Customer Ratings & Reviews

The Alienware m16 is a great desktop replacement if you’re looking for enough power to play everything you can throw at while keeping the price within reason and still have the portability to pick it up and go. Just invest in a good bag, as it’s heavy. The configuration on this model land it as entry level gaming laptop in the current market, but the performance solid on all the games I threw at it. Pro - Plays everything amazingly. - Lots of Lights, leaves no doubt you’re a gamer. - Upgradeable options and easy to service. Con - Heavy, laptop plus power brick is ~10lbs, this is one Heavy “laptop”. - Non-standard resolution at 2560 x 1600. - Fans are Loud when running at maximum. The Alienware m16 is a laptop that has multiple configuration options, this one lands in the middle of both the price and performance, but by no measure does it not perform well: - CPU: i7 13th Gen 13700HX with 16 cores (8-performance and 8-efficient cores: 24 thread) - GPU: Nvidia Geforce RTX 4070 with 8GB of VRAM - Storage: 2 M.2 NVMe ports, 1TB SSD installed but supports up to 8TB in total (2x 4TB) - Screen: Resolution is 2560 by 1600, with refresh rate of 165Hz. The screen brightness is a bit low at 300 nits but the color gamut is 100% standard RGB. - RAM: 16GB (2x8GB) DDR5 4800MHz. Expandable to 64GB (2x32GB) up to speeds of 5200 MHz. With the above hardware configuration, I was able to run Fortnite at max settings at 120+ FPS and Destiny 2 at High Settings, turning off some light effects, and was able to maintain between 90 to 120 FPS. With the available G-Sync, there were no screen tearing or issues with maintaining smooth frames. The resolution took a second to get used to, at 2560 by 1600, it is a bit odd but not noticeable enough on the 16-inch screen. The screen was easy to game on indoors with the colors coming out beautifully, but at only 300 nits brightness, I had a bit of a challenge seeing details when using in direct sunlight. All in all, the performance was amazing for a laptop, playing everything at max or near max settings without issue. The only performance concern I noticed was that with only 16GB of RAM, in some instances I was able to push the in-use RAM to 80-90%. For gaming on the go, this didn’t cause any issue but if I want to do any more professional or creative work with this configuration, I’d want to upgrade to at least 32GB of RAM to improve the performance. Alienware laptops have always been extremely serviceable, allowing for basic upgrades like RAM and Storage, or replacement of damaged parts such as keyboard or battery. The m16 allows easy access via the back panel, just remove the screws on the bottom and pop the clips using a pry tool or credit card. Once inside, you’ll have direct access to the battery, two RAM slots, 2 M.2 NVMe slots, and a wireless card. The cooling solution on this laptop is very well designed and plenty to keep this laptop going during those long gaming sessions. With 4 fans and 7 heat pipes, you won’t have too much to worry about when it comes to keeping it cool. My biggest concern with this laptop is the size and weight of it, the laptop measures around 11.5in by 14.5in by 1in and the power brick is around 7.75in by 3.75in by 1.5in. This beast is bulky. All together the laptop and power brick weights about 10lbs without any other accessories. This is to be expected with this type of gaming laptop, but is worth considering if you are often traveling this will need a good bag or backpack to care it. Overall, I’m very impressed with what Alienware has done with the m16 and look forward to taking this laptop on trips or over to a friend’s house for a night of gaming. I will be recommending this model to those looking for a premium laptop, that doesn’t skip out on the features.

so far everythings good. no lagging, no hang, no technical issues.

Excelent and great product.. the best Buy of the west...

The Alienware M16 that I received was a bit of a first for me. I’ve had Dell laptops before, but never an Alienware laptop. I’ve had gaming laptops before, but this is the first time I’ve felt like I had a true desktop gaming experience on one. The 165hz has excellent color reproduction with zero light bleed. The 4070 graphics card produces excellent framerates on most games I tested. So, if you’re looking for a gaming laptop, I think this laptop more than fits the bill. Unboxing: I should state upfront that I was using the model with a 4070 graphics card, a 165hz display, and 16GB of RAM. The laptop is squarer than I thought it would be. Its design almost reminds me of the old Compaq and HP laptops of the early 2000’s. It’s all more polished and I really like the finish. This is, understandably, a heavy laptop. But the piece that got the “biggest” reaction from me was the huge power brick. This is the first power brick that could double as a real brick. It’s huge and weighty. If I had one complaint about the laptop, it probably would be this huge, heavy power brick. The laptop has two USB-A 3.2 ports, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a display port, an HDMI port, an ethernet port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a 2.5gbps Killer ethernet port. This laptop isn’t hurting for connectivity. Experience: Initial setup was easy enough. Users should prepare themselves for a few hours’ worth of Windows, Nvidia, and system updates to download. There are a few specific Alienware applications that you will use with this laptop. The biggest for me was “Alienware Command Center”. From there, you can change lighting, monitor fan speeds, and CPU and GPU temperatures. Speaking of lighting, this laptop has the most lighting options of any laptop I have ever used. However, it could be a bit finicky to apply lighting changes to certain sections of the laptop. For some reason, getting lights to change was a bit of trial and error. Sometimes it was flawless, but for some reason the Alienware logo gave me more than a few fits whenever I tried to change the color. Command Center recognized my installed games. It would then, while playing games, change the lighting to different solid configurations depending on the game I was playing. You could also configure an in-game pop-up that would stay on the left side of the screen and provide information about system temps and fan speeds. Video game performance was great. I ran Time Spy to benchmark right away. The laptop earned a 12,480 Time Spy score. As you can see in my attached screenshots, I let NVidia, through the NVidia Experience adjust game settings to get the game performance to optimal. With the recommended settings, I achieved an average FPS of 88.28 on Cyberpunk 2077. Visuals on the included monitor were surprisingly good. The monitor wasn’t the brightest laptop display, but the color representation was good. I had no light bleed to speak of. Dark screens looked appropriately dark. Game images looked good. This is a good display. I should mention the noise. The speakers in the laptop sound good to me. Running an ATMOS audio test, I truly felt the spatial audio worked. But unfortunately, the speakers aren’t the only thing you will hear. This laptop sounds like a jet engine. If you intend to game on this device, I recommend a cooling stand and headphones. This laptop gets hot, and its fans get loud. But, having said that, the fan noise is more the sound of a jet engine than an annoying grinding sound. With a good set of headphones, I didn’t really notice the noise all that much. A good cooling stand can also help bring temps down a bit in my experience. The laptop comes with 16GB of DDR5 RAM and a 1TB NVME drive. At some point, I plan on upgrading the RAM to 32GB and adding another NVME drive. Dell sells compatible heatsinks for NVME drives for under $20 on their website. I would highly recommend you pick one up if you intend to add storage later. Conclusion: As I said in the beginning, this is the first laptop I have owned that truly felt like a desktop replacement. It’s fast enough that I can ditch the desktop without guilt. It’s big and heavy, but it packs a punch. At the moment, I have it docked to an external Dell monitor, keyboard, and mouse. It truly feels like a desktop experience in a portable package. Alienware delivered. I love this laptop. Easy recommendation. 5/5

