If You're Looking To Replace Your Old Desktop, This Alienware Laptop Has All The Power You Need

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• The Alienware m18 R2 is simply a top-tier gaming laptop disposable connected Amazon for $2,600.
• It has a commanding presence, is highly customizable, and is powerful capable to grip conscionable astir immoderate crippled you want to play.
• This is simply a large, costly laptop that requires plentifulness of juice, and it tin get rather loud.

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Weighing astir 9 pounds and measuring 18 inches, Dell's Alienware m18 R2 is simply a beast. It's big, it's thick, and it astir apt won't fresh successful your laptop bag. It conscionable feels powerful, and erstwhile you unfastened it up, it looks for illustration a high-end machine. Given its astir $3,000 value tag, it decidedly should.

Today's Alienware laptops are a small much grown-up than backmost successful nan day. They've near nan lime-green artistic from nan 2010s wherever it belongs and alternatively springiness consumers nan action for much subdued exteriors and emblematic laptop colors. This is simply a laptop you could decidedly return into nan agency (though it mightiness still pull immoderate looks) and, pinch nan property of 1 button, move disconnected each nan RGB lighting -- for illustration putting connected a suit and tie.

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That being said, this is perfectly a gaming laptop. As a refresh of past year's m18 r1 model, nan R2 is simply a powerful, top-of-the-line gamer's paradise, stacked pinch a 14th-generation Intel HX 24-core 5.8 GHz max boost processor, high-end graphics capabilities, a blase cooling system, and much ports than you'll cognize what to do with.

If you want to spell crazy pinch nan RGB lighting, nan Alienware Command Center exertion lets you customize lighting nevertheless you like, cardinal by key. There's besides a big of settings and configurations that whitethorn aliases whitethorn not beryllium useful to nan mean user, including cognition profiles specified arsenic "Performance", "Battery", aliases "Quiet", arsenic good arsenic a clickable MUX switch. This is besides wherever you tin overclock your machine. 

Despite its colossal size, nan m18 R2 is very comfortable to use. The touchpad is minimalistic, responsive, and conscionable ample enough. The remainder of nan keyboard's texture is matte black, emotion very luxurious and almost soft to nan touch.

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Much for illustration a desktop, nan rear of nan laptop is wherever astir of its ports are, including nan powerfulness jack, an HDMI port, a full-size representation paper slot, and 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports. This portion of nan laptop besides has a statement-making RGB ray portion (if you person it turned on) that looks great.

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET

The m18 R2 tin travel pinch either a accepted aliases mechanical keyboard, and I was fortunate capable to get my hands connected 1 pinch nan Cherry MX mechanical. It feels precisely arsenic satisfying arsenic you'd expect, pinch each cardinal getting nan due tactile "click" that feels nan aforesaid nary matter wherever connected nan cardinal you press, and pinch a full key-travel region of 1.8mm. This keyboard isn't exceptionally large arsenic mechanicals go, but it does make a small much sound than a regular keyboard.

The m18 R2's show is commanding. It feels sturdy -- monolithic, moreover -- and nan V-rail edges astatine its guidelines are framed by nan keyboard's bottommost plate, making it consciousness unafraid yet well-designed and characteristic.

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The 16:10, 18-inch sheet offers options for 165Hz QHD+ aliases a blazing 480Hz FHD+ pinch low-blue-light technology. The surface is not nan brightest retired there, maxing retired astatine 300 nits, but moreover astatine 165Hz, it delivers a very fast, crisp display, free of blurring aliases mobility artifacts. During my testing, I fired up Helldivers 2, and it played for illustration a dream. With nan graphics turned up and pinch a maximum tie distance, it felt immersive and responsive, pinch minimal lag aliases stuttering. 

I noticed flimsy capacity changes erstwhile nan laptop was plugged successful aliases moving connected battery, peculiarly instantly aft disconnecting nan powerfulness adapter, arsenic this seemed to trigger different actions, specified arsenic disabling RGB lighting aliases triggering a capacity boost, depending connected your settings.

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET

Speaking of artillery power, this laptop, arsenic expected, mightiness not beryllium winning immoderate endurance marathons. This is simply a large instrumentality pinch 270W of full power, truthful it's going to activity champion erstwhile it's juiced up. That being said, it seems to beryllium designed pinch this successful mind. When near unplugged and idle, it quickly shuts down non-essentials for illustration lighting and nan display. In testing, I unplugged nan instrumentality and ran a unrecorded watercourse connected YouTube astatine 50% brightness, and it lasted conscionable short of six hours.

The m16 R2 comes pinch a big of preset multimedia functions bound to nan F keys. For example, pressing F1 turns connected nan laptop's capacity boost preset, while pressing F2 instantly turns disconnected each nan flashy RGB lighting by activating "Stealth Mode".

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Personally, I person mixed feelings erstwhile manufacturers adhd a big of caller capabilities to nan keyboard's usability keys. Once you study what they do, they tin beryllium convenient. But connected nan different hand, you person to return nan clip to fig this retired and determine whether you want to support nan presets as-is aliases customize them.

While testing nan m18 R2, I tried Guild Wars 2, a crippled that uses nan usability keys extensively for gameplay. With nan usability keys enabled and bound to nan multimedia presets, pressing them successful nan crippled did nothing: they didn't activate nan associated Alienware usability (F1 to activate nan capacity boost, for example), nor were they recognized by nan game. This was evidently a problem, arsenic I had to look up really to toggle disconnected nan multimedia functionality. 

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET

You tin do this successful nan BIOS, but a overmuch easier measurement is to conscionable property nan Function + Esc keys. With it toggled off, you past conscionable property Function + F1 to activate nan multimedia function. After they were toggled off, I had nary further issues, but again, this comes down to individual preference.  

As a dedicated gaming machine, this laptop is well-equipped to enactment cool; nan fans present are nary joke. There are 4 of them that move aerial done nan cooling strategy efficiently, though they are by nary intends quiet. I wouldn't opportunity they're unacceptably loud, but they do compete pinch nan sound from nan laptop's speakers, truthful you'll request headphones if you want to perceive sound effects intelligibly while gaming.

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A full of 5 vents connected nan m18 R2 let for maximum soul airflow. Additionally, nan ample vapor enclosure that houses nan CPU and GPU keeps nan hottest parts of nan instrumentality wrong a safe somesthesia range, while nan fans expel basking aerial retired done nan sides. This basking aerial tin sometimes beryllium felt, for example, erstwhile utilizing a mouse, but it wasn't a fuss for me, moreover erstwhile nan fans were cranking.

In fact, 1 point I noticed astir nan m18 R2 is that it ne'er really felt basking to nan touch. Both nan keyboard and nan wrist remainder (above wherever nan artillery is housed) remained only somewhat warm, suggesting that nan fans were so doing their occupation effectively, which I'm gladsome for, fixed nan sound they generate.

ZDNET's buying advice

Dell's Alienware m18 R2 is correct astatine nan apical of nan statement for gaming laptops. This is simply a powerful instrumentality pinch a chopped personality that tin grip virtually immoderate crippled you want, pinch vibrant graphics and blazing-fast speeds, and tin moreover get dressed for nan agency astatine nan property of a button.

However, this is besides rather a ample laptop, truthful though it's portable, it isn't precisely carry-and-go, and it isn't a instrumentality that you tin time off unplugged for hours astatine a time. Pricing tin easy emergence toward nan higher end, too, but nan cutting-edge exertion solidifies nan m18 R2 arsenic a laptop that will guidelines astatine nan top.