Alienware M18 R2 Gaming Laptop Review: When Speed Is of the Essence – CNET

The line starts at roughly $1,900, which is on the low side compared to competitors like the Asus ROG Strix G18, Acer Predator Helios Neo 18, Razer Blade 18 and more, but that’s primarily because their base configurations are in some way higher-powered than the m18. The Alienware starts at a Core i7-14650HX and GeForce RTX 4060, while the rest start with a Core i9-14900HX and/or RTX 4070, along with the same display as the m18 or better.

Alienware m18 R2

Price as reviewed $3,300, £3,549 Display 18-inch, 2,560×1,600-pixel, 165Hz, IPS, 300 nits PC CPU 2.4GHz Intel Core i9-14900HX PC Memory 32GB DDR5-5600 Graphics 16GB GDDR6 Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 at 175W Storage 2TB SSD, SD card slot Ports 3x USB-C (2x Thunderbolt 4 with DP 1.4), 2x USB-A 3.2, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x mini DisplayPort, 1x combo audio Networking Dell Killer E5000 Ethernet, Killer Wi-Fi 7 BE1750x, Bluetooth 5.4 Operating system Windows 11 Home 23H2 Weight 9.3 pounds (4.3 kg)

You can configure the m18 R2 with up to the i9-14900HX, RTX 4090, 64GB RAM, 8TB RAID0 solid-state drive and a 480Hz 1200p display, plus some other customizations, which will run you almost $4,600. That leaves a lot of room in between. We tested a relatively high-end configuration with less memory, storage and a slower but higher-resolution display than the top end, which runs about $3,300 at the moment. 

It’s hard to make a recommendation for a specific configuration because there are a lot of different reasons for opting for an 18-inch laptop. For instance, you may just want the bigger screen and not care about speed, in which case the i7/RTX 4060 model might be a good choice (since there aren’t a lot of 18-inch mainstream laptops). It’s also conceivable that Alienware will eventually offer a higher end (i.e., i9-14980HX class) processor, so if you need something beyond this you might want to wait. 

The power connector is on the back, which makes sense given how much space on the sides is dedicated to ventilation. The side vents didn’t get as hot as with the smaller m16 R2, but as you’d expect the fans can get pretty loud, especially in Performance and Overdrive modes. The brick does get uncomfortably warm, which may be a consideration if you don’t have any place to put it, given the overly short cable between the outlet and the brick. It’s a standard connection to the brick, though, so you can replace it with a longer power cable if necessary.

Performance and display

The screen is a run-of-the-mill 300-nit IPS panel with a maximum refresh rate of 165Hz, albeit one with a relatively broad color gamut measuring 98% of P3. The 2,560×1,600-pixel resolution is OK for gaming but I’d prefer it to be higher for work. The alternative 1,920×1,200 240Hz panel is too low-res, unless you only care about max frame-rate gaming in 1080p, or plan to use an external monitor for work or games that are more about the looks than the speed. 

I saw some edgelight leakage in the upper left and lower right corners of the screen, and there was some noticeable nonuniformity — 293 nits peak in the center instead of 300-plus nits, and as low as 246 nits in the lower right. It had gamma 2.0 rather than 2.2 and a higher level of color inaccuracy than usual. Except for the edgelight issue, which can be an outlier, the screen performs… fine.

The RTX 4090 in the system is certainly up to fast 1440p and solid 4K, but even some games didn’t saturate the GPU bus in 1440p, so the lack of a higher-resolution panel option or HDR support is sad. But in order to achieve high brightness, the only panel choices in this size use mini-LED backlights, which can be a lot more expensive or hard to implement well.