Alienware m15 review: The mother of gaming notebooks finally gets slimmer

Thinner but just as capable

I’ve been waiting for Alienware to release a gaming laptop with NVIDIA’s Max-Q optimizations for a long while. The Alienware m15 is that laptop, and it combines a slimmer, more modern design with the company’s signature futuristic aesthetic.

It’s armed to the teeth with top-end specifications as well, so you’re not really compromising all that much by opting for a slimmer design.

Here’s an overview of its specifications:

• 15.6-inch 1,920 x 1,440-pixel 144Hz IPS display
• Intel Core i7-8750H (2.2GHz, 9MB L3 cache)
• 32GB dual-channel DDR4-2666 memory
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q
• 256GB PCIe SSD + 1TB SSHD
• 60Wh battery
• 362.86 x 275 x 20.99mm
• 2.16kg

The above will cost you an eye-watering S$5,356, a super steep price tag, especially for a laptop equipped with last generation’s graphics card. I'm not even sure why the laptop costs this much, as the only advantage it has over nearly identically configured rivals is its 32GB of memory. 

Alienware has also since updated its m15 with support for up to a GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q, so gamers now have access to far more performance than before. That said, the rest of the m15 remains the same, so our review unit still serves as a good idea of what to expect in terms of design.

A touch of outer space

The Alienware m15 sort of reminds me of a spaceship. The lid is divided into three sections, mimicking the look of disparate panels welded together on the hull of some ship from the future. The company’s signature alien head logo is visible on the lid as well, and features customizable RGB illumination so you can set it to your preferred color.

Build quality on the notebook is super solid as well, thanks to its use of magnesium alloy, which is both strong and light. The laptop feels rigid and well put together, so Alienware hasn’t sacrificed much in moving to a slimmer design.

However, if we’re talking about the burgeoning category of Max-Q notebooks, the m15 is actually still a little on the thicker side. Many notebooks, including models like the Gigabyte Aero 15X, Razer Blade, and MSI GS65 Stealth Thin, come in at under 20mm thick. Furthermore, the Alienware m15 is even a bit thicker than the ASUS ROG Zephyrus M’s 19.9mm, even though the later isn’t even a Max-Q notebook. So while the m15 is a welcome improvement over the old Alienware 15, it definitely isn’t a leader in terms of portability.

Furthermore, while the side bezels have slimmed down significantly, the laptop still has rather chunky top and bottom bezels, so its footprint isn’t the smallest either. There’s also an infuriating amount of glossy plastic framing the display, which kind of makes the whole notebook look a bit cheap, even though it really isn’t.

That aside, I like that Alienware has managed to squeeze a full-sized keyboard with a number pad onto the laptop. One of my complaints about the Alienware 15 was how there wasn’t a very efficient use of space in the implementation of the keyboard, which was framed by huge amounts of empty space and didn’t feature a number pad. Fortunately, that’s been rectified this time around.

The keyboard produces decent tactile feedback and feels pretty good to type on. Elsewhere, I also enjoy the soft-touch finish on the palm rests, which convey an impression of quality. Alienware has also gone with a Windows Precision Touchpad here, so your gestures feel quite pleasantly accurate and precise. The left- and right-click buttons are built into the touchpad now as well, and I prefer this look to having separate physical buttons.

However, the touchpad has a plastic coating instead of glass and isn’t quite as large as, say, the one on the Razer Blade. This means that while it’s decent, it still doesn’t feel quite as good. I was also disappointed to see a lack of per-key RGB backlighting customizations. Instead, the laptop features six independent lighting zones, including four on the keyboard itself, the power button, and the alien head logo on the lid.

The stereo speakers on the laptop are built into the sides of the laptop. They’re not actually located under the grille that you see above the keyboard, even though there are two openings below the grille that look like they could house speakers. That said, the speakers are average at best. Overall, clarity seemed lacking, and vocals had an odd nasal quality to them. There was also noticeable distortion at higher volumes, which isn’t at all what I’d expect from a notebook that costs this much.

The good news is that the IPS display on the laptop is pretty good. The matte panel shows off bright and vivid colors, and it’s one of the few gaming notebooks where I didn’t feel like the display could use a boost in brightness.

When it comes to networking options, the laptop is equipped with a Killer Wireless-AC 1550 chip, which is capable of a maximum throughput of up to 1.73Gbps and is pretty much in line with the rest of the competition.

The Alienware m15 also features a good selection of ports and display outputs. The right edge houses two USB 3.1 (Gen 1) Type-A ports, and you’ll find another USB 3.1 (Gen 1) port on the left alongside the Ethernet port and 3.5mm headphone and microphone jack. Finally, there is one HDMI 2.0 output, one Mini DisplayPort 1.3, one Thunderbolt 3, and a proprietary Alienware Graphics Amplifier port on the back.

To cap things off, the laptop keeps cool using a dual-fan design that pulls in cool air from the bottom and top vents and exhausts hot hair out vents at the side and rear. It also features four copper fin stacks to help dissipate heat from critical components. The fans do get pretty noisy under load, but they’re not the loudest I’ve experienced on a gaming laptop and they do a decent job of keep the palm rests cool.