I’ve been a fan of Alienware systems for a long time now and when I saw that they came out with a new M16 with the RTX4070 GPU I had to give this one a try. Unboxing and First Impressions: The M16 came in a simple logoed laptop styled box similar to all the other ones from the past, and inside the laptop was protected by a nice cardboard framework and plastic bag, they seem to have cut back on packaging as it’s a lot different than the one from my X17. In with it is the power adapter, power cable, and a literature packet with quick start guide and some Alien head stickers. The laptop itself is a good bit smaller than the X17 “and lighter”, on the left side is a ethernet port, a full sized USB port and a audio out “headphone” port. Nothing on the front or right side “just ventilation ports on the right”. The back is where all the ports are, and there are two USB type C ports that support Thunderbolt 4, DisplayPort 1.4 and power charging, there’s also 1 USB A 3.2, 1 HDMI, 1 Mini Display, a SD card slot, and 1 Power port. A lot of port options, but with everything on the back side it makes it more difficult to attach items or use the SD card slot. The keyboard area is nice and spacious and does lack a keypad, but the keys are full sized and the keys are definitely not cramped together like other laptops I’ve owned that squeeze in a keypad. The keyboard and touchpad are also centered on the screen and not off centered due to this. The keys are individually lit and can easily be adjusted with the AlienFX App. The touchpad “although I use a mouse exclusively” is about the perfect size and on this model, it is not backlit, which is fine by me as I always turned off that feature because it was too distracting. The keys themselves are silent, and have “for me” about perfect travel, pretty much typical for an Alienware laptop. Checking out the lid/screen, it’s metal backed and pretty sturdy with just a little flex. The bezels are pretty small, with the bottom having a pretty significant bezel but that also helps lift the screen up and away from the keyboard, it also doesn’t tilt back perfectly flat but does tilt more than enough for anything I’ll be using it for. There’s very little background bleed and with the unit I received it was almost 0 with the exception of one corner displaying a completely black background. Actual Use and Benchmarks: This is one fast system, and I’m very impressed with the performance coming out of a 16” laptop, it’s pretty amazing. I’ve been playing Cyberpunk 2077 and Borderlands 3 on it a few days now and have some scores from various settings. With Cyberpunk 2077 and the graphic settings set to, Ray Tracing Ultra 2550x1600, I was getting 49fps, and this was during battle so it’s playable just not a very high FPS. Then keeping the settings at 2550x1600, graphics set to High, with no Ray Tracing the FPS went up to 71, doesn’t look as good but a lot higher FPS. Turning down the graphic settings to 1920x1200, Ray Tracing Ultra, “still better than 1080” brought up the FPS to 68, much smoother than the 2550 setting. Now changing to 1920x1200 with no ray tracing graphics set to Ultra gave 86 FPS and then setting graphics to High gets an average of 95 FPS. The 4070 handles the Ray Tracing pretty good, and I didn’t bother turning the resolution down to 1080 as I could easily find a very playable setting within these and I’d probably play at 1920x1200 with Ray Tracing at High which was giving around 75 FPS and looks great too. Now with Borderlands 3, I took the FPS settings in “Splinterlands, Big Donnys Chop Shop” which is very graphic intensive I started with a setting of 2560*1600 with graphics set on Ultra, I was getting 88-95 FPS during battle, everything looked spectacular and very smooth. Then changing to 1920*1200 with the graphics left on Ultra I consistently got 122-138 FPS. These are great scores, especially for a laptop. Now for fan noise, during play the reading on my Extech DB meter were 55dbm 2” from the side fan vent, 46dbm 14” away and 42dbm at measured at ear. So you can definitely hear the fans, but they are better than other older model Alienware laptops I’ve owned in the past and you may want to wear headphones if fan noise bothers you. Heat is another item and Alienware did a great job at getting the heat out of the system. There are 7 heat pipes for the CPU/GPU along with 3 cooling fans. They also added a very small cooling fan that blows directly across the system memory. The keyboard does get a little warm and after an hour of gaming the temp around the WASD keys showed between 109-112F, warm but not so hot you can’t play. The palm rest stayed a cool 84-88F and the hottest spot up at the top edge by the screen hit between 120-127F, pretty warm and you don’t want to be resting your hand up there “but why would you”. If you want to lower the temps more then you could use a laptop cooler pad. I’ve attached some benchmark photos so you can see how this looks on Cinebench “regular and overclocked”, overclocking using the Command Center app is simple and makes a big difference. Upgradeability: The bottom cover is easy to remove and there are two captured screws that aid in removing the bottom, they are located at each corner on the bottom right/left if you have the rear facing away from you. Remove all the other screws first then loosen those two “you can’t remove them” and they will push up the bottom just enough to help release it. Now under the cover there are two memory slots, both occupied with 8gb sticks, so if you want to bump up memory, you’ll have to replace both. They are DDR5 and the system supports a maximum of 64gb. There’s also a single NVME slot open that accepts 2230 or 2280 drives and Alienware was thoughtful enough to have a hold down screw already there in the empty slot. You can also replace the wireless card if needed. There’s no space for a 2.5” drive and most laptop manufacturers have eliminated that option for sake of space. Conclusion: I’m amazed just how fast this new M16 really is, it’s very close speed wise to my gaming desktop and the 16” formfactor is about a perfect balance between a 15” and 17”. The older X17 was large and not that portable and it weighed a good bit more than the M16 and the extra screen real estate over the 15” is really nice to have. I’m also impressed with the sound quality of the built in speakers. This is the first laptop I’ve owned that the speakers sound good enough to play or watch movies without having to resort to headphones or a Bluetooth speaker. The only thing that is sort of a negative is the power brick, and “brick” is about spot on, it’s huge and heavy, larger than my X17s. It’s providing 330w of power and is just huge, it’s something to be considered when packing this along. I didn’t bother testing how long the system last on battery during gaming. The system throttles everything back when unplugged and it’s just not worth using it that way for gaming. So if you are looking for a portable very powerful gaming system that’s fully loaded I’d put the Alienware M16 at the top of my shopping list.

