Alienware X16 review 2024: ultimate gaming laptop

Alienware is a brand name that is practically synonymous with gaming hardware, and this year the business is giving their laptops an upgrade by incorporating the Legion 3.0 design language. Both the x14 and the x16, which were just recently made available, have chassis designs made of magnesium alloy and aluminum tops. Our test device is a very well-appointed x16 with a 1 terabyte solid-state drive (SSD), an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 graphics processing unit (GPU), 32 gigabytes of LPDDR5-6000 memory, and an Intel Core i9-13900HK processor.

Other features include a 16-inch QHD+ display with a resolution of 2560 by 1600 pixels, and it also has an RGB touchpad, which is something I’ve never seen on a laptop before. Although Alienware has provided this option in the past, the x16 provides greater granular control over its configuration settings. Alienware incorporates all of these elements into a laptop that is reasonably slim and lightweight, but the question remains as to whether or not this is sufficient to position it among the best gaming laptops currently available on the market.

Alienware X16: Specifications

The Alienware X16 review is very important because it shows how the game laptop works, how it looks, and what features it has. It helps people who are interested in buying figure out what they need and want from their game investment.

Alienware x16: Design

You won’t be able to fool anyone into thinking that the Alienware x16 is anything other than a high-end gaming laptop. If the Alienware logo wasn’t enough to tip you off, the RGB lighting that surrounds the back of the device should be. Because of its sophisticated curved lid and Lunar Silver magnesium alloy chassis, the laptop, which comes as no surprise coming from Alienware, has an overall design that gives it a futuristic appearance.

The all-black interior of the laptop provides a wonderful contrast to the silver chassis of the device. The air intakes for the cooling system can be found directly above the keyboard, and they have an understated but eye-catching honeycomb pattern. Two speakers are located on either side of the keyboard, which not only looks beautiful but also adds some visual variation. The size of the touchpad isn’t particularly enormous, but the RGB lighting that it generates is a welcome addition.

The Alienware x16 is a large and hefty laptop, measuring 14.3 by 11.4 by 0.7 inches and weighing 6 pounds. Its screen is 14.3 inches diagonally. In spite of this, I had no trouble carrying it about the office thanks to its superb weight distribution and slim profile, which made it very comfortable to hold. It had a smooth surface, which made it nice to grip, and a robust build, which distinguished it as a premium product. Together, these qualities made it feel like a high-quality item.

Alienware x16: Display

Although the innovative rubber strip that goes around the whole underside of the chassis ensures good airflow, it also eats up extra room inside of a laptop bag. The display, which measures 16 inches, is hidden beneath the lid of the device, as the name of the device suggests. Because ventilation is a concern on both sides of the unit, all of the ports have been relocated to the back of the device.

In a laptop designed for gaming, it makes logical to avoid putting any connections on the right side, as that is where you will place your mouse; nevertheless, having to go around the back of the laptop to plug in a pair of headphones is not very convenient. However, there is a plenty of ports, including a 3.5mm headphone jack, a microSD card reader, and two DisplayPort and HDMI connections in addition to the two USB-C ports.

Full-size SD is still the standard format for digital cameras, therefore we feel that would have been the best choice. The ‘Stadium Ring’ LEDs are bright enough to light your desktop in RGB hues and make it a little simpler to determine which port you’re after in the dark while you’re using them. Additionally, the well-known alien head insignia that is located on the lid illuminates.

Keyboard and Touchpad

One of the most notable aspects of the product that I evaluated is that it features a keyboard that was co-created by Cherry and that makes use of low-profile CherryMX switches. These switches are comparable to the ones that were featured on the Cherry KW X ULP keyboard that I evaluated not too long ago. This makes it possible for it to have a mechanical feel while yet being able to fit inside the chassis of a laptop, and honestly, it’s fantastic.

I really enjoyed using this keyboard for both gaming and general typing purposes. There is an appropriate amount of tension and travel distance, and the keys do not bottom out in an unpleasant manner. My only gripe is that the switches occasionally had a clacking sensation when I used them. When I typed, sometimes I could hear the metallic mechanisms inside the laptop, which didn’t feel quite right even if it wasn’t always audible. This wasn’t always the case, though. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it was extremely distracting, but my ears certainly didn’t find it to be the most comfortable.

Alienware x16: Gaming Performance

Excellent gaming performance can be expected from the Alienware x16. Our test equipment came equipped with a 13th-generation Intel Core i9-13900HK CPU, an Nvidia RTX 4080 graphics card, and 32 gigabytes of random access memory (RAM), which is sufficient power to run even the most graphically demanding best PC games at high settings.

