Alienware m16 R2: Best of Both Worlds for Daily Use and Gaming

The Alienware m16 R2 isn’t precisely the type of laptop I’d assume from Alienware. This 16-inch pc offers solid gaming performance, but it’s also focused on being compact and offering long battery life. It doesn’t even offer the very best-quit GPUs as an upgrade choice. It truly caps out at an RTX 4070, and also you’ll need to get some other computer in case you need an RTX 4080 or RTX 4090.
The trademark glowing alien head emblems are nevertheless here, but Alienware instructed me its target market for this laptop was game enthusiasts who want a computer for extra than simply gaming — one which could cross to high school or to the workplace as nicely. Alienware added, however there’s simply one thing I want turned into exclusive. Read directly to research more.

Alienware m16 R2: specifications

The Alienware m16 R2 is available in a diffusion of various hardware configurations. The machine we reviewed is priced at $1,849 and had an Intel core ultra 7 a hundred and fifty five CPU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 photos, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD.

You could additionally get a model with Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 pix for $two hundred much less. Alienware told us that you’ll quickly have the ability to buy fashions with Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 snap shots and that these might be even much less high-priced.

Moreover, Alienware says it’s going to offer models with the choice of an Intel center ultra 9 185H processor, up to 64 GB of RAM, and up to eight TB of garage. On pinnacle of that, wireless 7 and Bluetooth five.Four could be to be had as an option — the base gadget comes with wireless 6E and Bluetooth five.Three radios.

CPU: Intel core extremely 7 155H

Reminiscence: 16GB DDR5 5600MHz

Images/GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070

Show: 2560×1600 IPS 240Hz (300 nits)

Garage: 1TB PCIe Gen four NVMe SSD

Webcam: 1080p webcam with HDR

Connectivity: 1x Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C four Gen 2 with 15W electricity delivery and DisplayPort 1.Four, 1x USB-C / USB three.2 Gen 2 with DisplayPort 1.4, 2x USB-A three.2, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x Ethernet, 1x headphone jack, 1x microSD card reader

Networking: wireless 6E, Bluetooth five.Three

Biometrics: windows hi there facial reputation

Battery ability: 90 Watt-hour

Dimensions: 14.33 inches x nine.82 inches x 0.Ninety three inches

Weight: five.62 pounds

MSRP: $1,849 as tested ($1,649 base)

Alienware m16 R2: design and build quality

Alienware was proud to tell me that the m16 R2 is now 15 percentage extra compact than the preceding m16 laptop way to the elimination of the “thermal shelf” behind the pc.

The Alienware m16 R2’s cooling still works properly. The keyboard stayed a very affordable temperature in lengthy gaming sessions and maximum of the hot air seemed love it become being expelled from the again of the pc as opposed to blowing without delay out the proper vent and onto my mouse hand — a problem with a few gaming laptops.

The aesthetics experience sleek: It’s very Alienware, however it’s also fairly limited. You’ve were given a steel lid (anodized aluminum) with more of a grey coloration, offering as a centered Alienware emblem that glows whilst the computer is on.

Inside, a sparkling Alienware emblem that capabilities as a electricity button sits above the keyboard, in the middle of a few vents. The keyboard supports RGB backlighting, and the touchpad is surrounded by using a nice LED mild bar. The keyboard deck has a pleasing, rubbery-feeling “soft-touch” floor — not difficult, cold metal or cheap, creaky plastic.

The construct first-rate is stable. You in all likelihood shouldn’t be choosing up this pc from the corner and preserving it frequently — it’s a touch heavy for that — but I did a few instances, and it become solid with none bizarre flexing. The hinge feels precise to open and close, and it opens to one hundred eighty ranges if you want to lie the computer flat. There’s not anything awful to document here — the construct exceptional is largely as suitable as I should hope to look.

Alienware advised me that they need the m16 R2 to be a computer that can be with no trouble used outdoor of gaming environments like espresso shops and assembly rooms, too. The laptop has a “Stealth Mode” that quiets the enthusiasts and turns off the glowing Alienware emblem at the returned. You may tone down the gamer aesthetic whilst important.

Of path, that is nevertheless an Alienware computer — even if you switch off that sparkling alien head emblem, it’ll still be sitting there at the returned of your pc. That’s not necessarily horrific, but anyone who gives this machine a 2nd glance will recognize that it isn’t only a normal enterprise laptop.

Even the charger is quality: Our review model got here with a small shape issue GaN charger, further boosting the laptop’s portability.

