I Tested MSI’s $999 Gaming Laptop and Liked Its 1080p Performance but Little Else

7.2/ 10
SCORE

MSI Katana 15 HX B14W

$1,150 at Walmart

Pros

• Strong performance for the price
• Roomy keyboard with four-zone RGB lighting

Cons

• Dim display
• Thick and heavy chassis
• 512GB SSD fills up fast
• Grainy 720p webcam
• No biometrics or Thunderbolt 4

If you’re bound and determined to spend less than $1,000 on a gaming laptop, and you want one with a GPU from Nvidia’s latest GeForce RTX 50 series, then among your limited options is the MSI Katana 15 HX. This 15.6-inch laptop features RTX 5050 graphics and is regularly discounted to $999 at Walmart. It proved to be a strong overall performer, especially for its price, including solid 1080p frame rates. While I was impressed with its performance, I found it hard to overlook some of its shortcomings.

As soon as I pulled it out of the box, I was surprised by the bulk and heft of the laptop. It’s nearly a pound heavier than the Acer Nitro V 16S AI, which has a larger (and more modern) 16-inch, 16:10 display. The Katana 15 HX’s display is an old-school 15.6-inch, 16:9 panel, and as soon as I powered it on, I was greeted with a dim image — and that was with brightness already turned all the way up. Other budget touches include a 512GB SSD that I quickly filled to capacity after installing only a handful of games and a fuzzy 720p webcam that’s sorely outdated.

The Katana 15 HX delivers on the top priority of any gaming laptop, providing good 3D performance for the price. But you don’t have to look very far for very long to find its limitations. None are deal breakers, however, and if you have only $1,000 to spend on a gaming laptop and don’t want one with previous-gen graphics, then the Katana 15 HX certainly fits the bill. For about $300 more, however, the Acer Nitro V 16S AI or Lenovo Legion 5i each offers a more well-rounded package.

MSI sells a few fixed configurations of the Katana 15 HX B14W. I tested the entry-level model, which is sold at Walmart for $1,200 but is regularly on sale for $999. It features an Intel Core i7-14650HX and RTX 5050 graphics, along with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. The display is a 15.6-inch IPS LCD with a 1,920×1,080-pixel resolution and a 144Hz refresh rate.

Also at Walmart is a $1,499 model that bumps you up to an RTX 5070 GPU, 1TB SSD and a higher-resolution (2,560×1,440 pixels) and faster (165Hz) display.

The MSI Katana 15 HX B14W starts at 1,399 in the UK and AU$2,199 in Australia.

MSI Katana 15 HX B14W performance

With its 14th-gen Core i7 CPU that has 16 cores and 24 threads and RTX 5050 GPU with 8GB of dedicated video memory and set at its max TDP of 155 watts, the Katana 15 HX B14W provides excellent bang for your buck. It handled our application benchmarks without breaking a sweat, and on the tests that really matter — our 3D gaming benchmarks — it managed to keep pace with a pair of pricier budget gaming models, the Acer Nitro V 16S AI and Lenovo Legion 5i, that feature RTX 5060 graphics.

The Katana 15 HX B14W produced excellent 1080p frame rates on our Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Guardians of the Galaxy benchmarks and actually outpaced the Acer Nitro V 16S AI, whose RTX 5060 is more capable than the Katana’s RTX 5060 but set at a lower TDP of 85 watts, which limits its performance.

The Katana 15 HX B14W excelled on our F1 24 benchmark, hitting an average of 104 frames per second at 1080p with the Ultra High quality setting. That was better than the Lenovo Legion 5i 15IRX10 (82fps) and Acer Nitro V 16S AI(74fps).

The Katana 15 HX B14W fell behind these two competitors on our Assassin’s Creed: Shadows benchmark, each of which managed to exceed 60fps at 1080p with High settings. The Katana averaged only 53fps with the same settings. But, you’ve got a couple of options to get smooth 1080p gameplay with Shadows on the Katana 15 HX. When I dropped the quality setting to Medium, I averaged 65fps. The other move is to use AI upscaling, and with DLSS enabled, I was able to average 66fps at the highest Ultra High setting.

