Customer Ratings & Reviews

I really like the laptop.... However, I wish the hardrive were not so small. I am a Game Pass Ultimate subscriber and bare minimum you will need a Terabyte for storage.... and external drives don't seem to cut it on the laptop....

. While CPUs and GPUs are always drastically improving, gaming laptops, in particular, still carry the stigma of being too bulky or heavy. As such, the concept of portable gaming still causes some reproach, proving just how long it has taken to have proper lightweight options without thermal issues. Thus, the Alienware X14 R1 Gaming Laptop aims to provide a gaming experience without sacrificing portability. With the latest 12th Generation i7-12700H, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPU, I was extremely excited to test the all new slim X14! Once opened, I was greeted by a sleek looking clamshell box with the famous alien logo on the outside. This was quite surprising! Once you unfold it, the X14 sits in all its glory! While inspecting the x14, the unit screams quality. The X14 clocks in at just 4 pounds and is fairly lightweight. The texture of the lid has a nice smooth finish and is of high quality. As for the dimensions, the X14 is fairly compact, more so than I was expecting. It is roughly about a foot in depth at 12.66 inches, 10.35 inches wide, and only 0.56 inches thick. It is impressively thin! As for connectivity, all of the ports are located at the rear of the unit. Going from left to right, you will note two thunderbolt 4 ports, one micro SD card slot, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port, an HDMI 2.1 port, a 3.5mm jack, and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port with DisplayPort capability. I believe most will be content with the port options, though I really wish there was an Ethernet jack and one more USB Type-A port. For the display, we have a 14’’ FHD 1920x1080 at 144Hz. HW Info lists it as a Sharp Model LQ140M1. Additionally, in typical Alienware fashion, the backlights on the alien logo and keyboard can both be customized to your preference. However, the section near the ports does not light up as on other models. Lastly, the X14 ships with a 130W USB Type-C charger. Before we begin the benchmarks, I wanted to test the X14 without making any drastic changes so I could accurately reflect an out of the box experience. However, I did make a few changes; most notably I disabled hibernation and sleep modes. I also disabled all startup executables in the startup tab of task manager except for the Intel Graphics. Furthermore, I disabled the UEFI Firmware Capsule option within the BIOS to prevent Windows Update from updating the firmware. Lastly, I let Windows Update finish all of its updates before proceeding. For the windows power setting, I changed the Power Mode to Best Performance. Connectively, I also set the thermal profile in the Alienware command center to performance. For monitoring, I used a combination of various programs including: HW Info 7.26, HW Monitor 1.46, and Fraps 3.59. All benchmarks were completed while the laptop was connected via its 130 watt power adapter. On Crysis 3, I set the system preset and texture quality to very high. I disabled motion blur and V-Sync, and set the anti-aliasing to MSAA 2x. As the game begins, it immediately opens up around 60-67 FPS. Once you proceed to move to the bridge, the fps slightly increases to the low 70s. Before you make it inside the ship, there was one slight hiccup into the 40s. I could reproduce this same dip by back tracking to same point on the stairs. Once inside, I noted occasional increases into the 100s, but most of the time you will note anywhere from the 60-90 range. I did notice two sections where the frame rate once again dipped to the 40s, though as before I could replicate it by backtracking to the same point. Supplemental to this, if I increased the MSAA to 8x, the FPS range would decrease to the lower 50s and max out at around 80 FPS. While not extremely taxing, I still found 2x to be the sweet spot for image quality and performance. Interestingly, while playing at 2x the GPU was using around 1.3-1.5 GB of video RAM. Once you increase the MSAA to 8x, the RAM usage increased to 1.9 GB. Connectively, the temperatures on the GPU were around 68-71 Celsius, with the hottest GPU point touching 75c. Considering the workload, I was extremely shocked at how phenomenal the GPU temps were. As for the CPU, I noted that the CPU package would stay around 75-90 Celsius. Another interesting observation was that while playing, much of the CPU load was concentrated on the P-Cores as expected (roughly 25-50% usage). However, the E-cores would occasionally spike to around 15%, but for the majority of the time the cores stayed between 0-5%. The total CPU package load was around 22%. The P-Cores seemed to sustain around the 3.2 – 4.0 GHz range. As for power, the total system power consumption would hover consistently around 100 watts, with 30-50 watts of it being strictly from the CPU. This amount of performance