Customer Ratings & Reviews

Conventional hard drive, not solid state. Only one USB port, second port poorly powered almost unusable. One USB-c drive, usable with Apple USB-c converter. That said, good value for price and good gaming computer..

PROS / Explanation of why I liked it 1) Size. Even though these Alienware Laptops are thick, they have a small footprint. That's important when looking for a carrying case of slip case. This laptop houses some pretty hefty specs for it's size and you'll be hard pressed to find anything on the BestBuy website that can compete with this laptop's form factor. 2) Form Factor and Design. As stated above, the Alienware 13 R2 is rather thick BUT that allows it to run cooler than other units that compete for the, "portable gaming laptops" form factor. The closest competitor for size and performance is the 14" MSI GS40 PHANTOM. The Phantom boasts overall better performance and is lighter and thinner BUT that thinnest comes with some drawbacks though in the form of heat, battery life and footprint. I really enjoyed my time spent with the MSI units but with the overall footprint being MUCH bigger, (example being the 15.6" MSI GS60 having the footprint of a 17" laptop because it's so thin) battery life being MUCH shorter and overall temperatures being MUCH higher all mounted up to be a deal-breakers for me. 3) Audio. The audio of this unit is really stellar. Much better than any other laptop I've owned in years. If you like a laptop that's loud, you won't be disappointed. Bass isn't great but it more than makes up for it with it's ability to give a sense of surround and crisp treble, even at max volume. 4) RGB Lighting. The customization of the RGB lighting is really unique. I think the overall colors and representation of RGB is better with the MSI models, (not the MSI GS40 Phantom - it only comes with RED back lighting) but the software and ease of use while customizing the color combinations is really convenient. Alienware has some great software. 5) Support! Alienware has a really great support line to assist with any model unit you decide to invest in. Now, I ALWAYS advise picking up the GeekSquad support plans for anything and everything its offered on BUT there are some things the GeekSquad plans has no effect on, (like driver support). Alienware, (Dell) has a well laid-out website for software support and a hot-line to call for very specific questions regarding information specific to your product. It's not perfect BUT it's a lot better than the offerings of most other competitors within this spec / form factor. CONS / Explanations of what I didn't like 1) Display and Colors. It's really, "meh". Suffers from some pretty bad light bleed and overall white balance is extremely yellow out-of-box. White balance can be corrected with a calibration using the, "Calibrate display color" feature within Windows. The light bleed is a different story though. There really isn't a fix for that and if you find yourself with an unbearable amount just simply exchange for another or contact Alienware so they can swap out the panel. The overall look after the white balance correction is usable though. I'd be hard pressed to advise anyone to edit photos professionally on this laptop but it's MORE than adequate for games and other media. The Alienware 13 R2 I revived had borderline bearable light bleed. I've since replaced it with the Alienware 15 R2 and I'm happy to report much less light bleed on that model. 2) Windows 10, Nvidia Display Drivers and Killer Networking. I've read, (and experienced) a TON of issues with wireless drop-outs, display driver crashes and other driver anomaly's with this unit in particular. Out-of-the box the driver crashes for the Killer Networking were so bad I had to restore the laptop using the factory image and download all the updated drivers from Alienware's website directly within the first 12 hours of use. After that it seemed to work a lot better but there wasn't a single day go by where I didn't have some form of driver crashes within the OS. I'm confident that Alienware is working on updates but it was a really horrible experience to go through all this less than a day after first powering it on. As a reference the Alienware 15 R2, MSI GS40 and MSI GS60 didn't have these driver issues, so I'm hopeful. 3) Touch Pad. Left and right click are extremely mushy and the simple gestures to scroll up and down are quarky as... well, you know. I'll just leave it at this... Touch pads are always pretty bad VS a decent wireless mouse. This was one of the worst. Mine stays disabled 75% of the time, so it's truly not a horrendous deal breaker for me. 4) Upgradeability. No accessible M.2 port, (or no port at all in fact). Has room for a single 2.5" drive. For this unit and price range I really wish they'd give you the ability to add in an M.2 SSD. Definitely no NVME support and that's really where it's at right now. The Alienware 15 R2 has support for 2 M.2 NVME SSD's and a 2.5" HDD/SSD. I know there has to be sacrifices for a smaller form factor but honestly, there's more than enough room. I also wish they offered models with the GT965 or GT970 GPU to be more competitive with equally priced laptops like the MSI GS40 Phantom. UPDATE: upon checking with Alienware, (Dell) there is options for M.2 PCIE SSD's, (NVME) but only in their more pricey model offered on Best Buy's website. Even though it's not clear at all on the Best Buy website the unit sold with the UHD screen and 512GB SSD is actually a M.2 PCIE (NVME) SSD. That's great news, just wish it were more clear. There's a massive difference between standard SATA SSD's and M.2 PCIE, (NVME) SSD's. Standard SATA is roughly 550mb per second VS the M.2 PCIE, (NVME) SSD's 1gb - 2gb per second. Just to clarify, ONLY the Alienware 13 R2 with the stated 512gb SSD on Best Buy's website has M.2 Ports available. The units that come with 500gb Hybrid Mechanical drives are missing the M.2 Ports to my understanding. My Alienware 13 R2 with the 500gb Hybrid Mechanical Drive had no viable M.2 ports at all. Final Thoughts Ultimately there is tons of potential here. On one hand Alienware boasts the only 13” gaming oriented laptop available through BestBuy and on the other hand there’s still a lot to be improved on. It’s difficult to offer this over the MSI GS40 Phantom seeing as how the price is so close and the MSI offers both easily accessible M.2 PCIE NVME support AND a GT970. Overall I think I’d go with the MSI… however… there are still things I’d really miss from this Alienware 13 R2… like… Design, Form Factor and Support. If the driver issues out of box wasn’t so bad I’d have given it a 4 out of 5 stars but Alienware can’t expect the average user to understand or be able to cope with those issues if they do arise. And the screen, it’s just so bad. I’d gladly have paid an extra $100 for a better screen. It just feels like a massive step backward from their prior models. All-in-all I’d still sell and recommend this unit to friends and clients. You just can’t get a 13” laptop with this kind of performance from Best Buy. I know there are other retail and online options for buying units like this but for myself I exclusively purchase all my technology, (if possible) through Bestbuy for the ease of return and exchange plus the great support you’ll get from a local IT team like the GeekSquad. Thanks! Keep in mind these are my experiences and opinions! :D