Alienware M16 R2 review: The new gaming laptop to beat

It’s refreshing to see a gaming laptop that isn’t wholeheartedly set on beating Apple when it comes to making the thinnest product possible, and the Alienware M16 R2 is surprisingly thick in comparison to the majority of its competitors. That’s a massive boon, perhaps more so than you might think, as it gives the M16 R2 a serious advantage when it comes to its cooling. In fact it’s so potent, that its Intel Core Ultra 7 processor actually outcompetes the Core Ultra 9 found in MSI’s Stealth 16 AI Studio A1V.

Alienware has made a few design choices that seem a little out of place in the modern era, but this this is otherwise one of the best gaming laptops out there right now. Alienware was perhaps one of the first dedicated PC gaming manufacturers out there, and is actually a subsidiary brand of Dell at this point, predominantly focusing on gaming.

The M16 R2 is thoroughly designed around that ethos. From its internal hardware to the 240Hz screen, RGB illumination, and M16 engraving on the back, it’s a laptop that is entirely built around gaming, and it delivers on that front admirably. I’ve been testing the M16 for the last couple of weeks, seeing just how well it performs in games, and as a day-to-day workbook as well, to see if this could well be your next gaming laptop.

Specs

Alienware’s M16 R2 is really well equipped for the price and build, and the model we’ve tested comes with an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU, and 32GB of DDR5 RAM, although there are several variations of specs available. The spec we’ve reviewed goes for $1,999 at MSRP, but you can often find it discounted as low as $1,599.

The real show-stealer for the M16 R2 is the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H CPU at its heart. It’s based on the Meteor Lake architecture that was first announced in 2023, and unlike its desktop counterparts, the Ultra Core chips feature a modular processor design, allowing Intel to use a multitude of different transistor sizes to get the most out of the chip, while keeping power draw low.

This improves battery life when you need it, and allows the CPU to ramp up performance when under load as well. On top of that, it also features a dedicated NPU or Neural Processing Unit, designed specifically to boost AI performance.

What makes the Core Ultra 7 155H interesting, however, is that it actually features a pretty much identical spec to the Core Ultra 9 185H, albeit with slightly different clock speeds and TDPs. You get six P-Cores for performance, eight power-efficient E-Cores, and two low-power efficient (LPE) cores as well, all running at slightly different frequencies.

However, the difference between the Ultra 7 and the 9 is fleeting, with just a 300 MHz difference between the performance core clock speeds. Everything else – cache, graphics cores, and even tha max TDP – remains the same. The Ultra 9 does support more enterprise-grade security features, but that’s not important for gaming.

As for graphics, well Alienware has popped an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070l. This is the mobile variant, which features 8GB of VRAM and comes as standard with 4,608 CUDA cores, placing it slightly above a desktop RTX 4060 Ti in terms of raw rasterization output, albeit with lower clock-speeds as a result of a lower TDP. That’s a fantastic pick, particularly if you’re interested in ray tracing and all the benefits that Nvidia’s DLSS and frame generation tech can give you, which we’ll explore later.

This machine could do with a touch more storage, though. Getting just a 1TB SSD in a $2,000 laptop feels a little stingy, particularly given it’s a Samsung PM9A1 OEM PCIe 4.0 drive that can only write at up to 5,100MB/s. Ridiculously, specifying the machine with 2TB of storage bumps up the price by $300 on the Dell configurator too. On the plus side, you can add more storage yourself if you like, and you’re able to replace this SSD as well.

Features

Internal hardware aside, one of the more stellar elements of the M16 R2 is its screen. As standard, you get a 16-inch IPS display, with a 2,560 x 1,600 resolution and a 240Hz refresh rate, combined with a 3ms response time. It’s not OLED, no, but its color accuracy and color breadth is impressive nonetheless.

Don’t get me wrong, the colors are still punchy too, and the 240Hz refresh rate makes for buttery-smooth gaming and desktop action. The 3ms gray-to-gray response time isn’t as quick as what you get from an OLED screen, but the Alienware’s screen is still fine for most people’s gaming needs.

