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- Dell Alienware m17 R2: the complete Review
Dell Alienware m17 R2: the complete Review
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The new 15-inch and 17.3-inch laptops of the alien-headed brand are inspired by their big brother Alienware Area-51m released earlier this year. Exit the big thick case, welcome to a case whose lines have been redrawn, the thickness revised downwards and which embodies a brand new keyboard.
The version of the m17 R2 that we Review costs more than 3000 euros (3080 to be precise) and for this price, Alienware has an interest in us to put in full view, because in this segment, the competition is tough. Asus and its Zephyrus S, the Titan MSI or the Omen X 2S signed HP, there are people on the top of the basket.
Beautiful critter that this Alienware m17 R2. The new lines of its case are like a glove and we appreciate that Dell has finally changed the game in this area. The previous container had a lot of benefits and exuded strength and durability. But the finesse was lacking, an external feature that invites more and more in the world of laptops gaming but that has not only advantages: the connectivity is sometimes reduced to its simplest expression, the ventilation makes the noise and / or is not efficient enough and, therefore, the configuration is struggling to give the best of itself.
Between the rounded back, the back of the screen – conversely – quite angular and the streamlined shape towards the front of the inner tray, Dell has tried to please all aesthetic gamers, lovers of beautiful and powerful machines . The result is there: the height does not exceed 2,5 cm, screen closed, skate included and the weight surprises: 2,59 kg. For a 17.3 inches of gaming is pretty good especially that Dell has not succumbed to the call of all-plastic (there are anyway), but has kept a mixture of metal parts, magnesium alloy and some steel reinforcements in the case. However, the back of the screen is a little soft so that by pressing on it, it deforms … to correct quickly.
All the catches you need, not necessarily in the right place
Quick tour of the owner of this m17 R2. In terms of connectivity, Dell maintains its usual range and tries to distribute it best between the sides and the back of the machine: four USB ports (3 x 3.1 gen 2 and 1 x Type-C Thunderbolt 3), two video outputs (HDMI and miniDP), an Ethernet network jack, a headphone output (incorporating a microphone input) not to mention the proprietary socket to connect a possible external graphics card case of the brand (is it still useful ??).
Among the interfaces that are not visible, but are nevertheless there, the Wi-Fi 5 (ex ac) and the Bluetooth module 4.2 are present. Note in passing that the Wi-Fi 6 is available as an option, against 20 euros extra.
We are very demanding in the positioning of the sockets, especially on top of the range machines. Alienware does not score a lot of points here. Why not have the network jack on the back? As shown in the picture above, there is room between the Thunderbolt 3 and the socket for the external graphics card case!Such a distress call to Dell engineers, here are our wishes for revision 3 of the m17. The same case, but the right side would be blank, all the connectors would be divided between the left side and back as Asus proposes on the Strix Scar III.
Dell swaps his very good keyboard against another, excellent
The keyboard takes place in a slightly hollowed out part. The keys are all separate which, in itself, is a great novelty at Alienware. Until now, this was not the case at all, the brand to the extraterrestrial having long resisted for a simple and good reason: the piano she had developed and improved, as and when, on the Alienware 15 and 17 released in recent years was just great.
The new set of keys is from the same barrel. We would go so far as to tax it "excellent" because the fingers fall well on the letters. The comfort of typing is really good, the key coating surprises by its relative softness and does not cause excessive sweating.
Unlike the m15 R2, the m17 retains its classic keypad and has shortcut keys on which you can record sequences or combinations, useful to buy his weapons faster in a first-person shooter multiplayer or , again, quickly open menus or information boards in online role plays.
We did not dwell more than reason on the touchpad, because with such a machine, it is mandatory external mouse. Be aware however that the touchpad is of good quality. Here again the coating of the surface is pleasant.If you plan to use it often, consider enabling multi-finger scrolling options and recognizing certain gestures made on its surface because, by default, they are cut off.
A screen that has nothing to do in this machine!
In its configurator, Dell offers different types of 17.3-inch displays. All offer Full HD resolution, matte coating and cover 72% of the sRGB color range. It is in terms of refresh rate and response time that some stand out from others. And, too bad for our Review unit, she got the worst combination: 60 Hz on one side, 25 ms on the other. On a machine at 3000 euros?! Heresy is approaching.
Dell offers a model 144 Hz / 9 ms catalog with a Tobii camera (eye tracking), overcharged 250 euros while the competition offers standard slabs 144 or 200 Hz on machines sold in the same waters … The arms we have fallen.
Another fault of taste: the plastic frame – certainly fine – but shiny black plastic. While all the rest of the case is dull. We understand that Dell wanted to create a contrast, but personally we do not like it at all.
If the screen was irreproachable on the technical side … the honor would have been safe. But this is not the case. Our measurements show that the brightness rises to 367 cd / m2. In absolute terms, that's good. Very good even since it's the brightest slab we've seen in recent months.
However, to compensate for such a high brightness, it is necessary the contrast ratio is also high. Or, failing that, that it is sufficient to avoid that the black areas are slightly greyish. On this Alienware, the average maximum rate climbs to 862: 1. In fact, the homogeneity is at 0.08 which is more than mediocre.
On the graph above, the m17 R2 is dark purple. It is clear that he holds the right to all competition on the left but, on the other hand, he is one of the worst students on the right.Last saber stroke: the fidelity of colors. The measured Delta E rises to 3.41 which places the Alienware slightly below the average at 3.17. Red and blue saturate the space and the whites are – as we said – greyish.
In short, you will understand, if you had to crack for this machine do not choose ESPECIALLY not the classic 17.3-inch screen in 60 Hz, unless the visual quality does not matter to you and for you, only power matters. Because, in the matter, the m17 R2 is enough to satisfy the amateurs of good performances as the madmen of excessive power.
