Gadgetory

welcome back to hadron bucks today we're taking a look at another gaming laptop this time the brand new Alienware m15 which is their portable laptop offering to rival systems like the msi tier 65 stealth the gigabyte air of 15 and razor blade historically I haven't been a huge fan of Aylan wears chunkier laptop designs but the m15 is one of the best I've seen from the company so far as always let's talk specs to begin with if you've seen reviews of this laptop from a few months ago those were probably for the original model that used invidious GTX series Pascal GPUs where I'm reviewing today is the RT X version in particular the RT X 28 Emacs q model but there are other options available that might suit your budget better including the RT X between 70 max Q and RT X 2060 like a lot of Dell laptops the m15 is highly customizable the CPU for most model stays the same as an Intel Core i7 8750 H but from there you get many storage ram and display options my unit came with 16 gigabytes of jewell channel ddr4 plus a combination of a 500 gig SSD and a one terabyte hard drive the displays are 15.6 inch 1080p 144 hertz IPS the m15 is Alan wears most portable 15 inch gaming laptop design yet while this is definitely a good thing it's probably only good when comparing the m15 to alien wares other laptops for example the regular Alienware 15 is 30 millimeters thick and about 3.5 kilos heavy whereas the Alienware m 15 is about 27 millimeters thick and crucially just 2 point 2 kilograms heavy the weight difference in particular is massive which makes the m15 a significantly more portable system however if you're compared to say the gigabyte over 15 the Alienware 15 is larger in all dimensions gigabyte system is only 22 millimeters thick using the same measurement system and weighs just a tad over 2 kilograms it's also smaller in footprint due to slimmer bezels the Alienware 15 really doesn't give you that awesome slim bezel design that we've seen from other gaming laptops which keeps it larger than its competitors its this new unit is a big step forward for Alienware but it's still got a way to go until it matches the best from its competitors something like the msi ge62 5 is a good 400 grams lighter and for some people that could be a better option however there is no vaulting to build quality here which is superb this isn't a unibody construction and there are a few different choices of materials including metal for the lid a soft touch matte plastic coating around the keyboard and glossy plastic around the display but the key here is just how seamless these materials join together it just feels really solid and well built visually this isn't my favorite design mostly due to the angular body and gamer e lid it looks quite nice when opened but it doesn't do enough to take the crown from the elegant msi gs70 the best Alienware design and the focus on slimness has helped a lot here though in other areas a lean wear has done a lot of things right the keyboard has a nice though somewhat spongy tactile response however the layout is good and it includes a full numpad + 4 macro keys the entire thing is lit up with 4 zone RGB backlighting there's two other RGB elements as well the power button and alien head logo on the lid the trackpad is a little small given the space allocated to it but it has a nice coating and it is very responsive the IO selection here is fantastic we're getting three USB 3.1 type-a ports Thunderbolt 3 HDMI 2.0 mini DisplayPort a 3.5 mm audio jack Ethernet and alien wares graphics amplifier port I particularly like that the display outputs are on the rear of the laptop it's nice and convenient to hook up a display there without obstructing either side let's talk about performance and as always it's important to set the scene here with the settings I used the main consideration here are the fan profiles with Alienware providing four options balanced which is the default option plus cool quiet and performance modes I didn't spot any significant difference between the balanced and the top-tier performance modes because both seem to ramp up the fan to the same level while gaming the performance mode simply sets this fan speed at all times while balanced quietens the fan during less intensive workloads my recommendation is to use the balanced mode and that's what I used throughout this review when it - CPU performance my main consideration here is to see whether the Alienware m15 performs any differently in productivity tasks compared to other laptops that use the intel core i7 8750 H what I discovered is that the laptop performs identically to our average 8750 H benchmark numbers suggesting the system is performing as expected of course each workload it's a little slower sometimes and a little faster at other times but on average there is nothing to be concerned about here it does perform as expected this means we're getting all the usual benefits of the core i7 8750 H as it's a six core CPU it's ideal for tasks like video editing in on-the-go where it's 40 to 50 percent faster than a last generation Core i7 7700 HQ CPU it's also fast in single third workloads by around 10% which does help reduce CPU bottlenecks in some games where the interesting stuff starts to happen is with the GPU here we're looking at the NVIDIA GeForce r-tx 20 80 max Q in its 90 watt configuration I wish to my review unit if you aren't aware there are actually two versions of the r-tx 28 Emacs cube that have been spotted the default 80 watt configuration and the 90 watt model which has a higher power women and is clocked about a hundred to 200 megahertz higher it's