At 3 GHz out of the box, it’s capable of reaching up to 4 GHz. Priced at $850 at Amazon, it has 8 GB of 4th gen RAM under the hood. Its slightly more expensive counterpart powered by Ryzen 7 5800H’s 8 cores goes for $1,099. The factory spec of 2.9 GHz can be overclocked up to 4.2 GHz. It has 16 GB of RAM, comprised of two 8 GB 2666 sticks. The high-refresh rate displays run on the RX 5300M and the RX 5500M gaming graphics cards.
It’s worth pointing out that the 15” form factor is currently in high demand. The competition is rather stiff in this segment of the market. Asus TUF FX505DT, HP Omen 15, and Dell G5 5590 reside in the premium tier.
Meanwhile, the Acer Nitro 5 AN515–44 is a hard-to-beat budget choice. However, said options sport Nvidia’s GTX 1650 and 1650 Ti. Can Team Red’s alternatives keep up in gaming and productivity? Let’s take a deeper dive and find out.
MSI Bravo 15 — Design and Ergonomics
For a primarily gaming-oriented machine, the Bravo 15 looks surprisingly understated. The dark-gray chassis made of metal and plastic has a sleek brushed aluminum texture. There are no crazy color accents of fancy RGP stripes on the outside. The only things that stand out are the arched shape and the thunderbird logo.
Opening the lid reveals a pretty backlit low-profile gaming keyboard. The body is rather thin, measuring 359 x 254 x 21.7 mm. The weight is just under 2 kilograms (1.96 kg/4.32 pounds). The quality of the materials is decent enough. However, the device could definitely be prone to bending when handled without the necessary care.
The overall layout is quite comfortable for everyday use. For its size, the MSI Bravo 15 has a respectable number of ports. There are 2xUSB-C and 2xUSB-A 3.2 gen 1 for standard peripherals and flash drives. The full-sized HDMI out and an RJ45 are a nice touch.
The former ensures additional flexibility in terms of gaming monitor choices. The regular cabled Ethernet is a must-have e-sports enthusiast who cannot tolerate Wi-Fi lag. The audio is provided by the standard 3.5 mm combo jack and 2x2W speakers. Laptop webcams are notoriously sub-par compared to modern smartphone cameras.
But this model’s implementation doesn’t seem like it was an afterthought. The image is nice and crisp, albeit a little noise in low light. The microphone is obviously not intended for streaming but does well in voice calls.
Getting inside requires undoing 12 Phillips head screws. Fortunately, unlatching and lifting the cover reveals a considerable future-proofing potential. There are 2xSO-DIMM and 2xM.2 slots for potential memory and storage upgrades. Moreover, the 3-cell 51-watt-hour battery and the cooling system are easily accessible. This is very beneficial, considering the latest developments in the right-to-repair laws.
Keyboard and Trackpad
The black keys with red accents look quite nice. The font has a distinctive futuristic style that sci-fi buffs may find enjoyable. Unfortunately, the single-zone backlighting doesn’t offer much in terms of color variations.
Nevertheless, it does have 3 levels of brightness bound to the Fn+PageUp/PageDown macros. The key travel is fairly short, but at least the sound is not distracting. The buttons feel stable and responsive, keeping the number of mistypes to a minimum. To accommodate the modest size, the designers decided against adding a number pad.
The precision clickpad is not particularly large. It has a pleasant satin finish and clicks down anywhere. Some users have reported slight inaccuracies and accidental click triggering before full actuation. It does support multitouch which makes gesture-based input possible.
Display and Sound
When it comes to color accuracy, the screen is not intended for professional content creators. But the 86% sRGB and 63% Adobe RGB coverage are acceptable for multimedia consumption. Depending on the config, the refresh rate is either 120 or 144Hz. The resolution could be higher, but at 15.6 inches, 1080p looks sufficiently sharp.
The brightness, on the other hand, is reasonable, averaging at around 310 nits. The wide viewing angles coupled with an anti-reflection surface coating make the image consistently reliable. The monitor is, of course, AMD FreeSync and FidelityFX capable. Both are nice to have when chasing a smoother experience in demanding titles.
The audio implementation is competent. The speakers are undoubtedly superior to Acer Nitro 5’s. Dell remains the undisputed leader in that department with G5 15’s outstanding sound quality. Still, MSI’s partnership with Steelseries and their Nahimic technology has its advantages. The software allows for extensive customizability and is capable of providing a high-resolution 3D surround.
Cooling and Energy Management
One of MSI’s selling points for this lineup is the cooling system. It consists of several hefty copper pipes and 2 separate fans. The cool air intake occurs from the bottom. There are several performance profiles in the included software suite. Silent keeps the temperature to a minimum.
In this setting, the outer shell rests at around 30 degrees Celsius. Turning on the Extreme mode makes the fan noise significantly more noticeable at 48 dB. Thankfully, the heat dissipates quite evenly, so the chassis never gets unnervingly hot. The keyboard warms up to around 50° C without ever going over that threshold.
The Super Battery mode prioritizes longevity when power outlets are nowhere to be found. Generally, the MSI Bravo 15 A4DCR provides around 7 hours of normal web surfing. But intense gaming drops the maximum battery life to just under an 2 hours. The result is comparable to that of ASUS’s TUF A15. By comparison, Acer’s Nitro 5 with similar specs manages to last nearly twice as long.
MSI Bravo 15 Hardware Specs
Based on the spec sheet alone, Taiwanese engineers were aiming high. The product boasts the following note-worthy characteristics:
- AMD Ryzen 7 4800H CPU, 8 cores, 16 threads, up to 4.2 GHz, 45W TDP
- 16 GB DDR4 2666 Memory (2 x 8 GB)
- AMD Radeon RX5300M GPU (3 GB GDDR6)
- 15.6” 1920×1080 IPS Display (120 or 144 MHz)
- 1024 GB Samsung PM981a NVMe SSD (1x M.2 SSD Combo slot) + 1x M.2 SSD slot for expandable storage
- Single-color keyboard with adjustable red backlighting
- Microsoft Windows 10 Home (x64)
- 2x Type-C USB 3.2 Gen1, 2x Type-A USB 3.2 Gen1, 1х3,5 combo audio input, 1 HDMI 2.0 b, 1 RJ 45 LAN
- 2x 2W Speakers
- Realtek Gigabit LAN, Intel 802.11 ax Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth v5.1
- 3-cell 51 Wh Battery (180W power adapter)
- 359 x 254 x 21.7 mm, 1.96 kg
On paper, the value proposition is nothing to sneeze at. But what’s truly important is how the system performs in various workloads.
Read more: https://best.kevin.games/gaming-laptops/msi-bravo-15-gaming-laptop-review