ALIENWARE’S BEEN AROUND for a while,
cranking out premium gaming hardware
for almost as long as this reviewer has
been alive. The M17 series of gaming
laptops has been available ever since the
company was purchased by Dell in 2009—
high-end systems with 17-inch displays,
and the latest in internal hardware. This
new model of the M17 doesn’t buck the
trend: a recognizable design, top-notch
components, and Alienware’s signature
branding plastered all over it.
As gaming laptops go, we have to
admit that we like the design of this
M17. The screen bezel is thin and black,
and beneath it the speakers and fans sit
below a hexagonal honeycomb mesh.
It’s surprisingly lightweight, too, and has
quite a small profile when closed, as the
screen hinge is mounted an inch or so
into the base of the chassis from the rear
edge, as opposed to on that edge.
The external hardware is hard to
fault; the full-size keyboard is
comfortable and responsive,
with addressable RGB lighting
for each key. The trackpad is
perfectly fine, although plugging in
a mouse makes more sense. In terms
of other physical features, there’s a port
for a Dell-approved Noble Lock antitheft
device, and some natty RGB lighting on
the rear of the screen. The power button
is, of course, a glowing alien face.
It’s all about what’s hidden inside
that chassis, though. Four copper heat
pipes and cooling fin stacks serve a 9th-
generation Intel i7 CPU and a GeForce
RTX 2080 graphics card—the slimmer,
slightly less powerful Max-Q version,No ”out of this world” jokes, please
Alienware M17
8
VERDICT Alienware M17SPACE RACE Great gaming
performance; good
connectivity; appealing design.
LOST IN SPACE Expensive; screen feels
flimsy; runs hot.
$2,700, http://dell.comSPECIFICATIONSCPU Intel Core i7-9750H
Graphics Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080
Max-Q
RAM 16GB DDR4-2666 SDRAM
Screen 17.3-inch 1080p NTSC 72
percent color gamut @ 144Hz
Storage 2x 512GB PCIe M.2 SSD in
RAID 0
Ports
HDMI, 3x USB 3.1 Gen 2
Type-A, 1x Thunderbolt 3,
RJ-45, audio out, Alienware
Graphics Amplifier port
Connectivity Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1650 (2x2),
Bluetooth 5.0
Weight 5.8lb
Size 15.7 x 11.6 x 0.8 inchesto retain the M17’s slender profile. Two
fans with liquid-crystal polymer blades
channel air in through the top and bottom
of the unit, then expel it through the rear
and side vents.
Heat management isn’t something this
system does very well, though. The fans
are quiet, to be fair, but the whole unit
gets pretty hot after extended use, even
for straightforward gaming. The six-core
CPU frequently runs at around 50 C when
the system is just idling, and leaps into the
high nineties during complex rendering
tasks. This is all the more confusing when
you consider that the M17 apparently
utilizes a handful of sensors for dynamic
temperature control. It’s a bit concerning,
although the temperature spikes didn’t
lead to any noticeable performance
issues in our testing, and this system isn’t
designed for workstation tasks.
Joining that RTX 2080 is 16GB of
DDR4-2666 memory and two 512GB M.2
drives set up in RAID 0. As you might
expect, the gaming performance is
excellent (although those drives aren’t
particularly fast). The M17’s display is a
straightforward 1080p FHD panel; the
maximum brightness is good, and the
refresh rate goes up to 144Hz. It’s a
shame that this otherwise powerful
system is limited to 1080p gaming, but
it does provide a certain guarantee of
performance by limiting gameplay to
that resolution, and the screen is one of
the better 1080p displays we’ve seen on
a gaming laptop. The hinge, however, is a
bit weak, making the screen feel flimsy.
There are virtually no games that this
laptop can’t run at 1080p ultra. Yes, someparticularly GPU-battering titles might
not be able to quite hit 60fps at those
settings, but for the most part, this is an
extremely competent gaming laptop. It
packs an HDMI port and Thunderbolt 3
support for daisy-chaining higher
resolution monitors, if you want to push
its capabilities a bit further, although
the hardware isn’t quite good enough to
reliably play games at 4K ultra settings.
This version of the M17 is a solid
product; it isn’t going to set the world
alight, but it’s a reasonably powerful
piece of hardware, dressed up in an
aesthetically pleasing chassis. Those
familiar with Alienware’s wares will
know that you do pay a certain premium
for its hardware, though, and the M17 is
no exception—this model costs $2,700,
a steep but not unreasonable price
for what you get. Similar-spec laptops
from the likes of MSI, Asus ROG, and
HP Omen are a little more affordable,
but there’s a certain amount of style
and promise provided by the Alienware
brand. If Alienware has treated you well
in the past, this laptop will only preserve
your opinion. –CHRISTIAN GUYTONOur gaming laptop zero-point is the Acer Predator Triton 500, with an Intel Core i7-8750H, Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q,
and 16GB of DDR4-2666. All game tests are performed at 1080p at the highest graphical profile.BENCHMARKS
ZERO-
POINT
Cinebench R15 Multi (Index) 1,030 1,182 (15%)
CrystalDisk QD32
Sequential Read (MB/s) 3,374 3,231 (-4%)
CrystalDisk QD32
Sequential Write (MB/s) 2,530 2,163 (-15%)
3DMark: Fire Strike (Index) 13,610 18,156 (33%)
Rise of the Tomb Raider (fps)^92 95 (3%)
Total War: Warhammer II (fps) 62 81 (31%)
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon:
Wildlands (fps)^49 63 (29%)
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%maximumpc.com JAN 2020 MAXIMUMPC 87