It also supports G-Sync, so it can synchronize the refresh rate with the frame rate output of the GPU, eliminating tearing and stuttering effects. During my time testing, ghosting was non-existent even at 240fps, and the Blur Busters MPRT test placed the panel at a phenomenally rapid 3.8ms response time. Not bad at all.

Alienware’s also packed an armada of connections into this rig. On the rear, there are two USB-C ports, supporting DisplayPort output, plus an HDMI output. On the right, you’ll find two additional USB 3.2 Type-A ports, and there’s even a full-sized 2.5Gbps Ethernet connection on the left as well. If you don’t have a wired network, the M16 also packs in Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 support, giving you some serious wireless options.

The trackpad and keyboard are also fairly solid. There’s not a huge amount to write home about here. Alienware’s key switches provide a subtle and smooth typing experience, and they’re not too soft or spongey. You also get per-key RGB lighting and N-key rollover tech as well, although there are no mechanical options.

One handy addition, however, is the inclusion of dedicated media keys set off to the right of the enter button. This frees up some of the function keys, allowing Alienware to chuck in keybindings for a variety of fan controls, performance modes, and DIY macro keys, which are also easy to configure in Alienware’s Command Center software.

Dell’s actually also included a pretty solid warranty with the M16 R2. You get 12 months of off-site remote support, followed by on-site repair if something does go wrong. Basically, if it’s covered by the limited warranty, and Dell/Alienware can’t repair your system remotely, a technician will be sent out to you to repair your M16. It’s like car breakdown cover, but for your laptop.

Design

From a physical standpoint, the M16 R2 is a bit of a beast, being a lot thicker than your average gaming laptop these days. It also weighs 2.61kg, which isn’t enormously heavy compared to some laptops, but the Asus ROG Zephryus G16 weighs just 2kg and feels significantly lighter when you’re carrying it in a bag.

There are no sharp edges either, just smooth well-rounded accents throughout. It’s a plastic chassis, but the soft-touch rubber finish is incredibly satisfying on the fingertips. The monitor bezel is also slim, and overall build quality feels sturdy with minimal flex.

There’s a phenomenal amount of honeycomb ventilation littered about the place too, and all the key ports are in ideal locations. Power and display outs are located on the rear, and all the USB ports are located on either side. The Ethernet port even has its own slim-line cover, a feature I’d love to see on more expensive offerings.

It’s not entirely flawless, though. The overabundance of RGB does lighting feel somewhat dated, the light bar around the trackpad detracts from the overall appearance, and the illuminated Alienware logo makes it seem dated to me, although this is all down to personal taste.

Upgradability is also top-tier. Flip over the M16 and you’ll see a number of Phillips-head screws, allowing you to disassemble the undercarriage. Take that off, and you can easily access the SODIMM DDR5 memory slots, and the M.2 PCIe 4.0 slots as well – the M16 R2 supports two SSDs total, with one installed as standard.

Then we get on to the fan noise. Now, this machine is somewhat loud. If you’re gaming on stock settings, you’re going to want to grab one of the best headsets you can get, that’s for sure. However, the flipside is that this machine is an absolute unit when it comes to keeping your CPU and GPU chilled.

In fact, it does so well in this regard, that it’s hard to criticize it on this point. Alienware has recently redeveloped its internal cooling in the M16, giving it a 15% smaller footprint overall, while retaining its efficiency, and that really does show through in the benchmarks.

Benchmarks

So, how impressive is that cooling? Well simply put, compared to the MSI Stealth 16 AI Studio A1V, which features the theoretically higher-clocked Core Ultra 9 processor, the M16 R2 runs rings around it. In Cinebench alone, although both laptops have close scores in the single-core test, in the multi-core scenario, the M16 scored 981 compared to the Stealth’s 785.

That’s a 25% performance increase from what should be a slower CPU. 3DMark’s CPU Profile benchmark reported similar results as well, with the M16 landing an average score of 7,972, versus the Stealth’s 6,329, again landing around 26% more performance.

When it comes to gaming, however, the waters become somewhat murkier than first predicted. I ran two sets of benchmarks for our gaming tests. One set was run at 1080p, and the other was run at the laptop’s native resolution. This provides an easy way to compare laptops regardless of resolution, and to see how that particular hardware combo performs at the screen’s native resolution.

