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ToolsA 15-Inch Gamer All About…Portability?
The Alienware m15 is a snatch less brassy than the Alienware 15 R3 and its larger counterpart, the Alienware 17 R5 ( $ 1,559.99 at Dell ) —there is no side or touchpad lighting—but it ‘s besides streamlined and trimmer all about. The hat on our unit is a fashionable bright red ( officially, “ Nebula Red ” ). The laptop is besides available in a more traditional “ Epic Silver. ”
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Reading: Alienware m15 Review
Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make better buy decisions. ( See how we test. ) Both colors have a premium, soft-touch feel. The eyelid besides bears three groove lines that meet in the center, one of the few design similarities it shares with its counterparts. 
The rest of the chassis is black, with more soft-feel credit card on the keyboard pack of cards and glossy ( and cheaper-looking ) fictile above the keyboard and on the display bezels. The back of the chassis and bottom of the display are angled in for a slightly edgier look, giving a dash of dash to the otherwise straightforward shape .
The side bezels are relatively thin, but the lead and specially bottom borders are quite dense. It ‘s not the worst attend, but it does n’t fall in pipeline with the super-slim bezels being adopted by more and more machines, such as the Razer Blade and the Asus ROG Zephyrus S ( $ 1,559.99 at Dell ). As it stands, the bezels look more like lay waste to real number estate .
Despite the thick bezels, the m15 still has a pack footprint. Where the Alienware 15 R3 stands at 1 by 15.3 by 12 inches ( HWD ), the m15 measures barely 0.83 by 14.3 by 10.8 inches, a more-than-marginal haircut in all three directions. impressively, it ‘s even slightly smaller than the 13-inch Alienware 13, a truthful portability-first machine .
That said, it ‘s not quite adenine little as the Blade ( 0.68 by 13.98 by 9.25 inches ), the Zephyrus S ( 0.6 by 14.2 by 10.6 inches ), or the MSI GS65 Stealth Thin ( $ 1,559.99 at Dell ) ( 0.69 by 14.09 by 9.75 inches ) .
High-End Features, Meet Modest Build
The 15.6-inch display is a full HD ( 1,920-by-1,080-pixel native ) IPS shield with a 144Hz refresh rate. The very eminent refresh-rate ceiling makes a detectable deviation in performance … when you can make use of it. ( I ‘ll discuss that more in the performance section below. )
The keyboard is comfortable enough, not on either the bathetic or gratifyingly tactile side, while the touchpad is a bit less impressive. It tracks by rights, but it feels closer to the touchpads on less-expensive systems than it does to those of early premium machines .
Speaker timbre is more in production line with the competition. The speakers push out loud enough sound that is n’t tinny at eminent volumes. But, like most laptop sound recording, the sound lacks much in the room of bass .
You get a choice among many configurations when ordering the Alienware m15. It ‘s not a matter of picking from a couple of other SKU options, but preferably, sorting through countless individual component options and combinations. You can rate the m15 with RAM capacities ranging from 8GB to 32GB, display options from 60Hz fully HD to 4K, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 or GTX 1070 Max-Q graphics, and a swath of repositing type and capacity combinations. The one constant : All models come outfitted with an Intel Core i7-8750H central processing unit, a raw material CPU of high-end gambling laptops .
In our review tester unit, Alienware supplied 16GB of memory, a 512GB M.2 PCI Express/NVMe solid-state drive ( SSD ), and the Max-Q version of the GeForce GTX 1070. The SSD is quick, if not specially roomy given the size of modern game installations. At that capacity, you ‘ll have to uninstall less frequently used games to have enough board for newfangled titles. This is not unique to the Alienware m15, however, as the Blade 15, the Zephyrus S, and the Stealth Thin have the like sum of storage .
For physical connectivity, the m15 is home to three USB 3.1 ports, a USB-C port with back for Thunderbolt 3, an Ethernet jacklight, HDMI and mini DisplayPort outputs, and an audio jack …
Some of those ports are on the binding edge. There, the machine besides includes a proprietary connection for the Alienware Graphics Amplifier ( $ 1,559.99 at Dell ). That ‘s the company ‘s external GPU solution, for connecting a desktop-size graphics calling card to your laptop .
As for wireless connectivity, the Alienware m15 features 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0, though the latter is optional .
