Best Alienware laptop
The best 17-inch, 16-inch, 15-inch, and 14-inch Alienware gaming laptops
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If you’re looking to buy the best Alienware laptop in 2024. then look no further, because we’ve done all the work for you, collating the best of the Alienware X-series, m-series, and older-gen devices, with a mini-review of each to talk you through their features.
Whether you’re considering buying an Alienware gaming laptop or creative machine then each of the picks here are high-quality items. We’ve selected a range across the different sub-lines within the Alienware brand, covering different display sizes and budgets.
- 01Best 4K Alienware laptop for gamers & creatives
Are Alienware laptops good?
Alienware laptops are almost always premium-grade machines, with some of the best build quality around. The quality of the display on an Alienware laptop is usually always top-notch in terms of color gamut, brightness, and contrast, and most have good response time too, though this depends on the specific model. Alienware gaming laptops usually come with some of the highest model graphics and CPU hardware, capable of churning out high frame rates in the latest games, though these aren’t necessarily the highest TGP options available compared to the best of the competition. You can always be sure of a good quality product when you buy Alienware, though not necessarily that it’s the best value for money.
In each of our selections below we’ll tell you everything you need to know about whether they’re worth your hard-earned cash. If you want more information on the brand, have a read of our things to consider when buying an Alienware laptop section below.
Best Alienware laptops 2024
A beautiful & powerful slimline 4K model
Alienware X17 R2 (120Hz 4K)
CPU
Intel Core i9-12900H/12900HK
Graphics
Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti / 3080 / 3080 Ti
RAM
16GB/32GB
Storage
512GB/1TB/2TB SSD
Screen Size
17.3”
Max Refresh Rate
120Hz
- Powerful GPU options
- Good cooling despite thin size
- Great color replication
- Great response time
- Advanced G-Sync
- Looks great
- Nice keyboard & trackpad
- Slimline
- Fairly poor battery life
- Flipped motherboard makes upgrading difficult
- Fans get loud
- Older gen CPU
The larger Alienware X17 R2 with its 17.3-inch display is a terrific device – both for gaming and creative purposes. Although the company hasn’t updated this size in the line-up for a couple of years now, meaning it is limited to 12th gen Intel Core processors, the i9-12900H and 12900HK are still great performers, and when paired with the RTX 3080 Ti GPU in particular, are ideal for 4K gaming. This remains a fantastic device without many direct competitors out there in terms of such a slimline, elegant device that also has such high gaming performance.
You get great immersion in-game that you get with a 17.3” display, and given the relatively thin design, the increased size disadvantage doesn’t hamper the portability of the X17 too much. The 4K option is definitely the one we’d go for, although a high-refresh rate FHD variant is also available.
The keyboard is a joy to use and the trackpad is also great and responsive. The selection of ports is good and includes a microSD card slot. The motherboard is of the flipped variety however, which makes RAM and SSD upgrades after the point of purchase very difficult – less than ideal (best make sure you have enough when you initially buy it). It’s also, despite its slimline form factor, still fairly heavy, though this is to be expected with this amount of power.
For the battery life, you can expect around 3-4 hours of general, non-game usage for the RTX 3070 version at least (with brightness set to mid-settings and battery saver on) which is fairly poor, though not much worse than the majority of other gaming laptops with this amount of power.
The best option for competitive gamers
Alienware m18 (480Hz 1200p)
CPU
AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX
Graphics
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080
RAM
16GB/32GB/64GB DDR5
Storage
1TB – 2TB
Screen Size
16″
Max Refresh Rate
480Hz
- Very powerful GPU & CPU options
- Ridiculously high 480Hz refresh rate
- good color replication
- great build quality
- Lots of RAM and storage options
- good array of I/O ports including Thunderbolt
- looks great
- mediocre battery life
- fairly heavy
The Alienware m18, whether you opt for the latest 2024 variant with Intel 14th gen laptop CPU, or the previous year’s Ryzen 7000 series laptop or Intel 13th gen options, packs a weighty punch with its RTX 4080 graphics card, delivering outstanding performance for gaming at maximum settings. Given the ‘Raptor Lake Refresh’ 14th gen CPU performance uplift is pretty negligible over the 13th gen models, there’s not really much reason to pick the newer, pricier model, and we’d instead recommend the AMD version with Ryzen 9 7845HX processor as listed here.
