Alienware - m15 R4 15.6" FHD Gaming Laptop - Intel Core i7 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 - 512GB Solid State Drive - Dark Side of the Moon

I genuinly wanted a desktop. The Alienware m15 r4 delivers desktop performance. Purchasing this product and securing it was a 2 hour drive. I am a compulsive buyer and rarely opt to ship. The adventure begins... Two skeptical kids onlooking my split minute descision had questions. As if I have to validate my purchase. "It games like an xbox series x" all they had to hear. It really does. They actually perfer it over the series X with added periphials, Dell DG27 144Hz. The 3070m games like a 2070 desktop and Rtx's like a 2080ti ray tracing beats my 2080 and fps is on par with our water cooled bios modded 5700. The Cpu is really is amazing the 10870h is like a mild overclocked 8700k. I have it perched on a cooler pad nothing special. I have also rebuilt the r4 m15 to apply kryonaught temps do rise its a gaming laptop. That shouldnt be a deal breaker. The build quality is impressive and logical. I added 2 additional m.2 drives to create a raid0 and retain the 512gb drive. The regular size m.2 fit but one cannot be properly secured it does fit' snug rode to work no issues. Its not probable to have issues. Reformating and installing software Dell spoils its consumers this is my first "prebuilt" so the first time I could reaquire OS software easily. The laptop supports Hdmi 2.1 and DP mini 1.4. The ability to drive Media at 8k makes this long down the road an applicant to be another generations streaming htpc. Back that up with Alienwares prestigious name in game for longevity. Its not really louder than any of my desktops its inline with all gaming laptops and is very photo genic espcially with RGB. Wifi 6 is killer literally - I have ethernet just dont use it. The power button is an RGB aliens head. The hard truth. The lid is not scratch resistent. Ram is soldered. The m4 has a rear charging port its not bag stuffable friendly. It did not get along with the standard mopar 150w inverter but its a 250 watt inserter. (Nothing to knock it for) Would like to see varible charging because we all know the battery isnt great. Something to trickle charge and prolong life. Get with me Dell I got ideas. Its generally exceeding expectations for my application and im giving it 5 Stars. No one should be disappointed owning this product. Would I recommend it to a friend 'yes and talk about it all frekin day.

Good: Beautiful design, permium materials on the build, feels very solid. Very nice display and just plain fast. All my steam games so far, on max settings (1080p) have been between 60-80 fps. Fall Guys, GTA V, Teardown, BeamNG Drive. Love this laptop. Good selection of I/O as well. Bad: Somewhat loud fan at full performance, but really should be expected at this power and size. Some of the Alienware software isn't entirely intuitive, but still a decent experience. Didn't cooperate well with Quest 2 over the official USC cord.

A powerful laptop. It packs a punch with a lot of heat. With the RTX 3070 combined with an amazing 300 Hertz rate, gameplay feels very smooth. This is the laptop built for your heavy gaming sessions. It will make sure it gets the job done. The downside for laptops like these is battery life. Unless you're using it for school/work, gaming sessions will need to have a charger plugged in at all times. You have full control to the RGB and performance modes to help improve battery life and adjust fan speeds.

What a beast of a machine. Playing games at 1080p on this actually looks really good coming from playing at 4K60. The keyboard is tactile without being obnoxiously loud there are plenty of lighting options to really make it yours. The fan is a turbojet while under load but gaming/working with headphones eliminates that issue. The mousepad is too small and too clicky but a good mouse fixes that as well. I haven’t had any games come close to 300fps, they usually are at 140-180 with maxed graphics settings. It looks big but it isn’t too heavy (it’s no MacBook).

