Alienware 17: An honest review
In the domain of gaming laptops, Alienware might as well be king. It’s a beast, designed for nothing more than allowing players to get the most out of their experience. Alienware has been the most recognizable gaming laptop for years, its signature alien skull design now synonymous with great gaming laptops.
Specifications:
At its core, this laptop is a monster no matter which configuration you choose. At the higher end, it has a 2.9GHz Intel Core i7-4910MQ GPU; 16GB RAM; 256GB SSD; 1TB hard drive, 5400rpm. As for the graphics, it has the best of the best with Intel HD Graphics 4600 GPU along with Nvidia GeForce GTX 880M GPU with 8 GB of VRAM.
At the lower end of the spectrum, 2.4GHz Intel Core i7-4700MQ CPU; 8 GB of RAM; a 750 GB, 7200 rpm hard drive; an Nvidia GeForce GTX 675M GPU with 2 GB of VRAM.
Design:
Design has always been Alienware’s forte and this laptop is no exception. The anodized aluminum cover is sleek and fresh, with just the right edge to give it that futuristic aura. Black accents the dark steel gray aluminum and the signature logo glows eerily, giving the laptop a menacing appearance.
The interior is jet black, smooth to the touch and elegant with the touchpad and keys backlit with LED lights. You can easily pick and choose the color you prefer.
However, it’s a very heavy and bulky laptop, not something you can lug around all day. It tips the scales at around 4.1kg, which is heavy by any standards. Of course, it’s unlikely gamers will carry this machine around much.1
Performance:
When it comes to performance, this particular laptop has its ups and downs.
The display is phenomenal, details are sharp, and colors are vivid and rich. The matte, anti-glare 1920×1080 HD display does a solid job, allowing for great viewing angles and great graphics. There’s no game that doesn’t look great and flow smoothly on this laptop, with its powerful NVidia GeForce GTX. The laptop handles even the most graphically challenging games without a hitch. You get what you pay for here.
Audio is crisp, which is characteristic of Alienware laptops in general. Dell went with Klipsch speakers once again and the sound quality is top-notch, loud without compromising on clarity. Dolby’s Home Theater v4 software worked wonderfully with the speakers, adding an extra oomph to the sound.
Typing is also quite snappy and comfortable, but the touchpad could use some improvement in size, although the sensitivity was excellent, making multi-touch gestures easy and fluid.
The speed and performance of the hard drive is truly top notch and Alienware beats its peers in this category with a transfer rate of 463 mbps. The PCMark 7 5838 benchmark score isn’t on par with the other laptops in its class, but it’s pretty impressive.
Battery life is the biggest disappointment of this laptop. On Laptop Mag’s battery test, with continuous browsing over Wi-Fi and a high brightness setting, the laptop lasted 4 hours and 8 minutes.
To conclude, this is a great gaming laptop and apart from the incredible price and the weight and bulk, there’s no reason not to buy it.