MSI Pulse 15 (2023) review

MSI Pulse 15 (2023) — an RTX 4060 with an unusually large battery

The Pulse 15 (2023) answers the classic gaming-laptop complaint — terrible battery — with a 90 Wh cell, 26.8% above the class median and squarely in the huge band. Around it sits a Core i7-13620H, a GeForce RTX 4060 with 8 GB of VRAM and 64 GB of RAM, at $922. Performance reads 76.55 (high) and photo design 95 (top), making this one of the more complete mid-tier sheets in the 2023 cohort.

Where it holds up

Mobility posts 37, some 27.6% above the median and good for the top quartile — unusual for a machine carrying a 90 Wh battery. Reliability reads 61 (mid, +15.1%). The RTX 4060 clears the recommended bar for Overwatch, Grand Theft Auto V and Rainbow Six Siege, and the 8 GB of VRAM gives those flags more headroom than the 4 GB cards in sibling models. Office productivity is a 94.46 top-band result.

Where it falls short

The verdict engine found no serious weak spot to flag, and the sheet largely agrees — but absolute levels still have a floor: portability nonetheless reads 31 in the low band, the natural consequence of a big battery in a gaming chassis. That is the honest caveat on an otherwise clean scorecard.

Price and depreciation

No depreciation anchor is recorded (base $0), so no curve or two-year projection applies. The 2023 cohort rate for this tier is 16.26% annually — the expectation band to hold in mind at $922.

Alternatives to consider

The Crosshair 16 (2023) at the same $922 carries an RTX 4070 with the same 90 Wh battery if raw GPU matters more than mobility; the Stealth 16 Studio offers a similar platform in a lighter 1.99 kg body with a 99.9 Wh cell. The Katana 15 (2023) is the cheaper-feeling sibling at the same tier with a smaller battery.

Bottom line

Fairly priced for the class, and one of the better-balanced 2023 buys: current-gen GPU, top-band photo and office numbers, a genuinely large battery, and only the expected portability floor as a compromise.