while it is only 1080p, the display
overs 100% of the sRGB color
gamut, so games really pop,.Performance and battery
t’sprobably not hugely surprising
hatthe m15 achieves strong
performance given the hardware
nside. No matter what game we
hrew at it, this gaming laptop
bsolutely dominated in terms
ofperformance.
Even Red Dead Redemption 2,
which is probably the hardest game
o run – at least in the mainstream- is a breeze at the native
esolution. With all its settings
urned to high, we get a flawless
performance of 68fps, and then
63fpsin Total War: Three Kingdoms.
Bothof these titles give desktop
gaming systems a hard time, so it
wasnice to see a laptop able to
power through them.
It’sprobably not terribly
urprising, but the Alienware m15
sn’texactly a laptop that you’ll be
bleto work on all day without
needing a battery. In our anecdotal
battery test, where we loop a video
untilthe laptop dies, the Alienware
m15 only managed two hours and
three minutes. That’s barely
enough to watch one film.
The PCMark8 battery test
doesn’t fare much better, either,
only lasting two hours and 26
minutes. This is all with the display
turned down to 50% brightness
and all the external lighting
disabled. We weren’t expecting
much out of this laptop in terms
of battery life, and this is about
what we expect. If you’re going
to be carrying this laptop around,
just be ready to haul around the
power brick as well.
An excellent gaming laptop in
basically every way, it should last
you a few years before struggling.a stripofblackwitha niceglossy
finishonthefrontofthechassis.
Thereis a tonofventilationhere,
too. The back of the laptop has two
strips of honeycomb-shaped vents,
whichareinterruptedbya small
assortmentofports.Thisis where
you’ll find the power, Thunderbolt
3, Mini DisplayPort, HDMI and the
Alienware Graphics Amplifier ports.
There are two more cooling vents
on either side of the laptop, along
with more ventilation on the
bottom. When the laptop is open,
you’ll see even more honeycomb
vents above the keyboard, which
suck in cold air and blast the hot air
out the back.
The keyboard is almost
ludicrously comfortable to type on.
In a laptop this thin, we simply
don’t expect a ton of key travel, but
not only do these keys go deep,
they’re also comfortable as hell to
type on. They’re not clicky, nor are
they loud, and almost feel cushiony;
the m15 keyboard really is the best
Whileit s truethatmanypeoplewill
justbeplugginga mouseintothis
laptopforgaming,theunitis
portable enough that it should be
usable as a mobile workstation- especiallywiththisclassof
hardware.Thetrackpadis simply
not great for doing anything: it’s
way too small for the chassis and
kind of laggy from time to time. If
you go with this laptop, trust us,
you’re going to want to pick up a
gaming mouse.
The other major issue here are
the speakers. When we first opened
the laptop, we even got excited at
the honeycomb vents at the top,
thinking it’d be a speaker grille.
Alas, all the sound gets blasted out
of the bottom of the laptop and
that’s a shame, especially since
there’s ample room on either side
of the keyboard for speakers.
Luckily, the display is generally
excellent, so if you pair it with a
gaming headset, you should still
expect a nice experience. And,“No matter what game we threw at it, this gaming
laptop’s performance absolutely dominated”
w
c
gP
It
th
p
in
th
a
ow
to- re
tu
p 6 B g w p s
is
a
nwedo,it’sdefinitelya looker.The
chassisofthelaptopis allwhite
except fortheslimbackbitthat
sticksoutoftheback.There’salso
a strip of black with a nice glossy
ofbothworlds,andshouldmakea
lotofpeoplehappy.
Wejustwishwecouldsaythe
samethingaboutthetrackpad.
While it’struethatmanypeoplewillUpgrade
Alienware m15 R2
March 2020 | |^81
Specs as reviewed
Alienware m15 R2
Supplier http://www.dell.co.uk
CPU Intel Core i7-9750H
GPU Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080
RAM 16GB
Storage 2 x 512GB SSDs in RAID 0
RAM 16GB
Dimensions 360.5 x 276 x 20.55mm
Weight 2.16kg