MSI Thin 15.6" B13UC 2025, Core i5-13420H, 16GB, 512GB SSD, RTX 3050, Gray

The MSI Thin B13UC is a lightweight budget gaming laptop that handles esports and older games well at 1080p. The RTX 3050 is solid but the 4GB VRAM will limit you sooner than later. At $740 it's a great deal, but don't pay more than $900.

The i5-13420H is a 10-core chip that handles everyday multitasking without breaking a sweat, and the RTX 3050 sits at the 74th percentile for GPUs in our database. That's solid, not spectacular. You'll hit 60+ fps in Fortnite, Valorant, and Apex Legends at 1080p, but demanding titles like Cyberpunk 2077 will need DLSS and low-to-medium settings to stay playable. The 4GB of VRAM is the real bottleneck here. It's fine for now, but newer games are already pushing past that. The 512GB SSD is about average, and 16GB of DDR4 is enough for gaming plus a browser full of tabs.

Stacked against the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 or Lenovo Legion Pro 7i, the MSI Thin B13UC is clearly the budget option. The Zephyrus G14 has a much better GPU and build quality, but it costs two to three times as much. The Legion Pro 7i is a desktop replacement that crushes this thing in raw power. Even the HP OMEN Transcend 14 outclasses it on screen quality and portability. But none of those compete at the $740 price point. The MSI wins on pure affordability, and that's about it. The MacBook Pro M5 isn't even in the same conversation for gaming.

Here's the thing. At $740, this laptop is a steal. At $19,150, it's a scam. The price spread across vendors is genuinely unhinged, and you should absolutely not pay anywhere near the high end. Amazon's renewed listing is the one to watch. For under $800, you're getting a capable 1080p gaming machine with a high refresh screen and enough RAM to avoid immediate upgrades. Anything over $900 and you should start looking at newer RTX 4050 or 4060 laptops instead.

The MSI Thin B13UC is a budget gaming laptop that knows exactly what it is. You get an Intel Core i5-13420H, an RTX 3050 with 4GB of VRAM, 16GB of DDR4, and a 144Hz 1080p screen in a chassis that weighs just 1.81kg. That's a solid recipe for esports titles and older AAA games at medium settings.

It's also a renewed unit, which means someone else owned it first. The price swings wildly across vendors, from $740 to a frankly absurd $19,150, so where you buy matters as much as what you buy. For the right price, this is a perfectly reasonable entry point into PC gaming.

Skip this if you want to play new AAA games at high settings or do serious video editing. The 4GB VRAM and mid-tier CPU will frustrate you within a year or two. Also skip it if you need all-day battery life, since this is a gaming laptop and the battery is likely mediocre at best. If you can stretch your budget to $1,000, an RTX 4060 laptop will serve you much better.

Buy this if you want a cheap, portable gaming laptop for esports, older titles, or light creative work. It's a renewed unit, so set expectations accordingly. The RTX 3050 and 4GB VRAM mean you're not future-proofing anything, but for the right price, it's a perfectly fine starter machine.