After booting up Doom Eternal and increasing the graphics settings to Ultra Nightmare, I noticed that the game’s frame rate would range anywhere from the upper 130s to the lower 140s at a resolution of 1,600p. When I played Spider-Man with the graphics settings set to High and DLSS3 enabled, I saw frame counts that were comparable.

General Performance

The Alienware x16 is more than capable of completing tasks such as accessing the web, processing words, and even editing videos. Even though I had more than 20 tabs open, watched a movie on YouTube, and used Slack at the same time, the laptop never slowed down when I was using it during a typical workday. The Alienware x16 received a score of 2,607 for a single core and a strong 14,202 for multiple cores when it was put through the Geekbench 6 test, which measures how well a CPU operates.

The single-core performance of the ROG Strix Scar 16 was 2,844, and the multi-core performance was 16,481. These two machines are superior to the Razer Blade 16 (2,741/13,769) in terms of performance. The process of converting a 4K movie into a 1080p video on the Alienware x16 takes four minutes and fifty seconds when using the Handbrake program. The ROG Strix Scar 16 finished the task at 2 minutes and 47 seconds, while the Razer Blade 16 took 4 minutes and 8 seconds.

Alienware x16: Ports

All of the ports have been moved to the rear of the device where they belong. In a laptop designed for gaming, it makes logical to avoid putting any connections on the right side, as that is where you will place your mouse; nevertheless, having to go around the back of the laptop to plug in a pair of headphones is not very convenient.

However, there is a plenty of ports, including a 3.5mm headphone jack, a microSD card reader, and two DisplayPort and HDMI connections in addition to the two USB-C ports. Full-size SD is still the standard format for digital cameras, therefore we feel that would have been the best choice.

Alienware x16: Software

The x16 comes pre-installed with four applications that are unique to the Alienware brand. These applications are the Alienware Command Center, Alienware Customer Connect, Alienware Digital Delivery, and Alienware Update. Both Alienware Customer Connect and Alienware Update are really straightforward and easy to use. The software that was purchased together with your Alienware computer can be downloaded from the Alienware Digital Delivery website.

On the other hand, you will spend the most of your time in the Alienware Command Center. This is the location from which you can monitor the performance and vitals of the system, configure the power profiles, and adjust the lighting effects of AlienFX, among other things.

Dolby Access, which allows users to alter the settings for Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision, and the Killer Intelligence Center, which allows users to monitor the Wi-Fi 6E card and network traffic, were two of the other apps that were installed. Additionally, there are a number of shortcuts pre-installed for applications such as WhatsApp, ESPN, Instagram, and Spotify.

Alienware x16: Battery Life

The x16 includes a battery that has a capacity of 90 kWh, which allows it to have a greater energy life than its competitors. In our battery test, which included surfing the web, streaming movies, and running OpenGL tests with the screen brightness set to 150 nits, the x16 lasted for five hours and 37 minutes total. During the course of the test, the Raider GE78 HX only lasted for a total of two hours and 32 minutes.

Price and Availability

On Dell’s website, you can now buy an Alienware x16 for a starting price of $1,999. This basic setup has a 16-inch display with a resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 and a refresh rate of 165 Hz. It also has a 13th-generation Intel Core i7-13620H CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of SSD storage. The laptop also has Windows 11, and the only color it comes in is Lunar Silver.

The Alienware x16 can have up to a 13th Gen Intel Core i9-13900HK CPU, an Nvidia RTX 4090 GPU, 32GB of RAM, and 4TB of SSD storage. This one is fully equipped and will cost you $4,049. You can add an Alienware CherryMX ultra-low-profile mechanical keyboard to the laptop for an extra $50.

Final Words

Many of this year’s game laptops with 13th Gen Intel Core CPUs and RTX 40-series laptop GPUs perform about the same as the Alienware x16. But the X16 stands out from the rest because of its thin body and general sleek design. This is a good choice if you want a game laptop that looks great and runs very well. But I wish the Alienware x16’s screen was a little better and had more colors, and it can get hot in some places when gaming.

If you don’t like the Alienware x16, the $2,699 Razer Blade 16 is a great option if you want a powerful and stylish gaming laptop. The Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 (which costs $2,899) is also a good choice, even though it’s a lot bigger than the other two game laptops.

Alienware X16 review: The good and The bad

The Alienware x16 is an extremely attractive laptop showpiece that captures the attention of onlookers due to its appearance as well as its capabilities in terms of performance.