Right out the box I was caught by the design and colour choice of the Alienware m15 R4. This colour variant dubbed “Dark Side of the Moon'' is very appealing to me. The next thing that struck me was how much lighter and more maneuverable it was in comparison to my previous gaming laptop, the Alienware 15 R3.It is definitely much more portable than I thought it would be and that’s a great plus. It has some ports you would expect such as HDMI, mini Display, Ethernet, 3 USB-A, micro-sd reader, and a headphone jack. Additionally you also have a Thunderbolt port(USB-C) as well as the Alienware Graphics Amplifier port. Setting up is a breeze and is typical of any recent windows 10 machine with cortana available right away guiding you through the entire setup process. Once inside I was glad to see that there was not much of any bloatware and mainly just what you expected along with the Alienware software for monitoring and customizing your machine. You also get a 1 month trial of Microsoft Office which you can use or not. Let's get to the point, gaming. I tried a bunch of games when testing this laptop, such as Rise of the Tomb Raider, The Witcher 3, Call of Duty Warzone and Need for Speed Heat. It handles all of them well at max setting with no graphics or gameplay hiccups. All of these titles were consistently above 90 FPS and it was great. The LCD screen performed phenomenally, with everything moving slick and smooth due to the 300 HZ refresh rate and fast response time. Colors on the display are great and I doubt you can get much better unless you output to a dedicated Oled 4k gaming monitor. While gaming the laptop can get extremely hot but also with not too much noise( not like a jet engine going off). I’ve attached a picture showing normal use temperatures vs gaming temperatures. I can say though that the design showed careful attention to cooling as you have a series of vents above the keyboard, on the sides, on the bottom panel and also towards the rear. All effort is made to ensure that the laptop can be cooled as much as possible. Of course you can assist it by playing games in cooler environments as well as tweaking settings based on the game you are playing. I don’t normally game using the inbuilt keyboard and touchpad but they were ok. The keyboard was very responsive and comfortable to use despite it having less travel than I am accustomed to, while the touchpad allowed for very precise movement and worked well with default gesture controls. While we are on the keyboard I will address the lighting. The RGB lighting is as good as it has been on previous Alienware, in fact it might be better. Through the Alienware Command Center you are able to apply lighting themes whether downloaded or created by you. You can even get more specific and color the keys differently if you would like. I must also point out that the lighting on the keys are uniform which is great because I have encountered cases where you are using a machine and lighting across all the keys have varying intensities. On a side note the touchpad doesn't light up like on previous Alienwares. Lastly I’d like to touch on the battery and sound. I’m not going to even butter it up, the battery life is abysmal. I can barely squeeze 2 hours out of it for regular browsing and youtube videos (so imagine gaming). I don’t normally care about battery life since most people keep their gaming laptops plugged in for the best performance but I feel I must point this out. Another issue I had was the sound, it seemed to lack “oomph” it left me feeling like something was missing no matter the media or genre threw at it. I know, I know, use a headphone or external speakers, and you know what, I advise you to. All in all I still would suggest this laptop to anyone who is interested in gaming on a laptop and wants to be safe for a few years without needing to upgrade to play upcoming releases. I like it alot, it’s an impressive machine and I will probably use it daily. Below you can find a quick summary of the UserBenchmark and attached are Geekbench values etc. UserBenchmarks: CPU: Intel Core i7-10870H - 91.7% GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU - 111.4% SSD: Kxg60znv512g NVMe KIOXIA 512GB - 195.2% RAM: Micron 4ATF1G64HZ-3G2E1 2x8GB - 68.3% MBD: Alienware m15 R4

I returned the Zephyrus 15 for this and could not be happier. Overall, the gaming performance in this laptop is awesome. Temps were hot out of the box, but with some tweaking I was able to get it to 75-85c CPU, 65-75 GPU. These temps are within my comfort level. Games I've tested so far and benchmarks. Warzone- High settings 120-155 Cyberpunk- High settings with DLSS 65-80 Cold War- High settings 115-130 Fire Strike- 29960 graphics score Time Spy- 11580 graphics score The laptop is build very well, and the display looks crisp with almost no backlight bleed. I highly recommend this beast of a machine. Another benefit is the high TDP 3070 which i've check and is at 140w. If you're looking for a powerful gaming machine, get this.

