. Could have been an issue with previous extensions that I had, since I had logged into google first before searching anything 9/23 Laptop was at 10% and went into power saver, keyboard dimmed and brightness went down. Plugged it in for an hour, go to turn it on, black screen. Plugged into other outlet (neither outlet is switched) and it finally fired up 10 minutes later. 9/25 Got home and opened laptop, won’t connect to home WiFi, which it’s been connected to for almost a week and has remembered. Turned WiFi off and on again, and now says No Wi-Fi Networks found. Need external WiFi adapter to use internet now. 9/26 Plugged in hard drive (offline) to work on project, computer won’t read hard drive. Previously Norton wanted to run a scan every time I plugged in, so not sure if that’s why it’s not recognizing the drive but I wasn’t able to do work off the SSD until I had WiFi again 9/26 Was editing a project with computer, closed lid for 15 minutes, came back and screen is black. Won’t turn on or restart… 20 minutes later it turns on after deciding it wanted to be shut down, and tabs are now all closed and unsaved work lost… not cool. 9/28 Finally used Adobe Premiere Pro for the first time on this device, playback is CHOPPY, it will play forward when previewing, then chop back a few frames, then play forward, they chop back a few frames. Not a clean simple playback to review my timeline and see how my project looks… Trackpad pinch to zoom doesn’t zoom-in on timeline in Premiere… throws off typical workflow, VERY annoying 9/29 Perfectly on que… blue screen of death “Recovery” while turning on… time to get a MacBook. Another odd thing: EVERY time the computer restarts MSI Center and Xbox re-pin themselves to the taskbar I also added quite a few add-ons to “try” making the laptop feel more like a Mac. I added things like 3 finger drag, spacebar preview, phone link, changed photoshop and Illustrator settings to allow pinch to zoom… and even with all of this to help my workflow feel more like a Mac, the clunky computer workflow and unreliability kept me feeling disconnected from my work.

The Katana A15 AI B8VG is a capable gaming laptop once you get past the blue screens. On set-up just keep letting it fix itself while updating BIOS, downloading the Microsoft updates, and graphics drivers. You will have to let it restart several times. It took about 25 mins but became stable once everything was up to date. A mild inconvenience but still annoying. I caught it on Amazon Day which knocked off almost a few hundred bucks making it completely worth the price tag. I use mine for gaming and business without any issues. I love the way the keys feel. The 4070 does its job well enough for the time being. - 1 star: The main drawback to this laptop in my experience is the battery life. You will only get a few hours out of it tops unless you stay in power saving mode which gives me another 2 hours. I bought another charging cord to keep at work, but the whole point of a laptop is to be mobile. So, if you can't be tethered to an outlet a couple times day, it may not be for you. Overall, it's a good mid-range gaming laptop that puts you on a bit of a leash.

After a whole lot of research, I came to the decision that this was the best bang for my buck in terms of gaming laptops. I know a 4080 or a 4090 would have been better, and it could’ve used a bit more VRAM. But those laptops were easily at least $500 more and up, and it just didn’t seem worth it imo. And man, does it still do a great job. I’ve played almost every game at Ultra and Maximum settings with little to no issues. If running natively on the laptop screen, it’s buttery smooth. I am using a 34’’ curved monitor, and projecting to two screens at once at 3500 resolution, which can cause some games to lag a little at Ultra settings, but after some minor tweaks I can still run everything great! Overall, this laptop is a piece of art. It’s form is sleek and sexy, it’s relatively lightweight, the screen is great, it’s RGB keyboard looks awesome, and it’s just a total powerhouse, not to mention extremely affordable for what you’re getting. Incredibly happy with my purchase, one month in and I have no regrets. The speakers are nothing special, but the sound quality it outputs is clear. Also, I haven’t really tested out the battery, I hear it’s got a short lifespan, but I keep it plugged in so I don’t really notice. It does get REALLY hot though, and quite easily, even when just using Chrome I’ve clocked it at about 104 degrees Fahrenheit. If you’re thinking about getting this laptop, I would **highly recommend** getting a laptop cooling fan to sit underneath. There are some great brands for reasonable prices on Amazon. I purchased the Kevin Gaming Laptop Cooling Fan (I think that’s its name),, it can go up to 2,800 rpm and keeps my laptop at a nice 90-94 degrees.

Llevo un año desde que la tengo y me anime a comentar, no he tenido queja alguna, su rendimiento es justo lo que esperaba

Unfortunately, I will be returning this laptop as it is simply just not worth the price. I have had the laptop for 3 days and have had multiple issues: - The battery life is terrible. It lasts less than 2 hours with just browsing and idling. It lasted a whole 30 minutes when gaming. - When idling for a few minutes, the screen shuts off. It is supposed to go into sleep mode, but the laptop frequently shuts completely off instead, losing all tabs and work progress. - Sometimes when trying to wake up the computer from sleep mode, the laptop will not turn on for 20-30 minutes whether plugged into a power source or not. The power button seems to not be functional during this time. - We have also had issues with it connecting to Wi-Fi. - Games sometimes run well, but randomly drop FPS. This thing is just not worth the hassle. The graphics are nice, but that's really about it.

10 de 10 Llego en rapido y en buenas condiciones. MSI nunca falla

I’m extremely upset. Yes, I bought this used—and I understand that comes with some risk—but for $1,200, I expected it to at least work. Before purchasing, I reviewed Amazon’s policy on used electronics, which claims that items go through checks to ensure they’re functional and sellable. Based on that, I felt confident enough to proceed. When the laptop arrived, I was excited to get it set up. Within two minutes of turning it on to install Windows and updates, I got the Blue Screen of Death. TWO minutes. That’s completely unacceptable for something at this price point. And if that wasn’t bad enough, I discovered I was sent a downgraded version of the model I ordered. I compared the product in my Amazon ‘Orders’ page to the physical machine I received, and they do not match. This one has lower specs. It’s insulting and disappointing. What makes this even more frustrating is that I currently own an old MSI laptop that has lasted me eight years. I’ve trusted this brand because of how reliable that machine has been—but now I feel completely let down. To make matters worse, I can’t even buy this model directly from MSI—I’m forced to go through Amazon. So here I am, stuck with a broken, misrepresented laptop that cost me over a grand. 0/10. Amazon and/or MSI - if you see this, I expect someone to reach out and make this right.

No tiene ni dos horas de uso y ya mando pantalla azul. lo devolví. EL EQUIPO YA FUE ENVIADO Y RECIBIDO POR PARTE DE AMAZON, PERO ESTAN DANDO LARGAS Y NO ME DEVUELVEN MI DINERO, ADEMAS DE QUE COMPRE OTRO EQUIPO PARA SOLVENTAR ESTE FRACASO Y ME ENTREGARON UN UNO QUE NO FUE EL QUE COMPRE, CON MENOR PRECIO Y MENORES CARACTERISTICAS.