Sporting a 1200p 480Hz display (the highest refresh rate on the market), it caters to competitive online gamers with lightning-fast refresh rates that ensure smooth gameplay. You definitely won’t need a faster screen than this, and to be honest it’s way beyond what anyone would reasonably require. perhaps even exceeding the needs of most users.
Beyond speed, the display impresses with its color accuracy, covering 100% sRGB and 97% DCI-P3 coverage, with a Delta E color accuracy of around 2.00. This means you can also engage in color-accurate work alongside gaming within the sRGB gamut. The display’s solid contrast and (fairly average) 350 nits of brightness make it suitable for indoor use.
The build quality, as with most Alienware machines, is great. and the laptop offers ample options for RAM and SSD upgrades and a diverse array of ports including an SD card reader. Whilst the battery life, ranging between four and a half to five hours of general use, is on the poorer side of mediocre for a laptop of this power, it’s not terrible. Given its 18-inch size and weight, it’s not the most portable option, but if you’re willing to overlook that, the Alienware m18 stands as a top-tier gaming machine.
A great 14-inch Alienware gaming laptop
Alienware X14
CPU
Intel Core i7-12700H / 12900H
Graphics
Nvidia RTX 3050 (65W) / 3050 Ti (65W) / 3060 (85W)
RAM
16/32GB
Storage
256GB – 2TB SSD
Screen Size
14.0”
Max Refresh Rate
144Hz
- G-Sync
- comes with a MUX switch
- superb color replication
- good contrast & peak brightness
- lots of upgrade options
- expensive
- response time is worse than competitors
The Alienware X14 is the brand’s sole 14-inch gaming laptop, and there have been a few iterations of it now over the last few years. With the max power GPU coming in the form of the RTX 3060, this laptop won’t compete with the likes of the Razer Blade 14 for the title of most powerful 14-inch gaming laptop, instead presenting more of a rival to the ASUS Zephyrus G14. Fully boosted, the X14’s RTX 3060 comes with a TGP of 85W, which is slightly ahead of the existing 2021 version of the ASUS Zephyrus G14 with 80W RTX 3060. Like the new versions of the Zephyrus G14 and Razer Blade 14 due in 2022, the X14 comes with a MUX Switch to disable Optimus, which should give it a further boost in performance.
In terms of the display we have a 1080p IPS panel with a maximum refresh rate of 144Hz, which matches the refresh rate of the upcoming Zephyrus G14, but with the more conventional 16:9 aspect ratio, instead of the 16:10 screen of the ASUS machine. The 7ms stated response time is not as good as the 3ms claimed by ASUS, but the real response time for both these machines is likely to be significantly different, so we’ll have to wait for testing to find out. As far as we’re aware though, only the Alienware X14 will come with G-Sync, which is great to see in a laptop of this size.
Another area the X14 might have the edge in is its color gamut: Alienware claims a whopping 100% DCI-P3 coverage, which is very impressive if accurate, though we’ll have to wait until testing is done to confirm this. The stated 400 nits peak brightness will similarly be impressive if true, and we can expect a good contrast ratio to boot.
All in all, the multitude of different spec options for the Alienware X14 might give it the edge over the competition, with the RTX 3050 and 3050 Ti options giving more budget friendly Nvidia options, particularly with the new Zephyrus G14 being equipped with AMD CPUs. One of the major potential downsides we see is the pricing: Alienware laptops don’t come cheap and it will be interesting to see how competitive they manage to be.
