HARDWARE REVIEW

Alienware M15 Gaming Laptop Review

by Luke Walsh, March 26th, 2019

Alienware laptops or even pcs have never been known to be on the slimmer side of gaming, mainly down to the fact that most machines have extremely powerful components which need a lot of big coolers and plenty of airflow.

The laptops in the past were exactly the same, chunkier than your average household laptop because they needed to have graphics cards that could actually play video games and cooling on top to keep it all working,

Dell’s new Alienware M15 gaming laptop though is meant to be the lightest laptop in the world for its size and weight. Lighter it is, with the M15 really being something you can have on your lap but at the sametime, your wallet is also going to feel a whole lot lighter too.

Alienware M15 Review: Design

One thing that Alienware never falters at is good design materials and a look which stands out while also not being what I like to call “gamer-y”. The chassis is made from almost completely magnesium alloy which is able to give the M15 it’s lighter weight plus making it tougher.

Even though it is over 20% lighter than the previous models weighing in at 2.16kg it’s still not hitting those MacBook levels of lightness but forgivable as it’s designed for a completely different purpose. When reviewing the m15, people would come to take a look at the striking red design and how much thinner it looked. One of the main comments that stuck, however, was after picking it up most said that “it’s so much lighter than it looks” clearly giving brownie points to the fact that looks heavy but really is not.

Now looking back at the colour scheme the Nebula Red as Alienware calls it, is absolutely beautiful. It stands out among a lot of other laptops in the building and catches the eyes of anyone who walks past. Sadly it does like to catch fingerprints and get a little dirtier a bit quicker than some others but a welcomed tradeoff to have something that is that nice to look at.

On the inside is an all matte black interior paired with the standard Alienware blue lighting. The bezel really is the only major letdown of the overall design as it surrounds the display and makes it look a lot bulkier than the rest of it. The top and sides are not too bad but at the bottom where the logo sits has a big space that makes it feel a bit old. Looking at it logically, the screen matches the size of the base to make it fit (where all the bigger components are) when closed and the screen stays in the correct ratio fo the 15-inch display, so making the screen a non-standard size height wise probably would have looked a lot weirder. Finally on the bezel, like the lower part of the laptop, they should have stuck with a matte finish instead of the gloss as it is a bit too reflective when looking at the screen.

Most of the ports for the M15 are on the back which is a smart move to keep all the cables out of the way when using it. At the back, you’ll find the power port, HDMI port, mini DP and a USB-C port with Thunderbolt 3. On the left side are the ethernet connection and a single USB port with the headphone jack. On the right are two more USB connections so you should have enough for most gaming needs.

One connection left out that is also on the back is Alienware’s proprietary eGPU port that allows you to connect their Alienware Graphics Amplifier which is a fancy term for the external graphics card holder to give you even more power by using a regular desktop card. As Thunderbolt is able to use any of the graphics amps on the marker, you are not tied to Alienware’s but if you want to keep the same look going you can also pick the Alienware Graphics Amplifier up for £154.

The speakers are the one thing that threw me off, as they are located at the base of the main unit’s body by the touchpad on either side. This makes the M15 sound a lot louder as they are closer to the user but you’d expect when opening it up for them to sit at the top under the screen. This grid at the top is actually for the cooling meaning it’s able to span the entire laptop giving more space for heat dissipation.

Alienware M15 Review: Keyboard and Touchpad

Having tried a lot of gaming keyboards over the years, laptops tend to be a little behind when it comes to creating something that is on par to type on with their desktop counterparts. Usually opting for chiclet-style keys, they lack the depth and switches internally to give satisfying feedback when clicked.

The Alienware M15 has a decent keyboard to type on for both day to day office work, coding or gaming but does fall down again on not being “clicky” enough. Each key is sturdy and the chiclet keys are a little higher in depth than normal but for a gamer who plays on PC will notice the lack of tactile feedback that usually comes with mechanical switches.

The keypad included is a nice touch as the laptop has been able to keep the overall width down by shrinking some of the regular keys down a little. It does take some time to get used to though as hitting the return key or backspace key would sometimes mean hitting the numpad.

RGB lighting a feature much like it is with everything gaming these days being able to swap out the colours to match your own tastes in the Alienware software, Alienware Command Centre. It comes in four customisable sections which can use different effects and colours to create some wacky colour palette combinations. By default the keyboard rotates a couple of different colours on a fade pattern but setting it to a static colour is the least distracting.

The touchpad is off-centre thanks to the inclusion of the numpad but placed in a way that it is central to the main QWERTY keyboard which is far more useful than keeping it dead centre like some other laptops. Even being right-handed you don’t notice the touchpad sitting further left in actual use and it’s nice an responsive. Rather than having separate buttons, the while pad will click but the bottom left and right will register what “click” you wanted when you put more pressure on one side over the other.

