In my time Alienware was the first in the world to introduce a gaming laptop. True, for about 10 years its devices were available only to select countries, since the company was quite small, and the market for mobile gaming solutions had not yet grown. The bosses seriously believed in the promising direction DELLwhen they acquired Alienware in 2006.
In December, we talked about an elegant gaming laptop Dell Alienware m17 R2based on 9th generation processors Intel Core i7, and now came to our test Alienware m15 R3, A 15-inch representative of the brand’s flagship notebook line, based on the 10th generation of processors from Intel…
Prices for the line – from 143,000 rubles, the minimum cost of the tested model – from 238,000 rubles.
PACKAGING AND COMPLETE SET
The laptop comes in a large package made of thick cardboard, predominantly white with black sides and the recognizable iridescent logo in the shape of an alien face, as well as the Alienware lettering. The plastic handle on the side makes it easy to transport the computer in a box. It is also a limiter that does not allow the packaging lid to open and the contents fall out.
The box opens like a casket. Inside, the laptop is protected from all sides with polyethylene foam, and behind there is a special compartment with accessories. The manufacturer distributes the Alienware m15 R3 with a 240W charger and network cable. The unit is exactly the same as in the boxes of the r2 models, that is, it is very large and heavy (940 grams with a power cord), so it will not be very convenient to carry it with you. Under the laptop, the manufacturer hid various waste paper, including a brief instruction and a thank you card.
APPEARANCE, CONNECTORS, SCREEN AND SOUND
Externally, the new model has not received any changes. Before us is the same laconic futuristic magnesium alloy case design – as in the r2 generation. The Alienware m15 R3 is available in Lunar Light and Dark Side of the Moon. We received a version in a white and black body color for testing.
In addition to the magnesium alloy on the front, the manufacturer decided to use a glossy black plastic insert, which collects stains well, unlike the rest of the case. On the other hand, the edge is made at a 45-degree angle, so when placed on a table, you will hardly notice the stained plastic.
On the lid, in addition to the glowing logo in the form of an alien face in the middle, the number 15 is located in the corner, printed in a huge font and reminiscent of the N7 logo from the Mass Effect universe.
The screen attachment point, that is, the back of the laptop, is about 6-7 mm higher than the rest of the case when the laptop is open. When closed, the rear lip is flush with the cover.
The case measures 360 x 273 mm, and the thickness of the laptop without legs is about 19 mm, which makes the Alienware m15 R3 quite thin in the segment of gaming solutions with a 15-inch screen. Long rubberized feet increase the height of the device by another 4-7 mm when installed on a hard surface.
At the bottom, about a third of the case is occupied by a honeycomb perforation, through which you can see two fans of an improved laptop cooling system. Hot air is discharged through 4 outlet grilles along the edges of the three body edges.
Four-channel stereo speakers are located in the front of the case – the sound comes out both through the holes on the front edge and from the bottom.
Perhaps the main external difference between the novelty and the R2 generation lies in the connectors, or rather in the only innovation in the form of a microSD slot on the right side, which has become a fairly frequent guest in gaming laptops over the past year. There are two USB 3.1 type A in the neighborhood, and on the opposite side of the laptop, that is, on the left, the developers have placed a hole for a Noble lock, an Ethernet port, another USB 3.1 Type-A connector and a 3.5 mm headphone or headset output.
On the rear side, in the middle between the rear ventilation holes, there are 5 more connectors: one HDMI version 2.0b with HDCP 2.2 output, one Mini DisplayPort 1.4, one USB Type-C supporting Thunderbolt 3 and PD (Power Delivery), a port for connecting an external video card via Alienware Graphics Amplifier module and power connector. All this beauty is framed at the back by an RGB-backlit edge, which, like the alien on the lid, glows with azure light by default.
The lid of the laptop opens effortlessly with one hand, which is quite expected with the device weighing 2.2 kg (2254 grams, to be exact). It rises by about 120-140 degrees.
The cover hides a screen with an 8-bit IPS-matrix LG Philips LGD066E with a diagonal of 15.6 inches. The display has a Full HD resolution (1920 x 1080 pixels) and a refresh rate of 300 Hz, and the response from gray to gray is about 3 ms.
