AN EXCELLENT AMD VALUE
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comes from being well-rounded and not skimping on features to limbo under
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a lot of value over a notebook such as the GL65 9SC. Where most budget
gaming notebooks make do with a one-color keyboard and a 60Hz screen, the
Alpha 15 packs a customizable RGB-backlit keyboard and a 144Hz FreeSync
panel. It also has 16GB of RAM instead of the usual 8GB.
Thanks to its Radeon RX 5500M GPU, the Alpha also has stronger gaming
performance than GeForce GTX 1650-equipped machines, despite the fact that
its Ryzen 7 CPU is a little slower than competing Intel chips. Nvidia laptop
shoppers will be tempted by systems with the considerably faster GTX 1660 Ti,
but most of those tend to skimp on premium features.
Fan noise is a downside of the Alpha 15, but that’s true of a lot of gaming
laptops. A pair of headphones is more or less required for engaging sound
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as an alpha-dog value among budget gaming notebooks.
CHARLES JEFFRIES
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION (^) I SUBSCRIBE (^) I FEBRUARY 2020