At the beginning of 2022, Micro-Star International (MSI), an innovative computing manufacturer in the gaming industry, proudly announced that its newest line of gaming laptops with 12th-generation Intel processors had arrived in Indonesia. Through this line of gaming laptops, MSI is trying to show its determination and vision for the upcoming Metaverse era.

The 12th Generation Intel Core processor line (Alder Lake) has actually introduced at the end of 2021 but only arrived in Indonesia in mid-2022. The presence of this latest Intel processor is believed to be able to answer the needs of users in Indonesia who need it in terms of gaming, multitasking, and so on.

Unlike the previous generation, this 12th generation Intel processor line will use chipset technology consisting of Performance-cores (P-cores) which will handle heavy workloads and Efficient-cores (E-cores) which handle light workloads.

Now, among a number of gaming laptops released, the MSI Katana GF66 series is one of the variants that are quite attractive because it has advantages in terms of performance to good quality. The reason is, that the MSI Katana GF series laptops are designed to help gamers achieve success with comfortable 1.7 mm key travel and exclusive Cooler Boost 5 cooling technology. new features, which were later refined with MSI's signature aesthetic touch.

Well, coincidentally, the author was given the honor by MSI Indonesia to try out the Katana GF66 12UG-263ID gaming laptop, the highest SKU released by MSI. Actually, this laptop has the same character as the other GF66 variants which were released first last year. But what sets it apart is the latest specifications and some of the features it carries. In addition, the specifications, performance, the latest features, and a more affordable price are the reasons why the Katana GF66 deserves to be owned today.

Curious? Let's look at the following review:

Design by Nagano Tsuyoshi

By design, the 2022 generation MSI Katana GF66 is not much different from last year's version. Where MSI is still collaborating with Nagano Tsuyoshi who is a professional game character illustrator to design the MSI Katana gaming laptop. Even the design is classified as simple-minimalist, with the overall color being dominated by black without any glaring gaming accents. So this gaming laptop is suitable for those of you who want to look like gamers but don't want to be flashy because of the RGB lights on the laptop. At the top, you will be able to find the MSI logo which is still engraved in with the same color as the body color.

In addition, this gaming laptop also has thin bezels that make the bezels around the screen thinner. This makes the dimensions of the Katana GF66 gaming laptop which is powered by Intel Gen 12 from MSI more compact and compact.

While at the bottom, you will find a number of honeycomb-shaped airflows. This improves the air circulation on this gaming laptop. So if you add a cooling pad device, the air circulation on this laptop will be even better. In terms of material, the MSI Katana GF66 that the author reviewed has very good material quality. Although overall, the material used is plastic.

The dimensions of the MSI Katana GF66, it is almost similar to the previous generation, where this gaming laptop has dimensions of 35.9 cm in length, 25.9 cm in width, and 2.49 cm in thickness. While the weight of the laptop is 2.24 kg, and the charger is 300 grams. So the total weight as a whole is 2.54 Kg.

Beautiful 240 Hz Screen

Talking about the screen, the Katana GF66 12UG-263ID that the author reviewed has a 15.6-inch screen that uses an IPS-Level panel supported by LED (Light Emiting Diode) backlight with full HD 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution which is capable of producing wide and sharp viewing angles. and capable of scattering 45% NTSC color gamut. The screen carries a 240Hz refresh rate which is able to produce smoother animation movements, thereby reducing the effects of screen tearing and stuttering. The Katana GF66 12UG-263ID screen also has a brightness level of 250 nits (Panelook). The screen has a matte or anti-glare surface, making it comfortable to use as it is free of light and shadow reflections.

The screen of this gaming laptop is also one of the superior features it has because this gaming laptop has a hinge that can be stretched up to 180 degrees. This makes it easier for users to be more flexible in adjusting the angle of the screen when in use.

Complete Connectivity and New Cooling System

This gaming laptop also has a very complete connectivity configuration, relying on WiFi 6 802.11 ax, Bluetooth 5.1, Gb LAN (RJ45), USB 3.2 Gen1 port, USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-C port, USB 2.0 port, HDMI port, card reader, port mic-in, and audio ports. This gaming laptop is supported by a gaming keyboard with a single red backlight.

MSI also provided this gaming laptop with a 3-cell 53.5Wh Li-ion battery to meet its power needs when mobile with up to 6 hours of standard usage, according to the information that Laptophia received. As the latest generation, the MSI Katana GF66 also has an advanced cooling solution called CoolerBoost 5 which consists of two fans and 6 heatpipes with a new design to reduce the heat generated.

which is able to simulate 7.1 surround sound nicely, so users will get an immersive and accurate 3D gaming audio experience through using the headset or speakers presented.

