Rix Mascarenhas
Sometimes interesting things come to my porch, and this was the case with the MSI GF66 Katana, which appeared here almost out of the blue, and the mission was to check the design and visual of this laptop.
MSI GF66 Katana – A new weapon in town?
As most photographers my eyes are always looking for well-designed pieces, everything that is pleasing to my eyes does not pass without a check. It can be a building, a nice car, a sculpture you name it.
MSI contacted me to have a brief look at the design aspects of their new gaming laptop, the MSI GF66 Katana, which judging by the name is inspired by some bits and pieces from the Japanese culture. And curious as a cat I was more than interested ;).
Design
The MSI GF66 Katana has some curious aspects to it that you will not find at a first glance, and on the surface, it is a pretty normal laptop. But when you start to dig a little deeper you will see some of the inspirations surfaces.
One interesting thing about it is the texture, not just on the keyboard part, but also on the lid, which resembles a lot the texture of leather of some sort, which reminds me of old and bearded samurai armor. If it was this MSI intent I can say yes I got the reference.
The simple things like the air vent on the back of the laptop also have a great resemblance with armor scales. And the diagonal patterns also resemble the construction of some samurai helmets, also known as kabuto. Thanks, I have a Japanese geek wife to help me with that.
The keyboard and the design of the letter are also influenced by the Eastern culture with a more square font being used on the layout of the keyboard, and the colors, matte black, and red LEDs that illuminate the keyboard work very well together.
As I said in the details, the bits and pieces that all come together in this laptop create this very cool and slick design without overwhelming you with tons of information and references. If you are not looking for those references you will probably not find them at a first glance, and this is very good after this is a gaming laptop.
The Idea
It seems that the partnership between MSI and the illustrator Tsuyoshi Nagano paid off, because all the main ideas of constructing something inspired by a katana are somewhat present on this laptop. The idea of care for the craftsmanship, being careful with every step along the way. But also to produce sometime that will be useful, not just a piece of demonstration, and this can be seen under the hood of this laptop.
The Weapon
Under the hood, we have a lot of power also, but this is not the subject of this review. And the laptop was not tested with the performance in mind, since I got an engineering sample to check and things can change until it hit the market.
But suffice to say that I threw some work at it and it performed as expected. And as far as I can say about it this laptop will be equipped with the most recent tech.
Final hit
I can see MSI playing on the safe side with the design of the MSI GF66 Katana, but without leaving the elegance and out of the picture, and at the same time still maintaining the gamer idea alive.
If you are looking for a laptop that has something more in this regard I am sure that the Katana can make your day a little bit brighter, but also will please those who just want a machine that looks pretty and have something to say.
And if you are more o a geek type that happens to like Japanese culture you will find the reference that I was able to find as well.
And if you are into photography I would say to you to keep your eyes open for any inspiration and any kind of visual element that gets you going, after all, photography is all about communicating visually.
What do you think about thematic laptops? Put in the comments below!
