A versatile black multimedia laptop oriented towards gamers and creatives, the MSI GF66 12UC-052FR Katana with 15-inch IPS Full HD anti-glare screen whose frequency of 144Hz improves fluidity in games runs on Windows 11 and benefits from a backlit keyboard as well as connectivity with USB-C and Wi-Fi ax. This creator-oriented gaming laptop benefits from a powerful Intel Alder Lake-H 12-core hybrid Core i5-12500H processor that accelerates processing like the NVIDIA Ampere GeForce RTX 3050 ray tracing graphics card capable of running many games. In addition, we note that the overall responsiveness is enhanced by the use of a fast SSD storage of 512 GB, but a pity that the RAM is not higher.
Features of the MSI GF66 12UC-052FR Katana
| Screen(s) | 15. » Full HD LED IPS 144Hz (1920×1080, anti-glare/matte) |
| Processor | Intel Core i5-12500H Alder Lake-H (12 cores, 4P 2.5 GHz, 8E 1.8 GHz) |
| Installed RAM (max) | 8GB DDR4 3200MHz (64GB), 2 slots |
| Video card | NVIDIA Ampere GeForce RTX 3050 4GB GDDR6 dedicated (60W, boost 1600MHz), Intel Iris Xe integrated into the processor |
| Storage | 512GB M.2 SSD (NVMe PCIe 4.0 x4) |
| Connection | 2 USB 3.0 1 USB 2.0 1 USB 3.2 Type-C (Gen1), HDMI 2.0 (4K@60Hz) |
| Network | Wi-Fi ax (2×2, Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201), Bluetooth 5.2 Ethernet Gigabit (Realtek RTL8111HS-CG, 1 Gb/s) |
| Backlit keyboard | Yes, red (1.7mm stroke) |
| Keypad | Yes |
| Windows Hello | – |
| Audio system | 2 speakers (2 x 2W), Nahimic 3 Audio Enhance |
| Operating system | Windows 11 64-bit |
| Announced battery life / Battery | 6 hours / Li-Polymer 3 cells 53.5Whr |
| Weight / Dimensions (mm) | 2.25 Kg / 359 x 259 x 24.9 |
Chassis, connectors, screen of the MSI GF66 12UC-052FR Katana
With its black design with angular lines and touches of red, it sports a relatively discreet appearance for a laptop adopting gamer codes.
Its weight-controlled chassis is cooled by Cooler Boost 5 technology using 2 fans, 6 heat pipes and air outlets.
This creator-oriented gaming laptop is well equipped in terms of connectivity with its USB-C, its Bluetooth 5.2 wireless modules and Wi-Fi ax (newer and more powerful than Wi-Fi ac) to communicate and connect remotely, its convenient HDMI video output to easily connect it to a TV or monitor for example, its Ethernet and audio ports or its 3 USB including 2 USB 3.0 (USB 2.0 compatible) guaranteeing transfers up to 10 times faster than USB 2.0 if USB 3.0 devices are connected to it.
The chiclet keyboard designed in partnership with SteelSeries to adapt to the habits of gamers can be backlit of course, which is convenient to better distinguish its keys in low light atmosphere.
The screen is adorned with a frequency of 144Hz which reinforces the fluidity in the games compared to the standard 60Hz. In addition, it has significant viewing angles, both horizontal and vertical, thanks to its IPS technology. The screen also lends itself very well to the display of High Definition content such as videos due to its Full HD definition and its 16/9th format. As it is anti-reflective, the screen also offers better visibility than a shiny slab in bright environments (e.g. outdoors).
Performance, battery life of the MSI GF66 12UC-052FR Katana
The MSI GF66 12UC-052FR Katana is aimed at those who want to equip themselves with a versatile 15-inch performance laptop focused on creation and gaming.
It incorporates a processor offering 12 hybrid cores, the Intel Alder Lake-H Core i5-12500H which ensures faster processing than a classic Quad Core in cpu-intensive areas exploiting multi-core, such as photo editing or video conversion, which is of interest to creatives.
The latter would probably have appreciated just like others to find a quantity of RAM a little more provided, because it is established here at 8 GB, which is suitable but no more.
In any case, the creators will be delighted that a dedicated graphics card capable of accelerating processing under software taking advantage of GPU computing power (e.g. Sony Vegas, Adobe Photoshop/Premiere) is embedded.
We find indeed within this gaming laptop oriented creation the GeForce RTX 3050 ray tracing NVIDIA Ampere which also has the merit of being able to support many games for concessions under titles greedy in graphic resources to obtain a good gameplay.
Depending on the tasks performed, NVIDIA Optimus technology automatically switches between the GeForce RTX 3050 and the Intel Iris Xe solution integrated with the Alder Lake-H.
Optimus makes maximum use of the Iris Xe despite its much more modest performance because it consumes little energy and therefore promotes autonomy. Bet in this area on about 6 hours of operation on battery in light use.
The GeForce RTX 3050 is in practice enabled by Optimus to perform graphics processing deemed too heavy for the Intel Iris Xe. With one or the other, it is obviously possible to look at photos and videos.
SSD storage significantly enhances responsiveness and fluidity on a daily basis compared to a simple hard drive. It must be said that it is more shock resistant, more energy efficient, quiet and much faster.
Concretely thanks to the SSD, the processing is much faster just like the launches of games / software and starts / stops, and we arrive for example faster on the cards of online games.
It is a 512 GB SSD that is integrated here, capacity similar to what hard drives offer as standard. However, in the event that more space is needed, an external storage unit can be used. Opting for a USB-C/USB 3.0 device is then an interesting solution to obtain fast transfers.
Finally, expect this laptop to be heard and heat up in case of heavy loads (e.g. treatments, games), while keeping in mind that temperatures remain contained for this type of versatile multimedia laptop designed to create and play.
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