Dell Alienware m17 R2 Laptop Review: Making Core i9 Worthwhile

Overall weight and size are quite similar to last year's Alienware m17 R1 despite the top-to-bottom redesign. The new model is slightly thinner and smaller than its predecessor albeit not by significant margins. When compared to most other 17.3-inch laptops, however, the m17 R2 has is noticeably longer in width due to its extended rear ventilation grilles. This approach allows for faster-than-average performance albeit not without some drawbacks as we will note below.

All current SKUs come with either the Intel 8265 or Killer AX1650 for Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, respectively. The latter offers additional software features and is able to offer over two times the real-world transfer rates of the former provided that you have a Wi-Fi 6 router. SInce our unit is equipped with the lesser Intel 8265, we're able to record average transfer rates between 500 Mbps and 650 Mbps when connected to a Netgear RAX200 router.

We criticized the Alienware m17 R1 for having the exact same size clickpad as the Alienware m15 R1 even though the latter is a smaller 15.6-inch system. Fortunately, Dell has addressed this by integrating a larger (10 x 8 cm) clickpad for the Alienware m17 R2. The larger surface area makes multi-touch inputs easier than every Alienware laptop that has came before it. Scrolling is smooth with no cursor jumping and almost no sticking regardless of movement speed.

The integrated mouse keys are shallow in travel with moderate feedback when pressed. There is a loud audible click that makes the integrated keys more satisfying to use. This is one of the better clickpads we've seen with no dedicated mouse buttons. Still, the older Alienware 17 series had dedicated mouse keys for more accurate dragging and dropping.

Color space covers approximately 99 percent and 66 percent of the sRGB and AdobeRGB standards, respectively, to be similar to almost every other high refresh rate panel found on other gaming laptops. The notable exception is the 120 Hz 4K UHD panel that promises full AdobeRGB coverage as found on the Razer Blade Pro 17. Sharp IGZO and OLED panels also offer deeper colors than our Alienware unit albeit at slower response times or refresh rates.

Further measurements with an X-Rite colorimeter reveal a well-calibrated display out of the box. Average DeltaE grayscale and color values sit at just 1.2 and 1.12, respectively, and our attempt to calibrate the display even further would result in no significant changes.

Outdoor visibility and viewing angles are not any better or worse than on the older Alienware m17 R1 since brightness and contrast have not changed significantly. 17.3-inch gaming laptops generally aren't designed to be used outdoors frequently and the m17 R2 is no different. If you happen to need a powerful 17.3-inch laptop primarily for outdoor use, then the Gigabyte Aero 17 HDR and its super-bright 650-nit display should fill the niche.

CPU performance is excellent despite our reserves about the performance of an unlocked Core i9 processor in a thin chassis. In fact, of the twelve Core i9-9980HK laptops we've tested thus far, our Alienware comes out to be 7 to 14 percent faster than the average according to CineBench Multi-Thread tests. The 2019 Apple MacBook Pro 15 is almost 25 percent slower in multi-threaded loads even though it uses the exact same octa-core Core i9-9980HK CPU.

Performance sustainability is excellent as well. When running CineBench R15 Multi-Thread in a loop, we can observe a performance dip of only 4 percent over time. Opting for the less expensive hexa-core Core i7-9750H SKU will net a 40 percent drop in processor performance.

See our dedicated page on the Core i9-9980HK for more technical information and benchmarks.

PCMark benchmarks are where we expect them to be save for the poor Digital Content Creation score. Annoyingly, UL has yet to incorporate discrete graphics for this particular benchmark making it unreliable for gauging the photo and video editing capabilities of Lenovo Legion Y740-17IRH Review: Gaming bolide gets high marks for its great power delivery and low heat developmentlaptops with discrete graphics.

Strangely, waking from sleep takes abnormally long at about 7 seconds. We're able to reproduce this reliably every time we put the system to in sleep mode.

Fan noise has not improved from the Alienware m17 R1 even though the m17 R2 sports a completely new chassis. If gaming, the fans jump very quickly to about 50 dB(A) when on Balanced mode or 53 dB(A) when the fan is set to Full Speed. Results are not very different from what we've observed on the MSI GS75, Razer Blade Pro 17, and Asus ROG GL704GW when under similar gaming conditions.

Surface temperatures when idling on desktop are warmer than most competing laptops but otherwise in line with other Alienware m15 or m17 models. Hot spots near the rear of the system can become as warm as 38 C simply from doing nothing since the fans are idling at this state. It's a fair price to pay for having a quiet video streaming, browsing, or word processing experience on a high-performance gaming laptop. Setting the fan manually to Full Speed mode while leaving system performance to Balanced or Power Saver will result in cooler surface temperatures at the cost of increased fan noise.

When gaming or running demanding loads on Full Speed and High Performance modes, the center of the keyboard can become as warm as 47 C to 55 C compared to 44 C on the Razer Blade Pro 17 with the same GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q GPU. Fortunately, the surrounding palm rests, WASD keys, NumPad keys, and clickpad remain cooler to the touch no matter the processing load. It's important to not block any of the large ventilation grilles along the bottom, sides, or rear of the system.

We stress the system with synthetic loads on the Full Speed fan setting and High Performance profile to identify for any potential throttling or stability issues. When running Prime95 to stress the CPU, core clock rates and temperature can be observed stabilizing at 4.1 to 4.2 GHz and a core temperature of 99 C — faster and far warmer than on most other laptops. The same CPU on the Eurocom Nightsky RX15, for example, stabilizes at only 3.3 to 3.4 GHz and at a core temperature of 68 C when under similar conditions. It's clear that the impressive CPU performance of the Alienware comes at a high cost in this regard.

Running Prime95 and FurMark simultaneously will cause the CPU to occasionally dip in clock rates and temperature as shown by the screenshot below as a means to tolerate the extreme processing loads. Running Witcher 3 to represent real-world gaming loads results in more agreeable CPU and GPU temperatures of 74 C and 57 C, respectively, compared to 80 C and 73 C on the MSI GS75 equipped with the same RTX 2080 Max-Q GPU.

Performance will be reduced if running on battery power. A Fire Strike run on batteries returns Physics and Graphics scores of 16783 and 6836 points, respectively, compared to 21634 and 22391 points when on mains.

The Alienware m17 R2 is much more sensitive to power settings when compared to most other laptops. Depending on the mode (Power Saver, Balanced, or High Performance), we're able to record average consumption rates ranging from 24 W to 70 W simply by idling on the desktop. In contrast, other laptops like the MSI GS75 or Razer Blade Pro 17 each with the same RTX 2080 Max-Q GPU would top out at only 26 W when under similar settings. If battery life is important to you, then you should definitely make sure you have the correct power mode selected.

Running Witcher 3 consumes 186 W to be nearly identical to both the Razer Blade Pro 17 with the RTX 2080 Max-Q and Asus ROG Strix Scar II GL704GW with the standard RTX 2070. We're able to record a maximum consumption of 235 W from the medium-large (~20 x 10 x 2.6 cm) 240 W AC adapter when running both Prime95 and FurMark simultaneously. Thus, recharge rate will slow significantly if both the CPU and GPU are are 100 percent utilization.