Keeping thermals in check is a challenge for any gaming laptop, and the Katana 15 HX B14W with its full-wattage RTX 5050 GPU certainly relies on its two cooling fans. Under normal load, the fans kicked in only occasionally, but they were a near-constant presence during games. They get pretty loud, but a good pair of headphones will allow you to largely ignore them.

Battery life is rarely impressive on a gaming laptop, with the focus on power over efficiency. The Katana 15 HX B14W lasted a little over 6 hours on our YouTube streaming battery drain test, which isn’t great but about an hour longer than we got with last year’s MSI Cyborg 15.

Budget touches abound

The Katana 15 HX’s strength is the performance it provides for the price. Where it falls short is in the design and features departments.

I wasn’t surprised to find an all-plastic design, given the low price, but I was taken aback by the heft of the system. It’s thick at over an inch (more when you include the chunky rubber feet on which it rests) and tips the scales at more than 5.5 pounds, which is heavy for a laptop of this size. The Lenovo Legion 5i has a slightly smaller 15.1-inch display and is more than a pound lighter at 4.3 pounds. And even with a larger 16-inch display, the Acer Nitro V 16S AI is almost a pound lighter than the Katana 15 HX.

Another area where the Katana 15 HX shows its budget status is the display. MSI outfitted it with a 15.6-inch, 16:9 display that feels behind the times, as most laptops have moved to a taller 16:10 panel. It suffices for 1080p gaming, and the 144Hz refresh keeps things looking smooth. The overall picture looks a bit muted, however, because of the display’s limited brightness. I measured peak brightness with a Spyder X Elite colorimeter at only 280 nits. Though not uncommon on cheaper laptops, I look for a minimum of 300 nits and really like to be closer to 400 nits. The Acer Nitro V 16S AI and Lenovo Legion 5i were each considerably brighter. The Nitro V hit 443 nits, and the Legion 5i’s OLED panel achieved a peak of 518 nits. Basically, if you need a better display, you’ll need to attach the Katana’s HDMI output to an external one or buy a different laptop.

The webcam is another decidedly budget touch on the Katana 15 HX. While most laptops in 2025 offer at least a 1080p camera, you’re stuck with a fuzzy 720p cam here. It produces a grainy image and lacks an IR sensor that would let you use facial recognition to use with Windows Hello. And without a fingerprint reader, the Katana 15 HX is completely devoid of biometrics for easy, secure logins.

Three other budget items to report:

• The 2-watt stereo speakers produce underwhelming sound; use headphones instead, preferably with active noise cancellation to neutralize the fan noise.
• The 512GB SSD can fill up fast after installing just a couple of games. There’s no room for another drive, but you can easily swap it out for a larger-capacity SSD down the road.
• There are no Thunderbolt 4 ports; the fastest you get is a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port that provides only 10Gbps speed.

Let’s end with a positive: The keyboard isn’t terrible. It feels roomy, and the keys offer shallow travel but with enough of a satisfying snap when pressed or mashed to be serviceable. And you get four-zone RGB LED lighting when many budget gaming laptops offer only a single zone. With four brightness levels for the RGB lighting, you can dial in the effect to match the ambient lighting of your gaming setup. Ten keys — the WASD keys, four arrow keys, spacebar and power button — offer translucent or partially translucent keycaps to let more color shine through.

Lastly, despite the presence of a number pad, you get four full-size arrow keys, which are a necessity on a gaming laptop. Three keys were shortened, however, to accommodate the four arrow keys and numpad — the right-Shift, Copilot and Function keys — and I wish they were dropped down away from the other keys to make them easier to locate by touch.

Is the MSI Katana 15 HX B14W a good budget gaming laptop?

If you want the best frame rates for the lowest price, then it’s a solid pick. But you’ll need to live with some budget touches, the worst of which is the dim display. If you can extend your gaming laptop budget from $1,000 to around $1,300, then the Acer Nitro V 16S AI or Lenovo Legion 5i provides a brighter display, lighter design, higher-resolution webcam and bump to RTX 5060 graphics along with double the RAM and storage.