The most affordable Alienware gaming laptop
Alienware m16 R1 (1600p, i7-13700HX)
CPU
Intel Core i7-13700HX
Graphics
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070
RAM
16GB/32GB/64GB DDR5
Storage
1TB – 2TB
Screen Size
16″
Max Refresh Rate
165Hz/240Hz
- Powerful GPU & CPU options
- Good value for money
- good color replication
- great build quality
- good array of I/O ports including Thunderbolt
- looks great
- poor battery life
- fairly heavy
The Alienware m16 has undergone a 2024 makeover, emerging as the Alienware m16 R2 with notable enhancements such as a redesigned thermal solution and a more portable, smaller profile design, but it also has some drawbacks over the previous R1 iteration, so it might not be the best options for you depending on your priorities. We’ve kept the R1 with Intel Core i7-13700HX processor listed here as our pick overall, but have a read below for the breakdown of the pros and cons of both.
The R2 has the new Intel Core Ultra H processor (specifically the Intel Ultra 7 processor 155H) which doesn’t perform any better in-game, but does offer a couple of extra hours of battery life thanks to its improve efficiency, meaning you can get around 5-6 hours with battery saving settings on, as opposed to the 3-4 on the R1.
Unfortunately, the display quality of the R2 takes a hit, featuring a peak brightness of only 287 nits, along with 98% sRGB and 70% DCI-P3 color replication, whereas the R1 achieves around 350 nits (which is reasonable), 100% sRGB and 97% DCI-P3. You may also be able to pick up the R1 for around $100 cheaper on Amazon, depending on the seller. The display on both has a 1600p resolution with 165Hz or 240Hz max refresh rate options.
There’s a good array of I/O ports on both generations, including Thunderbolt, build quality is again great and both are nice looking devices. Regardless of which one you pick, both options are actually reasonably priced for RTX 4070 devices, which makes a change from the norm for a Alienware laptops.
Things to consider when buying an Alienware laptop
Are Alienware laptops expensive?
In a word: yes, though this doesn’t mean some models aren’t good value. Alienware laptops don’t really cover the low or middle price ranges, only offering high-end products that cost a pretty penny, though older models do sometimes make good mid-range options once the price has come down. One of the main critiques of Alienware laptops is that they are overpriced compared to the other options in the high-end gaming laptop market, which can perform to the same standard for less money, though this isn’t always the case, and often these competing machines skimp in areas such as build quality compared to Alienware.
Alienware laptop battery life
Alienware laptops have historically been well known for being very demanding in terms of voltage use, usually resulting in low battery life even when not gaming, requiring them to be plugged in most of the time. ‘Desktop replacement’ is a common adjective used to describe Alienware laptops for this reason, however recent models have bucked this trend. The Alienware X17 for instance, has very respectable battery life, despite being both a slimline and high powered machine.
Best Alienware laptop FAQs
Are Alienware laptops the best?
It’s difficult to say any one brand of gaming laptops is ‘the best’ – generally certain models in a company’s line-up perform very well compared to the competition, others less so.
Alienware are however a premium brand, representing the high-end of the gaming laptops that Dell produces, so one can say with some certainty that you’re unlikely to find a bad Alienware laptop. They have a unique aesthetic design, and are invariably very well made laptops with top-quality screens. The main drawback of Alienware devices is that they usually have a high price tag relative to similarly powered laptops, but you do get devices of exceptional quality.
Which are the top variants of Alienware laptops?
The Alienware ‘X’ series represent the most premium Alienware devices overall – designed with both creators and gamers in mind, these are powerful, yet slimline, and beautifully designed laptops.
The Alienware ‘m’ range are more pure gaming laptops. Prior to the x-series they were the top dogs, but the latest generation has sacrificed some of the more premium features for a slightly cheaper price tag.
Final Word
This has been our guide to help you find the best Alienware laptop for your needs. Hopefully, you have found the right model for you, but if not, why not check out our other gaming laptop brand guides listed above or see our best gaming laptop guides for different price ranges under the dropdown menu on the top of this page. Finally, be sure to have a read of our main best gaming laptop page for the best models across all price ranges and brands.