Quick Rundown: Super fast gameplay at 1440P Ultrawide. Best sound laptop I have ever used. Well built with solid materials. Great thermals. Upsetting screen brightness. 4 slots for NVME M.2 drives. Easy to upgrade ram. Alienware software needs work. Build Quality: The laptop is probably the best laptop I have ever used in terms of build quality. No gaps and material is high quality. Keyboard: For such a big footprint I felt the keyboard was a bit cramped but still felt good. Strangely Alienware did not fit a number pad on the 16" yet my ASUS Dash F15 was able to fit the number pad. Keys are not loud when typing and. Touchpad: Touchpad is small and I had no issues with it. Audio: The audio is super loud (during windows OOBE experience this machine is at full blast and it is loud). Vocals are deep and gameplay explosions are crips. Screen: Vivid colors. Some backlight bleed on dark seens. Only 300 nit brightness. Felt as bright as my ASUS but dimmer than my Alienware m17. Looked good during apex legends. Camera: Not good at all. Below average but good enough in a pinch. Software: The Alienware Command Center (ACC) was disappointment. It would not load and kept giving me errors. I finally "reset" ACC and it finally loaded. Was able to set power mode and change rgb colors. As far as other programs you get the normal bloatware from windows. Those are easy to delete. I usually reinstall a vanilla version of windows after I do the initial review. Thermals: The thermals are amazing. During normal web browsing, video watching, and office task the fans never kicked on. During benchmarking and gameplay they do kick on. I measured the decibels and was about 47-50 decibels during gameplay (probably as loud as a good dishwasher). Gameplay (GPU): This kicks the but of my old 3070 asus laptop. The 4070 is on par with a desktop 3060ti and rx 6700 (those being about 5% faster on average). This does have mux switch. Was getting about 144fps on apex legends at 1440p and all setting at max. No stuttering or frame drops. Only thing I don't like is the mobile 3070 only comes with 8Gb memory (not future proof)! Ports: Like most laptop these days Alienware is stingy with ports. I did like the inclusion of the mini display port and the sd card slot. A couple of thoughts: The power brick is huge and the wire gauge of the cord is super thick. No usb-c power adapter included. The bottom plate is easy to open to upgrade and/or clean. This laptop is heavy. The killer wifi is better than the intel ax on my old laptop. -0.5 star for screen brightness -0.5 star for 8Gb Rtx 4070 (desktop rtx 4070 has 12Gb memory) Passmark of 12083 CPU Mark 38110.5 GPU Mark: 23140 Would recommend.

