Welcome to our review of the MSI Katana GF66 12UD-436 15-inch gaming laptop. If you’re a gamer on the hunt for a top-quality laptop from a trusted brand with 16GB of RAM out of the box and an affordable price tag, this model may be just what you’ve been searching for.
With its modern design, and powerful specs this laptop will fulfill everyone’s requirements. And thanks to its efficient thermal cooling system it ensures longer hours of intensive work and gaming on maximum settings.
Is this 15.6″ notebook really an affordable and reliable MSI gaming laptop you can get your hands on? Let’s see if it lives up to the hype!
Anyway, consider this one if a 17-inch screen is what you are after.
12UD-436: A Modern MSI Katana GF66!
Regarding gaming laptops, it’s all about the small details. Sure, powerful specs matters. But with this particular device, one of many things that stands out is its stylish design. This makes an impact from the moment you take it out of the box. The clean unibody looks sleek and modern, while still delivering a sophisticated look.
The MSI Katana GF66 12UD-436 gaming laptop was designed to play your games while not sacrificing aesthetics for performance. This laptop looks like any other ordinary laptop but can still play the latest games with ease. With its sleek design and subtle dragon logo, this gaming laptop has enough style to fit right in with its peers. What great is, you can easily use this laptop during class or studying without drawing all of the attention to yourself.
I also like the Rubber feet, they are beneficial in a variety of ways in my book. Not only do they provide stability for gaming, but they also protect your new laptop from scratches and scrapes. This can occur from moving it around frequently. Additionally, rubber feet prevent your laptop from sliding around on desks or other surfaces. They also act as shock absorbers to protect the internal components of the laptop. In short, the rubber feet help make this MSI Katana GF66 12UD-436 a reliable and durable laptop.
Until today, MSI laptops have been known for having not only enough power for a gaming experience, but they have also been carefully crafted to last for years.
MSI Katana GF66 12UD Specs
| Product | MSI Katana GF66 15.6" 144Hz FHD Gaming Laptop: Intel Core i7-12650H RTX 3050 Ti 16GB 512GB NVMe SSD, Type-C USB 3.2 Gen 1, High-ResoluTion Audio, Cooler Boost 5, Win11 Home: Black 12UD-436 |
| Preview |
|
| Screen size (inch) | 15.6-inch IPS-Level display full-HD 1080p with 144Hz refresh rate |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-12650H (10-cores/16-threads) |
| Memory | 16GB DDR4-3200 RAM (2 slots, max 64GB) |
| Graphics | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti |
| Storage (SSD) | 512GB |
| Strength & Weakness | VIEW |
Tested games and overall performance
For gamers, high performance is essential in order to be competitive. The MSI Katana GF66 12UD-436 gaming laptop has the power and speed you need to stay ahead of your competition. With an Intel Core i7-12650H processor, you can expect lightning-fast response times, enabling them to move quickly and accurately. The RTX 3050 Ti graphics card provides you with an incredibly realistic gaming experience, bringing your favorite games to life. The GPU also ensures that images and videos look sharp and vibrant. This is great for creating presentations or watching movies. All these, combined with its 16GB of memory, allow you to play without worrying about lagging or freezing. All these, without doing an upgrade to your device.
The 12th gen i7 MSI GF66 Katana is also good for multitasking. Its power and speed allow you to quickly multitask, and work on multiple projects at once.
Furthermore, MSI equips the MSI Katana GF66 12UD-436 laptop with Cooler Boost 5. This revolutionary cooling system features up to six heat pipes, so you don’t have to worry about overheating your CPU and GPU. With enlarged internal diameters of thermal pipes and specialized thermal grease, you can count on maximum performance.
In short, this MSI Katana GF66 12UD-436 gaming laptop offers you power and speed.
What games can you play?
MSI designed this Katana GF66 17 12th gen to meet gamers’ demands for excellent performance and portability. With its decent specs including the 12th generation of i7 CPU and the Ti version of RTX 30-Series GPU, you can enjoy gaming without compromising on visual quality.
This laptop was tested and is capable to play 120 fps gameplay in The Witcher 3 smoothly and 70-110 fps in The Lost Ark while broadcasting on a second external monitor. A constant 240 frames per second may be expected while playing League of Legends.
i7-12650H benchmarks
This laptop CPU, the Intel Core i7-12650H, is an advanced processor launched last year. It can deliver fast performance. Featuring 10 cores (with 6 P-Cores for high-performance tasks and 4 E-Cores for power efficiency) on a single chip with 16 threads and an FCBGA1744 socket, this CPU ensures you enjoy a gaming experience with an immersive graphics display. With its specs, you will appreciate the power of this processor.
