Alienware 18 Gaming Notebook Review
by Dustin Sklavos on September 16, 2013 12:00 PM ESTLet's get it out of the way: the Alienware 18 is an expensive, niche product. It's a giant, beastly notebook that uses high-powered CPUs and can't be configured with anything less than two GPUs. It has an IPS display and it starts at a pretty intimidating $2,099. That means that while something like the Alienware 17 may be somewhat within reach for most end users and thus worthy of at least some consideration, the Alienware 18 is most definitely one of those products you pretty much have to be specifically looking for.
From there you have to decide whether or not this particular monster is really what you're looking for and really fulfills your needs. If you feel like a single 780M is inadequate for your gaming needs, the Alienware 18 is the way to go, but from there I have a hard time recommending doing anything other than tricking it the hell out. The Alienware 17 is for people who want a gaming notebook tailored to their needs, but anything other than a seriously high end configuration of the Alienware 18 is a waste.
Here's the deal: unless you want a notebook that's running an LGA2011 CPU alongside your SLI video cards, the Alienware 18 is basically the top of the mountain. It's not perfect, but the only real competition Alienware has to contend with is Clevo, and Clevo seems to be content to show up with their B game every year. You can get a better display out of Clevo and some extra juice out of the CPU, but that's mitigated by the lack of switchable graphics (a minor loss), utterly mediocre keyboard (a major hit), and inferior build quality.
At the same time, with the popularization of mini-ITX, the Alienware 18 can't help but seem at least a little bit silly. You could build a system as fast or faster than the Alienware 18 with your own monitor in half to two thirds the price, or any of the boutiques we've reviewed would be more than happy to perform that service for you. You lose a healthy amount of portability, but we're talking about thousands of dollars, too.
It boils down to whether or not the Alienware 18 is successful at what it was intended for, since price really can't be an object for anyone who's buying it. I think it is. Alienware has plenty of room for improvement, but you're not going to be able to do better anywhere else. As for the rest of us, the Alienware 17 continues to be the weapon of choice.
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GeneVostok - Monday, September 16, 2013 - link
I wish you'd have reviewed the 14 instead upgraded to 1900x1080 matte IPS and the 765GTX. But you've already done two of them :).ananduser - Monday, September 16, 2013 - link
So what? They've reviewed 3 macbook airs one after another. There's nothing stopping them reviewing their 3rd Alienware, the 14"-er.Sorry for the troll.
stacey94 - Monday, September 16, 2013 - link
Because the Air is a trendsetting product will have much wider appeal than any Alienware? What's wrong with that?There's nothing new about this Alienware model...it's just a spec bump. The new MBAs bring some insane battery life numbers, while sporting a better chipset than most competitors.
I'm expecting a very detailed review of the Zenbook UX301 from Anandtech as well. It's the bellwether for HiDPI ultrabooks.
ananduser - Tuesday, September 17, 2013 - link
Silly fanboy: "The new MBAs bring some insane battery life numbers, while sporting a better chipset than most competitors."Reading Anand's own review, the MBA barely has a chipset that is equally performing to their own last gen version. Where did you get the better chipset from ? It's more frugal but it's not faster.
Oh and btw, Anand didn't review any other ultrabook so you cannot make your comparison, not yet.
Wolfpup - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
Ugh, that's depressing if the Air actually has wider appeal. I hope that's not the case.These Alienware systems actually just seem like good mid and high end systems, back before the race to the bottom of everyone offering low end CPUs with no GPU.
gandergray - Monday, September 16, 2013 - link
I second the motion for a review of the Alienware 14. (As always, thank you producing quality content.)blanarahul - Monday, September 16, 2013 - link
Name one person who has bought this Portable Desktop.scook9 - Monday, September 16, 2013 - link
A lot of people will. Just because you do not see a need does not mean others wont. I bought the original M18X on day one and never looked back. Was a great system for 15 months when a GPU died and Dell refunded the entire thing for me since they would not have a replacement part for a month - extremely high quality customer service. I did not have to fight, bicker, waste time, or anything with them - they just said "yep, we are not getting more for a month so will give you a 100% refund", keep in mind that was on a 15 month old no longer cutting edge system that was heavily used. The Next Business Day On-site warranty on the Alienware notebooks continues to wow me and keep me an Alienware customer (I have my 4th one now).SniperWulf - Monday, September 16, 2013 - link
Me. Except I went with a Sager for this buy. I bought last years NP9370. GTX 680M with an i7-3630QM, 16GB RAM and all the trimmings. Cost came in at around $1800. Some months later I bought the second 680M for another $600. At $2400 its hard to beat, especially when compared to the Razer Blade (awesome engineering, total waste for the $ if your after performance). Couple that with the fact that I can throw it in a bag and head over to a friends and get damn close to the performance out of this that I do out of my desktop and its a win/win.stacey94 - Monday, September 16, 2013 - link
12 bounds? I think you're going to have some back pain issues later in life.