The Alienware m16 is one of those laptops that try to strike a balance between size and portability. Although frankly, I doubt this laptop is intended to be portable. So I will treat it as more of a decent gaming laptop that happens to be portable. Much of the specifications are already published so I will not dive into the details here. However, there are a couple of hardware pieces that are worth mentioning either because it’s not the norm or is worth noting. The first is the GPU, which is powered by the nvidia RTX 4070 Laptop. Its architecture design belongs to the desktop RTX 4060Ti yet its CUDA count sits between the 4060Ti and the 4070. The networking hardware is powered by Killer, which is a bit of a downer since I believe it’s unnecessary. Network performance will be mostly the same regardless of what networking hardware is used. The only difference is that one can prioritize network traffic on Killer hardware. But I question who actually utilizes this feature nowadays. As a power user, I went through the first time Windows setup in a different route – I set up a local account instead of using a Microsoft account. There are guides on how to do this so a bit of searching will net you some links and pointers. Otherwise, the standard setup procedure is easy, simple, and straightforward enough to guide you through without much trouble. Also of note, Windows 11 Pro comes installed for this model. This is a bit of a surprise since the majority of all laptops come with Windows 11 Home, including a lot of laptops classified as gaming laptops. The laptop comes with 16GB which is configured as two SODIMM memory. This opens up the possibility of upgrading the laptop up to (according to Intel’s documentation and specification) 128GB. There are two M.2 slots, with one being occupied by a 1TB SK Hynix SSD. The SSD part number is HFS001TEJ9X101N should one want to know for reference. The left side has the microphone/headphone combo jack, an Ethernet networking port, and USB port. The back of the laptop has two thunderbolt ports, USB, HDMI, mini-DisplayPort, and a SD card reader. I’m always appreciative and welcoming of having the HDMI port at the back of the laptop, which makes connecting the laptop to an external display easier. It also keeps the laptop usable without having an annoying cable sticking out on the side and possibly restricting space on either side. For a short performance test, I installed Death Stranding Director’s Cut via Epic Games Launcher. To gather its performance as well as thermal readings, I installed MSI Afterburner 4.6.5 and OCCT. I went through the new game introduction sequence up to after the cave sheltering. From there, I exited the game and evaluated the numbers. As for framerate, the 4070 Laptop kept up fairly well, never letting the game dip below 100fps. This is also at its native resolution of 2560x1600 with stock detail setting and no upscaling. This is pretty impressive yet at the same time a bit of a letdown. I have not yet found a game that I could potentially push the GPU in my library. But with the performance seen in this one game, I came away surprised and impressed. Perhaps this is only due to how well coded the game was. As for the Intel CPU, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, it handles workloads easily. But with Death Stranding playing, I also worry about thermals. OCCT reported a max temperature of 100°C on all of the performance cores. The fans did spin up to reasonably keep the system cooled but I never adjusted the fan profiles. I also worry about fan noise if I were to adjust it. Networking was not tested as I do not have a wireless access point capable of 6E and my networking equipment cannot do 2.5Gbit. But it handles well enough that it is satisfactory. I’m sure wired networking will be flawless so there’s little need to check that. Sound seems okay but I didn’t run through my audio testing gauntlet to check. The speakers are downward firing so I do not expect good sound from it. I may be wrong on it though. Lastly, the webcam is perhaps the biggest disappointment for the laptop. Its 720p resolution is unacceptable in today’s day and age no matter what your target market is. Dell/Alienware should have done better to make 1080p webcam standard across every laptop. There are also no infrared sensors for facial recognition and no fingerprint reader for biometric authentication. This means having to type your password or PIN every time you log into the laptop. Servicing or upgrading the laptop is mostly straightforward. With the lid opening facing towards you, there are two capped screws on the bottom corners. The rest can be removed and it’s just a matter of carefully prying the back cover off. The bottom screws are all angled differently so I suggest being careful on how you orient your screwdriver. The back cover also covers the sides so extra caution is needed to carefully separate it from the laptop. Once it’s off, you have access to the internals. The M.2 slots are towards the right. I find it strange that there’s a heat spreader for the installed M.2 SSD but no spare for the empty slot. The two SODIMM slots are towards the center and are occupied by two SK hynix 8GB DDR5 RAM with part number HMCG66MEBSA095N for both. Both are rated for 4800MT speed, the maximum the Intel processor can handle. Overall, I’m a bit conflicted. The performance is definitely there and I cannot deny that it’s a decent laptop. But there are some glaring points that I just cannot ignore for a laptop at this price. The lack of biometric authentication is inconvenient. The low 720p webcam resolution is reminiscent of the same problem many people complained about on fruity competitor laptops. In today’s day and age of Zoom meetings and video conferencing, 720p isn’t going to cut it. I also have concerns of thermals and this is mirrored on Intel’s desktop counterparts. While it isn’t a problem at all, I find it strange that they did not include a spare heat spreader for the second M.2 slot. Those SSD get quite hot and it can lead to thermal throttling if not sufficiently cooled. Yet despite all the glaring flaws, is this laptop worth recommending? That’s difficult to determine. I personally think that there are probably better options out there that will provide similar performance but without the issues noted earlier. Unfortunately, this laptop isn’t a slam dunk. The Good: smooth performance, handles most games easily The Bad: 720p webcam & no infrared sensor, no fingerprint reader, no spare heat spreader for second M.2 slot The Ugly: 720p webcam Verdict: Shop first to compare, definitely not a first choice laptop