Gaming Audio is Improved

Not only the screen sector, connectivity, and cooling system, the audio sector is also considered on the MSI Katana GF66. This gaming laptop has quite good audio technology by bringing technology from Nahimic and Hi-Res Audio which is able to simulate 7.1 surround sound nicely, so users will get an immersive and accurate 3D gaming audio experience through using the headset or speakers presented.

Powerful Performance

Because the author reviews the highest SKU version of the Katana GF66, this gaming laptop is powered by an Alder Lake i7-12700H processor and uses an NVIDIA RTX 3070 8GB GDDR6 GPU. This powerful power is also combined with storage using an NVMe PCIe Gen4x4 SSD with a capacity of 1TB. In addition, the RAM has also been embedded with 16 GB SODIMM DDR IV 8GB x 2 (3200MHz) RAM. Not surprisingly, when testing with Cinebench R23, its multicore processor was able to produce extraordinary performance. In the single-core section, the test results are no less great, so that the use that focuses on single-core, such as playing AAA games, does not pose a problem.

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Here are the benchmark results from the Katana GF66 12UG-263ID:

3DMark FireStrike Extreme

3DMark Port Royal

3DMark Time Spy

Cinebench R23

PCMark 10

Blender Benchmark

V-Ray Benchmark

Test results against several popular video games are also very good. When the author tested it playing games such as Grand Theft Auto V, CS:GO, Valorant, and Dota 2 with right-aligned settings, the Katana GF66 12UG-263ID laptop was able to produce fairly stable frame rates in certain scenes.

To see how fast the storage media on the Katana GF66 12UG-263ID is, the author has tested it on the CrystalDiskmark 8.0.4 application with the results you can see below.

From the results of the test scheme that the author ran, the author is satisfied because the Katana GF66 12UG-263ID comes with high specifications and is accompanied by a capacity of 16 GB RAM and a Gen 4 NVMe SSD. in crowded scenes and requires heavy graphics processing. If it feels lacking, MSI has also provided an additional slot for upgrading RAM or internal memory to provide maximum performance.

Power test

idle

benchmark

MSI Center and Smart Auto features

MSI also embeds a unique feature on the Katana GF66 12UG-263ID, namely MSI Center and Smart Auto. These two features are very useful for those of you who want to customize and maximize the performance of the gaming laptop. In the MSI Center feature, you will be able to adjust and adjust the performance of this gaming laptop according to the usage scheme.

For example, if you are at school or college and there is no power outlet, then you can set it to power-saving mode. But if you are at home and want to play games, then you can also maximize the performance of this gaming laptop to provide comfort when playing.

While the Smart Auto feature is very useful if you forget to set it in the MSI Center, so the system will automatically detect the usage situation and adjust it to the required mode.

When used to play games, this laptop has a fan configuration that can be adjusted by the user. So that when it is used to play games, the user can adjust the fan to play faster.

Even so, this gaming laptop produces quite a noisy fan sound even though it is still within reasonable tolerance limits. For this reason, the author recommends using headphones so that the fan noise produced by this laptop does not interfere with comfort during a gaming session.

Fortunately, in terms of the heat of the device, the comfort of using the Katana GF66 12UG-263ID gaming laptop is not disturbed at all, because the heat generated from this laptop has all been blown to the back and left side. As a result, when using the mouse, the author does not feel the heat that is emitted from the ventilation holes. This certainly provides comfort when using the mouse for a long time.

Verdict

The MSI Katana GF66 12UG-263ID is a budget gaming laptop variant with the current fastest Intel Alder Lake i7-12700H processor that you can have. The performance offered on this gaming laptop is not even inferior to the MSI Raider line of laptops which are intended for high-class gamers. Combined with NVIDIA RTX 3070 8GB GDDR6, the performance provided feels superior when I play games all day. Even MSI also provides flexibility for those of you who want to upgrade the capacity of RAM or memory one day.

The sturdy build material makes the author very confident to carry the MSI Katana GF66 12UG-263ID everywhere. With a plain black design and not a lot of messy gaming accents, this gaming laptop is certainly very suitable for mainstream gamers with a minimalist spirit but still pay attention to powerful performance.

The author is difficult to find the shortcomings of the MSI Katana GF66 12UG-263ID because of the performance and price offered, moreover there are several things that might be your consideration before buying. Because MSI also provides a number of attractive bonuses for every purchase, such as free exclusive bags!

The price of the MSI Katana GF66 12UG-263ID gaming laptop that the author reviewed, is priced at Rp. 26,999,000. For more information about this gaming laptop, you can visit the following MSI official page:

• Product information: https://id.msi.com/Laptop/Katana-GF66-12UX
• Online purchase: https://id.msi.com/Laptop/Katana-GF66-12UX/shopnow
• Offline purchases: https://id.msi.com/service/wheretobuy

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