The laptop has some beneficial utilities, just like the Alienware Command middle for configuring the LED hues and gaining access to special settings like the ones, but the protected packages are very streamlined. It isn’t packed with junk software program, and that’s always desirable to see.

Alienware m16 R2: Keyboard and trackpad

The keyboard feels brilliant to kind on, too. There’s masses of travel, and whether or not I had my arms glued to the WASD keys for motion in a recreation or i used to be really typing. i was very happy with the keyboard.

If you’re a mechanical keyboard fan and that’s a ought to-have characteristic for you, be aware that this isn’t a mechanical keyboard. However you may have a exquisite typing revel in with any type of keyboard, and this is a superb keyboard.

The touchpad could be very great to use, too. (in recent times, we computer users are spoiled for proper touchpads.) It’s responsive and feels precise to slide your finger over. It’s lots huge, and that i do love the appearance of the LED light bar. I’ve had barely higher enjoy with glass touchpads — the rubbery-feeling coating here isn’t pretty as fine as a number of the ones glass touchpads I’ve used — but this is right. For gaming, you’ll possibly be using a mouse or a gamepad, anyway.

Alienware m16 R2: display and audio system

This is a very affordable show for the price factor. A 16-inch QHD+ show with a short 240Hz refresh rate (2560 x 1600 pixels) is what you get. It is well matched with Dolby imaginative and prescient HDR, AMD FreeSync, and NVIDIA G-Sync.

That’s all pretty awesome on paper, and it appears appropriate. However that is an IPS panel, not an OLED panel. That’s now not a wonder — this is much greater within the “lower priced” variety as a long way as gaming laptops cross. But extra gaming laptops are coming with OLED displays, so it’s really worth noting. Some humans will want to are seeking out a pc with an OLED display instead, and that’s comprehensible — however you’ll probable spend extra cash for a pc with that characteristic.

Individually, i use a pc with an IPS display each day and that i’m totally fine with it. Still, there’s no denying some of those OLEDs I’ve been looking at these days are noticeably beautiful. (however they’re additionally greater steeply-priced!) In precis: that is a perfectly accurate display, however it’s miles an IPS display.

The principle difficulty i’ve is the brightness of the m16 R2’s display — it’s quite dim. Alienware says it has 300 nits of brightness, and that i needed to crank it up high for PCWorld’s wellknown battery test. I gamed at 100 percentage brightness in a darkish room at night, and even at a hundred percent brightness. It didn’t feel overly brilliant — I didn’t need to show it down.

The show isn’t horrific, but it’s no longer the high-quality you could buy — which isn’t any wonder at this reasonable rate point! Just be privy to that.

The speakers seem lots loud, and you may get a few gaming accomplished with out the lovers drowning out the audio an excessive amount of. They’re not going to compare with an awesome pair of headphones or outside audio system, though.

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Alienware m16 R2: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

The Alienware m16 R2 includes a 1080p webcam with HDR, dual-array microphones, and an IR camera for windows whats up help — biometric logins together with your face.

The 1080p webcam seems high-quality. For a gaming laptop, it’s more than satisfactory. I’ve visible gaming laptops with a lot worse webcams — I’ve even visible gaming laptops with out a webcams at all! And, because this has an Intel Meteor Lake chip with a neural processing unit (NPU), you get get right of entry to to windows Studio results. That package of consequences promises hints which can make it seem like you’re usually making eye touch with the digicam, for instance.

The built-in microphone is honestly usable. I’ve been in on line conferences wherein specialists used a whole lot worse microphones. I wouldn’t say the microphone is great: I determined to plug in an outside USB microphone for my gaming session and my co-op accomplice notion the audio first-rate turned into a good deal improved. However in case you’re studying this, I’m positive you already expect which you’ll need to plug in a headset — or separate headphones and a microphone — for the exceptional audio revel in.

That is a pretty wellknown windows hi there webcam that labored simply first-rate in my enjoy, too. It’s accurate to have biometric login guide.

Alienware m16 R2: Connectivity

At the lower back of the Alienware m16 R2, there’s the trusty electricity port, and an HDMI 2.1 port. There are also USB-C ports with unique logos: One is a Thunderbolt 4 port (USB 4 Gen 2, 15W energy transport, and DisplayPort 1.Four), and the opposite is a USB three.2 Gen 2 port with DisplayPort 1.4.

