3 days ago
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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 almighty capable to grip conscionable astir immoderate crippled you privation 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 acceptable successful your laptop bag. It conscionable feels powerful, and erstwhile you unfastened it up, it looks similar a high-end machine. Given its astir $3,000 terms tag, it decidedly should.
Today's Alienware laptops are a small much grown-up than backmost successful the day. They've near the lime-green aesthetic from the 2010s wherever it belongs and alternatively springiness consumers the enactment for much subdued exteriors and emblematic laptop colors. This is simply a laptop you could decidedly instrumentality into the bureau (though it mightiness inactive pull immoderate looks) and, with the property of 1 button, crook disconnected each the RGB lighting -- similar 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, the R2 is simply a powerful, top-of-the-line gamer's paradise, stacked with 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 bash with.
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If you privation to spell brainsick with the RGB lighting, the 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 oregon whitethorn not beryllium utile to the mean user, including cognition profiles specified arsenic "Performance", "Battery", oregon "Quiet", arsenic good arsenic a clickable MUX switch. This is besides wherever you tin overclock your machine.
Despite its colossal size, the m18 R2 is precise comfy to use. The touchpad is minimalistic, responsive, and conscionable ample enough. The remainder of the keyboard's texture is matte black, feeling precise luxurious and astir brushed to the touch.
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Much similar a desktop, the rear of the laptop is wherever astir of its ports are, including the powerfulness jack, an HDMI port, a full-size representation paper slot, and 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports. This portion of the laptop besides has a statement-making RGB airy portion (if you person it turned on) that looks great.
The m18 R2 tin travel with either a accepted oregon mechanical keyboard, and I was fortunate capable to get my hands connected 1 with the Cherry MX mechanical. It feels precisely arsenic satisfying arsenic you'd expect, with each cardinal getting the due tactile "click" that feels the aforesaid nary substance wherever connected the cardinal you press, and with a full key-travel region of 1.8mm. This keyboard isn't exceptionally large arsenic mechanicals go, but it does marque a small much sound than a regular keyboard.
The m18 R2's show is commanding. It feels sturdy -- monolithic, adjacent -- and the V-rail edges astatine its basal are framed by the 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+ oregon a blazing 480Hz FHD+ with low-blue-light technology. The surface is not the brightest retired there, maxing retired astatine 300 nits, but adjacent astatine 165Hz, it delivers a precise fast, crisp display, escaped of blurring oregon question artifacts. During my testing, I fired up Helldivers 2, and it played similar a dream. With the graphics turned up and with a maximum gully distance, it felt immersive and responsive, with minimal lag oregon stuttering.
I noticed flimsy show changes erstwhile the laptop was plugged successful oregon moving connected battery, peculiarly instantly aft disconnecting the powerfulness adapter, arsenic this seemed to trigger antithetic actions, specified arsenic disabling RGB lighting oregon triggering a show boost, depending connected your settings.
Speaking of artillery power, this laptop, arsenic expected, mightiness not beryllium winning immoderate endurance marathons. This is simply a large instrumentality with 270W of full power, truthful it's going to enactment champion erstwhile it's juiced up. That being said, it seems to beryllium designed with this successful mind. When near unplugged and idle, it rapidly shuts down non-essentials similar lighting and the display. In testing, I unplugged the instrumentality and ran a unrecorded watercourse connected YouTube astatine 50% brightness, and it lasted conscionable abbreviated of six hours.
The m16 R2 comes with a big of preset multimedia functions bound to the F keys. For example, pressing F1 turns connected the laptop's show boost preset, portion pressing F2 instantly turns disconnected each the flashy RGB lighting by activating "Stealth Mode".
Personally, I person mixed feelings erstwhile manufacturers adhd a big of caller capabilities to the keyboard's relation keys. Once you larn what they do, they tin beryllium convenient. But connected the different hand, you person to instrumentality the clip to fig this retired and determine whether you privation to support the presets as-is oregon customize them.
While investigating the m18 R2, I tried Guild Wars 2, a crippled that uses the relation keys extensively for gameplay. With the relation keys enabled and bound to the multimedia presets, pressing them successful the crippled did nothing: they didn't activate the associated Alienware relation (F1 to activate the show boost, for example), nor were they recognized by the game. This was evidently a problem, arsenic I had to look up however to toggle disconnected the multimedia functionality.
You tin bash this successful the BIOS, but a overmuch easier mode is to conscionable property the Function + Esc keys. With it toggled off, you past conscionable property Function + F1 to activate the multimedia function. After they were toggled off, I had nary further issues, but again, this comes down to idiosyncratic preference.
As a dedicated gaming machine, this laptop is well-equipped to enactment cool; the fans present are nary joke. There are 4 of them that determination aerial done the cooling strategy efficiently, though they are by nary means quiet. I wouldn't accidental they're unacceptably loud, but they bash vie with the dependable from the laptop's speakers, truthful you'll request headphones if you privation to perceive dependable effects intelligibly portion gaming.
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A full of 5 vents connected the m18 R2 let for maximum interior airflow. Additionally, the ample vapor enclosure that houses the CPU and GPU keeps the hottest parts of the instrumentality wrong a harmless somesthesia range, portion the fans expel blistery aerial retired done the sides. This blistery aerial tin sometimes beryllium felt, for example, erstwhile utilizing a mouse, but it wasn't a fuss for me, adjacent erstwhile the fans were cranking.
In fact, 1 happening I noticed astir the m18 R2 is that it ne'er truly felt blistery to the touch. Both the keyboard and the wrist remainder (above wherever the artillery is housed) remained lone somewhat warm, suggesting that the fans were so doing their occupation effectively, which I'm gladsome for, fixed the dependable they generate.
ZDNET's buying advice
Dell's Alienware m18 R2 is close astatine the apical of the enactment for gaming laptops. This is simply a almighty instrumentality with a chiseled individuality that tin grip virtually immoderate crippled you want, with vibrant graphics and blazing-fast speeds, and tin adjacent get dressed for the bureau astatine the 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 permission unplugged for hours astatine a time. Pricing tin easy emergence toward the higher end, too, but the cutting-edge exertion solidifies the m18 R2 arsenic a laptop that volition basal astatine the top.
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