Unboxing and setup were completed within a half hour. Once I was up and running I ran the (Awesome) Alienware Command Center and downloaded all the current updates. The system is very sleek (except for the huge power brick which I would like to see smaller in future) Windows 11 takes some getting used to but I’ve had it on previous Laptop and once you get used to it, it is not bad at all. As far as gaming I loaded up a few games, all of which played great. No lag at all. Last one was Elden Ring. At max settings and it held FPS at 60 and above except an occasional dip to mid 50’s. Most of my gaming are simulations that so far have run without any issues whatsoever. Suggestion/TIP: Make sure you go into the Nvidia control panel and set it to use the Nvidia card for all programs. I don’t have a lot installed as I like to keep my gaming rigs as low as possible with things running in background etc.. and the boot time is exceptional. The fans do ramp up at time to help with the cooling and you can use the Alienware software to set overclocking and other performance settings (As well as change the color of the "Alien" light on the system. The system seems to run cooler as far as I can tell than the M15 R5 I also have. I still recommend having the laptop on a cooler stand regardless. Just my personal preference. I currently have it hooked to a Sony G-Sync monitor and the picture is beautiful. :) Eventually I may add more Hard drive space but the included 1TB will probably suit me for what I am planning for this Laptop. The price is, IMO, a great price for what you are getting, and I couldn’t be happier with the system.

The LCD screen burned out in two months. Dell support was willing to make a warranty claim, but my replacement LCD screen won’t be available for FOUR months. Don’t buy this. Don’t buy any Alienware as they don’t support them like they do with their base model laptops. Parts are not available for Alienware computers. Even if you were to pay for BestBuys warranty they would not be able to replace failed components because they aren’t available.

There is time problems I really don’t know if that’s me, or that is the laptop

I bught this loptop yesterday, and then after I finished all the settings.when the display goes into black screen mode, and I got a lot of light leaking out of the edge of the screen. I'm so confused,Why a professional gaming loptop has such a big drawback？

After three days of ownership the hard drive stopped being recognized. I never even got to play a game on it. Unfortunately I am out of town and unsure how I will resolve. I would prefer to just return it and get something other than an Alienware/Dell

This is my 2nd Alienware PC I have owned, My first one I purchased came out around 8 years ago, the Alienware Alpha! or aka the "Steam Machine" and I used it as my daily driver and I liked it a lot! I figured I would try out another PC from Alienware, this time, the M16 Laptop. Packaging: Upon opening the package, I was greeted by a nice sleek but simple design packaging/box and inside was the M16 laptop nicely protected along with documentation, alien head stickers, power cable and this enourmous huge size brick which its literally the same size of a actual brick almost. M16 Laptop Design and Feel: Upon taking the M16 laptop out, it feels like a solid build power gaming house laptop with its sort of a metal top and bottom feel to it, rubber feet that goes all the way around the bottom to keep it from even slightly moving on whatever surface you put it on, and opening the hinge/lid is nice and study with no wobble, flex or no creek at all. It just feels great. Also with its Gunmetal Gray color tone to it (Which by the way, it looks slick and nice for this), it is alittle heavy but personally to me, its nothing to complain about considering I feel like there was no corners cut with this laptop and it was built to be sturdy and last for a long long time. Booting and usage: First booting and setting up Windows, well, its Windows, there is love and hate with the OS with almost everyone I believe now days, besides that, its a very very fast and responsive laptop, I mean, its REALLY amazing. I went ahead and downloaded some graphic intensive games I thought I felt best would put it to the maximium tests, With 2560 X 1440 Resolution, and trying Ultra Settings, I tried out Redfall and it was getting around 31FPS, I bumped it down to High Settings and was getting much better results of 73FPS. Another game I tried out with Star Wars: Jedi Fallen and I was getting smooth gameplay on there also with Ultra Settings bringing in around 81FPS and on High Settings, I was getting easily 145FPS. I consider these scores to be really nice, as im not to much on FPS, as long as its playable and smooth and with some games on some platforms being locked to 30FPS. This M16 is already impressing me with how it handles these games so well. I will say that while during playing games, the fans are definiately noticeable from sitting away about 2 to even 8 feet away but they are not terribly loud and after you hear them kick up, after a minute or so, I didnt even pay attention to them being a little loud, as I could hear my gameplay perfectly with the speakers. The Ports they did a great job with except I want to know why in the earth did they put a full size SD card slot on the back and a RJ-45 on the side, It would of been better if they switched those around as everything mostly is going to be plugged in the back and if I wanted to slide a SD card in, instead of quickly sliding it in on the side with a quick glance, I would have to either get up or pull the back of the laptop up, hold the laptop while putting a SDCard in and then sit it back down. Upgradability: From the Alpha to this... They have still believe in servicability!!! Upon opening the bottom cover, you can see there is 2 memory slots, both being used by 8GB sticks, with this laptop being able to max out at 64GB, you would have to replace both sticks with (2) 32GB DDR5 sticks. There is (2) NVME Slots, one pre-occupied already with a 512GB SSD and the other being open which they will accept either 2230 or 2280 NVME SSD drives and Dell was so nice to already have a pre-included screw considering when buying a NVME SSD no screw is included so big points for that. I also found that the wirelesss card can be replaced but I see no reason too considering the WIFI Card performs exceptionally well above with my internet speeds. This M16 is considered a vapor chamber considering with the fans inside that is keeping this powerful laptop nice and cool, the only thing I didnt like is the motherboard is inverted meaning the CPU/GPU is on the other side of the motherboard meaning, if in the future, you decide you want to repaste this laptop, unfortunately you will have to take this entire laptop apart. Sometimes when a PC comes from the factory, there may be occurances of a not so great thermal compound paste applied, and it requires sooner rather then later clean and repaste so if you decide to buy this M16, and you start noticing thermals being more up there then normally as time goes by, it may be good to go ahead and disasemble the entire laptop, clean, repaste it properly and put it back together. Hopefully, Dell/Alienware has applied enough paste which will make this last for a good 3-5 years or more. Other small stuff I would like to add: RGB is really nice with the keyboard, and the back grill area and the alienware logo on the lid it self. You can either set it to rotate different colors or set it to a static color or even off. I choosed Blue since its my favorite color. The keyboard feels a great with the typing experience. The Mouse feels ok, it moves ok, it glides ok, it feels just a bit clunky, it would of been nice if the trackpad had some RGB also perhaps, and maybe a physical left and right click button instead of having to press in on the trackpad, especially if im gaming in the dark, I sometimes found myself accidently clicking in on the trackpad in the wrong area or the wrong button but not big deal. The palm rest is a soft touch finish/coating, it does get some fingerprints but not to overly bad. The speakers are downward firing, which it sounds great, but even more nice when its louder. In a normal environment with lets say in a family room with 4-8 people talking, you shouldnt have any trouble hearing the speakers on the laptop. The webcam and audio sounds ok, its 720p, bonus is it does Windows Hello Sign in if you want to sign in with your facial recognition which it detected my face and logged in ok everytime when I powered on the M16. Battery is average, I did a battery test from 100% to 0% streaming Youtube, and I almost made it to 4 hours in performance mode with 200 nits at brightness. If your wondering about PD charging, unfortunately, there is no luck with that as I tested the thunderbolt ports and they did not charge the laptop at all so your stuck with the brick which when I did my research, I actually found that in the UK, they have a slim power brick charger that is much more nicer in design, slim compared to the clunky one here in the US that I received. I wonder why they didnt include the slim alienware power brick with this? I messed with Alienware Command Center and I was not overly impressed with it, I ran into some glitches and bugs with it but overall, its just ok, nothing to talk much about really. Overall I am impressed and very happy with this laptop, the build, the quality, the screen is beautiful, the 4060 and 13700HX CPU, its a workhorse and I have been loving it so far. The pros outweigh the few cons I mentioned big time and I look forward to using this as my main workstation and gaming for everything!

