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The Alienware M16 is here to take over from its 15.6-inch sibling, and with Nvidia’s RTX 40-Series graphics and the choice between Intel’s and AMD’s latest processors, there is a lot to delve into with this model. There is no getting around the fact that Alienware machines are expensive; nevertheless, the M-Series has consistently been able to walk that fine line between affordability and performance.
We have always appreciated these laptops for their price/performance ratio due to the fact that they remove a significant portion of the price padding found in the more premium X-Series. Even in this generation of slightly more costly gaming laptops, this ratio continues to work in the Alienware M16’s favor, which is why it is so popular. Nevertheless, there are still issues with the quality of life that are coming to the forefront. These hefty builds aren’t for everyone, but they typically offer a lot of performance for the price, which is great for those who fall in the middle.
In my quest to identify the greatest gaming laptop, I spend weeks putting top-of-the-line setups through their paces. However, given that the Alienware M15 R7 from the previous generation was my top recommendation for most players who don’t want to blow their budget, I opted to take a more conservative approach while configuring my rig for this generation.
Alienware M16 Specifications
The Alienware M16 review is important because it looks at the laptop’s ability to play games, its hardware, its style, and how portable it is. This helps potential buyers figure out if it’s good for gaming and work by looking at performance, screen quality.
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Display | 16-inch QHD+ (2560 x 1600) IPS display with 165Hz refresh rate |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-12700H |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti |
| RAM | 16GB DDR5 |
| Dimensions | 16.73 x 6.69 x 14.65 inches |
| Storage | 1TB PCIe SSD |
| Battery | 97Wh |
| Operating system | Windows 11 Home |
| Check Price |
Alienware M16: Display
The best thing about the Alienware M16 is its screen, which is a 240Hz QHD+ (2560 by 1600 pixels) monitor that is very bright and clear. This means that the screen can be updated 240 times per second, which makes the motion in games feel very smooth and natural. It’s a big, bright screen (with a maximum brightness of 450 nits), but it doesn’t have the bright colors and deep blacks of an OLED screen. It also doesn’t work with high dynamic range (HDR) or the larger color ranges of many screens made for video or photo use.
The lack of these features doesn’t hurt the display when playing games. The games I tried looked great, with bright, vivid colors and great, smooth movements. Fast-paced games like Doom Eternal gained the most from the higher refresh rate. Even when fighting a Revenant or playing ping pong with a Cacodemon’s eyeball, you could still see what was going on. On laptop screens with a slower frame rate, the screen often gets a jumbled mess when you turn and shoot, but here it’s easy to tell the difference between a Parademon and a rock.
Alienware M16: Keyboard and Touchpad
The Alienware M16 boasts a gaming laptop keyboard that is easily among the very best I’ve ever used. Because it has sufficient travel and feedback, typing for extended periods of time is not uncomfortable on this keyboard. When there isn’t a lot of light, it’s beneficial that the keys are illuminated from behind as well. The keyboard that comes with the Alienware M16 may also be customized in a variety of different ways. You have control over the backlighting, the frequency with which the keys repeat, and even the font used for the keys themselves. This makes it simple for you to locate the configuration that best suits your needs.
Additionally, the Alienware M16 features a touchpad of very high quality. Because it is large and responsive, it makes it simple to employ gestures to navigate the desktop environment. Since the touchpad is compatible with the Windows Precision Drivers, using it results in an extremely fluid and accurate experience.
Alienware M16: Audio
The Realtek ALC3254 audio controller fuels the speakers included in the Alienware M16, which come in stereo configuration. The music that is produced by the speakers, which are situated on the underside of the laptop, is crisp and well-balanced. In addition, the M16 comes equipped with a headphone connector as well as an HDMI port, allowing you to connect it to an external soundbar or speakers.
The audio quality of the M16 is sufficient for light listening, but it is not ideal for making music or playing video games. If you want a laptop that has superb audio, you should search for one that has either a dedicated sound card or larger speakers than those found on most laptops.