Testing: Alienware Shows Its Gaming Roots
For the performance benchmark, I compared the Alienware m15 with a handful of machines that are either similarly priced or similarly outfitted in terms of components. I should note here that at PC Labs, we recently began testing with a fresh cortege of benchmarks and so, for the time being, have a limited laid of data to compare the new results against .
To help alleviate that trouble, we back-tested a handful of holocene gaming laptops to get as many relevant points of comparison as we could. We do n’t have the data from a match of the aforesaid thin flagship gaming laptops, but the sample distribution set below however provides a clear theme of how the m15 stacks up .
As comparisons, I ‘ve used the Zephyrus S, the similarly equipped Acer Predator Helios 500, the midrange Asus ROG Strix Hero II, and the new entry-level interpretation of Razer ‘s Blade 15, the Blade 15 Base Model. You can see their specification in the chart above .
Productivity and Storage Tests
PCMark 10 and 8 are holistic performance suites developed by the personal computer benchmark specialists at UL ( once Futuremark ). The PCMark 10 test we run imitate different real-world productivity and content-creation workflows. We use it to assess overall system operation for office-centric tasks such as give voice march, spreadsheet use, web browse, and videoconferencing. The screen generates a proprietary numeral score .
PCMark 8, interim, has a specialize repositing test that we use to assess the speed of the personal computer ‘s subsystem. This consequence is besides a proprietary numeric score .
Although the m15 did trail the two higher-end laptops in PCMark 10, they ‘re all immediate machines that make fast work of everyday home and agency tasks. The like goes for the storehouse tests, even though the break is slightly more pronounce in numbers. Less then, in reality : The m15 ‘s drive is a snappish M.2 SSD that does n’t seem in any way slower in hands-on general habit .
Media Processing and Creation Tests
future is Maxon ‘s CPU-crunching Cinebench R15 test, which is in full threaded to make practice of all available central processing unit cores and threads. Cinebench stresses the CPU rather than the GPU to render a complex image. The resultant role is a proprietorship score indicating a personal computer ‘s suitability for processor-intensive workloads .
We besides run a custom Adobe Photoshop image-editing benchmark. Using an early 2018 liberation of the Creative Cloud version of Photoshop, we apply a series of 10 complex filters and effects to a standard JPEG test image. We fourth dimension each operation and, at the end, add up the total performance clock time. The Photoshop test stresses CPU, storehouse subsystem, and RAM, but it can besides take advantage of most GPUs to speed up the process of applying filters, so systems with powerful graphics chips or cards may see a promote .
While the m15 may have fallen slightly behind on PCMark, that was not the case on these two media tests. It eked out about the lapp ( or in some cases, better ) results than its similarly outfitted competitors. Should you edit media or take on other CPU-intensive tasks for work or joy when you ‘re not gaming, the m15 wo n’t be an obstacle .
Synthetic Graphics Tests
next up : UL ‘s 3DMark suite. 3DMark measures relative graphics muscle by rendering sequences of highly detailed, gaming-style 3D graphics that emphasize particles and lighting. We run two different 3DMark subtests, Sky Diver and Fire Strike, which are suited to different types of systems. Both are DirectX 11 benchmarks, but Sky Diver is suited to laptops and midrange PCs, while Fire Strike is more demand and made for high-end PCs to strut their thrust. The results are proprietorship scores .
Read more: Acer Aspire E5-575G-562T 15.6-inch Reviews
next is another synthetic graphics test, this time from Unigine Corp. Like 3DMark, the Superposition test renders and pans through a detailed 3D view and measures how the system copes. In this case, it ‘s rendered in the ship’s company ‘s eponymous Unigine engine, offering a different 3D workload scenario than 3DMark, for a second opinion on the machine ‘s graphic art. We show two principle of superposition results, run at the 720p Low and 1080p High presets. These scores are reported in frames per second ( federal protective service ) .
The m15 ended up finale to or ahead of the Asus ROG Zephyrus S on each one of these tests, pointing possibly to superior cool, given the shared core components. It ‘s not a world of remainder, but with the shared GPU, CPU, and come of memory, the Alienware m15 seems a fiddling better optimized. That makes sense, given the slenderly larger chassis with more board for cooling. The Zephyrus S sacrifices a lot on the altar of thinness .