Test setup and performance

Here’s a full list of the notebooks we’re looking at:

• Alienware m15 (2018)
• Gigabyte Aero 15X
• HP Omen 15
• MSI GS65 Stealth Thin
• Razer Blade (2018)

We compared the Alienware m15 against other notebooks equipped with a GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q to see how it fares against its most immediate competitors.

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We ran the notebooks through the following benchmarks:

• PCMark 10
• 3DMark
• VRMark
• Ashes of the Singularity
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
• Tom Clancy’s The Division

PCMark 10 Extended

PCMark 10 Extended assesses the performance of systems in a variety of workloads, including basic computing tasks, productivity applications, digital content creation, and gaming. Compared to PCMark 8, it also adds in new test metrics, such as app startup times, which quantifies how long it takes to launch a variety of real-world apps, and a rendering and visualization workload to simulate professional graphics and engineering applications. In addition, existing workloads have been updated to reflect modern usage.

Thanks to their near identical specifications, all the laptops turned out really similar performance numbers. The Alienware m15 did pretty well though, beating all the laptops except the HP Omen 15. 

3DMark

3DMark is a more relevant assessment of gaming performance, and it puts the system through a range of graphics and computational performance tests at different resolutions, starting at 1080p and going all the way up to 4K.

The Alienware m15 was the best performing laptop here, although it was a mere 3 per cent quicker than the Razer Blade in the Fire Strike benchmark. 

VRMark

Futuremark’s VRMark benchmark is designed to assess a PC’s ability to handle high-performance headsets like the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. If a PC passes the Orange Room test, it is ready for the latter two systems. The benchmark also has a target frame rate of 109FPS, and I've included the average FPS each notebook managed to provide a clearer measure of their respective performance. 

The Alienware m15 was among the better performing laptops, losing out only to the HP Omen 15. It was also around 17 per cent faster than the MSI GS65 Stealth Thin.

Ashes of the Singularity

Ashes of the Singularity is a demanding real-time strategy game that puts thousands of units on screen, and it’s capable of pushing even the most powerful GPUs.

Once again, the Alienware m15 proved itself the top performer, inching ahead of its rivals. The HP Omen 15 was its closest competitor at High settings, so it seems like the generous 32GB of RAM on both laptops helped give them the edge here. 

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Mankind Divided is one of the most demanding titles to run today, but theAlienware m15 is more than capable of delivering a playable experience. 

There were hardly any significant differences here, and all the laptops performed within a few frames of each other. 

Tom Clancy's The Division

The Division isn’t as demanding to run as Ashes of the Singularity or Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, but its Snowdrop engine can still stress cards with the use of dynamic lighting and the like.

The Alienware m15 came ahead in The Division, where it was around 8 per cent quicker than the HP Omen 15.

Temperature, battery life, & portability

Temperature

I measured the external temperatures of the four quadrants of the notebook after 40 loops of 3DMark's Fire Strike Extreme stress test. This amount of time is more than enough to get an idea of your average maximum running temperature for this workload.

There's nothing much to remark on here, and the Alienware m15 turned out temperatures that are more or less in line with the competition. Its palm rests also never got uncomfortably hot, which is perhaps the most important thing here. 

Battery life and power consumption

I used the built-in battery life benchmark in PCMark 8 Home to assess the battery life on the laptops.

The Alienware m15 is actually pretty power efficient, coming in second only to the Gigabyte Aero 15X. Despite that, its 60Wh battery is still on the smaller side, and it can't really compete against the notebooks with 80Wh batteries or larger. That's a pity, considering that the m15 is also thicker than those laptops. Alienware does have the option for a larger 90Wh battery, which should really have been included by default.

Portability

The portability index is an objective measure of how portable a notebook is, taking into account factors like size, weight, and battery life.

Unfortunately, the Alienware m15 didn't do that well here, owing to its relatively chunky dimensions and mediocre battery life. 

This laptop is ridiculously expensive

Taken alone, the Alienware m15 isn't a bad laptop. It's fast and well-built, and it'll serve you pretty well as a gaming laptop. But when you look at what the competition has to offer, it's difficult to ignore the m15's flaws. Whichever way you look at it, the Alienware m15 is thicker, heavier, and somehow, still more expensive than the other players on the field. 

I'm not even talking in terms of a few hundred dollars, which could perhaps be chalked up to some sort of premium associated with the Alienware brand. No, the Alienware m15 is a whopping S$5,356, which honestly is a crazy, steep price. For context, the Razer Blade has nearly identical specifications and costs just S$3,899. The difference between the two laptops? A mere extra 16GB of RAM on the Alienware m15 and a dual storage configuration comprising a 256GB SSD and a 1TB SSHD. In comparison, the Blade 15 is thinner, lighter, and has a single 512GB SSD. Oh, and it has a larger battery that can last far longer. 

I'm not even sure how Alienware can justify its price, considering how close the two notebooks are in terms of gaming performance. And even if we were to discount the ridiculous price difference, the Blade 15 still offers more, with support for per-key customizations, a large, glass trackpad, and better speakers. Similarly, the other laptops are equipped with near-identical hardware and cost so much less, so there's literally no reason to pick the Alienware over them. 

There's simply no way I can recommend the Alienware m15 at this price. The laptop is due for a refresh with NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX graphics at the end of the month, so here's to hoping there are some price revisions on the way as well. 

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