A capable, affordable all-AMD gaming rig
MSI’s Alpha 15 made waves at its debut a year ago for using all AMD hardware, the only gaming laptop to do so at the time. Other vendors have joined the ranks since then, but MSI prepared well by refreshing the Alpha 15 ($1,199 as tested) at the end of 2020 with a more powerful «Renoir» Ryzen 7 processor and a beefier 6GB Radeon RX 5600M graphics card. The new notebook churned out great 1080p gaming performance in our testing while keeping the high-end features of the original, such as its per-key RGB backlit keyboard. Our top choices among upper-entry-level gaming rigs remain the HP Omen 15 and the Acer Predator Helios 300, but the Alpha 15 is a creditable alternative, especially if you can catch it on sale. Touched Up by ‘Renoir’ The new Alpha’s eight-core Ryzen 7 4800H CPU (2.9GHz base, up to 4.2GHz boost) gives it a leg up on similarly priced Intel gaming notebooks powered by the six-core Core i7-10750H. The Helios 300 is one example, going for $1,174 on Amazon with a 6GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti as I typed this review. That said, the Alpha 15 must also contend with AMD-powered notebooks; HP offers a comparably equipped Omen 15 (model 15-en0029nr) for $1,249 while the Dell G5 15 SE goes for $1,205. These minimal price differences highlight the fierce competitiveness of this segment. The MSI looks much the same as before on the outside. Its dark silver palm rest contrasts nicely with the black of the rest of the laptop, though I’m still lukewarm about the green logo on the back of the lid. At least it’s not backlit. The lid backing is the only metal on this laptop. Considering the Alpha 15 is now $100 or $200 more expensive than last year’s model, it could stand more of it to feel as sturdy as the Acer and HP laptops. That said, all its surfaces do a good job of resisting flex. The system is slightly oversize and overweight for a 15.6-inch gamer. Its 1.1-inch thickness is 0.2 inch more than the Omen 15, and it’s heavier at 5.3 pounds versus 4.6 pounds. Trim side display bezels translate to a reasonable 14.1-inch width, though a thick bottom bezel extends its depth to 9.8 inches,0.4 inch more than the HP. The full HD (1,920-by-1,080-pixel) screen leaves little room for complaint. It not only offers IPS technology for wide viewing angles, an anti-glare coating, and a 144Hz refresh rate, but AMD FreeSync Premium technology to smooth out frame rates. Laptops with Nvidia G-Sync are far more expensive. The screen has average brightness but an overall enjoyable picture with its rated 72% coverage of the NTSC gamut (about 100% of sRGB). The Keyboard: Per-Key RGB Backlighting Its SteelSeries-designed keyboard is one of the Alpha 15’s high-end touches. It integrates with the SteelSeries Engine app for its per-key RGB backlighting and reprogrammable keys, features usually reserved for more expensive gaming notebooks. (The Omen 15 and Predator Helios 300 offer neither.) The island-style keys have satisfyingly soft key presses and a font that says «gamer.» Layout-wise, the keyboard is partially nonstandard since the arrow keys are forced into the main keyboard area, downsizing the right Shift and number pad 0 keys. (The Lenovo Legion 5i avoids this traffic jam by properly divorcing its arrow keys below the keyboard.) The Windows key is also located to the right instead of left of the space bar, though the MSI Dragon Center app lets you swap it with the Fn key if you wish.
