MSI Bravo 15 review
Our Verdict
The MSI Bravo 15 leverages solid AMD components to deliver decent gaming operation, although it doesn't have the prettiest pattern or screen.
For
- Decent components and performance
- Ameliorate-than-expected keyboard
- Reasonable price
Against
- Dim screen
- Beefy, ugly chassis
- Cumbersome software
Tom's Guide Verdict
The MSI Bravo fifteen leverages solid AMD components to deliver decent gaming functioning, although it doesn't have the prettiest design or screen.
Pros
- +
Decent components and operation
- +
Meliorate-than-expected keyboard
- +
Reasonable cost
Cons
- -
Dim screen
- -
Bulky, ugly chassis
- -
Cumbersome software
MSI Bravo 15: Specs
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5600H
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 5500M
Display: 15.6 inches, 1080p, 144 Hz
RAM: xvi GB
Storage: 512 GB SSD
Dimensions: fourteen.1 x 10.2 x 1.0 inches
Weight: 5.1 pounds
After a week with the MSI Bravo 15, I had a pleasant realization: I liked the automobile a lot more than I had expected to. As gaming laptops go, it'southward not uncommonly powerful, offering 1080p resolution and 30-ish fps frame rates, if you turn the settings all the manner up. On the other paw, it's not exceptionally expensive, either, retailing for less than $ane,000, rather than $2,500 — or more.
I institute that the Bravo 15 had a better keyboard than I expected, plenty of ports and a decent level of performance for both work and play. Granted, the screen could exist a whole lot better, and getting games up and running was occasionally a frustrating process. But as a middle-of-the-road gaming laptop, the Bravo 15 delivers what it promises, and that's arguably all it has to practice.
If you accept small portable gaming needs and a budget to lucifer, the Bravo 15 should serve yous well. Otherwise, you'll have to seek out a more than powerful — and probably more expensive — car. Read on for our full MSI Bravo xv review.
MSI Bravo 15 review: Price and configurations
While the MSI Bravo 15 has had a number of prices and configurations over the past few years, there's only one option for the electric current version. Yous tin can buy it at Sam'south Society (Walmart's respond to Costco, for those who aren't familiar with it) for $899. This ways y'all'll also need a Sam's Social club membership, which retails for $45 per yr.
The current incarnation of the MSI Bravo comes with an AMD Ryzen 5600H CPU, an AMD Radeon 5500M GPU, 16 GB RAM, a 512 GB SSD and a xv.6-inch, 1080p screen with a 144 Hz refresh rate. These are pocket-sized specs, to be sure, but non bad at all for the price.
MSI Bravo xv review: Pattern
The MSI Bravo 15 is a budget gaming laptop, and it looks the part. Unlike the sleek Razer Blade models or MSI's own Stealth line of laptops, the Bravo 15 is a bulky, chunky thing, chock full of strange angles and unnecessary flourishes. At 14.1 x x.ii x i.0 inches, it's almost twice as thick as some of its more than premium competitors in the 15-inch gaming laptop space. And at 5.1 pounds, it's also a good half-pound heavier. The device does fit easily into a standard commuter backpack, though, and so carrying information technology around isn't too much of a trouble.
The plain blackness chassis has some unusual design features, including a large gap at the hinge, and a raised geometric pattern on the lid. There's also a phoenix symbol there, for good measure, although information technology doesn't light up.
The Bravo 15 is a foreign-looking machine, and probably wouldn't feel at home in an office surroundings — although it'southward not terrible for productivity work, as we'll touch later.
MSI Bravo 15 review: Ports
Considering that it's not a huge machine, the MSI Bravo fifteen packs a respectable number of ports.
On the left, there are two USB-A ports and a power port. On the right, at that place's a 3.v mm audio jack, a USB-A port, a USB-C port, an HDMI port and an Ethernet port.