and efficiency is quite mind blowing. For my second game, I loaded Rise of the Tomb Raider. I set the quality preset to very high. In addition, I set shadow quality, sun soft shadows, pure hair, and specular reflection quality all to very high. I disabled motion blur, film grain, Nvidia DLSS, and V-Sync. Lastly, the anti-aliasing was set to SSAA 2x. As the game began, I noted my FPS of around 60-64. As soon as the weather effects kicked in, there was a small drop to 57 FPS. Once you start walking, the frame rate jumps dramatically depending upon which direction you are looking at. As soon as the mountain gives way, I dipped sharply to 49 FPS. After surviving the outside elements, the FPS jumps slightly to around 70-75 inside the cave. If you increase SSAA to 4x, the FPS drastically tanks another 15-20 FPS; now consistently holding in the mid to low 40s. When the mountain gives way, the lowest point was 35 fps. If you decrease the SSAA 4x to FXAA, the overall increase in FPS is anywhere from 40-70 fps depending upon where you are. The GPU RAM usage on 2X SSAA was around 3.5 GB; at 4x, the RAM usage jumps to around 4.1-5.8 GB. Overall, the game runs incredibly smooth, though I would completely avoid SSAA 4x as the drastic performance loss is not worth it. Lastly, I recommend using the in-game benchmark as it will quickly help you tweak a setting or two to narrow down the performance to your liking. The last game I wanted to test was Doom 2016. For my settings, everything was set to ultra. I set the motion blur to low, film grain to 0, and disabled V-Sync. The anti-aliasing was set to TSAA 8x. Additionally, I turned the in-game performance metrics to nightmare. As soon as my single player game loaded, the frame rate exploded between 180-200 fps. Once the action heats up, the lowest I saw was around 122 fps. Additionally, all latency metrics for the CPU and GPU averaged around 3.0-6.4 milliseconds. Similarly to Crysis 3, the P-Cores were handling much of the workload, though interestingly the E-Cores were holding around 15-30% in usage. Lastly, the GPU was using around 2.8-3.0 GB of video RAM. Overall, the X14 absolutely chews Doom 2016 and spits it out. I am confident everyone else will be pleased with the results. Aside from gaming performance, I wanted to run some additional benchmarks. I ran Cinebench R23 for various recent CPUs to give you a general idea of where the i7-12700H stands with the competition. Overall, the chip just crushes during my test; however do keep in mind that the results here will not necessarily reflect across other workloads and/or benchmarks. I7-12700H - Single: 1,761/ Multi: 15,901 (14 Cores / 20 Threads) I7- 1280P - Single: 1,706 / Multi: 12,725 (14 Cores / 20 Threads) Ryzen 7 6850U - Single: 1,530 / Multi: 12,582 (8 Cores / 16 Threads) Ryzen 7 5800H - Single: 1,381 / Multi: 11,969 (8 Cores / 16 Threads) Additionally, I also benched each CPU using CPU-Z 2.01. The results are found below I7-12700H - Single: 731.0/ Multi: 7,844.7 I7- 1280P - Single: 717.7 / Multi: 6,697.2 Ryzen 7 6850U - Single: 631.7 / Multi: 5,812.8 Ryzen 7 5800H - Single: 590.0 / Multi: 5,640.0 In addition to the CPU, I wanted to test the storage capabilities as well. According to HW Info, the X14 ships with a Samsung PM9A1 SSD. Using CrystalMark 8.0.4b, the results are as follows. Sequential Read Q8T1: 6,822.74 MB/s / Sequential Write Q8T1: 5,077.17 MB/s Sequential Read 4K Q1T1: 83.36 MB/s / Sequential Write 4K Q1T: 185.52 MB/s Next, I wanted to run a quick video encode using my 28 GB M2TS file. Using Handbrake 1.51, I ran the 90 minute using the Very Fast 1080P preset. I set the FPS to match the source as well as pass through the original DTS-MA 7.1 audio. While encoding, the P-Cores naturally down throttled to around 2.6-2.8 GHz. The E-Cores sat around 2.3-2.4 GHz. The CPU package consumed anywhere from 56-80 watts during the task. I7-12700H - 11 minutes 28 seconds / Avg FPS: 199.0 Ryzen 7 5800H - 17 Minutes 35 Seconds / Avg FPS: 129.4 In conclusion, the Alienware X14 is an absolute stunner in every way. It combines a sleek looking package with modern hardware to handle everything you throw at it. It is compact and light enough to be more portable than other gaming laptops. The build quality is definitely top notch. Furthermore, the thermals were handled exceptionally well given its size and the hardware involved. The i7-12700H is an absolute beast, clocking in at almost 16,000 points on Cinebench as well as compressing a 90 minute movie in less than 12 minutes. Furthermore, the RTX 3060 has plenty of power to run everything at 1080p completely maxed out. Although some may have preferred the option of a higher resolution screen, other problems would have risen: the GPU would have had to be upgraded to power the higher resolution, which in turn equals more heat that its current dimensions may not have allowed to properly dissipate. Nonetheless, at its current configuration it is more than capable. With that said, the X14 performs exactly as intended. Thus, the x14 comes highly recommended.

