Alienware m18 review 2023 : great gaming laptops

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The Alienware m18, which starts at $2,099, is the company’s first 18-inch game laptop in almost a decade, and it packs a lot of power into a huge body. At CES 2023, Alienware showed off the new m18 along with a bunch of big, bad computers. It will compete with other 18-inch gaming laptops like the Razer Blade 18 and the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18.

These are the new powerhouses of gaming laptops. Their extra weight and larger screens really make them desktop replacements. You could take the Alienware m18 to school or work if you really wanted to, but it’s hard to think that you’d enjoy it.

Alienware m18 Specifications

Specification	Details
Brand	Alienware
Model	m18
Display	18.4-inch FHD (1920 x 1080)
Processor	Intel Core i7/i9
Graphics Card	NVIDIA GeForce RTX
RAM	Up to 64GB DDR4
Storage	Up to 4TB HDD + 2TB SSD
Operating System	Windows 10
Battery	8-cell Lithium-ion
Weight	10.49 lbs (4.75 kg)

Alienware m18: Design

The Alienware m18 is a huge computer. There are a lot of cool details in the design, but the first thing I noticed, and the thing I keep noticing, is how hard it is to hold with one hand. This is a big piece of tech, measuring 16.1 by 12.6 by 1.05 inches and weighing between 8.5 and 8.9 pounds, based on the configuration. It’s also bigger and heavier than the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 and the Razer Blade 18, which are both 18-inch gaming computers that compete with it.

The good thing about that size is what you see when you open the lid: A luxuriously large keyboard deck with an eye-catching strip of hexagonal holes running along the top edge. The 18-inch screen is huge for a laptop. The borders on each side are thin, but they get a little thicker at the top and bottom, where the webcam and Alienware logo are. You can buy this laptop from its official website

Alienware m18: Display

There are two ways to set up the display on the Alienware m18 R1. The base model is an 18-inch QHD (2560 x 1600) 165 Hz IPS panel, while an FHD+ (1920 x 1200) 480Hz IPS screen costs an extra $50. The second one came with our review unit.

The m18 R1 is the best example of a game laptop that can replace a desktop. It is 18 inches wide. Alienware had to “settle” for a lower resolution of 1920 x 1200 in order to get the magic 480 Hz refresh rate. This is fine for desktop use and games, though. The matte finish also does a great job of cutting down on shadows.

Alienware m18: Audio

Near where your palms rest in front of the keyboard deck, the Alienware m18 R1 has a pair of 2-watt speakers. The sound is clear even at maximum volume, but lacks depth and bass. From a laptop that nearly $3,600, we expected more. Given the size of the chassis, it appears like more powerful speakers might have been added without any trouble.

The vocals improved slightly as a result of this change, but not significantly. Overwatch explosives landed with a muted “thud,” and gunfire in Grand Theft Auto V was difficult to distinguish.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The Alienware M18 is equipped with a M Series per-key AlienFX RGB keyboard with support for Cherry mechanical switches. Improve your gaming precision and control with the complete NumPad and a touchpad that’s 14% bigger. The Cherry mechanical keyboard, which is available as an add-on, can withstand a whopping 15 million keystrokes.

Alienware m18: Performance

The Alienware m18’s ventilation is a huge improvement over that of the Alienware x15 R2, explaining away the need for the bulkier chassis. It has better thermal paste for the CPU and GPU, as well as a quad-fan layout that distributes air through seven heat pipes and out of a number of vents.

If you’re serious about performance, especially overclocking, the trade-off of having a laptop that sounds like a jet engine is well worth it. When it comes to graphics processing units (GPUs), the Alienware m18 is currently on top. When compared to other desktop replacements we’ve examined, such as the MSI GT77 Titan, which has almost identical specs but is much more expensive, this one comes out on top.

Alienware m18: Battery Life

We didn’t expect much battery life from the Alienware m18 R1, which is a big game laptop with a big, ultra-high refresh rate screen, a flagship processor, and a high-end GPU configuration. So we weren’t too surprised when the m18 R1 only lasted 2 hours and 39 minutes on our battery test, which involves browsing the web, streaming movies, and running OpenGL tests while connected to Wi-Fi and with the display set to 150 nits.

Price & availability

For that price, you can get a m18 with a 13th Gen Intel Core i7-13650HX CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 512GB NVMe SSD for storage. It also has the standard 18-inch QHD+ (2560 x 1600) 165Hz screen.

You can spend a lot more on changes, though, if you want to splurge. At the time of this study, the best Alienware m18 costs about $4,949 before taxes. For that price, you get a m18 with a top-of-the-line 13th Gen Intel Core i9-13900HX CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPU, 64GB of DDR5 RAM, and 8TB of SSD storage (split between two 4TB SSDs).

Final Words

The Alienware m18 game laptop is the most powerful and the heaviest one we’ve seen so far. When our review unit is fully loaded, it really lives up to the name “desktop replacement.” It has state-of-the-art performance in a package that can still be carried around. The keyboards on the Blade 18 and Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 don’t feel as good as the low-profile CherryMX mechanical keys on the Alienware m18. Both are lighter than the m18 and have brighter screens, but that doesn’t matter as much when you think about how these computers will probably spend most of their time on a desk inside.

Alienware m18 review: The good and The bad

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