The HDMI port and that USB 3.2 Gen 2 port are linked without delay to the discrete GPU (the Nvidia GeForce GPU) and now not the integrated GPU. If you’re going to be gaming on an external display. You could join it to either of these ports, skipping the incorporated GPU for improved overall performance.

On the right side of the laptop, you’ll see traditional USB-A ports (USB three.2 Gen 1) and a microSD card slot. On the left aspect of the laptop, you’ve were given an RJ-45 for wired Ethernet networking and a headset jack.

Usual, the connectivity alternatives are fairly considerable. There’s an awesome risk you can cross with out a dongle or a port-packed laptop dock.

The pc supports wi-fi 6E and Bluetooth five.Three, so it’s got the usual modern wireless radios you’ll be searching out. This is Intel Killer wi-fi hardware — especially, Intel Killer AX1675 hardware. Intel talks up its Killer wi-fi era, claiming it has “effective gaming network technology to decrease lag, latency, and packet loss.” I’m now not sure Killer wi-fi is a have to-have function, however it’s here.

Wireless 7 and Bluetooth 5.Four hardware is to be had as an elective upgrade. However it’s not available inside the base model of the laptop. Wireless 7 isn’t very substantial but — you almost clearly don’t have a wi-fi 7 router but — so this isn’t a huge deal.

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Alienware m16 R2: overall performance

Now permit’s get down to brass tacks. Certain, Alienware m16 R2 has true construct fine, a clever layout, and a aggressive choice of ports. However when I’m searching at a gaming computer, I’m usually thinking about the price to performance ratio.

The Alienware m16 R2 we reviewed packed taken into consideration certainly one of Intel’s new Meteor Lake chips — the Intel center extraordinarily 7 155H.It’s greater focused on electricity efficiency than performance than the previous Raptor Lake hardware. It’s also got an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 — now not the highest-stop GeForce chip for a computer, however no longer the lowest one either. However we can talk on-paper specifications all day — how well does it without a doubt carry out in our widespread benchmarks?

Earlier than we even look at benchmark consequences, we realize from the specifications that we’re searching at a greater mid-range, portable gaming computer. This doesn’t have the highest-give up CPU or the beefiest GPU. It doesn’t have the most extravagant cooling setup because it is on the tiny facet. That’s first-rate: Laptops with greater extreme overall performance may be extensively more highly-priced and considerably larger, with extra weight and worse battery lifestyles.

Our first take a look at, PCMark 10 is design to measure the gadget’s general overall performance — no longer simply gaming performance. It’s an all-round benchmark, but it’s an awful lot greater focus at the CPU than the GPU.

The consequences have been approximately what we’d expect to see. The Intel center extremely 7 155H CPU facilitates the gadget pull ahead of a computer. With a Intel center i5 processor from the Raptor Lake technology. It should come as no surprise that laptops equipped with the more capable Intel midrange i9 Raptor Lake CPUs have higher overall performance ratings.

Next, we run Cinebench R20, a heavily multithreaded benchmark that appears at CPU performance. Cinebench R20 is a quick benchmark, so cooling isn’t a whole lot of a component.

Again, CPU overall performance pulled beforehand of the average preceding-era chips. The Alienware m16 R2’s CPU couldn’t deliver the overall performance of the excessive. Quit gaming laptops with Intel center i9-14900HX chips, but.

That’s no marvel, either: The center extremely 7 155H chip in this computer is a 16-middle chip. While the core i9-14900HX is a 24-center chip. In a multi-threaded CPU benchmark like this one, extra cores imply greater overall performance. And a closely optimized multithreaded benchmark doesn’t tell you how the pc will perform in real games.

We additionally encode a video file with Handbrake. This benchmark is also a closely multithread CPU benchmark, but it takes a great deal longer to run. It demands the computer’s cooling does some extreme paintings. If a computer’s cooling device isn’t up to snuff and the CPU overall performance goes down over time below heavy CPU loads, this benchmark famous that.

Once more, the Alienware delivered a solid result, in the back of only the high-give up middle i9 chips with extra cores.

Now permit’s get to the graphics benchmarks. The Alienware m16 R2 can provide strong overall performance in 3DMark Time spy, a graphical benchmark that’s very GPU focus. Right here, it’s in spitting distance of the Razer Blade 16, both of which have Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPUs. This illustrates how the GPU is a whole lot greater vital than the CPU in most video games.