When deciding whether or not to purchase this laptop over other options, I did a lot of research. With the $1,399 sale price, I was very suspicious I was overlooking a glaring flaw, or that the specs listed had errors. However, I was unable to find anything wrong, so I bought it, and have been quite pleased with it so far. Overall, the build quality and feel of materials is excellent and does NOT show fingerprints. Both the keyboard and touchpad feel good. It is heavy for a laptop, the included power brick is enormous, & I wish they had put the ethernet port in back, and moved one of the thunderbolt ports to the side. However, I knew all that before buying, so I'm not complaining. Also, I'm planning on ordering a slim charging brick from the OEM, so that should alleviate one of those issues. There is an error and an omission in the product listing that I'd like to set straight: One, the ethernet port is faster than the listed 1Gbps, and in fact is an Intel Killer 2.5Gbps controller. Secondly, the computer can take up to DDR5 6000 SODIMMS (as long as both sticks are the same speed. (It comes with DDR5 4800 preinstalled)). I upgraded the RAM with 2x 32GB DDR5 5600 SODIMM sticks (total 64GB), and replaced the single original SSD with 2x Samsung EVO 990-Pro 2TB SSDs. The laptop does have a RAID controller, but I disabled it to use one drive for Windows/gaming/VR, and the other dedicated to dual booting Linux. I am very happy to report that all the hardware works great with Linux, and only the NVIDIA GPU required 3rd party drivers. I've played several very demanding games (including VR) on the laptop, and have never seen a significant drop in frame rates, even with all the settings at ultra. I have mostly played on the built-in screen, but have also played on my 4k TV using both HDMI 2.1 & thunderbolt 4 (I had to test it out of course). The laptop has a mux switch and Optimus if you prefer one or the other, and the graphics card can reach its full potential since its power is not artificially limited, like most gaming laptops are. When using Intel graphics and balanced power profile in Linux, I manage to get about 5hrs of use on a single charge before dropping below 20%. By comparison, the most I've squeezed out of Windows was 2.5 - 3hrs. Both numbers with moderate web browsing (Firefox) and clerical software (Libre Office & Google’s office suite) usage. My only real complaint is that there is a little bit of backlight bleeding along about a half inch of the screen bezel on the left. I can only really see it while the computer is booting though. Also, on a few occasions the computer refused to wake from sleep while using Windows, but I chalk that up to Windows 11, as this problem is non-existent while using Linux. That has been the only issue with usage I've encountered. In conclusion, I've been pleasantly surprised with how much I like this laptop. So much so, I bought another one to give my kid for Christmas. It's a great machine, and well worth its normal price. If you can get it on sale for $1,399 like I did, then it's a no brainer.