>> Overview The Alienware M15 R4 (16GB, 300Hz, RTX 3070) provides full HD stunning graphics, enjoyable gaming, fast 3D/video rendering, and a solid performance overall. It has plenty of connectivity options, including HDMI and USB-C for your video needs. Style-wise, this machine is just beautiful, and not at all heavy for the capabilities it offers. I am a first timer in the laptop gaming world and I was just stunned by how good the laptop was at gaming and 3D rendering. I would recommend this device for gamers as well as for designers. - Pros: powerful GPU for optimum gaming and 3D modeling. 300Hz refresh rate for gaming (and even for watching videos). Portable gaming (well plug it anywhere). - Cons: only 16 RAM and 512GB SSD. No numeric pad. Battery life just below 2 hours, and about half an hour when playing a demanding game. Fans get noisy while playing or creating 3D videos. Well, I knew the specs; as a result, the cons are more like things I wished this machine offered (as higher specs would have meant higher prices as well). >> Setup and configuration I got to replace the first unit I got as it had some hibernation-resume issues. Sometimes it would take a long time to come back from hibernation, from seconds to minutes. The power button light would be blinking fast but the screen would just be black for a long time. Even updating the BIOS to the latest version wouldn’t fix the issue (original came with version 1.0.0., so I had to update to 1.3.1). The replacement I got performed flawlessly, and I had no need to do any BIOS updates, it already contained the latest BIOS (version 1.3.1). Keep an eye on the BIOS version you got and I’d say, update it as soon as you can if you got an older version. Onto the setup. From my experience, perhaps it is better to do the initial setup without network connectivity and just create a local account (as opposed to using a Microsoft account), as in my case, the machine took a long time in the “getting updates” stage of the setup, to the point that I left the machine in that state and went to bed. Early next morning, the machine was ready to continue the setup though, it had the Windows 10 License Agreement to act upon. After the initial setup, it is a good idea to run the “Alienware Updates” recommended, as well as the latest Windows updates. After performing all the updates, I’ve had no issues with the device at all. >> Refresh rate Having a 300Hz refresh rate machine for the first time, I started noticing those little (or big) details that are overlooked at other refresh rates (e.g. the standard 60Hz one). Watching videos and playing games feels so smooth compared to the other machines I have that I am relying on this one for my portable media needs. Even the simple mouse cursor movement feels so smooth. I am not sure how connecting to an external monitor with a refresh-rate higher than 60Hz would perform. This will be the next step. >> Gaming I tried the gaming capabilities with two graphics intensive games: Forza 4 and Microsoft Flight Simulator. I tried Forza at different FPS: from 30fps to 200fps. I was impressed by how better the video details and flow looked at higher FPS and Refresh Rate. Flight Simulator was a delight; however, I wished the Alienware had a numeric pad so that some shortcuts for controlling the flight would have been easier to access without adding an external keyboard (well some people would say, to get a real joystick for a full gaming experience). I am new to gaming laptops, I had been using my regular laptops, e.g. Surface Book Pro, for occasional gaming, and I always preferred gaming on a PC or Xbox. That being said, I definitely do enjoy playing on a laptop now, I am glad I put my hands on this device, I am happy that I can move around the house to enjoy gaming. >> 3D Rendering Software I tried Lumion on the M15 R4: - Benchmark tool results: GPU and CPU exceeded recommended metrics, GPU memory met requirements, and System memory meet the minimum requirements. Despite System memory meeting the minimum, different tasks performed quite well on this device, with not all the memory being exhausted. Having 32GB RAM would have placed this machine above the minimum on all metrics by Lumion. I assume this machine will join the other recommended ones on the Lumion website at some point in the future. - I tried 3D video rendering (very fast): . To render a 1920x1080 at 60hz "Exterior rainy sunset" 984 frames took around 8 min. . To render the same video at 4K 60Hz took around 18 min. . To render the same video at HD 200Hz, it took around 32min. >> Other notes - The screen/lid is very thin and it doesn’t look very sturdy. When closing and opening the lid, it bends a little. I am definitely not planning on holding the machine by the screen/lid as I do with “regular” laptops, I don’t want to risk breaking anything. - It has integrated graphics, but it is not used (Task Manager shows the integrated video card, but at 0%), so expect lower battery life as the main GPU is used at all times. - It is not suitable to be placed directly on your lap while playing games or video/image rendering as it gets too hot. - I wish I had the time and money to try performing 3Dmark tests, so I only did some Lumion and Forza benchmark tests. - I didn’t try an external monitor with higher refresh rate than 60Hz, so I have no idea how good the graphics are displayed on them.