almost impossible to tell which version a laptop uses from its product page but we can tell you here that the m15 uses the faster 90 watt model if you've seen my review of the GeForce r-tx 2080 max Q you'll see how both the 81 and 90 watt versions perform in a range of games however with the Alienware m 15 it's a bit more complicated than that because while the laptop does have the 90 watt version it's cooling solution in a typical use case prevents it from unleashing the full power of this GPU even with the fans at full speed there just isn't enough of a gap between the base of the laptop and the desk to intake air at the volume required to call these components most of the intake vents are along the bottom panel with a few tiny vents on the top side with air then exhausting at the back and sides but thanks to the feet raising this laptop by a smaller than usual height and fewer vents on the top side of the laptop we are running into a few airflow bottlenecks what this means is the Alienware m15 in a typical usage environment on your desk is four percents on average than the maximum performance the r-tx 2080 max q 90 watt variant is capable this is a pretty disappointing result give an alienware have gone to the trouble of including the faster 90 watt model it's actually a bit strange that we're getting the 90 watt variant only to see it chose to to the cooler design however it is possible to get the full performance of the 2080 max q if you raise the base of the laptop slightly which gives the bottom vents less restricted access to airflow you don't have to change any other laptop settings you just have to make this physical adjustment if you do this the cooler performs much better and you get the full performance of the GPU inside however it's not a very practical solution I feel this issue could have been resolved with a better optimized series of vents around the design for the rest of this data I'm showing you how the Alienware m15 performs without the base race because I feel this is how most people will use the laptop the good news is that when sitting on your desk normally the only way m15 performs around the same as the r-tx 20 80 max q 80 watt variant so it's not choke to the level that it performs below a typical RT X 20 80 max Q it's merely the same you don't get the benefit of the 90 watt configuration but it's not throttling so hard that you aren't getting a decent level of performance and I guess the good news is that by Ellen we're choosing the 90 watt model you can actually achieve better performance if you give the cooler better airflow laptops that use the 80 watt model can't push much faster even in optimal cooling positions with the Alienware m15 performing roughly the same as an 80 watt RT x 2018 max q the margins between this laptop and other GPUs is pretty similar to what I showed in my review it's 10% faster than the RT x 2070 MX q on average so if you are tossing up between the various everywhere m15 CPU configurations this might be data that will interest you the other available GPU is the RT X 2016 here the RT x 2018 max Q is 16% fast on average although it doesn't win in every game for example in hitman two it is unusually slow with the Alienware m15 compared to the average result for other laptops we've tested on the other hand there is a significant lead in games like shadow of war where the 2080 max Q is more than 30% faster the Alienware m15 was previously available with the geforce gtx 1070 max Q inside the new r-tx 2080 max-q model is a decent 24 percent faster on average which as I've mentioned before is an impressive improvement from the same sort of cooler design and form factor the ITX 2080 max-q models are a lot more expensive but that's typical for premium hardware and finally we have the comparison between the r-tx 2080 max-q and the standard gtx 1074 laptops the ITX 20 nm X cube is 6% faster on average but it's a bit of a mixed bag it wins in some titles and loses in others it's definitely not a situation where the RT X 2080 demolishes the GTX 970 which is the case when comparing the desktop variants of these GPUs here is the data showing the Alienware M 15 cooling solution really isn't up to scratch for the hardware inside GPU temperatures are actually okay with that being great 84 degrees Celsius is fine for most gaming laptops but it's the CPU temperatures that are seriously crazy with the m15 hitting 99 degrees during a watchdogs to gaming session any time a laptop is up around that a hundred degree mark you're gonna get throttling so with this laptop it's not GPU throttling that's the primary issue it's mostly CPU throttling raising the laptops base which provides more airflow to the choked cooler without increasing fan speed sees a significant 7 degree drop on the CPU and a similar drop on the GPU but it's actually more than that CPU clock speeds also increase by 500 megahertz or so across all six cores it's a huge difference and just shows how in a standard usage case this cooler cannot keep up with the demands of the high TDP parts inside without that CPU bottleneck we see the full performance of these components unleashed and it's no surprise why the Alienware m15 can't push the fan any faster we're already sitting at 46 DBA during a gaming load which is on the high end for a gaming laptop so this system is both hot and loud giving basically no room to move if you're hoping to overclock the system well has really no Headroom for that those that like to under vault and replace the thermal compound with something like liquid metal may be able to get more out of this cooler design it's also possible