Although a decent touchpad, for the majority of gaming this will be unused as a dedicated mouse will be used for most gamers. It does, however, stand a purpose if you are using the laptop out and about for work or just browsing the internet.

Alienware M15 Review: Display

A high-quality display is crucial for any gaming laptop and the IPS panel which is inside the Alienware M15 does not disappoint. There’s a choice of the bigger (in pixels) 4K 60Hz display or the 1080 114Hz display. If you are spending your time using this machine for watching moves then go for the 4K one. Gaming, however, you’ll want to stick with the higher refresh rate on the 1080p panel as it will have a smoother result when gaming. Something which is even more important if you plan on using it for competitive play.

Testing the display, it outputs about 315cd/m2 of brightness which is not amazing but not the worst. It just means that outside in natural light even when at full brightness you might get an angle that makes it difficult to see the display. To make sure it was able to game outside, I did test playing a couple of games and some development work (usually dark background with light fonts) in the sunny UK weather and as long as it does not have the sun bouncing off it you’ll be able to play in your garden with a cold beverage and the BBQ on.

Overall the contrast ratio is alright at 1330:1 but the sRGB coverage is a little poor at 88% so the colour performance is not as great as it could be which is something to consider when looking to use it for design or video editing work. Then again, as far as gaming goes it works for what it needs to do so while it won’t knock your socks off with stunning colours, most games are greys and browns anyway aren’t they?

Alienware M15 Review: Performance

Performance is where you can start to forgive the Alienware M15 for not being the lightest at the party. In our testing we saw some decent numbers which are only backed up by the fact there are some beasts of power under the hood of this machine. The CPU performance is impressive and even when stress tested it was able to keep going without any issue with overheating, yes it does get warm but nothing out of the ordinary when you’re pushing something that hard. In terms of numbers each core never really got above 75 degrees, so while it would not be comfortable if you were sat on it, gaming wise it is in an acceptable tolerance.

Using two SSDs instead of one for the overall space means that it is able to read and write at an acceptable rate. When testing we the sequential file read speed at 2500MB/sec which is crazy fast, in compassion to the write speed though it was only a fraction of this being 700MB/sec.

Gaming performance from the GPU though was top of the line thanks to the Nvidia GTX 1070 GPU. In our Firsstrike test, the laptop performed well giving a final score of 15700. Playing my usual games of Fallout 4, BioShock Infinite a couple of others you can see the power output quite easily.

Bioshock on Low settings clocked 290fps, 250fps on medium and 235fps on high. For Fallout 4 with the framerate limiting off the low framerate clock in at 150fps, 120fps on med and 100fps on Ultra. Even on some newer games like Metro Exodus, the M15 was easily able to keep above 30fps on different graphical settings.

With the power of the M15 you should be able to play most modern games without a hitch, on some of the more graphically intensive you might have to knock a setting or two down a peg on the 4K display for the 1080p it will take most what you throw at it.

Alienware M15 Review: Battery Life

Gaming laptops are not well known for living for a long time, thanks to most users wanting to play intensive games that suck up power than just general Facebook use. You don’t tend to get a full day’s worth of play off the main power grid but you still want to in a pinch, if stuck somewhere without internet (if that’s possible) play for a couple of hours.

In our testing of different games, we managed to get around 2.5 hours on average playing some of the more graphically demanding games on a full charge. When playing a set of movies one after the other, the M15 lasted a bit longer with the total time comes to just over 4 hours. Finally, we tested on Minecraft, which on lower power consumption got about 3 hours and 24 minutes.

In the end, these gaming laptops are not designed to be too far from a wall socket to get the most out of them but if you plan on taking it away, you’ll be able to sit in bed for a few hours and play some of your favourite games before needing to plug it back in.

Alienware M15 Review: Overall Impressions & Verdict

Dell’s Alienware M15 Gaming Laptop really is a testament to how much gaming laptops have evolved over the last 5 years. Moving away from massive bulky chassis which might as well be swapped for a PC the modern laptop is becoming something that is able to put PC gaming and portability a reality.

The overall design looks sleek, the red colour is sexy and turns heads when people walk past and it’s powerful while actually being portable without having to sacrifice the high-end construction that has made Alienware so well known. There’s still the issue of power, however, as even on lower settings you’ll only tend to get a couple of hours playtime without having to plug it back in but something all gaming laptops have an issue with.

The biggest problem Dell usually has though is their price points, for the specifications available you’ll tend to find a competitor laptop offering the similar specs for a lot less. It makes it a much more difficult decision when you compare it to stuff like the Razer Blade which is some instances can even be cheaper.

In the end, though, Dell’s M15 gaming laptop is up there among the other big titans of the space and it a top player when it comes to thin and portable serious gaming.

Dell's Alienware M15 gaming laptop is up there as one of the best you can get but you will need to be willing to part with a significant amount of money for the power and attention to quality. This is a careful consideration when other laptops on the market are able to offer similar for a bit less.