Dell Alienware m17 R4 Gaming Laptop Review: The fastest RTX 3080 Laptop

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At first Let's take a look at the Pros and Cons of this beast:

The Alienware m17 R4 brings even more power and performance to the table, but at the cost of battery life.

Pros

  • Excellent graphics and overall performance
  • Comfortable customizable keyboard
  • Bright, vivid display with super-high refresh rate
  • Unrivaled performance
  • Attractive design

Cons

  • Poor battery life
  • Heavy
     

At present, RTX 3080 is the fastest laptop VGA card around, but now not all RTX 3080-powered laptops are created identical.
Many vendors use Nvidia’s Max-Q technology, which prioritizes power performance and low fan noise over excessive overall performance.
Alienware’s m17 R4, however, seeks to pump out every possible frame, deploying a unique cooling gadget and eschewing Max-Q to make its top-of-the-line configuration one of the best gaming laptops.
We have been able to check the TGP (Total Graphics Power) of the laptop, which turned into mentioned as 165W in Nvidia's drivers — within the "150W+" range listed for cellular RTX 3080.
However the Alienware m17 R4 isn't always only a speed demon.
 This laptop has a snappy keyboard, a sleek sci-fi inspired design with plenty of RGB and an optional 360 Hz screen. You just have to live with a  heavy chassis and the occasional bout of fan noise.

Dell Alienware M17 R4 Specs:

Processor

10th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-10870H (8-Core, 16MB Cache, up to 5.0GHz Max Turbo Frequency)

Operating System

Windows 10 Home, 64-bit, English

Graphics Cardi

NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3080 16GB GDDR6

Display

17.3" FHD (1920 x 1080) 360Hz 5ms 300-nits 100% sRGB color gamut with NVIDIA-GSYNC technology

Hard Drive

1TB PCIe M.2 SSD

Memoryi

32GB DDR4 2933MHz

Wireless

Killer™ Wi-Fi 6 AX1650 802.11ax 2x2 Wireless LAN and Bluetooth 5.1

Color

Lunar Light with High Endurance Clear Coat

Keyboard

Alienware mSeries 4-Zone AlienFX RGB keyboard with numeric keypad (Standard)

Ports

 

2 USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports
1 USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A with Powershare Technology
1 Thunderbolt™ 3 port
1 Audio Out 1/8" Port
1 HDMI 2.1b with HDCP 2.2 Output port
1 Mini DisplayPort™ 1.4
1 Killer™ Networks E3100x Gigabit Ethernet NIC port
1 Alienware Graphics Amplifier port
1 Power/DC-In Port

 

Slots

 

1 MicroSD-card slot
1 Wedge-shaped lock slot

 

Dimensions & Weight

 

Height (Front): 0.6618" (16.9mm) | Height (Peak): 0.87" (22mm) | Height (Rear): 0.8154" (20.71mm) x Width: 15.74" (399.8mm) x Depth: 11.585" (294.26mm)
Starting weight: 5.51 Lbs (2.50 Kg)i | Maximum weight: 6.55 Lbs (2.97 Kg)i

 

Camera

720p at 30 fps, HD RGB camera with digital-array microphones in camera assembly

Audio and Speakers

4-way stereo speakers with dual tweeters and woofer, 4 W x 2 = 8 W total

Chassis

 

AlienFX Lighting Zones
Programmable with up to 16.8 million distinct colors
Color Options
Dark Side of The Moon
Lunar Light
Customized Features
Alienware Command Center
AlienFX Lighting Technology
Game Library with auto-tune game profile functionality
Fusion (Includes support for Overclock, Thermal, Power, Audio, and Audio Recon profiles)
Keyboard
Alienware mSeries keyboard with four-zone RGB LED AlienFX lighting
Includes anti-ghosting technology
Alienware mSeries keyboard with per-key RGB LED AlienFX lighting (optional)
Includes N-key rollover technology (optional)
Touchpad
Multi-touch gesture Premium Precision glass touchpad with integrated scrolling.
 

Dell Alienware M17 R4 Design:

The Alienware m17 R4 has the identical sci-fi stimulated “Legend” design as both its  predecessors, the m17 R3, and its sibling, the Alienware m15 R4.
Available in "lunar light: white or "darkish side of the moon" (black), the m17 R4 seems like a giant starship, rocketing via area. The body (ours turned into white) has a black rear end that juts out like the jet engine on the lower back of an imperial cruiser. The quantity 17 on the lid appears in a sci-fi font which you would possibly locate decorating a secret warehouse at region fifty one. 

There’s a honeycomb pattern for the vents at the returned, above the keyboard and on the bottom surface. We can simplest assume that Alienware aliens stay in some form of hive in which they're all doing CUDA middle calculations.

And, of direction, there’s masses of RGB lighting fixtures to brighten the mood in outer space. The keyboard has four-quarter RGB and there are customizable lighting fixtures at the returned aspect and in the alien heads at the again of the lid and the power button. 

