“Why does this computer only have 5 reviews and the comparable laptops have so many more? Is it new or something? Is something wrong with it that I’m not seeing or understanding?”
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I guess it´s just that this one is way more expensive than the other ones, so people may prefer a cheaper one
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.No it’s not new (2023 model) and there’s nothing to freak out. The answer to your mystery lies in the brand Alienware, which is the gaming division of Dell - a vendor that was always such Intel fanbois that they almost never made any models based on AMD CPUs. But lately AMD laptop CPUs are so much better than Intel that Dell can’t ignore AMD, and Dell has put AMD CPUs in up to 10% of their products, and since Dell is a skilled vendor, I will assume they make decent products until proved otherwise. But since Dell mostly makes Intel products, not too many people shop Dell for an AMD laptop - thus maybe not that many sold - not that many reviews either. But I wouldn’t get scared away by that - it’s slow process for Dell to open up their brains to AMD. Another thing is, Dell/Alienware has a nasty habit of recycling product names - sometimes when a product flips CPU vendors. This product is the Alienware m16 - now properly referred to as the m16 R1 now that the m16 R2 (the Intel version) has come out. Well of course Dell is focusing on marketing the newer m16 R2, and a lot of people might assume that m16 R2 is better than m16 R1 just since it’s newer. But they couldn’t be more wrong. There are a couple m16 R2 variants - I’ll pick one priced the same at $2100 with an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H and 32 GB and 1 TB and an RTX 4080. Meanwhile the original m16 R1 (this laptop) has almost identical specs except the AMD CPU, namely the Ryzen 9 7845HX CPU that is the chopped down 12-core brother to the more powerful 16-core 7945HX. Now as I write, this m16 R1 is on sale ($600 off) for $2100 - so same price as the Intel m16 R2. With otherwise identical specs one would choose the model with more powerful CPU. Well the AMD CPU is order-of-magnitude about 60% more powerful than the Intel CPU. The AMD has 12 performance cores that can run up to 24 threads at once. The Intel has 6 performance cores that can run up to 12 threads at once - plus the Intel has another 8 efficiency cores and 2 very low power efficiency cores that help a little but not that much. Basically, the AMD CPU would have been twice as powerful (i.e., 100% more powerful due to having 12 versus 6 performance cores, but that 100% advantage is cut back to a +60% advantage by the tiny contribution of the Intel efficiency cores. Note that the most powerful laptop currently available contains the 16-core AMD big-brother CPU and is thus 4/3 as powerful as the CPU in this m16 R1. The only laptop that is thusly the king of the heap is a (currently over $3000) Asus model that does have a 4090, but I don’t need a 4090. So this m16 R1 has to be on my own list for possible purchase. Its only downsides are only a slow 1 gigabit Ethernet and no USB 4 and no WiFi 7.
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