Excellent little laptop for travel and gaming. Better than my last MacBook Pro.

I wish to have an Alienware my hole life Excellent laptop, very fast and smooth. Very happy with it

Keyboard broken before a year. Great Laptop before than

It works good my games have shut down a couple times or crashed I’ve only hade it a few weeks besides that no complaints really except it gets really hot when playing certain games overall looks nice and sleek and starts up fast good product overall

Let me begin with a simple observation. I have bought Alienware laptops in the past. I was looking for a small laptop that could also be used to occasionally game. Based on reviews provided by sources such Tom's Guide combined with my past experiences with the ASUS G14 (let me say that it was bad), I was interested in the Alienware X14. When this unit came up as an open box special, the deal was too good to be passed up. My experiences so far. First, the good: * size - this unit is small and light (about 4 lbs). Consequently, it can be taken on business trips. * heat management is surprisingly good. When I have gamed using this system, I was surprised that it was warm, but not hot. * Performance is good. Using Geekbench 6.0, I found that this unit performed better than my Alienware M17 R5. * Appearance is very attractive. Understand - you get one choice in terms of color - artic white. * The hinge is unique and different - in many light systems, the hinge is often a weak point. This unit employs a very different design that I think puts less strain on the hinge and body. * It has a micro sd memory slot - yeah - a good, cheap way of expanding storage. The bad: * The RAM and SSD are soldered in. You get what you get. Unlike the M17 R5, you cannot replace the SSD. * The keyboard is good but it is slightly smaller than the traditional keyboard. It is manageable. * Battery is okay but not great. * Ports are limited and they are put at the back (I would have loved to have a USB C port on the side for either a USB hub or a game controller). * The webcam is okay - it works with Windows Hello but it is only 720p. It also has a privacy slide (yeah). So why the 5 stars. Because for the price that I paid combined with the fact that I was looking for a small, highly portable gaming PC, this unit met these needs and exceeded them. HOWEVER, understand - with a small footprint (14 inches), compromises must be made. For me, I can live with these compromises. I like my X14!

Love the look and feel of this laptop. The built quality is really exceptional. It packs a powerful CPU the latest INTEL i7 - 12 gen processor and a dedicated GPU that is the RTX 3060 in a very thin form factor. Highly recommend this to anyone looking for a thin and light gaming laptop.