The chassis is made from top rate substances: a magnesium alloy with matte white or black paint, protected through a clean coat for additonal sturdiness. The interior makes use of Alienware’s cryo-tech cooling era which has 12-section pictures voltage law, 6-segment CPU voltage regulation and a CPU vapor chamber.

At 6.6 pounds and 15.74 x eleven.56 x zero.87 inches, the Alienware m17 R4 isn't exactly mild or thin, now not that would you expect that from a 17-inch pc with a center i7 CPU and RTX 3080 snap shots.

The Alienware m17 R4 has plenty of room for ports. On the proper side, there are two USB three.2 type-A ports, at the side of a micro SD card reader. The left aspect contains a Killer RJ-forty five Ethernet 2.5 Gbps port, a three.5mm audio jack and any other USB type-A port. The again holds a Thunderbolt three port, a mini DisplayPort 1.4, an HDMI 2.1 connection, Alienware’s proprietary portraits amplifier port and the electricity connector.

Dell Alienware M17 R4 Gaming Performance:
 

Thanks to Alienware’s strong cryo-tech cooling solution and the company’s willingness to include a full version of the RTX 3080, rather than the Max-Q variants in some thinner notebooks. 

When I played Cyberpunk 2077 at Ultra RTX settings, the game ranged between 61 and 72 frames per second, depending on how intense the action was at any given time. The frame rate improved to between 85 and 94 fps after I changed to Ultra settings with no RTX. In both cases, the fan noise was really loud by default. Changing the fan profile to quiet improved this somewhat while shaving only a couple of fps off, and only in intense scenes. 

The Alienware m17 R4 hit a rate of 120 fps in Grand Theft Auto V at very high settings (1080p).

On the very-demanding Red Dead Redemption at medium settings, the m17 R4 achieved an impressive rate of 79.7 fps.

Alienware’s behemoth exceeded 100 fps again in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, hitting 103.

Far Cry New Dawn at Ultra settings also provided a great example of the Alienware m15 R4’s dominance. It hit a full 105 fps.

To see how well the Alienware m17 R4 performs over the long haul, we ran the Metro Exodus benchmark at RTX, the highest settings level, 15 times at 1080p. The laptop was remarkably consistent, It got an average frame rate of just 59.6 fps with an average CPU speed of 3.47 GHz.


Dell Alienware M17 R4 Display:

The Alienware m17 R4 comes with a choice of three different, 17-inch display panels: a 1080p panel with 144 Hz refresh rate, a 4K, 60 Hz panel and the 1080p, 360 Hz panel in our review unit. Our panel provided sharp images and accurate but mostly unexciting colors, along with smooth, tear-free gaming. 

When I watched a trailer for upcoming volcano-disaster-flick Skyfire, the red-orange of lava bursts was lively and the green trees in a forest seemed true-to-life. Fine details like the wrinkles in actor Jason Isaacs’ forehead also stood out.  

In a 4K nature video of a Costa Rican jungle, details like the scales on a snake and colors like the red on a parrot’s feathers were also strong. On both videos, viewing angles on the matte display were strong as colors didn’t fade even at 90 degrees to the left or right. 

In Cyberpunk 2077, details like the threads on a rug or the barrel of a gun were prominent and colors like the red and yellow in the UI seemed accurate but didn’t pop.

The Alienware m17 R4’s display registered a strong 316.2 nits of brightness on our light meter.

Dell Alienware M17 R4 Keyboard and Touchpad:

With a deep, 1.7mm of travel, great tactile feedback and a full numeric keypad, the Alienware m17 R4 offers a fantastic typing experience. On the tenfastfingers.com typing test, I scored a strong 102 words-per-minute with a 3% error rate, which is a little better than my typical 95 to 100 wpm and 3 to 5% rate.

Not only does the keyboard have a full numeric keypad, but it also sports four customizable macro keys above the pad on the top row. The Alienware Command Center software allows you to set these to launch a program, enter text or use a pre-recorded set of keystrokes when you hit them. I found programming them very unintuitive, however.it. Alienware Command Center also allows you to set RGB colors or lightning effects for four different zones on the keyboard.

The 3.1 x 4.1 glass touchpad, which uses Windows precision drivers, offers great navigation with just the right amount of friction. Whether I was navigating around the desktop or using multitouch gestures such as pinch-zoom or three-finger swipe, the pad was always accurate and responsive.

Dell Alienware M17 R4 Audio:

The Alienware m17 R4’s audio system outputs sound that’s loud enough to fill a mid-sized room and rich enough to dance to. When I played AC/DC’s "Back in Black" with the volume all the way up, the sound was mostly accurate, but some of the high-pitched percussion sounds were a little harsh. Earth, Wind and Fire’s bass-heavy "September" sounded great, with a clear separation of sound where instruments such as the horns section appeared to come from a different side of the notebook than, for example, the drums.