This 12th generation of i7 processor also has 24 MB of L3 cache and offers snappy response times. Even with the most intensive tasks. Also, it supports DDR5, up to a maximum stock speed of 4800 MHz, making it useful for its users. Last but not least, the Core i7-12650H supports PCIe 5.0. This means you can reap the benefits of SSDs and GPUs to further enhance your gaming experience. Go here if you want to check out the performance of this CPU’s predecessor.
For the benchmark, the average CPU Mark standard is a great way to measure the performance of different processors. You can get your work done quickly with the Intel Core i7-12650H processor inside this MSI Katana GF66 12UD-436. This CPU outperforms other CPUs in this benchmark. It beats the Apple M1 Max 10 Core and a few of AMD’s Ryzen 7. As a result, you can enjoy the power of its latest processor for your work or gaming needs.
The i7-12650H MSI Katana GF66: The Benefits
This laptop boasts several outstanding features at an incomparable cost. 16GB of memory, generous SSD storage, and plenty of ports- what more could a gamer ask for? But let’s start with the element you’ll use most often-its screen!
Advanced graphics on the screen
The 12UD-436 comes with a 15.6″ Full-HD IPS display. It has a 1920×1080 screen resolution and a 144Hz refresh rate. If you game a lot, the 144Hz refresh rate of this laptop’s screen means a much smoother gaming experience than other laptops, which have a lower refresh rate.
If you want smooth action while playing your favorite titles or working on your school or college assignments, you will love the screen. This high refresh rate gives you an edge over your opponents because it lets you respond to them faster.
When the 144Hz screen and RTX 3050 Ti are used together, games can have stunning graphics with a lot of fine detail.
The better-than-average Keyboard
You will love the keyboard on this MSI Katana GF66 12UD-436 gaming laptop. Like other MSI laptops’ keyboards, it is definitely a gamer’s dream come true. The chiclet keys have just the right depth, registering them without delay and with relatively quiet feedback. The distance between the keys and their coating is great for both gaming and typing. Plus, you can customize your keyboard by using the hotkey ‘F8’. This will change the red backlight’s color brightness level. You will also love the number pad on the right side, so no more lugging around an external keyboard when you study or work with digital numbers.
As for the touchpad, you won’t be disappointed either. It has a soft-touch feel to it, and its coating makes it easy to perform the Windows precision driver gestures.
The Battery Life
When we are discussing battery life on gaming laptops in general, we can’t expect phenomenal values to acquire maximum gaming performance. If you expect 10 hours or more of battery life, please opt for non-gaming laptops like an ultrabook or a MacBook.
For this MSI Katana GF66 12UD-436, it comes with a 3-cell battery configuration and 53.5 Wh of capacity. And because the battery life depends on how hard you work the laptop, the battery life isn’t that great when you intensively play games. This happens to all gaming laptops. Under more casual use such as internet browsing, editing documents, and other similar duties, it can last up to six hours. But if you use it to play games, it will deplete the battery faster. Thankfully, it also comes with a 180W power adapter that allows you to quickly recharge your device.
To be frank, there are gaming laptops with poorer battery life, but if you intend to have a longer gaming session away from home, it’s advised that you bring your charger with you.
Ports Locations
Before purchasing a new laptop, it is quite important to look at the ports and connectivity options with your new device. With the MSI Katana GF66 12UD-436, you can rest assured that your every need is covered.
On the left side of this unit, you will find the 3.5mm audio combo jack and two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports with Type-A and Type-C interfaces. Not only that but an HDMI 2.1 port is also included for those who want to use the laptop as a desktop replacement (by connecting your machine to an external monitor). You can even enjoy 4K resolution at a refresh rate of up to 60 Hz with the HDMI port.
Moving on to the right side, you will find fewer connectors. There are 1x USB 2.0 Type-A, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, and a DC-in connector for powering your new laptop. For the connectivity option, you won’t have to worry about running out of ports or being limited in your options when connecting external devices or charging up the laptop.
Final Thoughts
MSI has established itself as a leader in the field of gaming laptop motherboards over the years. The new addition to their impressive range of products is this Katana GF66 12UD-436, a good option for gamers looking to get serious performance out of their machines. This laptop offers performance, reliability, and portability. Moreover, its clean design makes it stand out from other gaming laptops, and you can use it in all kinds of environments.
If you are searching for a laptop that is not too expensive and powerful enough to get the job done, this MSI GF66 Katana checks all those boxes and more. For the top-of-the-line hardware it offers, in addition to its i7-12650H CPU, RTX 3050 Ti GPU, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of NVMe SSD, and 144Hz Full-HD screen, this MSI Katana GF66 12UD-436 is not just a good gaming laptop; it’s a damn very good laptop.