It can barely run games and dies fast overall not great

As always, Alienware does not fail to deliver in presentation. The laptop is well packaged and the box looks fantastic opening up. The computer itself is so sleek and beautiful, its not usually what comes to mind when thinking of a gaming laptop. first thought when it comes to those is heavy and bulky The laptop itself has a really nice off white finish that is matte. Inside is a nice rubbery matte finish around the keyboard which will be good to keep fingerprints away and provides nice grip. The keys have a nice firm press and feel and are not loud. The trackpad however, while wide, feels too shallow. It is likely because of the design decision to have the laptop hinge more than a inch or so into the body, so we lose that space. I normally keep a BT mouse as a backup when i go out and about, but for the occasions i forget it or don't feel like pulling it out, the trackpad shape can be a bit annoying. there's a surprising amount of I/O on this laptop despite being so thin as most other laptops these days. 2 USB-C thunderbolt, USB-A SS, microSD, HDMI, display port and headphone jack. Should be more than enough for what you need. Also despite its large size, its crazy how light this is. it came in just under 4lbs. like literally, it was less than an oz less than 4lbs even The screen is a good size for how I play. great display, very clear and the colours are nice i tend to do race sims and VR. When doing VR, i usually plug it into my TV because its more of a social friend gaming time, we can see what theyr'e seeing. I play with a Fanatec race set up for racing games. Setup was easy and the beefy specs of this laptop gave me a smooth experience. this i7 mixed along with the RTX 3060 absolutely blows my desktop out of the water. it's been my primary computer for a while now and i've always found it to be 'enough'. didn't realize how much better games can look and feel. Note: i didn't mess with much in the way of settings, i wanted to see how this was out of the box, and i was pleasantly impressed. I can probably enhance my experience with little tweaks here and there, which will come down to peoples personal preference while it is a bit pricey, what you're getting is top end performance in a compact and sleek package. even if you're not a gamer and may need this power for design, or engineering, etc, it wouldn't be too far off than buying a high end performance machine

Quality: The built on this laptop is above average. The lid, keyboard, hinges, and body feel sturdy and nice to the touch. Performance: This laptop will push the limits of the intel i7 and the Nvida 3060. Most games will play at 60 fps or more at the native resolution of 1080p. However, keep in mind that the RTX 3060 is a last generation GPU. So, newer games like God of War will only play at 60 fps on Medium or High settings. The only downside to this laptop is the battery life. Even when just browsing will drain the battery fast. Style: Although it might not be the smallest laptop in terms of dimensions, it is very thing and portable. It does not scream gaming laptop, but it does look different than the other laptop on the market.

My best laptop ever and has made me an Alienware super fan!! Live all their products!!

I will start off by saying, I’m not a SERIOUS gamer but I do enjoy playing on my laptop and graphic design. The purpose of this laptop is perfect for both. The speed of this small laptop is to say the least, fast. Comparable to others, it can keep up and even surpass the best. It’s very powerful and rightly so. The power translate to the heat that it produces but not enough to reduce the rating. Port accessibility is limited but you can use a docking station to add more options if needed. I appreciate the proper thermals. So many more options that make this laptop worth the investment. As per usual this machine is reliable, considering its new but the battery holds up for excess use and charging only takes a couple hours. It’s runs super quiet which I appreciate for meetings and not having to out talk the sound of the laptop running. MUX switch, improves FPS and save battery life. Premium components are used to create this laptop which is one reason to select this brand and model. Only con I have is the design of the actual laptop. If you don’t have nails, you will struggle to open it. lol

TRASH !!!! DO NOT BUY. I’m not even joking. I wish I can give this half star. I got it 2 days ago. Updated it. Keyboard stopped working.