It is worth noting that in more affordable configurations there are versions with a FULL HD IPS-screen and a refresh rate of 144 Hz, and in more expensive ones, an OLED matrix with a resolution of 4K and a scan of 60 Hz is installed.
The brightness of the panel under test is in the region of 300 cd / m2, the contrast ratio is 1000: 1. The matrix supports 100% sRGB color gamut.
As far as the backlighting goes, we found a microscopic backlight leak on the bottom bezel in a couple of places that can only be seen with the naked eye in a dark room. The brightness values of the laptop are fairly standard, so the screen brightness will not be enough in direct sunlight. We found no problems with viewing angles.
The frame around the screen is made of glossy plastic, which has not the thinnest edges – 7 mm on the sides, 10 mm on the top and 14 mm on the bottom. At the bottom of the frame in the middle is the Alienware inscription, and on the upper edge in the middle there is a Webcam with video conferencing resolution with two built-in directional microphones, which does not support the Windows Hello facial recognition function.
The laptop is started by the power key in the form of a branded alien head, located in the upper right part of the case and has a backlight that glows yellow by default. There, along the entire length of the case, there is another perforation of the cooling system in the form of honeycombs.
The keyboard unit is slightly recessed so that the keys are flush with the rest of the base. The key travel is soft and silent (except for the space bar).
The keyboard has AlienFX RGB lighting with 4 zones. Backlight adjustment, dimming, and customization are only available through the Alien Command Center app.
As for the touchpad, it is small here. Its dimensions are 102 by 59 mm, and the surface is covered with glass. The surface is easily soiled that fingerprints are easily left on it. The touchpad does not have separated physical keys, but offers only edges that are pressed down from the bottom, imitating the main buttons on the mouse. The position of the touchpad under the keyboard is slightly shifted to the left, which is why it always touches the palm when the WASD buttons are used in games, so false presses are possible. Fortunately, using the FN + F11 combination on the keyboard, you can turn it off if necessary.
Speaking about sound, I would like to note that the four-channel (low-frequency / high-frequency) stereo speakers do their job with a bang. The sound is clear enough, the frequencies are well balanced. The cabinet vibrates slightly at high volume.
The Alienware Command Center app has a built-in equalizer for adjusting the sound, there are many settings for various content, including games of different genres, movies and music.
FILLING, BATTERY, OPERATION AND TESTS
The laptop we received for testing is based on a 14-nanometer Intel Core i7-10750H processor, clocked at 2.6 GHz. The processor is 6-core, operates in 12 threads and 12 MB of Intel Smart Cache, and the maximum frequency is 5000 MHz. There are two video adapters in the laptop: an Intel UHD accelerator built into the CPU with 1 GB of video memory and a discrete NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super card with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory.
The Alienware m15 R3 has 32GB memory (clocked at 1333 MHz in dual channel mode) with a maximum frequency of 2666 MHz. It is soldered on the board, so it will not be possible to replace or expand it, since there is no additional slot for RAM and this should be taken into account when choosing a configuration. The internal drive in the test sample was played by a 512GB NVMe SSD from Western Digital (WDC SN730 NVMe 512GB). It is also possible to install a second drive in a free M.2 slot.
To cool all of this, Dell uses a system based on Alienware’s proprietary Cryo-Tech technology. It involves the use of a steam chamber, double intake (holes on the top and bottom of the case) and air outlet (holes on the side and rear of the case), fans with improved air circulation and copper heat pipes with dense stacks of copper plates.
The laptop comes with a 86Wh Li-ion battery. There are also configurations with a battery of only 56 Wh. A full charge will last for 2-3 hours of normal use (at 50% screen brightness and with Wi-FI turned on) – this is surfing the Internet, working with documents, watching videos and listening to music. In active gaming mode, the laptop runs for about 40-50 minutes. Maximum performance is achieved only when the power supply is connected.
You can control modes, as well as monitor temperature and performance data, through the Alienware Command Center app. It takes about 2-2.5 hours to fully charge the laptop from the supplied power supply.
