Alienware m15 RTX Gaming Laptop Review

Today we're taking a look at some other gaming laptop, the brand new Alienware m15, which is the visitor's portable laptop offering to rival systems similar the MSI GS65 Stealth, Gigabyte Aero 15 and Razer Blade. Historically we oasis't been huge fans of Alienware'south chunkier laptop designs, simply the m15 is one of the best we've seen from the company then far.

Permit's talk specs to brainstorm with. If you've seen reviews of this laptop from a few months back, those were probably for the original model that used GTX Pascal GPUs. What we're reviewing today is the RTX version, more specifically the RTX 2080 Max-Q model. Simply there are other options available that might adapt your budget better, including RTX 2070 Max-Q and RTX 2060 options.

Like most Dell laptops, the m15 is highly customizable. The CPU for nearly models stays the same as an Intel Core i7-8750H, but from there you get many storage, RAM and display options. Our review unit of measurement came with 16GB of dual-aqueduct DDR4, plus a combination of a 500GB SSD and a 1TB difficult drive. The brandish is a 15.6-inch 1080p 144Hz IPS.

Build and Design

The m15 is Alienware's nigh portable fifteen-inch gaming laptop design yet. While this is definitely a good thing, it's probably only good when comparing the m15 to Alienware'southward other laptops. For case, the regular Alienware 15 is 30mm thick and 7.7lbs heavy (!), whereas the Alienware m15 is near 27mm thick and crucially simply 4.8 lbs (2.2kg). The weight difference is massive, which makes the m15 a significantly more than portable system.

However if yous compare information technology to say, the Gigabyte Aero 15, the Alienware 15 is larger in all dimensions. Gigabyte'due south organization is only 22mm thick and weighs but a tad over 2.0kg. It's also smaller due to slimmer bezels. The Alienware fifteen doesn't give you that crawly slim-bezel pattern that we've been seeing from other laptops, which keeps it larger than its competitors.

We'd say this new unit is a large step forward for Alienware merely it's nonetheless got a mode to go until information technology matches the best from its competitors. Something like the MSI GS65 is near a pound lighter and for some people that could be a better choice.

However, there is no faulting the build quality here, which is superb. This isn't a unibody construction and there are a few different choices of materials, including metal for the chapeau, a soft bear upon matte plastic blanket around the keyboard, and glossy plastic effectually the display. Just the primal here is just how seamless these materials join together, it just feels really solid and well built.

Visually this isn't our favorite design, more often than not due to the athwart body and a gamery hat. It looks quite nice when opened but it doesn't do plenty to take the crown from the elegant MSI GS Stealth line. It's definitely the best Alienware design and the focus on slimness has helped a lot in that location.

In other areas, Alienware has done a lot of things right. The keyboard has a nice though somewhat spongy tactile response, however the layout is skilful and it includes a total numpad plus four macro keys. The entire matter is lit upwardly with four-zone RGB backlighting. There's 2 other RGB elements as well: the power button and alien caput logo on the lid.

The trackpad is a little pocket-size given the space allocated to it, only information technology has a squeamish coating and is very responsive. The speakers are found in the bottom corners of the laptop and they do fine at medium volume merely suffer a little bit from distortion at high volumes, if yous cease up using them at all.

The I/O selection is fantastic, we're getting three USB 3.i type-A ports, Thunderbolt iii, HDMI 2.0, mini-DP 1.3, a 3.5mm sound jack, Ethernet and Alienware's Graphics Amplifier port. We particularly similar that the brandish outputs are on the rear of the laptop, it's prissy and user-friendly to hook up a display without obstructing either side.

Performance

Let's talk performance, and every bit ever it's important to set the scene with the settings we used. The main consideration are the fan profiles, with Alienware providing four options: Balanced, which is the default, plus Cool, Quiet and Performance modes. We didn't spot any significant difference between the Counterbalanced and Operation modes because both seem to ramp up the fan to the same level while gaming. The Performance style simply sets the fan to this speed at all times, while Balanced quietens the fan during less intensive workloads. Our recommendation is obvious, to use the Balanced mode and that's what we used throughout this review.

When information technology comes to CPU performance, knowing that most other flagship gaming laptops rely on the same Cadre i7-8750H processor, the primary consideration was to come across whether the Alienware m15 performed any differently in productivity tasks compared to its competitors. What nosotros discovered is that the laptop performs identically to our average 8750H criterion numbers, suggesting the arrangement is performing equally expected. Beyond each workload it'southward a little slower some times and a niggling faster at other times, merely on average in that location is zilch to be concerned near here.

This ways we're getting all the usual benefits of the Cadre i7-8750H. As a six-core CPU, it'south ideal for tasks like video encoding, where information technology'due south 40 to l per centum faster than a terminal-generation Core i7-7700HQ. Information technology'south likewise faster in single-threaded workloads by around ten percent, which does help reduce CPU bottlenecks in some games.