The laptop is very robust for any student or business person. I got this laptop during this Black Friday only for $999. It was totally worth it. I recommend waiting for a lower price or when deals become available. The Alienware M16 gaming laptop is heavy. The power brick is massive, but you can expect that since it is a beast. The battery life is fine, not bad. It lasts about 4-5 hours or more, depending on usage/lightning. When purchasing the laptop, I thought about the HP Omen 16.1 I7 and Alienware M18, but this M16 would be a better fit for my daily work. The graphics card is newer, and the best part is I can upgrade this laptop. The refresh rate of 165+ is also perfect for gaming, watching movies, or browsing the web. In conclusion, I recommend this laptop for anyone looking for a little premium feel and wanting to upgrade in the long run. The laptop is lightning-fast!

Dell continues to evolve their gaming laptop, and the M18 shows that the company is continuing its path in the right direction. The biggest draw for most gamers looking for a new laptop are the processor and graphics card. In this case, you get a good combination of mid level components, but the experience feels well above mid level. The only reason I say mid level is because there’s the i9 and the RTX 4090. You have 16 GB of ram to utilize from the get go, but you have the option of getting more. The best news it that none of the slots have soldered ram, so you can upgrade to your liking. You get a 1 TB NVMe SSD. You also have another available slot for more storage. With some of the game file sizes these days, it’s a shame that we haven’t gone over the 1TB minimum storage space yet, but as mentioned, you can always add more, so yay. The display is a beautiful 16 inch 165Hz QHD with a 3ms response time. With a 165Hz refresh rate and a 3ms response time, you will have a pretty smooth experience on screen whether you’re playing a FPS, driving, action, rpg, etc. When it comes to sound, you get a Dolby Atmos speaker set up. The speakers sound pretty good and are quite loud, however the bass is lacking. Most gamers will use a nice pair of headphones, but in the event that you find yourself without one, or the batteries need recharging, the speakers will more than do the job. In terms of build and aesthetic, the cover has this nice brushed aluminum feel/finish to it. The laptop is deceptively heavy. When I say deceptively heavy, I mean it in a good way. It feels Saturday, and once placed on your desk, you won’t see it moving around too much during play. There is RGB lighting on the keyboard as well as the back of the base where the majority of the ports are located. The keyboard feels nice and tactile, and the touch pad is quite responsive. The touch pads on most gaming laptops have been quite poor, but on the M18, you’ll have no issues performing gestures, and moving the scroller around. Of course most people will use a nice gaming mouse to play their favorite game, but the touch pad is nice for doing basic tasks. On the left side of the laptop you have two ports; an ethernet port, and a USB-A, and a headphone jack. The placement of the ethernet port is quite awkward. On the back you have the remaining ports; 2 USB-C, 1 USB-A, 1 HDMI, 1 mini display port, 1 SD card slot, and the power plug port. Everything seems to fit except for the SD card slot. First of all, the regular SD slot isn’t used in most devices these days. Most if not all of the devices except for my DSLR camera, use micro SD. I would have preferred it if there were 2 micro SD slots in place of the 1 regular sized SD slot. Also, I would have moved it to the side, or even the front of the base of the laptop. You could easily two a couple of more TB’s of secondary storage. I do like that the majority of the ports are located on the back of the laptop so it gives it a cleaner look. I think the ethernet port could have been moved to the back and the SD card slot could have moved to the side, but that’s just me. Okay, with all of that out of the way, let me talk about the gaming, since it’s the primary focus of the laptop. With RTX 4070, you’ll get great performance, and the option of using ray tracing (Which is what the RT stands for in the RTX). In just about every pc game out there, you can adjust your graphical settings. There are presets, or you can adjust them according to your preference. If you’re going to try and max out the settings, then you may see a considerable dip in overall performance. Besides the graphic settings, your display settings will also play a role in the overall performance. You’ll have to take both into account in order to get the best performance out of the game of your choosing. So for example, trying to the latest AAA game in 4K at top tier settings may result in low frames per second. If you don’t mind going to 1440p, you may see an improvement in performance, as mentioned, this will have to be done in a trial and error or use the presets. For my test, I used a well known FPS shooter, a racing game, and a survival horror game. I decided to have my display settings in 1440p and used ultra settings. In most of my tests, I had a range from 60 fps to 120 fps. When I used ray tracing, my performance dipped as expected. First Person Shooters will always have a performance over graphics feel to them, but in my test, I was able to get a good balance of both. I didn’t see low frames per second on any of the game that I tested. Ray tracing enhances the visuals of just about every game that can utilize it, but you will see a slowdown in overall smoothness, so that too will have to be determined by the user. All in all, this is a great laptop, that feels premium, has a high build quality, great components, some odd port design choices and locations, and plays just about all available games at high to super high settings without slowdown.

