There’s no shortage of options in the sub 1 lakh gaming laptop market. You’ve got plenty of options from Lenovo, Dell, Acer and more. What we’ve got here are two more fairly recent offerings, from MSI and HP. From MSI, we have the MSI Gaming Katana GF76 11UD-823IN, and from HP, the Victus 16-d0361TX. Both these laptops come with the exact same processor, the Core i7 11800H which is an 8-core, 16-thread processor with a clock speed of 2.3 GHz. Both of these laptops also have FHD (1920 x 1080) resolution and 144Hz displays. That’s where the similarities end in terms of the specs. While the MSI features a larger 17-inch display, the Victus 16 comes with a 16.1-inch display. So let’s break down what we’ve gleaned from these laptops during our time with them.
MSI Gaming Katana GF76 and HP Victus 16: Price
You can currently pick the MSI Gaming Katana GF76 11UD-823IN up on Amazon for ₹87,990. The HP Victus 16-d0361TX is available for ₹99,990 on Amazon.
Prices obtained at the time of writing.
MSI Gaming Katana GF76 and HP Victus 16: Out-of-the-box impressions
The MSI Gaming Katana GF76 looks like the quintessential gaming laptop. The body is made out of black plastic with a matte metallic finish. The overall design is very angular and spaceship-y. The keyboard lights up bright red, you’ve got the MSI logo on the lid, and a hexagonal hive-like design for the vent panels. Opening it up, there’s noticeable bezels around the display, and the laptop is heavy, at a little over 2.6Kg.
HP Victus 16
The Victus 16 on the other hand features a much more subtle design. It comes in “performance blue” colour, which looks like a dark blue/silver colour. You’ve got the Victus ‘V’ branding on the lid, and also for the design of the vents under the laptop as well. The overall design is sleek, and the aesthetic doesn’t scream gamer. Ultimately, preference is subjective. We would personally prefer the more subtle look of the Victus over the Katana. The Victus is also pretty heavy weighing in at around 2.4Kg, so neither of these laptops are long term portable options.
MSI Gaming Katana GF76 and HP Victus 16: Performance
MSI Gaming Katana GF76 vs HP Victus 16 – Gaming Benchmark Results
With both laptops having the exact same processor, it didn’t come as a surprise that they scored the same or similar in most CPU benchmarks. However, the difference in GPU did affect other scores, especially when it came to 3DMark and gaming benchmarks. This was all fairly predictable, considering the Victus does have a better GPU in the RTX 3060. However, one game, Valorant, seemed to run better on the Katana with the RTX 3050Ti. In every other game benchmark, including Metro Exodus, Dirt 5, AC Valhalla, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Civilization VI, Gears of War 5 and GTA 5, the Victus had a lead of 20-40 frames on the Katana. Of course, this doesn’t mean the Katana is bad, it just means the Victus is better. The 3050Ti on the Katana is still more than capable of running the latest AAA games on medium to high settings in FHD comfortably.
MSI Gaming Katana GF76 and HP Victus 16: Display
The Katana features the larger 17-inch display, while the Victus comes with a 16.1-inch display. However, the Victus has a better display. It scored better in all our tests; at 330 NITs the Victus has great peak brightness. Meanwhile, the Katana’s peak brightness is only 235 NITS. Similarly, while the Katana only scored 57% and 41% for sRGB and DCI-P3 coverage respectively, the Victus scored 99.5% and 74%.
MSI Gaming Katana GF76 and HP Victus 16: Ports
MSI Gaming Katana GF76
The Katana has three USB TypeA ports, of which two are USB 3.0. We’ve also got a TypeC port, HDMI, ethernet, and 3.5mm unijack. The Victus is slightly better off than the Katana, featuring three USB 3.0 ports, a type C port, ethernet, microSD, HDMI, and a unijack.
MSI Gaming Katana GF76 and HP Victus 16: Keyboard
The Katana GF76 has a pretty decent keyboard. We thought it was well spaced, and it also has a numpad. It is however a bit squished on the right side of the keyboard. All major keys are full-sized, which is nice. We thought the keys had decent travel distance, and we had a good overall experience when using the Katana’s keyboard. The track on the Katana definitely helps in that department, it’s not too big and it’s off centre, so it doesn’t get in the way while typing.
MSI Gaming Katana GF76
The Victus 16 also has a full-sized keyboard, there’s better use of space as compared to the Katana which has a lot of empty space. However, we found it more satisfying to type on the Katana. This could actually be because of the full-sized numpad on the Victus. The entire keyboard layout is slightly squished. If you're someone who types without looking at the keys, this feels pretty frustrating as it takes a while for your muscle memory to adjust.
The trackpad on the Victus is also pretty large, 12.6cm x 8.1cm to the Katana’s 6.48cm x 10.6cm, and gets in the way a lot more often.
If you’re like us, you’ll probably be plugging in a mouse ASAP anyway. Both laptop keyboards flex a bit when typing, but not enough to be considered an issue.
MSI Gaming Katana GF76 and HP Victus 16: Heat and Loudness
The Katana GF76 gets loud and hot; we’re talking upwards of 50 degrees celsius when gaming. However, the palm rest remained fairly cool throughout. Keep in mind that we ran our tests in an AC room though. For the most part, you should be fine if you're using the Katana on a table, but you can't keep this on your lap.
HP Victus 16
The Victus runs cooler than the Katana for the most part, and maintains lower temperatures. Like the Katana, the palm rest area also remained cool throughout our benchmarks. Even though the Victus features audio by B&O, the laptop gets pretty loud when under stress. This ends up drowning out the laptops audio, so you’ll want to use a headset with both of these laptops.
MSI Gaming Katana GF76 and HP Victus 16: Final impressions
Both the MSI Gaming Katana GF76 and HP Victus 16 are decent budget gaming laptops for the respective GPUs they’re packing. There are certainly cheaper and probably better gaming laptop options with a RTX 3050Ti, but the Katana certainly does its job well enough.
The Victus also has its flaws, mostly in terms of build quality and design. The display, for instance, has terrible flex. However, if you’re in the market for a budget gaming laptop with an RTX 3060, then the HP Victus 16 is a good pick up if you don’t mind plugging in a mouse and headset, and probably a keyboard.
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Manish Rajesh
Manish can usually be found fervently playing video games of all kinds or… no wait he’s pretty much always playing games View Full Profile