The m16 R2 is beats by way of the MSI Raider GE78 — that gadget has a high-stop, strength-hungry, costly RTX 4090 GPU. But that MSI gadget is a $5400 laptop that weighs almost eight pounds! The Alienware version we’re benchmarking here is less than $2,000 and weighs approximately 5 and a half kilos.

Now, allow’s get to a few recreation benchmarks. Using Shadow of the Tomb Raider, we run the benchmark. It’s an older title, but an brilliant manner to compare overall performance across specific desktops. The Alienware m16 R2 averages one hundred forty four frames per 2nd in the benchmark. Proper consistent with other RTX 4070-powered laptops.

It’s handiest four frames in step with 2nd slower than that Razer Blade 16 that was pulling beforehand of it in the CPU benchmarks. Another time displaying just how crucial the GPU alone is to many video games. And that Razer Blade starts offevolved at $3,000.

As usually, that MSI with the RTX 4090 takes the crown. At 203 frames in keeping with 2d, it’s forty one percent faster than this Alienware pc. But it’s also nearly 3 times the price.

Ultimately, we end up with the benchmark in Metro Exodus. A more traumatic sport in which we run the benchmark at 1080p resolution at the extreme element setting. The Alienware m16 R2 was once more proper consistent with the opposite RTX 4070 laptops at 50 frames in keeping with 2d. Showing a good deal-stepped forward performance over an RTX 4050-powered laptop. That MSI delivered eighty percentage more frames in step with second right here. But again, it did so at nearly 3 instances the rate.

This is a stable Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070-power laptop. The cooling is doing its task thoroughly, and the GPU doesn’t appear to be hold back. Obviously, this laptop can’t maintain up with a no-price-spared, heavier. And extra electricity-hungry RTX 4090-powered machine, however we knew that getting into.

The CPU plays nicely, and it’s only beats in multi-threaded CPU performance. By using more energy-hungry chips that have extra cores. But those extra cores don’t necessarily translate to enormous overall performance profits in most games.

Alienware m16 R2: Battery life

Gaming laptops normally don’t have incredible battery lifestyles. The pinnacle difficulty is regularly maximum overall performance while plugged in. But this Alienware aspires to be not just a gaming laptop. However also a “each day driver.” It’s additionally help by means of Intel’s new, greater strength-green Meteor Lake chips here.

The Alienware m16 R2 packs a 90-Watt-hour battery. That’s among the maximum you’ll discover — the U.S. Transportation safety management requires batteries be one hundred Watt hours or much less in case you want to take them on an airplane.

To test the battery existence, we play a 4K replica of Tears of steel on repeat in the movies & tv app on home windows eleven with airplane mode enabled and turned off keyboard backlighting till the laptop suspends. This is a best-case situation for the computer — neighborhood video playback could be very efficient. And battery lifestyles inside the actual global may be much less as you open browser tabs and use applications.

We usually set the display to 250 nits of brightness for this, and with the dim show. That intended clearly cranking up the pc’s brightness.
The Alienware m16 R2 brought very wonderful consequences. Gambling the video for 435 minutes on average — that’s seven hours and fifteen mins. It’s very respectable and for a gaming computer, it’s quite amazing.

Right here, the Alienware m16 R2 beaten those power-hungry middle i9 laptops. Those laptops aren’t better at the whole lot — they’re higher at raw electricity. But they simplest lasted about 4 hours and eighteen mins — and that’s in a great scenario.
Here, Alienware fulfills its promise by offering gaming laptops with optimal performance. At all charges a longer battery life than other gaming laptops.

Alienware m16 R2: Conclusion

The Alienware m16 R2 is a amazing pc. It supplies sturdy pics overall performance thanks. To its Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 in conjunction with first rate CPU overall performance. And it offers all that whilst imparting lengthy battery lifestyles far from an outlet. Long battery lifestyles for a gaming computer, anyway. But, the display is a superb IPS show, but it’s on the dim facet. And i’m able to see that being an trouble for some human beings.

This Alienware system is a amazing cost for its specs, its retail fee beats comparable systems. Just like the Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 and the HP Victus 16 (2023). In case you locate an RTX 4070 laptop with a fair cheaper retail price, it may make a few sacrifices. For instance, it is able to have a decrease-decision display with a decrease refresh price. If you’re searching for a pc in this charge range and you need a machine that can do extra than just be tethere to a table and play games, it’s a super match. I just desire its show will be a piece brighter – however that’s now not a deal-breaker considering the entirety else this pc receives proper.

Infographic: Alienware m16 R2: Best of Both Worlds for Daily Use and Gaming