Summary - a good laptop, great build quality, decent software, 4070 is an upgrade over a 3070 laptop gpu especially with DLSS frame generation, nice upgradability, large power brick, minor software gripes, recommend 32gb ram. I have used many gaming laptops over the years and this Alienware impresses overall. The Alienware M16 is packaged well without a lot of unnecessary extras in the box. The laptop feels great with a metal exterior and a slightly soft interior that does not get too dirty or smudged too easily with fingerprints. The build quality is excellent but this does lead to a heavier than usual gaming laptop at almost 7 pounds. Software on the laptop was OK. The machine does not have a lot of unnecessary bloatware which was nice to see. The Alienware command center has been upgraded from previous versions. It automatically loads games you install into the software so when you launch them it sets the machine to performance mode and loads an RGB scheme that matches the game. This feature is cool and potentially useful, but I couldn't figure out how to disable it. I made sure to run windows update and update the graphics drivers from Nvidia before playing any games. There was a Killer wifi app that was throttling my download speed to 15 megabytes a second I had to uninstall. The M16 has Nvidia advanced Optimus which switches from the 4070 to the intel integrated GPU as needed, with only a split second interruption when launching a game. It worked well for me most of the time. Once I could not get Call of Duty to launch and I believe it was an Optimus glitch because it worked fine when I went to the Nvidia control panel and cycled the GPU mode back and forth. Gaming performance is excellent. I was able to get a 12500 time spy score with minimal tweaking. Games that support DLSS3 frame generation can see a massive FPS boost, and games that don't the 4070 still delivers great results. Call of duty MW2 ran over 100fps easily on pretty high graphic settings and CSGO ran 200-300fps on max settings. The machine does not feel hot while playing games thanks to the high build quality. I played Hogwarts legacy and it ran well however with the 16gb of ram stock it does stutter a little bit. I decided to upgrade the machine to 32gb ddr5 4800 which was easy to do. I removed the screws from the back, and the two corner ones prop up the lid so you can pry it off with a plastic pry tool. I added a second SSD as well. Some YouTube reviews of the M16 show 4 SSD slots; this particular machine had 2 SSD slots instead of 4. Not an issue for me or most, but wanted to point that out. I am very glad Alienware has brought back upgradable ram as 16gb just isn't enough for some newer games and some previous laptops didn't have upgradable ram. With the 32gb ram, Hogwarts legacy stutters were gone and it ran like a dream with the settings maxed out and DLSS3 frame generation. The machine does not overheat. I believe there is a vapor chamber cooler. The intel CPU by nature runs at or near 100C often, but that is how it is intended to run in a laptop. The GPU temps were about 74-75c in game which was awesome. The fans are a bit loud but do not spike up and down randomly; they are consistent which is really nice. The 330w power brick is very large. The machine does take advantage of the 330w, I did see system power draw as reported by HWINFO64 to exceed 270w at times, but I wish the brick was smaller for easier travel. I found that with a padded bag for a 17" laptop the M16 fit well. The screen is good but I wish it could hit 500 nits of brightness. This one is about 350, which is still good, but sometimes a little more brightness is good. Color gamut is supposed to be 99% SRGB which is fine for gaming. The 1600p resolution is excellent. Overall I like this laptop a lot. It has good build quality, good performance, good upgradability. Although I did not have any major software issues, I hope Alienware continues to refine the command center software and add features without adding bloat.

I recently purchased the Alienware M16, and it has completely exceeded my expectations. From its sleek, futuristic design to its top-of-the-line performance, this laptop is an absolute powerhouse. Performance: The M16 is equipped with the latest Intel Core i9 processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 graphics card, delivering an insanely smooth experience even for the most demanding games and creative software. Whether I'm gaming at ultra settings or working with high-resolution video editing, the laptop handles everything with ease. I’ve noticed a significant improvement in multitasking as well, with no lag or slowdowns during intensive use. Display: The 16-inch QHD+ display is breathtaking. With 240Hz refresh rate and excellent color accuracy, it’s perfect for both gaming and content creation. The visuals are vibrant, and the screen is bright enough to use comfortably in various lighting conditions. Design: As expected from Alienware, the M16 has a premium build quality. The materials feel durable yet lightweight, and the aesthetic is bold yet refined. The RGB lighting around the keyboard adds a nice personal touch that makes the laptop look even cooler. Keyboard and Trackpad: The keyboard is extremely responsive, with excellent key travel, making it a pleasure to type on. The trackpad is large and smooth, making navigation easy and precise. Cooling System: One of the standout features is the advanced cooling system. Despite running heavy workloads, the laptop remains impressively cool and quiet, which is a huge advantage for long gaming or work sessions. Battery Life: While gaming laptops are notorious for poor battery life, the Alienware M16 manages to offer solid performance even when not plugged in. I can get several hours of regular use, though of course, gaming will drain it faster. Overall: The Alienware M16 is an outstanding laptop that delivers in every area: performance, display, design, and user experience. It’s the perfect choice for serious gamers, content creators, and professionals who need a high-end machine. If you're looking for a laptop that can handle anything you throw at it, the M16 is worth every penny.

I ordered open Box Excellent. It came with some markings and in poor shape. Behind the screen (on the cover), there was some dents.

While it took awhile to get the laptop up and running because of the expansive number of security, windows, software, and driver updates, it was well worth the wait. I am not sure if this had anything to do with the fact that this has Windows 11 Pro versus Home. Thankfully I was able to get this laptop at a significant discount during a great sale. Pricing this in comparison to other laptops I had looked at, taking into account the discount, this laptop is far better than all the others. The 13th generation i7 CPU and RTX 4070 are game changers. Checking CPU and GPU benchmarks and now having played two significant resource usage games at very high settings, this laptop screams with speed. The fan is continually running but it isn’t terribly loud under heavy load and what really sets this apart from other gaming laptops is the significant cooling channels. It is a bit heavy due to the fact that the case is aluminum instead of plastic but this is a definite win in the trade off category. And yes, because it is a gaming laptop the battery life is not great. However, this laptop has the ability to auto detect if you are gaming, if not gaming it throttles everything down and even bypasses any usage of the GPU. Very nice feature.