Gunshots and the sound of my NPC friend Jackie yelling at me to stay down sounded sharp and clear in Cyberpunk 2077. However, I had to turn the volume way up to compensate for the fan noise when the system was on high performance settings. Even on the “quiet” thermal setting, fan noise was quite prominent. 

The preloaded Alienware Command Center app has an audio section that lets you tweak the sound settings and choose among profiles such as Music, Movie, Shooter and Role Play. I found that the default “Alienware” profile sounded about the same as the Music one, but disabling the audio enhancement definitely made the sound flatter.

Dell Alienware M17 R4 Upgradeability:

The Alienware m17 R4 has three different M.2 SSD slots, all of which are accessible and user upgradeable. The first slot is an short 2230 length and the other two are both the normal 2280 size. Unfortunately, the RAM is soldered onto the motherboard and therefore not replaceable.

Opening the Alienware m17 R4 should be easy: there are eight Philips-head screws, some of which come out and the others of which you can just loosen, on the bottom panel. In our testing, getting the screws loosened was easy by prying off the bottom panel was challenging and required several minutes with a spudger. Once the panel is off, all three SSDs are visible, but are covered by copper heat sinks you can easily unscrew.

Dell Alienware M17 R4 Battery Life:

Forget about using the Alienware m17 R4 without a power outlet for any length of time. The laptop lasted just just 2 hours and 5 minutes on our battery test, which involves surfing the web over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness. That’s awful in comparison to all of its competitors as both the Gigabyte Aorus 17G and Razer Blade Pro 17 lasted for an identical 4 hours and 41 minutes. But this is a 17-inch, 6.6-pound laptop so portability isn’t a primary concern. 

Dell Alienware M17 R4 Heat:

The main touchpoints on the Alienware m17 R4 stay relatively cool when you’re not gaming and remain warm but tolerable when you are. After we streamed a YouTube video for 15 minutes, the keyboard hit a reasonable 35.5 degrees Celsius (95.9 degrees Fahrenehitt), the touchpad was a chilly 26.2 degrees Celsius (79.3 degrees Fahrenheit) and the underside was just 36.6 degrees Celsius (97.9 degrees Fahrenheit).

After running the Metro Exodus benchmark for 15 minutes to simulate gaming, those temperatures were obviously higher. The keyboard hit 35.5 degrees Celsius (112 degrees Fahrenheit), the touchpad measured 35 degrees (95 degrees Fahrenheit) and the bottom hit 50 degrees (122 degrees Fahrenheit). 

When I played Cyberpunk 2077, the area around the WASD keys measured about 40 degrees Celsius (105 degrees Fahrenheit) but the key caps themselves didn’t feel uncomfortably warm to touch. At performance settings, the fan noise was extremely loud.

Dell Alienware M17 R4 WebCam:

The Alienware m17 R4’s 720p webcam is nothing special. Even when I shot it in a well-lit room, an image of my face was filled with visual noise and fine details like the hairs in my beard were blurry while colors such as the blue in my shirt and the green on the walls were muted. You’ll get by with this built-in camera if you need to, but you’d be better off springing  for one of the best webcams. 

Dell Alienware M17 R4 Software And warrenty:

The Alienware m17 R4 comes preloaded with a handful of useful first-party utilities. 

Alienware Mobile Connect allows you to control your Android handset or iPhone from your laptop, taking calls and texts for the desktop. 

Alienware Command Center lets you control all the RGB lighting effects, set keyboard macros, tweak audio settings and even modify the performance settings and thermals to go for better performance or quieter and cooler temps. You can even change the max frequency, voltage and voltage offset for the CPU manually if you have an unlocked CPU and want to try overclocking.

As with any Windows laptop, there’s also a small amount of preloaded bloatware, including a trial of Microsoft Office, links to download Photoshop Express and Hulu and free-to-play games like Roblox.

Alienware backs the m17 R4 with a standard one year warranty on parts and labor that includes in-home service (if there was already a remote diagnosis). You can pay extra to extend the warranty up to five years and you can add accidental damage protection with no deductible.

Bottom Line:

I never thought I’d say this, but I think my need for power has been satiated –– at least until the Intel Tiger Lake H-series CPUs come out. But in the meantime, the Alienware m17 R4 is giving me all the power I can handle. The Nvidia’s new RTX 3080 GPU with its ridiculous 16GB of VRAM tore through every game I threw at it. And the 10th Intel Core i7 processor made light work of my multitasking loads. And a straight-up chef’s kiss to the display’s 360Hz refresh rate that’s so smooth it’s making babies’ butts everywhere jealous. 

The biggest drawbacks for this epic laptop are those which are kind of inherent to any 17-inch laptop which turns the performance volume up to 11. It’s heavy, has short battery life, emits plenty of fan noise. It's also  quite expensive. It would be nice if, for this price, you got a better-than-awful webcam, but most laptop webcams are terrible. , 

But if power and super high refresh rates are paramount, the Alienware m17 R4 is the laptop for you.

To Buy From our store With A Discount Of 5500 LE.
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Published on Mar 16, 2021