Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “The Most Affordable Gaming Laptop EVER on Unbox Therapy…”.
[ Applause, ], [ Applause, ] huh. I always like to look at gaming laptops because there’s always some sort of unique approach. These manufacturers take from a design perspective, and that’s really what’s gon na happen here today, because i have two laptops from msi. One is called the katana and the other is called the pulse, and each one takes a different approach to what a gaming laptop can be, can look like they both got tremendous specs you’re gon na get rtx 30 series graphics in either one, but you may i Mean one of these flavors might be more suitable to you. So let’s do the comparison, and then you can pick down in the comments section, whichever one you think is cooler or better.
So, let’s start with the katana model. I believe this is a box in a box scenario. Yes, so here are the specifications on this particular model. We have. The color is black black black black. It’S it’s quadruple black.
This is like when you’re buying some sneakers and you look for the triple black models. Got the black soul black midsole black body on it? Yet this one is going to be blacked out. It’S like a batman, laptop 15.6 fhd anti-glare ips 144 hertz display. So these are the specs you’re. Looking for on a gaming laptop, obviously core i7 11800 h world famous chip choice, geforce rtx 3060 in this model, of course, that selection is up to you. You can configure it with your choice of 30 series, graphics, 1, terabyte, ssd, 16, gigs of ram and windows.
10 on there, so first up is the laptop, and i can tell straight away. It is a stealth look to it, and this is a nice option in the gaming space, because some gaming laptops can really be yelling and screaming at you. Now i got nothing against it. That might be exactly what you’re looking for rgb for days, but this one is for sure stealth zone. So this this could be a suitable in a gaming environment, but it could also be suitable in a more corporate executive scenario where you, you might want an understated look to it. You do still have the dragon here, but it’s blacked out as well.
Also inside the package, we have our power supply extension, cable and, of course, this is going to be fairly substantial. It’S a 180 watt power supply for the rtx 360 in there. A couple of interesting shapes up along the edge. We look at the side and we see our headphone jack. There is a usb type, a port, usb type c port, full size, hdmi network connection power, another usb type, a actually two more usb type, a ports. Oh, you know what let’s check the bottom whoa look at that mega heat pipe in there.
So this gives you a little bit of a look a glimpse into uh. The internals – and you know, what’s interesting, that’s off set, so it kind of makes up for it. It’S stealth on the outside, but if you want to look underneath, there’s some styling going on there. You see the way this kind of like shifts down, that’s cool.
So there we go on the inside and you can see this sort of red accent on the keyboard. The keyboard is going to be backlit as well: we’ve got the pc mag, reader’s choice, rtx, obviously, and core i7 on the inside. You have the offset trackpad and they even managed to fit in a fairly slim number pad over there, but the trackpad lines up with the keyboard.
The display here, oh usually, gaming, laptops, do not open to that degree. So you have your bedtime reading stuff sorted out as well, because that’s a larger range of motion than what you would typically get so yeah the display is anti-glare and the key specification here is 144 hertz. You have your front-facing camera up there. This is a large keyboard, it’s a big keyboard, big keycaps yeah and it’s kind of cool that they put a little accent on it. It’S subtle with the red outline, but it’s uh.
You know once you open it up when you’re sitting in front of it. You have that kind of reminder that you do have a gaming laptop in front of you with the red accent, but this is your subtle move. I think that’s why they called it the katana. It is your streamlined.
Your slick option of the two, the other one is said to be sci-fi inspired. So this is the pulse gl 6611 uek. So this one is specked very similarly 15.6 inch. Color here is going to be gray triple black still has the i7 11 800 h and actually same graphics, rtx.
3060. However, on a storage front, it’s one tv plus, 512 gb ssd still got 16 gigs of ram, so a relatively comparable configuration. So this comparison is mostly going to be about, looks and aesthetic preferences. It is identical.
180 watts, oh wow, yeah, all right. So that’s a much different. Look. You have this uh gun metal, that’s cold to the touch.
This one is not so we have a metallic aspect. Oh i thought i was gon na like the stealth one, but i actually might be partial to this one. It just has a little bit of style. Going on, but it’s not overwhelming, it’s not crazy yelling at you.
It’S still fairly slick, almost like sports car sort of, and in this case your dragon logo is just a little bit more obvious. I think we have the exact same port options. Two usb a c over there uh full size, hdmi, one more type, a audio and ethernet, so yeah same port options. Let’S see what the inside does for us.
Oh, yes, all right, so same display same hinge. This time we have white on the keyboard instead of red. You know what this might be another point for me for the pulse, because i just kind of like this contrast. It’S really easy on the eyes to see which key cap you’re about to press – and i am by no means a pro typer, so every little bit helps another interesting difference is over here on the trackpad on this one.
We have some markers that are not present on the more stealthy katana model. We also have some design elements, and these are textured design elements on each side of the keyboard. Here, let’s see what this little sticker says: pulse gl 66 thin bezel msi center crosshair. These are all gaming enhancement, features high res audio and color booster 5.
Hdmi is also built in. So here’s a look at that msi center app, which gives you some control over various aspects of the device, the led style, as well as the ability to monitor certain aspects of the laptop performance aspects and things here. You can see the backlight and the keyboard configurable to a variety of colors, so you can set the mood that you’re looking for the display i’ll talk a little bit more about 144hz capable which is, of course, what you’re going to be looking for on a gaming Laptop, it is a 1920 by 1080.
As far as the resolution goes, it’s also one millisecond response time. So it’s got all those gaming characteristics and the 15.6 inch form factor with the hdmi output. One of the interesting things for me was this hinge because, typically on a gaming laptop, the hinge will stop short.
It will not travel all the way back, but on these laptops it goes to an almost flat position, which is something you would more likely see in an ultra portable, laptop and less so in a gaming laptop. This gives you a look at the bezel along the top with your front facing camera, and then we can catch a glimpse at some of the finer details of the laptop, including that unusual grill down on the bottom, which is going to help out with cooling. It also exposes some of that copper huh. So let’s go ahead and move over to both the typing test for the keyboard, as well as the sound test, and then we’ll wrap it up with a little bit of gaming to see how this thing performs. That was just a warm up all right, you’re clear: to engage your targets, wow, there’s so much new stuff. In warzone we got dirt bikes now, [ Applause ].
Somebody should be hitting me with like a rocket here soon. [ Applause ], never mind. Welcome to the go knight dying, i can’t believe [ Applause ] hold on. Thank you. [ Applause, ], one more wow, no ha ha ha ha ha. .