While some other USB-C port would have been overnice, I didn't accept any problem connecting the accessories that I needed. The lack of an SD card reader may be a hindrance to productivity-minded users, but the Bravo 15 is a gaming motorcar, commencement and foremost.
MSI Bravo 15 review: Keyboard and touchpad
The MSI Bravo xv'due south keyboard turned out to be one of its virtually pleasant surprises. I of my frequent criticisms of gaming laptops is that they misplace their keyboards, cramming tiny setups into the heart of the chassis, rather than using all available infinite. The Bravo fifteen has a full keyboard — with a number pad! — that expands across the device'southward whole face.
The numpad alone makes a huge difference for affect typists, while full-size Enter, Backspace and number keys brand navigation a breeze. Frankly speaking, there are much fancier gaming laptops that could stand to learn a lesson from the Bravo 15 in this regard.
The touchpad, on the other hand, is more of a mixed bag. It feels responsive enough, and didn't get in the fashion while I was typing. Simply it's a bit off-center from the rest of the machine, making it a hurting to contort your arms into position for information technology. Consider one of our picks for the best gaming mouse instead.
MSI Bravo fifteen review: Display
The most significant trouble I ran into with the MSI Bravo 15 was its display. When I started using the motorcar, I idea it looked a lilliputian dim and lifeless for piece of work, multimedia and gaming alike. Compared to some other gaming laptops that Tom's Guide has reviewed recently, the numbers back up my observations:
| MSI Bravo 15 | Asus ROG Flow X13 | Razer Blade 15 Avant-garde | |
| Brightness (nits) | 251 | 290 | 313 |
| sRGB Color Gamut (%) | 67 | 114 | 109 |
| Delta-E | 0.25 | 0.28 | 0.24 |
Upwards against the Asus ROG Flow X13 and the Razer Blade 15 Advanced, the Bravo xv is somewhat less brilliant and offers considerably less colour. The color accuracy is peachy (with Delta-E, closer to nix is better), but displaying only 67% of the sRGB spectrum isn't particularly impressive when other gaming laptops routinely go more than 100%.
I'll grant that 1080p is a perfectly proficient resolution for a 15-inch screen, and the Bravo 15 can indeed run some games at upwardly to 144 frames per second. Simply even if y'all creepo up the brightness, the screen pales in comparison — both literally and figuratively — to some of its competitors.
MSI Bravo 15 review: Gaming performance
In that location are two ways to view the MSI Bravo 15'due south gaming performance. One is every bit a $900 auto, which is where it does just fine. The other is in comparison to fancier gaming laptops, which is where it doesn't practice as well. Here'south how the device fared in gaming benchmarks, measured in fps at 1080p resolution:
| MSI Bravo fifteen | Asus ROG Menses X13 | Razer Blade 15 Advanced | |
| Assassin'south Creed Valhalla | 32 | 29 | 66 |
| Dirt 5 | xxx | 29* | 78 |
| Grand Theft Auto V | 40 | 42 | 106 |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 33 | 35 | 82 |
*Measured at 1920 x 1200 resolution for benchmarking purposes
Showtime and foremost, if you were wondering whether the Bravo 15 can get toe-to-toe with a premium gaming laptop, it can't. Your extra $one,000 (or more) on something like the Razer Blade 15 will get y'all much amend operation.
However, the Bravo 15 holds upwards admirably in its own price range, even confronting the somewhat more expensive ROG Flow X13. It didn't autumn below 30 fps in any of our benchmarks, which ways you can await performance comparable to a PS4 or Xbox One, potentially with better textures and lighting.
It's too worth noting that from a qualitative standpoint, you can coax much higher frame rates out of the Bravo fifteen. By using medium or high graphical settings, rather than cranking the visuals all the way up, I was able to run Age of Empires Iv at 75 fps, Doom Eternal at 70 fps, Dragon'due south Dogma: Nighttime Arisen at 140 fps and Concluding Fantasy XIV at 140 fps. All of the games ran smoothly, fifty-fifty subsequently playing them for long periods of fourth dimension. However, I did notice that all of the games took a surprisingly long time to boot up, considering that they were running off of an SSD.