Where the interesting stuff starts to happen is with the GPU. The m15 packs the GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q in its 90W configuration. If you aren't aware, there are actually ii versions of the RTX 2080 Max-Q that have been spotted, the default 80W configuration and the 90W model which has a higher power limit and is clocked about 100-200 MHz college. It's almost impossible to tell which version a laptop uses from its production page, just nosotros can tell y'all the Alienware m15 uses the faster model.

If you've read our review of the GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q you'll see how both the 80W and 90W versions perform in a range of games. Nevertheless with the Alienware m15 information technology's a flake more than complicated than that, considering while this laptop does have the 90W version, its cooling solution in a typical use case prevents it from unleashing the full power of this GPU.

Fifty-fifty with the fans at full speed, there but isn't enough of a gap between the base of the laptop and the desk to intake air at the volume required to cool these components. Most of the intake vents are along the bottom console, with a few tiny vents on the height side, with air then exhausting out the dorsum and sides. But thank you to the anxiety raising this laptop past a smaller than usual elevation, and fewer vents on the top side of the laptop, nosotros're running into a few airflow bottlenecks.

What this means is the Alienware m15 in a typical usage environment on your desk is 4% slower on average than the 'maximum' operation the RTX 2080 Max-Q 90W variant is capable of. However it is possible to get the full functioning of the 2080 Max-Q if you raise the base of the laptop slightly, which gives the bottom vents less restricted admission to airflow. Y'all don't take to change any other laptop settings, only make this physical adjustment. If yous exercise this, the cooler performs much better and you become the total performance of the GPU inside. Information technology's not a very practical solution and we feel this event could have been resolved with a meliorate optimized series of vents around the pattern.

For the rest of this information, we're showing how the Alienware m15 performs without the workaround because we feel this is how virtually people will use the laptop. The good news is that when sitting on your desk normally, the Alienware m15 performs about the same equally the RTX 2080 Max-Q 80W variant. So it'due south not high-strung to the level that it performs below a typical RTX 2080 Max-Q, it's merely the same.

With the Alienware m15 performing roughly the same every bit an 80W RTX 2080 Max-Q, the margins between this laptop and other GPUs is pretty similar. Information technology's ~10% faster than the RTX 2070 Max-Q, then if you lot are tossing upward between the diverse Alienware m15 GPU configurations, this is something that will interest y'all.

The other bachelor GPU is the RTX 2060. Here the RTX 2080 Max-Q is sixteen% faster on average, although it doesn't win in every game. For example, Hitman 2 is unusually tiresome with the Alienware m15 compared to the average result for other laptops we've tested. On the other paw, in that location is a significant pb in games like Shadow of State of war, where the 2080 Max-Q is more than 30% faster.

The previous GTX-based Alienware m15 was available with the GTX 1070 Max-Q inside. This new RTX 2080 Max-Q model is a decent 24% faster on average, which is an impressive improvement from the same sort of libation blueprint and class factor. The RTX 2080 Max-Q models are a lot more than expensive however.

Finally we take the comparing between the RTX 2080 Max-Q and the standard GTX 1070 for laptops. The RTX 2080 Max-Q is 6% faster on average only information technology'south a bit of a mixed bag: it wins in some titles, and loses in others. It's definitely non a situation where the RTX 2080 demolishes the GTX 1070, which is the case when comparison the desktop variants of these GPUs.

Cooling Setup: Could utilise some work

Here is the data showing the Alienware m15'due south cooling solution isn't up to scratch for the hardware inside. GPU temperatures are okay without beingness great, 84 degrees Celsius is fine for most gaming laptops. But information technology's the CPU temperatures that are seriously crazy, with the m15 hitting 99 degrees during a Scout Dogs ii gaming session. Whatsoever time a laptop is up effectually that 100 degree mark, you're going to become throttling.

And so with this laptop it's not the GPU just mostly CPU throttling to be concerned nearly. Raising the laptop'due south base which provides more airflow to the choked cooler (without increasing fan speed) sees a significant seven degree drop on the CPU and a similar drop on the GPU, but it's more than than that: CPU clock speeds also increase by 500 MHz or so across all six cores.

Information technology's a huge difference and simply shows how in a standard usage case this cooler cannot proceed up with the demands of the high-TDP parts inside. Without that CPU bottleneck we see the full performance of these components.

And it'southward no surprise why the Alienware m15 tin't button the fan whatsoever faster: we're already sitting at 46 dBA during a gaming load, which is on the college terminate for a gaming laptop. So this organisation is both hot and loud, giving basically no room to move. If you're hoping to overclock this system… well, there's zero headroom for that.