I use Macs for creative work, and hard a chance to test the Alienware which is in a similar class. Strengths: - Fast for such a small and light machine - Nice metal build quality, sturdy with minimal flex - 100% sRGB matte screen makes it great for creative work - Being able to switch between performance modes quickly is exactly what I would want out of a Windows machine with a dedicated GPU - Silent mode is actually silent - Ability to control battery percentage through BiOS (setting it below 100% preserves battery life) Weaknesses - The Alienware software can be buggy and I had to custom install. This is the most annoying oversight. - battery life does not compare to M1/M2's, so I consider this more of a sports car that you take out once in a while. In its class of "Windows gaming laptops" it's still above average. - Fan is noisy on high performance modes, but heat regulation works fine

Alienware has been synonymous with gaming for years and if you're looking for a laptop for gaming then the Alienware x14 R1 does not disappoint. The design of the laptop is really awesome, from the crafting of the shell to the quality of the components within. The first thing you notice is the LED Alienware logo on the top of the laptop with the number 14. the next thing you notice is that, even though this laptop packs a punch in terms of performance, it's really light. One design aspect that I really like is that the screen hinge is nearer to you by an inch or so, not at the back of the laptop. This means the screen is nearer to you and draws you nearer into the game play. The 12th generation Intel Core i7 processor will power through the most demanding games and anything else you choose to throw at it. The Intel Core i7-12700H is a 14 core processor with 20 logical processors. The Alienware x14 uses the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 GPU to provide incredible graphics capabilities. The performance of the laptop is further driven by 16GB of memory and a 512GB Solid State Drive. SSD's provide superior performance over traditional hard drives and allow faster loading of games, most of which are have very large footprints in terms of the size of the installs. Fast SSD's are critical to providing quick load times and fluid game play that can keep up with the 144Hz gaming display that provides the incredible user experience.

1st one, broken. Returned to store for last one avail in state. Broken. Spoke to tech, updated, worked, then broken. Returned for a different brand. Had high hopes due to reputation but cannot recommend today.

The title kind of gets to the point of how I feel about the Alienware X14 R1. I'm not saying it's the best computer out there, but for me this is the perfect storm as far as a small & light gaming laptop goes. The build quality is typical Alienware. Solid, lightweight (for what it is) and gives a feeling of confidence. It looks like an Alienware but at the same time doesn't give that "over the top" gamer look. The keypad has a beautiful soft-touch feel with keystrokes that feel great with just enough travel. The touch pad feels & works great although it is a bit small (kind of a necessity with the small design of the machine). The backlit keys are of course customizable although I do wish the brightness went a bit higher. The somewhat larger rear section that protrudes behind the screen might not be to everyone's liking (myself I love it), but it is the way it is to aide in cooling so to me it's a welcome design. All of the ports are located on the back. You will either love or hate this design. For me it's not an issue although I do think the headphone jack should be on the side. As for ports, you are pretty well covered. Traditional USB, USB-C and Thunderbolt 4 that can work as Display Port outs, an HDMI 2.1 port and a Micro SD slot. I would have liked the Micro SD slot be a full sized SD slot but that's a minor issue. Having both HDMI 2.1 and Display Port is a great option. I've tried using both with my external monitor and they work great. With the advantages that HDMI 2.1 has to offer it's nice to be future proofed. The screen was kind of my one area of concern before getting this laptop but it has proven not to be an issue. 1920x1080 I thought would be a bit on the low end. But, with it being a 14 inch display it's not an issue at all. Everything is clean, clear & crisp with the 144Hz display. The colors are vibrant and accurate. And thanks to the 400 nits it is plenty bright. Getting back to the resolution for a second, there is a solid reason for the 1920x1080 resolution. The Nvidia 3060 is an excellent video card. But it helps the performance and battery life by not having to try and push a built in 4K screen along. And besides, with a 14 inch display does anyone really need more than 1920x1080? I mentioned the graphics. That is obviously one of the most important components with any gaming machine. I honestly feel that Alienware has struck a great balancing act here. There are slightly higher end graphics cards out there. But, keeping it to the 3060 helps with keeping the laptop small. And besides, with a gaming laptop I don't think the higher end 3070 or 3080 would really ad much. At least not without destroying the battery life. So far I haven't run into any issues with the 3060. In fact, everything I've thrown at it has run very smooth. Now your millage may very depending on what you play and "HOW" you play. But keeping in mind what they are trying to achieve here with such a thin and portable laptop I don't think you will have any real issues. Not everything is going to be playable at the top settings. But I also don't think most people looking at this laptop are going to be shocked by this. Besides, you may not be at the top settings but you won't be far from it with most games. And as for heat, I have been impressed. It gets warm but not nearly as bad as gaming laptops I've previously had. I've been impressed with the fan noise as well. Obviously any gaming laptop is never going to be whisper quiet. But I haven't found the fan noise to be nearly as bad as I would have expected or have heard in other high end machines. I think a big part of the great balancing act that Alienware has accomplished here can be found in the rest of the specs. The 512gb SSD is very fast! All of my benchmark tests have come in with read speeds just under 7,000 and my write speeds have been over 5,000. Couldn't ask for more. The biggest thing that I think gives the X14 such great performance is the 12th Generation i7 chip. Often when a new chip set comes out the performance gains are really small. Not this time. This chips performance is stunning. When you combine the speed of the i7 chip with such fast SSD speeds & the 3060 graphics card, well, then you can understand why I call this laptop the perfect storm. Alienware really hit the sweet spot. Power. The fact that it uses a USB-C connection for power is awesome. I really hope this is the future for all laptops. Also, the included power supply is small enough to toss in your laptop bag without issue. As for the battery life it is what it is. With everyday web browsing and such you could easily get 6 maybe even 8 hours out of it. But those numbers don't apply to gaming. Honestly, if you game on a full battery I'd say anywhere from 1 to 3 hours will be your limit depending on what you are playing. That's just a reality of such a small & thin laptop. I don't care what any manufacture claims for battery life numbers, when it comes to gaming laptops the numbers will always be lower. At least while gaming. With that said, I don't find the battery life with the X14 to be any worse than other gaming laptops I've had. In fact the life is probably better than most. But still not great. On the plus side just remember the power supply is easy to carry along :-) Something to keep in mind is to know what you are getting in advance because you really can't customize it later. You can change out the SSD for a larger one easily enough. But that's it. The RAM is built in and not something you can upgrade later. I haven't found the 16gb of RAM to be an issue at all. But if you fear it could be for you, then think about the 32gb version before you buy. With all that having been said, I can honestly say I absolutely love the Alienware X14 R1! I fully expect this will serve me well for years to come. It really is the best laptop I've ever had :-)