I am a member of Best Buy’s Technical Insider Network, TIN for short. Reviewers in this invitation-only program are provided products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased reviews. Initial Impressions: This is the most powerful laptop I have ever owned. The laptop has a very impressive look. The keyboard, for this model, is full RGB per key assignable. The default keyboard layout is bright teal. The top and bottom of the case have a honeycomb pattern that serves as passive cooling for the CPU and GPU. Under the vents are a black mesh that hides the laptop components, filter out dust, and give the honey combs an attractive dept that I have not seen on other laptops. The Alienware logo shaped power button, LCD cover logo, and heat vent LEDs are also 100% RGB assignable. The Alienware m15 R4 body is made from a magnesium alloy with a nice, fingerprint and smudge resistant flat black finish. The finish is also has a nice texture. From Alienware’s website, “This stain resistant paint formula is a High-Performance Clear Coat…” The mouse pad and keyboard keys are also fingerprint resistant. I have not seen a single fingerprint or smudge after a week of ownership. The finish is well done. Gaming: Gaming is awesome. This system ate all my test games, at max settings, without any trouble. I also saw an increase in framerates for some of my older, more difficult to drive games that are based on CryEngine. The games I tested are Mechwarrior online, Mechwarrior 5, Titanfall 2, Star Wars Squadrons, Middle Earth Shadows of War, Dragon Ball Fighter Z, and Battletech. All games played at 60 frames or better for the whole gaming session. It was very playable and without any graphics tearing or stuttering. I also tested a few of these games on my external 32” G-SYNC enabled gaming monitor running at 240Hz at a 1ms pixel refresh. Everything ran perfectly. The LCD screen can operate at 300Hz and 60Hz, has a 3ms response, 1000:1 contrast, and, according to Alienware’s website, can do “300-nits 100% sRGB color gamut.” It does not look as good as my dedicated gaming monitor, but it is impressive for a laptop. I did run into a few issues. I noticed a significant slow-down while playing Titanfall 2. Large objects in the foreground caused the game to go from silky smooth to sluggish until the large object passed into the background or off screen. It is possible that the older game is having an issue with the 300Hz panel. I also noticed a green after-image when scrolling text or images in MS Word or on the web when Windows “night light” mode was active. At first, I thought my eyes were tired and playing tricks on me. Nope. Maybe this is something Alienware can address in a future driver release. The keyboard is very responsive and comfortable to use. According to Alienware’s website, these keys were co-developed with Cherry. The keys feel very solid with a healthy amount of resistance. They keyboard does not have the same feel as a dedicated gaming keyboard with Cherry keys but it is really good for a laptop. The RGB lighting is as intense as other Cherry keyboards I have used. The lighting intensity is strong enough to prevent the keys character cutouts from looking anemic like I have seen with other gaming laptop lighting attempts. The gaming laptop industry is getting better as a whole. Alienware is leading the pack in RGB lighting. Benchmarks: Let me put my performance claims where my mouth is. In addition to the m15 R4, I own a home-built gaming desktop, a mid-range gaming laptop, and an entry level gaming laptop. Below are the processor, GPU, and 3DMark Time Spy scores for each system. Brand names and models left intentionally absent. (Alienware m15 R4)…………………....Intel Core i7-10870H, nVidia RTX 3070……. Score: 10624 (Gaming Desktop)……………………..AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, nVidia GTX 1660 Ti…. Score: 6609 (Gaming Laptop)….……………………AMD Ryzen 7 4800H, nVidia GTX 1660 Ti…. Score: 5688 (Entry level gaming laptop)…….......