On a exchangeable note, the Acer Predator Helios 500 and its chunky body came out on top. As shown in the Superposition test results, this has a meaningful impression of a few frames per second—not something that will make or break your 3D experience, but a palpable difference, however .
Real-World Gaming Tests
The synthetic tests above are helpful for measuring cosmopolitan 3D aptitude, but it ‘s hard to beat full retail video games for judging gaming performance. Far Cry 5 and Rise of the Tomb Raider are both modern, high-fidelity titles with built-in benchmarks that illustrate how a organization handles real-world video recording games at versatile settings. These are run at 1080p on both the moderate and maximum graphics-quality presets ( Normal and Ultra for Far Cry 5 ; Medium and very high for Rise of the Tomb Raider ) to judge performance for a given organization. Far Cry 5 is DirectX 11-based, while Rise of the Tomb Raider can be flipped to DX12, which we do for the benchmark .
Because of the time on our new testing-procedure rollout, we do n’t have comprehensive performance data from past machines to compare using these games. That said, the m15 ‘s own results are telling, and we had a pair of useful comparisons available within our competitive sic …
On the maximum graphics presets, the m15 averaged 74fps on Far Cry 5 and 84fps on rise of the Tomb Raider. That ‘s good higher than the 60fps aim, meaning you wo n’t frequently, if at all, see the skeleton bumble that happens when you dip below 60fps. For such a thin laptop ( as with the Zephyrus S, which posted like numbers ), the m15 has impressive life-size performance .
It is worth noting, though, that these frame of reference rates do n’t approach the display ‘s 144Hz review rate. As such, these sorts of games wo n’t truly take advantage of the display. But visually childlike games such as Fortnite and some MOBAs should see much higher inning rates .
Battery Rundown Test
After in full recharging the laptop, we set up the machine in power-save manner ( as opposed to balanced or high-performance modality ) and make a few other battery-conserving tweaks in planning for our unplug video recording summation test. ( We besides turn Wi-Fi off, putting the laptop in Airplane mode. ) In this quiz, we loop a video—a locally stored 720p file of Tears of Steel, an open-source movie from the Blender Foundation—with sieve brightness set at 50 percentage and bulk at 100 percentage until the system conks out .
As you can see, the Alienware m15 ‘s battery life is mighty for a gambling laptop, bucking the tendency of most of its competitors. Thin gaming laptops tend to have inadequate battery life, but at about eight and a one-half hours, the m15 bucks the course. The Razer Blade is the only other rival in this fortune that comes close .
That ‘s plenty of time for use off the charger, unlike the Zephyrus S, which feels like it constantly needs to be plugged in during normal use. While gaming will chew through the battery quicker, the m15 lasts long adequate that you could get a decent collocate of time in ( possibly for playing a childlike title or slow-paced strategy plot on an airplane tray, for exemplify ). Since battery life is the independent gripe I ‘ve had with some machines in this classify, the m15 deserves praise .
Slim, Fast, and Reasonably Priced
The machines making up 2018 ‘s gaming-laptop elite have been polished up by coevals after generation of fine-tune, and the barricade is very high nowadays. And indeed, the Alienware m15 has no deal-killer shortcomings. It boasts the ability needed for greater-than-60fps bet on, packs long battery liveliness, and comes in a slender human body. The 144Hz screen is a decent touch, even if it wo n’t get pushed to the limit in most demand games .
The build quality is more average than noteworthy, though, which is a keystone thing to note in this premium-priced grade. The keyboard and touchpad, besides, while perfectly serviceable, do n’t stand out, and the design and materials are estimable, not great .
still, the Alienware m15 ‘s office and minor footprint are admirable, and it ‘s not missing any key feature. But taken all together, the Razer Blade maintains its Editors ‘ Choice title among thin gaming laptops for its attention-getting build, while ( like the Zephyrus S ) the Alienware m15 stands as a worthy alternative. Considering it includes roughly the same components as the Blade, it ‘s besides the less-expensive option, making it an appealing choice if your budget dictates putting the core componentry ahead of pure build quality .
Alienware m15
4.0
See It
$ 1,379.99
at Dell
MSRP $ 1,299.00
Pros
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Cons
The Bottom Line
The Alienware m15 makes adept on its reduce mannequin with lots of gaming grunt and long battery life. It ‘s a very solid 15-inch gambling laptop, though a few bits—bezels, body materials—need sprucing up .
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