This product was great, never had a problem with it. All my games ran smooth and with no interruption. for a small/compact gaming laptop that can fit almost anywhere. the Alienware also does not feel cheap either.

This is one of Alienware's newest offerings in the premium gaming laptop space. With the x14 they are going for high performance and portability. The design is slim and compact as this laptop can easily slide into any backpack or briefcase with ease. It's pretty impressive to consider all that they were able to squeeze into this chassis. Here are some of the highlights... Pros: - The solid-state drive allows for quick boot-up speeds. Updating Windows, as you would expect, required multiple restarts and I've never been able to complete the updates on a laptop so quickly. This will also improve loading times for apps/games which is appreciated. - 16 GB of RAM allows for as much multitasking as you would want and helps enhance your gaming experience. Some higher-end laptops are still only coming with 8 GB. - The display is beautiful with a terrific refresh rate (144Hz). While the screen size is small (14"), this is by design for the portability of this machine. For in-home gaming you are likely to have a larger monitor to connect via HDMI anyway. - In recent years, Alienware has improved their cooling techniques which they call "Cryo-Tech Cooling". I have found this to be very effective in both models I have owned (the x17 was the other one). Today's graphics cards run HOT so this is incredibly important. - Gaming performance was fantastic on all games that I tested. It can handle high frame rates quite well with the RTX 3060 it has onboard. - The packaging is beautifully crafted and underscores the quality of the product that you are purchasing. Cons: - This laptop is high end so that causes it to come at a high price point. But you get what you pay for! - I would have preferred to have a full TB of storage on the SSD as 512GB can fill up pretty quickly. If you are in the market for a portable gaming laptop, this is the one for you. I have yet to come across anything else that can perform at this level in such a compact design and look forward to many incredible gaming sessions going forward.