…AMD Ryzen 5 2500U, AMD RX 560X………..Score: 1945 The Time Spy benchmark targets the GPU more than the CPU. I did run PCMark 10 on all systems. This targets the CPU more than the GPU. The top three systems are all 8 core, 16 thread processors. The Intel and Ryzen 3700X scored close enough to call them statistically the same. My conclusion is that the m15 R4 has some serious GPU processing power. Also of note is that the other systems come in at different price points below the m15 R4. Cooling: Gaming gets loud and hot. Not hair dryer loud but loud enough that you will want to game with headphones on. For heat, I measured 125℉ at the base of the blower bezel after 30 minutes of playing Mechwarrior 5. The spot I sampled is located dead on the blower bezel directly below the LCD screen. Trace your finger from the space between the F7 and F8 keys all the way to the base of the LCD screen. You’ll feel the heat before you hit the screen. The cooling system in this system is significant. The system pulls air from two large vents on either side of the laptops. The system also has a passive cooling system with a large vent on the bottom of the laptop and a small exhaust between the top of the keyboard and the LCD screen. The keyboard got warm but not uncomfortable. The system will manage cooling for you. However, you can create a profile for your game themes that will set power draw and cooling per game. That way, if you are playing Mine Sweeper, the cooling system is not trying to cool itself like it would if you were playing the latest Call of Duty game. How is the system during normal computing tasks? The system generates quite a bit of heat for tasks like web surfing and MS Office. Heck, the system got hot while editing the keyboard RGB assignments. The system will rev the fan up or down based on thermal load. In my case, the fan silent for normal, low power activity. I measured 108℉ while doing nothing more than type this review in MS Word. This is an area I feel Alienware can make some improvements with power handling. There is no reason the system should be this hot for relatively lower power applications. Alienware Software Suite: The software suite allows you to set keyboard themes and power profiles for your games. You can set your games from High Power/full power cooling to low power/silent operation. For me, the most exciting, and frustrating, part of Alienware’s software suite is the RGB profile system. The fun part about this is that you can set each key, including the Alienware logos and exhaust port LED, to any color you want. There are some nice shortcuts to select popular key groupings: WASD, Numbers, Function Keys, QWER, and “All Keys”. If you select “All Keys” then you can assign one of six default color profiles: Spectrum, Rainbow Wave, Scanner (Night Rider), Default Static Blue, or a solid color of your choice. However, if you want to combine one of the default profiles with some custom key color combinations, such as WASD, then you are stuck in static, per key color land. The reason is Alienware does not allow you to build your lighting profiles in layers like Razer and Corsair. I found this a little frustrating. Flexibility is limited to static key color assignments. For my default color pattern, see attached photo, I set a static color to the whole keyboard and then assigned colors to each key one at a time. I used the above key groupings everywhere possible. The issue here is if I do not like the base color then I have to start all over again. Even more frustrating is that I cannot select more than one key at a time via either a left-click and drag of my mouse or by holding down the Shift or CTRL key while selecting keys. The last color used also does not remain persistent. For example, if I want to assign a certain shade of red to a group of individual keys, I have to click the key, chose the color red, choose the next key, and select the color red again. Preferable behavior is the color is applied to any key I press until I change the color. This would speed up my workflow in the absent of group key assignments. I do need to be fair here. This keyboard is the brightest, most vibrant, and most configurable keyboard I have seen on any laptop. There is room for improvement, but I must give Alienware credit for making this keyboard available at this price point. If they are serious about gaming, and they obviously are, they will take this feedback and improve upon the software side of their RGB experience. Finally, the Alienware Command Center sallow you to overclock your laptop through Fusion. I have never been comfortable with overclocking my equipment. You will want to get familiar with Fusion if you are into overclocking your equipment. The home page is a good place to view your CPU, GPU, and Memory metrics. There are two pre-configured power overclocking profiles with the option to create your own. Final thought: I have never owned an Alienware product before. After a week I can tell that Alienware is about more than just raw gaming power. It is all the little things that add up to an amazing computer experience. I could discuss the amazing wireless network performance, sound, and experience. But I do not have room. Overall, I am really enjoying my first Alienware laptop. I think they did a great job.