Alienware M16: Software
The Alienware M16 is a robust gaming laptop that also has the capability of being utilized for the development of software. It has a graphics card with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, a processor with 12th Generation Intel Core i7, and 16GB of DDR5 RAM as standard equipment. This indicates that it is capable of effortlessly completing even the most challenging software jobs. Additionally, the Alienware M16 is equipped with a variety of features that make it an excellent choice for developing software.
For example, it features a large screen with a high resolution, which is ideal for programming because of how much space it provides. Additionally, it boasts a backlit keyboard that is both ergonomic and suitable for usage for extended periods of time. In addition, users are able to modify the performance and thermal settings of their laptops by using the Alienware Command Center program, which is a feature that can be helpful for software development.
Alienware M16: Performance
A great screen like the one on the M16 won’t help you much. Luckily, I found that my review unit’s Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 and 12GB of video RAM were more than enough to run most current games at high frame rates that made the most of the fast screen. Doom Eternal, for example, filled the whole screen and ran at the full resolution of the laptop, which is about 240 frames per second, even on the Ultra Nightmare setting for the best graphics quality.
The more difficult racing game F1 2022 was only able to get 70fps at the native resolution and highest Ultra High graphics settings, but it was still very playable. When I turned this down to the High graphics setting, the frame rate went up to 154fps, which was very fast. The M16 is more than ready for the newest games and should stay that way for the next few years. It is also a good machine for doing the following: When complex filters were added to big images in Adobe Photoshop, it did so very quickly. Adobe Premiere made quick work of a 4K movie with a lot of effects and color filters.
Alienware M16: Battery Life
The battery test result of 2 hours and 30 minutes was very depressing. Changing the display refresh rate from a fixed 240Hz to a variable 60-120Hz added an hour to that, but even for a powerful game laptop, that’s still not very good. The PCMark 10 Modern Office test ran for 5 hours and 51 minutes on the 90Wh Asus ROG Strix Scar 16, but only 3 hours and 23 minutes on the 86Wh M16.
Even though the Medion Erazer Major X20 does even worse, its battery is only 62.3Wh. One hour of Netflix used 38% of the battery to give you an idea of how little you’ll get out of a charge. If a movie is longer than 2 hours and 30 minutes, don’t start it because you won’t know what happens at the end.
Alienware M16: Heat
The M15 R6 from Alienware is kind of in the middle. There’s no embarrassing G4M3R font on the keyboard keys, and from the inside, it could almost pass for a stylish ultraportable if not for the triangular heat grille and light-up alien head power button. The big heat exhaust is in the back, but it’s only really interesting if you leave the LED ring around it turned on. You can change its color and how bright it is.
We talked to Dell to find out what the Alienware M15 R5 is made out of. It is made of aluminum, magnesium metal, and plastic. For the next part, you’ll have to take our word for it, but we think the lid is made of aluminum, the bottom is made of magnesium metal, and the keyboard plate is made of plastic.
Final Words
The most important issue that needs to be answered is whether or not the Alienware M16 R1 is a better investment than the Medion Erazer Major X20. The Medion is a few hundred dollars cheaper when compared to the Alienware when its standard mechanical keyboard is added to the list of choices for the Alienware. In addition, the Medion is lighter and it contains a numeric keypad.
However, the Alienware machine has a very little performance advantage, and it has a lot more fashionable appearance; therefore, that is a difficult question to answer. Because I’m a bit of a badge snob and because my gaming laptop is rarely moved from its perch on my desk, the M16’s weight of 3.25 kilograms is not something that concerns me.
Alienware M16 review: The good and The bad
The Alienware M16 is a gaming laptop that is both fashionable and well-made, and it offers a wide variety of different configuration possibilities.
The Good
- Impressive performance for the money
- Stylish and well made
The Bad
- Small track pad