PC Magazine - USA (2021-02)

(Antfer) #1

TOUCHED UP BY ‘RENOIR’
7KHQHZ$OSKD¶VHLJKWFRUH5]HQ+&38
+]EDVHXSWR+]ERRVW JLYHVLWDOHJXSRQ
similarly priced Intel gaming notebooks powered by the
VL[FRUH&RUHL+7KH+HOLRVLVRQH
H[DPSOHJRLQJIRURQ$PD]RQZLWKD%
1YLGLD
H)RUFH*7;7LDV,W\SHGWKLVUHYLHZ


7KDWVDLGWKH$OSKDPXVWDOVRFRQWHQGZLWK$0'
SRZHUHGQRWHERRNV+3R̆HUVDFRPSDUDEO\HTXLSSHG
2PHQ PRGHOHQQU IRUZKLOHWKH
'HOO*6(JRHVIRU7KHVHPLQLPDOSULFH
GL̆HUHQFHVKLJKOLJKWWKH¿HUFHFRPSHWLWLYHQHVVRIWKLV
segment.


7KH06,ORRNVPXFKWKHVDPHDVEHIRUHRQWKHRXWVLGH
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.


MSI Alpha 15
(Late 2020)
PROS Affordable
price, Fluid 1080p
gaming performance.
Powerful eight-core
AMD Ryzen CPU. Per-
key RGB keyboard
lighting and AMD
FreeSync Premium
screen. Long battery
life.
CONS Noticeable fan
noise. Mostly plastic
construction. No
built-in biometrics.
BOTTOM LINE The
second generation of
MSI’s all-AMD Alpha
15 gaming laptop
delivers much better
performance and is
still attractively
priced.
Free download pdf