Customer Ratings & Reviews

Very powerful machine. A little on the heavy side but if you want a desktop replacement. It's hard to beat the power and build quality of the Area 51 18"

This laptop is amazing. Runs really quiet and the performance is incredible. Love that the vents blow out of the sides and the back instead of underneath. It’s already been used alot and not issues whatsoever. Highly recommend this product.

The Alienware system was very nice and I received it in quick time. My issue was with FEDEX, who indicated that a signature would be required which I figured would happen for a 2500 dollar machine. Well, they left it on my doorstep without a signature. Best Buy needs a better carrier for deliveries. The box looked like it played against the buccaneers, so I was happy the inside was secure.

Works amazing. Playing COD right now and its super fast. No lag. Runs nice and cool. Great size screen. Nice and heavy duty as well. Love it.

Best laptop out there, especially at the sale price. Truly a replacement for a desktop. Build is phenomenal, it feels as premium as it should be. Definitely a head turner. The weight is a thing, but if you’re looking for a desktop replacement, that you can take on the road. This is it!

Love this laptop!! I have been enjoying every second owning this! I recommend getting this over any other brand gaming laptop.

Awesome computer. Fast, powerful and fun to use. Thank you Dell!!! I look forward to years of quality use.

Love this computer! So many tiny nuances that end up making all the difference. Masterfully done

Fast and awesome. Love it. So much bigger compared to my 15"

Very powerful, and a great price! It’s a huge upgrade from my last Alienware!

Is a very good product. I really like the display.

I like really like its speed, the display size is perfect for my activities which are numerical simulations

Awesome, best laptop ever had. There is nothing bad that I can think of.

Great laptop, excellent at staying cool. Powerful gaming laptop.

The complete package does everything you need and more! If you're on the fence about making this purchase I say go for it. The price point can be a little steep but it's worth it.

I said this laptop is a beast and I mean it in more than one way. I will start with the negative... At over 9.5 pounds, it is heavy. If you are looking for a commuter laptop for being productive while traveling, this is not it. It is also large (which should not be a surprise given its 18" screen). In addition to the laptop itself, you will probably also want to travel with the 360 Watt AC adapter, which is a separate component that is quite large (although, not as large as some I have seen with competitor gaming laptops). When running wide open in an intense gaming session, the battery lasts a few hours. When doing more mundane tasks, an additional hour or two is possible. Personally, I think of the battery as being there to allow for "transitionary" gaming between fixed locations or when you have an hour or so to spare. Given the processor, graphics card, and screen size, it is no surprise that this unit does indeed consume some power. This is also a $3,000'ish+ investment, which is not chump change, although it is not unreasonable for the machine's specs and is comparable to competitor units that I have seen. Now, with all that being said, I do not know anyone, myself included, who buys a high-end gaming laptop for portability, battery life, or to save money. If you want a portable gaming platform without having to lug around a PC case, monitor, keyboard, etc., there are tradeoffs. Not much you can do about it. As I mention later, though, this Area-51 is still comfortable on the go, albeit heavy, and is an absolute work horse. Another minor complaint is that it is running the Home version of Windows, which does not include Bitlocker protection and other features that some gamers may appreciate. (It is possible to upgrade to Pro, but that is another $100 on top of the cost of the laptop.) Now, for the flip side, if you are comfortable with a big and heavy laptop and are looking for true gaming performance, this laptop may very well be what you are looking for. It is very powerful and, for most of the games I play, the frame rates with optimized settings typically exceed 100-110+ fps. If I turn up every single setting to the max on new games, the frame rates are somewhere in the 40s to 60s. To my eye, however, the optimized settings for most games looks good enough for me and I really cannot tell much of a difference when graphics settings are bumped up from there. As far as the aesthetic is concerned, the laptop has rounded edges, making it comfortable to carry. The aqua color is interesting. Not quite black or dark, but when the light hits it, there is a noticeable sheen to it. It does not do a good job of concealing fingerprints/oils though. I also really like the lighting options, from the keyboard and trackpad to the rear of the unit, the underside (which has a transparent window to see the fans), and the Alienware head. The Alienware software can even automatically change the lighting colors based upon the game you are playing. (When I started up Cyberpunk, the lighting turned yellow. Nice touch.) Regarding the two main inputs on this unit (the keyboard and touchpad, no touch screen), the keyboard is comfortable enough to type on for a laptop keyboard. It is not as nice as the mechanical keyboard I use with my desktop, but again, this is a laptop and you cannot always have your cake and eat it too. One thing that I found both convenient and annoying is that there is a little vertical bump out on the "S" key to help gamers center their fingers when using the ASWD keys for gaming. When touch typing, though, that bump was enough to confuse me to relocate my fingers thinking it was the home key ("F"). Took a little getting used to. The numeric keypad is great to have, but again, the reduced size of the 0 key to accommodate other keys on the keyboard definitely can lead to inadvertent inputs. The touchpad is also quite large and has a good tactile glass feel to it. A couple areas where the laptop is lagging is the sound and the display (sort of). I say the display because, for a premium gaming laptop, it is still using an IPS display, which I know some people may criticize. When playing games with dark screens (like a Batman game), there is some light bleed on the edges. Not enough to be a deal breaker, but enough to be annoying if you are one of those people who is particular about that sort of thing. Beyond that, though, the display does look gorgeous, although I tend to prefer a glossy versus a matte finish to my displays. As for the speakers, they feel underpowered for this laptop, especially where the bass is concerned. The do get loud enough and Dolby decoding is included with the laptop, but they sound "tinny" with a lot more emphasis on the treble with very little bass. One thing I absolutely love about the laptop is that it has 3 SSD slots. One is used by the native SSD that come with the laptop, meaning you have two additional lot to expand your storage space. The unit also supports Intel's RAID platform, so if you are really daring, you can stripe 3 SSDs together in RAID 0 for up to 24 TB of storage! (I striped 4 TB and have a 12 TB drive to accommodate all of my media and games on a single device.) It is easy to access the SSDs to upgrade them, as is the RAM. One thing to note is that the motherboard is installed upside down, so additional changes or potential upgrades may be limited without some serious effort (or so I have been told; not that hardcore to need to make any change to the chipset or motherboard, personally). There are plenty of ports on the unit as well, so expandability given external peripherals should not be an issue for most. Ultimately, if I was allowed to award 1/2 stars, I would probably give this laptop a 4.5 star rating due to the IPS screen and speakers. On the other hand, there is a lot to like with the Intel Core Ultra 9 and NVIDIA GeForce 5070 Ti graphics. The screen is massive for a laptop and I have found this to be a suitable replacement for a dedicated gaming PC at home (no more big box with all the cords). The positives definitely outweigh the negatives and I have to round up to a full five stars (as opposed to rounding down to four) for that reason. It is a little pricy with the bells and whistles, but if you are looking for a no compromise (for the most part) gaming laptop, this is definitely worth considering.

Has run everything that I need it to well. Can't beat these specs.

One of the best laptops and I only paid 2800$ perfect deal

I’m happy to change from my MacBook Pro to this I’m not regretting it and I can advise you to do the same . No more Mac It’s now alien world Tell your neighbors

My daughter loves this computer. She uses it every day!!!