Those that like to undervolt and replace the thermal compound with something like liquid metallic may be able to get more out of this libation design. Information technology'south also possible that the lower-tier GPUs similar the RTX 2060 won't run into this same thermal bottleneck but it's difficult to say for sure.

Storage, Battery & Brandish

Moving on to storage performance, our Alienware m15 came equipped with a 512GB SK Hynix PC401 SSD which performed pretty well, no existent complaints here. Information technology'south not the absolute fastest gaming laptop SSD we've seen, especially for sequential workloads, just it'due south adequate for most people.

Battery life was pretty disappointing though. The m15 comes with ii battery options, if you want a 1TB difficult drive inside, you become just a 60 Wh cell, which was the example with our review unit. If y'all forgo the 2.5-inch bulldoze bay slot you can increase the battery capacity to 90 Wh, which no doubtfulness delivers improve results than the disappointing sub-4 hour run time in our video playback test.

Given that internally you get 2 Thou.2 slots, 1 of which was complimentary in our unit and both of which are easily user attainable, we think most buyers would be improve off opting for the 90 Wh model and using cheap M.2 storage options to go extra infinite if necessary. Especially if you want amend bombardment life which we experience is important in a portable-oriented system like the m15.

Like a lot of similar laptops, Alienware is using a fifteen.vi-inch 1080p IPS with a maximum refresh rate of 144 Hz. The combination of IPS and 144 Hz works really well for gamers. The high refresh charge per unit is perfect for the RTX 2080 Max-Q that often pushes frame rates above 100 FPS at 1080p, so this is the brandish choice you'll want to cull.

A lot of the basic characteristics are good: 300 nits of peak brightness is fine for indoor utilise, especially as that's combined with excellent viewing angles. A contrast ratio of 1200:1 is likewise great for this type of display, however we did experience a flake of IPS glow when viewing nighttime or black content. Not a huge outcome, just something to continue in mind.

The bigger problem with this brandish is the lack of colour calibration. The default white point is effectually 8000K which is far as well common cold, giving the display a bluish tone. In fact there doesn't announced to exist any calibration here whatsoever, at to the lowest degree not to the sRGB standard, equally deltaE averages across the board are to a higher place 4.0.

Ordinarily for gaming laptops we don't notice calibration to be a big upshot, just with the Alienware m15 information technology's a fiddling different. DeltaEs in a higher place 4.0 are higher than many other laptops, particularly the 5.seven greyscale deltaE average, so this display is particularly poorly calibrated. And on top of this, many competitors to this arrangement – such as the MSI GS65 and Gigabyte Aero 15 – practise come with factory calibrated displays. So while information technology may not bother every buyer, scale is something you don't get here as office of the packet.

Closing Remarks

Overall, we're in two places with the Alienware m15. This is clearly their best laptop design. It'south thinner and lighter than regular Alienware laptops, and that'southward a step in the right direction. Equally most gaming laptop competitors accept this sort of organization on the market place, coming from the chunky Alienware beasts, this focus on portability is welcome from a design perspective.

On the other hand, we feel Alienware has failed to execute in terms of some of the operation characteristics. In particular, the libation just isn't powerful enough to cool both the Core i7-8750H and RTX 2080 Max-Q without throttling. There's an airflow upshot causing lower than expected performance when both the CPU and GPU are utilized, like in games. This becomes less forgiving when you consider the m15 is larger and heavier overall than directly competitors.

However, performance is not bad and it's still effectually the mark of a typical RTX 2080 Max-Q laptop. Only it could have been improve, especially equally this laptop includes the 90W variant of the GPU, it could have been the all-time of its features. Hereafter versions of this laptop will no doubt need a cooling layout revision.

Build quality is slap-up on the m15 just there'due south other odds and ends that aren't equally polished. The brandish isn't calibrated and doesn't pack a slim bezel pattern. The keyboard and trackpad are okay without existence amazing. The default option is a small threescore Wh bombardment and you have to pay to get a larger one.

Nosotros don't meet what the Alienware m15 does meliorate than a laptop like the MSI GS65. At that place'due south no fundamental feature that might get me to recommend information technology in some situations, like better value or a unique design, or top-tier performance. In every metric we've tested, this system is beaten past the excellent MSI option which is basically the same price for an equivalent configuration, regardless of which RTX GPU yous choose. And this is without discussing the overall value proposition of Nvidia's Turing laptops.

The Alienware m15 is a great step forward for the company, but it ultimately doesn't get our recommendation. It's hard to create the perfect portable organisation on the first attempt, and many competitors have simply been doing this for longer and have more refined, better options today that you should consider instead.

The Alienware starts at $1,275 with a GTX 1060 GPU and 8GB DDR4, while the fully fledged RTX 2080 model that we tested is nigh $3,000.