MSI Bravo xv review: Productivity performance
Every bit a productivity machine, the Bravo 15 is a bit of a mixed bag. Here'southward how it stacked up against its competitors on an artificial Geekbench 5.4 benchmark, which measures overall system power, as well as a file transfer and video encoding examination:
| MSI Bravo 15 | Asus ROG Flow X13 | Razer Blade 15 Avant-garde | |
| Geekbench 5.iv (artificial operation benchmark) | 6,676 | seven,640 | 6,924 |
| Copying 25 GB from flash drive (MBps) | 433 | 750 | 1,796 |
| Handbrake video encoding (minutes:seconds) | 7:55 | 8:13 | 8:46 |
While the Bravo fifteen encodes video faster than I would have expected it to, it's not incredibly fast or powerful for productivity work otherwise. On the other manus, as a gaming automobile, the Bravo 15 generally has more than enough power to run whatever productivity apps you need without skipping a beat. As I write this review, I have Microsoft Discussion, Spotify, Notepad, Slack and Google Chrome with 10 demanding tabs open, and I'chiliad using simply near eight GB of the bachelor 16 GB RAM. Programs do sometimes accept longer than expected to boot upwards, and 512 GB storage will fill up a lot faster than y'all expect, though.
My just big complaint nigh the Bravo 15'due south performance has to do with the software that comes preinstalled. The AMD Radeon software is, charitably speaking, a bit of a mess. The Bravo 15 actually comes with the wrong version of the software installed (this is something of a theme with MSI machines). Only even after I updated, it nonetheless wasn't very good at optimizing games, measuring frame rates or fifty-fifty assigning the correct GPU to enervating applications. (I couldn't run Doom Eternal at beginning, because the Radeon software absolutely, positively insisted that the Bravo 15 had to run information technology with integrated graphics). If y'all want to run games on the Bravo xv, you'll demand to accept some DIY tech support know-how.
MSI Bravo fifteen review: Battery life and oestrus
The MSI Bravo fifteen has decent battery life for productivity, and abysmal battery life for gaming. Information technology also gets a scrap hot, whether or not you're gaming on it. Both of these are par for the course in the land of gaming laptops:
| MSI Bravo 15 | Asus ROG Period X13 | Razer Blade 15 Advanced | |
| Bombardment life – productivity (minutes:seconds) | half-dozen:20 | 7:23 | v:22 |
| Battery life – gaming (minutes:seconds) | one:14 | 1:34 | 1:35 |
| Heat – productivity (°F) | 94 | 105 | 88 |
| Heat – gaming (°F) | 115 | 130 | 123 |
The Bravo 15's bombardment life is past no means all-time-in-class, merely it'll last for a long flight, if yous need it for productivity.
At 94 degrees, it'south not comfortable to keep in your lap for long periods of time — but it's not quite as dire as the ROG Menses X13'due south 105 degrees, either.
MSI Bravo xv review: Verdict
At $900, the MSI Bravo fifteen is a capable trivial machine. It's competent rather than impressive, and workmanlike rather than innovative. But it plays games at respectable frame rates and runs productivity software for more than than half-dozen hours on a unmarried charge. It'south modest enough to stash in a haversack comfortably, and the numpad on the keyboard is a squeamish bear on.
If you need high-stop operation, you'll accept to dig deep for Razer Blade money. It'southward as well worth considering that the Bravo 15 is pushing its limits to run the latest and greatest games at 30 fps, which means it may non be the most time to come-proof system on the market. Just information technology's not oftentimes that you lot can notice a gaming laptop with so few compromises for less than $1,000. If you're a Sam's Club member already, you may as well put that membership to good apply.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/msi-bravo-15
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