Gadgetory

hey how's it going Dave 2d here so Alienware laptops have been around for a while they're not only a little bit bigger a little bit thicker I'm a little bit heavier than other gaming laptops out there but recently they announced the m15 this is their first thin and light gaming laptop which kind of goes in the opposite direction of everything I know about alien work but they've also done something really impressive this year that I didn't think they'd be able to do they have good thermals in this thin and light laptop so here it is this is alien Wars new 15-inch thin and light gaming laptop and I put a picture of this up on Twitter and a lot of you guys were asking does this have the same kind of build quality and durability as their regular Alienware laptops because that's what Alienware has been known for over these years really good build quality really tanky laptops and is this as well built is this still a tank structurally I'm gonna say yes it's not super thin if you're compared to stuff like the GS 65 or an arrow 15 or a razorblade those are thinner this isn't crazy thin but it's significantly thinner than their previous generation and if you look at the build quality across the chassis this thing feels completely different from those other devices there's no flex on the chassis the hinge is really well built the top panel has the same kind of finish as a previous generation with the light-up Alienware head logo the inside has this soft touch material but it feels a little bit different this year than it did in previous generation this actually feels like it'll last longer it reminds me of the stuff that you see on the higher-end lenovo laptops it feels like it won't degrade over time the bottom panel is also metal and I mean like a solid metal this is like it's it's legit this is the type of stuff you've seen really well-built laptops it's not like thin aluminum that can flex easily it's built like an alien where it feels like an alien where it's a tank the technical specs are solid as a 20-18 gaming laptop it has great components they basically took their alien or 15 and fit it into this thinner and lighter package it's running to nvme drives on this unit fast ones good port selection including their graphics ant port for their external GPU but it can also use Thunderbolt 3 if you want there's a power connection and video outputs in the back which I kind of like and then your use be Ethernet and audio jacks are on the side there's still no SD card slot though if you're looking for one okay keyboard is quite different this year the previous generation of Alienware laptops had a very plush keyboard the m15 has a chiclet keyboard I've you see so much that I'm very comfortable on them for typing and gaming there's a number pad on the side for people who want them the keystrokes on this keyboard isn't as deep as a previous generation the travel is a little bit shorter but it is a very comfortable keyboard I think most people can get used to this quite easily the trackpad is also a little bit different this year the previous generation had a light-up surface those are gone this is more of a traditional kind of generic looking trackpad it is a nice one it's a glass surface kind of good tracking precision drivers which is great but the keyboard and the track but feel a little more generic to me not that they're bad they're actually quite good it's just visually they don't look as iconic as the previous Alienware input devices the lighting on this keyboard is also in zones still not individually lit all right the metal panel on the bottom comes off easily and inside you have access to two RAM slots to nvme drives the Wi-Fi card this is a killer 1550 it's Intel based but you can replace it if you want and you can also see the 90 watt hour battery so this battery is the extended battery there's a smaller 60 watt hour battery this unit is getting around 6 hours of battery life with the screen at 250 nights now keep in mind this is with the 4k panel the lower res screens will probably do better the speakers are located on the side and the bottom very clean audio loud volume and they have good stereo separation the screen on the m15 has smaller bezels this time around so Alienware laptop so you should have really thick bezels it's improved the side bezels are definitely thinner top and bottom bezel ZAR still a bit thick but the material that they use around the bezel on this thing is this glossy plastic and I really don't like seeing this material on laptops it's just a material that can scratch really easily and over time this material can look really worn I just wish they've gone with a standard matte plastic for the bezel the webcam is up top and the image looks pretty clean so this panel is a 4k panel its color accurate and bright there is a hundred forty-four Hertz panel available if you want that the 4k panel is great for creative work but if you're gaming I'd go for that higher refresh so gaming performance on this device is excellent there's nothing new six core i7 gtx 1070 max-q great device for playing basically any title at 1080p if you do get this configuration though I highly recommend picking up that 144 Hertz panel high refresh screens really showcased this generation of hardware better and it just makes the whole gaming experience that much more enjoyable ok let's talk about thermals when they first announced the m5 Dean I kind of expect this laptop to have mediocre thermal performance and it's not because I dislike the bran or anything as much praises I've I've been getting Alienware over the years for like great build quality and durability they have struggled with thermal issues in the past a lot of their laptops just run a little bit hotter than I'd like them to this device somehow has great thermals it benchmarks well there's no throttling even on stress tests this thing runs really well fan noise is not even that loud on idle it's actually silent so they've obviously spent a good amount of time engineering a much improved thermal solution for this particular device but the question that pops into my head is how are they doing this on this like if they can make a laptop this thin this light cooled this effectively why aren't they doing this on their other laptops as well like the regular 15-inch and the regular 17-inch and the regular 13-inch they should have way better thermals considering how much more room they have in those devices than this so it's great that Alienware did this and I love that they're actually taking care of their thermals that that's something that's bothered a lot of people about the device over the years and they finally fixed it they did it on a thin light device so if they take this technology and they bring it to their other devices that'll be awesome but the m15 by itself really impressed me I think some of it has to do with the ventilation up top like this is the first time we've seen ventilation coming up through the top of the keyboard on an alienware and it seems to help it also looks pretty cool up there so my overall take on this laptop I like it I feel like they did a really good job on a refresh it's got most of the DNA that we'd expect from Alienware devices it doesn't have the light-up side stuff on the RGB things and we don't have the light-up trackpad but the overall device has all the good stuff all the important good stuff from Alienware devices it's built really well good performance and it looks a lot better this year okay hope you guys enjoyed this video thumbs we liked it subs we loved it see you guys next time