Evolve, it's not his thing
The version of Alienware m17 R2 delivered by Alienware revolves around an Intel and Nvidia technical platform.
On the texan website, you have the choice between multiple processors : a Core i5-9300H (4 cores), the Core i7-9750H (6 cores), the Core i9-9880H (8 cores) or, the more addictive … the Core i9-9980HK (8 hearts unlocked, overclockable ).
To support them in their (their) heavy task (s), the DDR4 RAM can oscillate between 8 or 16 GB of DDR4 memory at 2666 MHz. No option 32 GB here and for good reason: all the modules are soldered to the motherboard which made us very upset. No evolutions possible on this slope, it is very surprising from Dell. This is probably one of the biggest weaknesses of the machine in our opinion.
The radius 3D cardsit is Nvidia who trustees the shelves. There is a bit of everything on the Dell site, from the best (a RTX 2080 Max-Q maximum) at least relevant (a GTX 1650) for a machine of this caliber.Finally for the SSD, you have the choice of configuration: from 256 GB to 4 TB in RAID 0. Dell does not offer any options including a classic hard drive and for good reason, there is no location for him.
As we will see right after, our Review setup had only one SSD on board. A location was vacant in the bowels of the machine. And this is the only evolution you can do on this big beast.
Attention, the vacant space digests only the SSD in PCIe format while the one that is occupied, on our unit, tolerates both M.2 SATA and PCIe format. If by chance you want to upgrade the m17 R2 a posteriori, take the time to unscrew the bottom to buy the right storage model.
In a word: powerful
The configuration sent for testing consists of a Core i7 processor, 16 GB of memory, 512 GB SSD in single configuration and a GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q. A quartet that we start to know well since it is regularly used by the builders to animate their power monsters. However, we have sifted Alienware, like his classmates. Not jealous !
In the graph above, which reflects the ability of the machine to cope with various uses and applications including gaming, the m17 R2 is yellow-orange.We expected him to sail near the Omen X 2S (dark blue) but that's not the case, the HP machine grill him politeness. Just like the Omen 15 (orange), yet equipped with a less powerful graphics card (RTX 2070 Max-Q).
Our Alienware is at the level of the Asus Zephyrus S GX735 (red ocher), with the same components and is also a 17.3-inch end. Coincidence?
Back on the hard-and-fast graphic computing grounds, in Full HD, the Alienware m17 R2 unleashes itself and regains its place, always alongside the tall Zephyrus S, slightly ahead of the Omen X 2S and far ahead of the other machines.As an indication, the highly demanding Mark Fire Strike Extreme 3D Review is not machine-proof: it scores 9640 points and is capable of generating 40 to 60 frames per second in highly complex 3D scenes, saturated with tessellation.
Let's move on to more practical cases with our usual gaming tests. On older titles, this beautiful rocket inscribed between 220 and 335 frames per second (ips), all options set fully. And again, these are titles in 3D … imagine the number of ips obtained with 2D / 3D isometric!
In the beefier AAAs, in DirectX 11 and 12, the hundred frames per second is usually reached or exceeded. In the adventures of Lara Croft, as shown in the graphic above, we turn between 115 and 120 fps with everything thoroughly. Simple.In The Division, already much heavier to digest for graphics chips, even RTX, we get scores between 98 and 122 with profiles High or Ultra largely personalized by us. No jerks, no slowdowns, all the last titles are really going well.
Zeus name, the Intel throttle processor!
It is rare that Alienware are victims of throttling. Why ? Because the casings of previous generations, as we explained, were thick, there was more room for calories to circulate, and so on. With this good shot of plane given on the thickness of the machine, we were afraid that the configuration has a blow of hot. This has been the case, but to a much lesser extent than on competitive references.
Solving the configuration very hard for 23 minutes, the Core i7 first worked in Turbo mode for 15 minutes, while lowering its operating frequency regularly. Thus, after 5 minutes, the speed increased from 3.4 to 3 GHz and was maintained between 2.7 and 3 GHz during the next 5 minutes. It then reached its nominal speed of 2.6 GHz for 5 minutes and then peaked at 2.3 GHz, which means that it reached 90 ° C and had to reduce the wing to keep afloat. Too bad. And that does not necessarily bode well for the players who will bet on a m17 R2 in Core i9.
Yet, as evidenced by the photo above, the cooling device is consequent. Simply put, the fan on the right is responsible for evacuating the calories from the graphics card. The one on the left, takes care of the processor. Of course, under the insulation covers is a complex network of copper pipes, many of which are common to the cooling of both chips. It is not surprising that the CPU can be very hot as soon as it is put to the Review along with the GPU.
However, on the surface, the temperature remains quite bearable with a maximum of 30.9 ° C raised on the palm rest and 55.2 ° C under the machine. Same observation for the noise, for a monster of this size, it purrs more than it roars: 28.4 dB at rest, 45.1 dB in full stress.
The most enduring notebook in its class to date
To feed the machine, not the choice, it takes a big cinderblock AC adapter. With its 950 grams on the scale, it is not easy to forget especially in a possible transport bag, where it adds to the 2.6 kg of the machine. This is a necessary evil, however, since this charming pixel-generating machine can consume up to 223 watts peak.
However, where we did not expect to see this 17.3-inch Alienware coming in first, it's on our endurance events. With his battery cut into two pieces and which is recharged in 2:30, he manages to stay in attack for 6 h 40 in so-called "versatile" activity and until 5:55 streaming video content (screen set to 200 cd / m² maximum in both cases, Wi-Fi enabled). In cumulative endurance, it is the best PC for player tested for a year. The only one capable of beating him in versatile autonomy is the ROG Strix Scar III (15.6 inches) which reached him, the 7 hours.
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