Alienware x14 Review - The world's thinnest gaming notebook requires compromises

The new x14 is very slim at just 14.5 mm, but the gaming laptop is very deep due to its chassis design and it has by far the largest footprint compared to the other 14-inch laptops in our comparison group. All the rivals are pretty close in terms of weight, and in addition to the 1.8 kg for the laptop itself, you also have to add 486 grams for the 130W power adapter.

There is no criticism for the ports because Dell uses the latest standards including Thunderbolt 4 and HDMI 2.1. In addition to three USB-C ports (one of them is usually blocked by the power adapter), there is also a regular USB-A port. The problem, however, is that all ports are located at the rear (even the stereo jack) and therefore hard to access.

The x14 offers a microSD card reader (spring-loaded) at the rear and it accommodates the SD cards almost completely. It is a very fast module and we determine transfer rates of up to 220 MB/s and still 190 MB/s when we copy files from our reference card (Angelbird AV Pro V60).

We were a bit surprised that the Alienware x14 only features a 720p webcam, even though there seems to be sufficient space for a better sensor in the top bezel. The picture quality is not good, even in good lighting conditions, and the results are just not very crisp. The webcam does its job, but that’s about it. There is also an IR camera for facial recognition via Windows Hello.

The box of the Alienware x14 only contains the 130W power adapter (USB-C). Dell offers plenty of accessories with the Alienware branding, including input devices, headsets, and displays.

The new x14 is shipped with premium support by default, which also included an on-site service. However, the service is limited to 12 months and you have to pay 323 Euros for an extension to three years or 562 Euros to four years. If you want to be on the safe side, there is also Premium Support Plus, which includes accidental damages (three years for 479 Euros and four years for 657 Euros).

Due to the shifted keyboard position, there is not much room for a large touchpad, either. The height of the clickpad on the Alienware x14 is very limited at just 10.8 x 5.5 cm and you will have to reposition your fingers quite often, even during standard cursor movements. The pad itself works well and it sits a bit lower in the base unit, so it is easy to locate with the fingers, but clicking it will result in very loud noises, which appear cheap.

You can choose between the Core i7-12700H and the slightly slower Core i5-12500H, which has two fewer performance cores compared to the i7. You get at least 16 GB LPDDR5 RAM, but only the slower 4800 modules in combination with the GeForce RTX 3050 or RTX 3050 Ti (both with a TGP of 50W & 15W Dynamic Boost). The faster 5200 RAM is only available in combination with the RTX 3060, just like the upgrade to 32 GB.

We were initially surprised by the TDP configuration of the processor, which was set to 45 Watts. During our test, there was an update from Intel (via Windows Update), which increased the TDP to 115W. This value is not reached by the x14, but it means the cooling solution is the only limiting factor. We, therefore, repeated all our benchmarks and measurements to show the performance level with the updated TDP values.

The preloaded Command Center offers different settings for the cooling, but they do not affect the performance. There is also an additional High-Performance mode, which can be activated via key combination Fn+F1. However, the effect on the actual gaming performance (even during longer sessions) is negligible, but it uses a more aggressive fan curve and the notebook just reaches its maximum fan noise (which is also a bit higher) quicker. We performed all our benchmarks and measurements with the following settings: Normal mode, Thermal: Balanced, Windows Performance slider: Best Performance.

The Core i7-12700H is a chip from Intel’s new Alder Lake generation and uses a hybrid architecture. In addition to six performance cores running up to 4.8 GHz (including Hyper Threading), it uses eight efficiency cores (up to 3.7 GHz), so the i7-12700H can execute up to 20 threads simultaneously. It is, in theory, a 45W processor, but the CPU can consume much more power, especially in peak load scenarios.

We record consumption of up to 100W for a brief period at the start of benchmarks and it will eventually level off at 55W. You can see this behavior very well in our chart from the Cinebench R15 Multi loop below, where the second run is already limited to 80W. The CPU performance is better compared to the rivals in the first couple of minutes but will eventually drop to the level of the AMD Ryzen 5000 chips or the Alienware x15 with the Core i7-11800H in multi-core tests.

The Alienware x14 is a very responsive system thanks to the modern components including the PCIe 4.0 SSD and the subjective performance impression is excellent. This is also supported by the synthetic benchmark scores, where the test unit can secure a good spot. All the rivals are very close on a high level, however, and you will not be able to notice a difference between them when you do daily stuff. We did not experience any other issues during our review period, either.