Katana Series

For years now, MSI has been known to be a premium gaming brand. However, the company has been trying to tap into the growing budget markets. One of the first attempts was in 2021 when the company introduced the Katana series. At its launch, the Katana series was more of an extension of the existing Thin GF series even sporting the “GF” moniker in its name. Even today, MSI treats the Katana as an entry-level gaming laptop but it’s positioned higher than the Thin GF and the newly launched Cybord series.

The concept for the Katana GF came from Japanese Samurai warriors. MSI collaborated with Tsuyoshi Nagano, a visual artist celebrated for his work in “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” and “Nobunaga’s Ambition” video games. Despite the Katana name, these laptops combined the concept of both blade and armor.

MSI offered the Katana GF laptops in two sizes—15” (GF66) and 17” (GF76). Underneath, they packed the combo of 11th Gen Intel-H series processors and NVIDIA RTX 30-series graphics. The Katana series has been refreshed every year with the latest internal components and new gaming features.

The 2023 edition of the MSI Katana gaming laptop pack the 13th Gen “Alder Lake” processors with RTX 40-series mobile GPUs. They now come with MUX Switch to transit between discrete GPU and hybrid GPU modes—the latter connects the NVIDIA GPU directly to the display, bypassing the integrated solution. This makes the laptop perform comparatively better, sacrificing battery life in the process. MSI has also added the option of 4-zone RGB keyboards that the original models lacked.