MSI Alpha 15 (Late 2020): 2nd-Gen Evolution

REVIEWS / HARDWARE

- CHARLES JEFFERIES

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 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 credible 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.

MSI Alpha 15 (Late 2020)