In standard mode, NWiNFO64 shows the following temperatures on average:
- CPU – 43 ° C
- Intel UHD – 42 ° C
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super MAX-Q – 40 ° C
- WDC SN730 NVMe 512GB – 41 ° C
With a long maximum load in CPU tests, the laptop heated up to 100 degrees, and on average under load, the temperature remained at 80 degrees. At such temperatures, CPU throttling was naturally recorded. In the multi-threaded test Cinebench R20, the processor was able to score 2611 points, and the frequency was kept in the region from 3.7 to 4.8 GHz. In a single-threaded CPU, I was able to earn 459 points at an operating frequency of 4.2 to 4.6 GHz.
In graphics tests and games, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super MAX-Q performs very well. All tests were run in system performance mode with power on – mostly at 1080p due to screen limitations, but some tests were able to set the resolution higher, which we did:
- In the Superposition benchmark test on the Unigine 2 engine in 1080p mode at extreme settings, the system showed from 31 to 50 frames, while in the optimized mode in 4K the GPU was able to show from 44 to 66 frames.
- In the Chinese 1080p ray-traced Boundary benchmark, the laptop was able to get 128 frames per second with DLSS in Ultra Performance mode. In quality mode with the same settings, the average FPS was 50.
- In the Final Fantasy XV: Windows Edition benchmark, the laptop at high graphics settings at 1080p was able to score 8919 points and a score of “High”, at 2K – 6754 points and “High”, and at 4K – 3911 points and “Standard”.
- The system was also tested in the in-game tests of Forza Horizon 4 and Gears 5 at maximum settings. In both cases, frame rate lock was disabled:
– Gears 5 1080p + Ultra Texture – 97.3 FPS
– Gears 5 1440p + Ultra Texture – 71.9 FPS
– Gears 5 2160p + Ultra Texture – 38.1 FPS
– Forza 1080p – 96 FPS
- Next, we tested the video card directly during the gameplay. The first thing we did was launch last year’s DOOM Eternal. The shooter was tested at the highest available settings in 1080p resolution. On average, the frame rate was kept at around 175-190 frames, depending on the location and the intensity of what is happening on the screen.
- The second project that we tested in gameplay was Control by Remedy, which supports DLSS 2.0 ray tracing and anti-aliasing technologies that we are interested in. We launched the project, as always, in 1080p resolution at maximum graphics settings with RTX and DLSS with 720p rendering resolution. At these settings, the picture on the laptop screen looked very clear and beautiful, and the average frame rate in complex battle scenes was kept at around 62-69 frames. If you lower the rendering quality to 540p, then the average frequency will rise to 66-77 frames, but the picture will lose a little in clarity.
- The last graphics test was carried out in Cyberpunk 2077. We tested the game at maximum settings at 1080p with RTX and DLSS in quality mode and received an average of 40-45 frames in dynamic scenes during battles in closed locations, as well as 35-50 frames in the city.
We were able to fix the maximum temperature of the GPU at around 77 degrees, and on average under load in games it kept in the range of 65-70 degrees. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super MAX-Q should be enough to play at ultra-maximum settings in 1080 resolution with RTX and 2K-4K without it.
The average temperature of the drive under load is kept at 53 ° C. The disk speed in Crystal Disk Mark was 2908 MB / s for reading and 2706 MB / s for writing. The AS SDD test, as usual, shows the results a little faster – 2758 MB / s for reading and 2516 MB / s for writing.
As for the noise figure, it is not audible when the laptop is idle (at room values of 25-30 dB), since it does not turn its fans. At light load, the noise level rises to 35-38 dB. Under heavy loads, powerful cooling starts to work, and the device becomes noisy up to 45-47 dB, which is within the normal range for gaming laptops.
RESULTS
Despite the redesigned cooling system and the addition of a vapor chamber, the Alienware m15 R3, like previous releases in the lineup, is a device with a very hot CPU. Although it can be seen that the work is being carried out in the right direction – the average temperature under load has decreased by 10 degrees. In general, the device turned out to be quite powerful, with a fast screen and loud acoustics, and pleases with its pleasant and ergonomic design. On the other hand, in terms of autonomy, the device has not received any improvement, since 2-3 hours without a strong load is still very little. Hopefully, Alienware’s m-Series will be improved in this regard in the future as well.
Author: Sergey Dyakonenko (Madnfs)
Photo: Alexey Olkin
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