that lower tier GPUs like the RT X 2060 won't run into the same thermal bottleneck but it's hard to say for sure without testing those units moving on to storage performance my Alienware m15 came equipped with a 512 gigabyte sk hynix pc 401 SSD which performed pretty well no real complaints here it's not the absolute fastest gaming SSD I've seen in laptops particularly for sequential workloads but it's adequate enough for most people match your life was pretty disappointing though the m15 comes with two battery options if you want a one terabyte hard drive inside you get just a 60 watt hour cell which is the default which was the case with my review unit if you forego the 2.5 inch drive base slot you can increase the battery capacity to 90 watt hours which no doubt delivers better results than the disappointing sub 4 hour runtime in our video player test given that internally you get 2m not two slots one of which was free in my unit and both of which are easily user accessible I think most buyers would be better off opting for the 90 watt hour model and using cheap M naught to storage options to get extra space if necessary especially if you want better battery life which I feel is important in a portable oriented system like the M 15 lastly we have the display and like a lot of similar laptops Alienware are using a 15.6 inch 1080p IPS with a maximum refresh rate of 144 Hertz the combination of IPs and 144 Hertz works really well here for gamers the high refresh rate is perfect for the artex 2080 max-q that often pushes frame rates above 100 FPS at 1080p so this really is the display option you'll want to choose a lot of the basic characteristics here are good 300 nits of peak brightness is fine for indoor use especially as that's combined with excellent viewing angles a contrast ratio of 1200 to 1 is also great for this type of display however I did experience a bit of IPS glow when viewing dark or black content not a huge issue but something to keep in mind the bigger problem with this display is the lack of color calibration the default white point is around 8000 K which is far too cold giving the display a blue tone in fact there really doesn't appear to be any calibration here whatsoever at least not to the srgb standard as Delta II averages across the board are above 4.0 normally for gaming laptops I don't find calibration to be a big issue with the Alienware M 15 it's a little different Delta is are above 4.0 and that's higher than many other laptops particularly the 5.7 grayscale Delta average so this display is particularly poorly calibrated and on top of this many competitors to this very type of system especially the msi gs70 by Tara 15 do come with factory calibrated displays so while it may not bother every buyer calibration is something you don't get here that other laptops will provide overall I'm in two places with the Alienware m15 on the one hand this is clearly their best laptop design it's thinner and lighter than regular Alienware laptops and that's a step in the right direction particularly as many other gaming laptop companies have this sort of system on the market I've never been a huge fan of the chunky Alienware beasts from a design perspective but this focus on portability here is welcomed on the other hand I feel Alienware has failed to execute in terms of some of the performance characteristics in particular the cooler simply isn't powerful enough to cool both the core i7 8750 h and RT X 28 Emacs q with that throttling there's an airflow issue here that chokes the CPU causing lower than expected performance when both the CPU and GPU are utilized like in games this is very disappointing because you don't get these problems with competing gigabyte or MSI laptops in fact in both cases the Alienware m15 is a larger and heavier overall than the Aero 15 or GS 65 stealth while having less cooling capacity performance isn't terrible is still around the mark of a typical RT X 2080 mxq laptop it's just that it could have been better especially as this laptop includes the 90 watt variant of the GPU for future revisions of this laptop the cooling layer and ventilation definitely need to be fixed then there's just a range of other odds and ends that aren't as polished as competing offerings the display isn't calibrated and doesn't pack a slim bezel design and the default option to get a small 60 watt hour battery means that you don't get great battery life and you have to pay to get a larger battery I just don't see what the Alienware m15 does better than a laptop like the msi ge62 5 there's no key feature here that might get me to recommend it in some situations like say a super affordable price or a unique design or top tier before in every metric I've tested the system is beaten by the excellent MSI option which is basically the same price for an equivalent configuration regardless of which r-tx GPU you choose and this is without discussing the overall value proposition of nvidia streaming laptops so while the Alienware m15 is a great step forward for the company it ultimately doesn't get my recommendation it's hard to create the perfect portable system on the first attempt and the guys at msi gigabyte and others have simply been doing this for longer and have more refined better options today that you should consider instead that's it for this review of the Alienware m15 we have all the links to the laptops i've been talking about in this video in the description below consider subscribing for more gaming laptop content we also have a patreon page where you can get access to unique perks and I'll catch you in the next one you