Running at 1080p, the RTX 4070 performs moderately, depending on the title. Total War: Warhammer 3 landed an average of around 93fps, whereas F1 23, hit an average of 43fps, and Cyberpunk 2077 averaged a disappointing frame rate of just 29fps. However, the latter was tested at the Ultra ray tracing preset without DLSS. If you enable DLSS and Nvidia’s frame generation tech, the average frame rate goes all the way up to 102fps.

Jump up to that 2,560 x 1,600 resolution, however, and the situation gets murkier. Total War is certainly playable with an average frame rate of 56fps, but, Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t playable, even with some help from DLSS. That isn’t the end of the world, though, as this 16-inch screen still gets you a decent pixel density at 1080p, and games look fine at this resolution.

Battery

The M16 also puts in a pretty impressive performance when it comes to battery life. In PCMark 10’s modern office test, it landed a phenomenal 387 minutes from 100% down to 3% battery life. That’s over six hours of realistic real-world use before a flat battery. It beat both the MSI Stealth, and the AMD Ryzen 7-powered Lenovo Legion Slim 5 as well.

However, it didn’t last anywhere near as long in our gaming battery test, coming in where it lasted just 51 minutes before shutdown. We don’t often see much more than an hour in a laptop gaming battery test, so this is a typical result, but it shows that you’re not going to get much gaming power on the go.

The MSI Stealth did have the edge here, landing a score of 122 minutes, although this may very well be down to the CPU itself thermally throttling and reducing its total power draw as a result. By comparison, the AMD Ryzen 7 7840 HS and RTX 4060 found in the Lenovo Legion Slim 5 lasted 53 minutes.

Price

With a starting price of $1,549, and $1,999 for the spec reviewed, the Alienware M16 R2 offers a decent spec for the money, but nothing out of the ordinary. For the same MSRP, you can buy an Asus Zephyrus G16 with an OLED screen and Core Ultra 9 CPU, for example, although it only has 16GB of soldered RAM that you can’t upgrade.

That’s a big deal, though. When you’re paying a large amount of money upfront, you need to know that your machine will last a few years, and being able to upgrade the memory and storage is a big tick in the Alienware M16 R2’s box.

However, the Alienware M16 R2 is often discounted, with this 32GB machine with an RTX 4070 and Core 7 Ultra CPU going for $1,599 for a period while I was writing this review, for example. At this price, it’s a fantastic deal, offering a well-built and well-balanced laptop, with decent hardware and an awesome selection of ports.

Alternatives

Razer Blade 16 (2024)

If you have money to spend, and you want a truly luxurious 16-inch gaming laptop, then the Razer Blade 16 (2024) is fantastic. Its slimline, anodized aluminum chassis is beautifully made, and the 240Hz OLED screen is just gorgeous.

The Core i9 14900HX CPU is also immensely powerful in both games and content creation software. You have to pay a hefty sum of money for it, though (The $3,000 option still only has 16GB of RAM), and its cooling system makes a lot of noise when it gets going.

Read our full Razer Blade 16 (2024) review.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16

Asus’ latest ROG Zephyrus G16 is a lovely gaming laptop, with a superior OLED screen to the Alienware M16 R2, and a decent spec to boot. It’s also surprisingly light, weighing in at just under 2kg, and it’s keenly priced for the quality of its display.

However, its use of soldered RAM is a big mark against it, with the $1,999 configuration coming with just 16GB that can’t be upgraded. If you buy this machine, we recommend getting a spec with 32GB, as you won’t be able to change it later.

Read our full Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 review.

Verdict

The Alienware M16 R2 is a fantastic gaming laptop. It’s versatile and well built, and it offers a well-balanced spec for the money. Importantly, while the cooling system is noisy, it really works, with this machine offering solid 1080p gaming performance from its RTX 4070 GPU and Core 7 Ultra CPU. Unlike Asus’ latest ROG Zephyrus models, you can also upgrade the RAM, and it’s great to have 32GB in a model at this price too.

It’s not flawless, of course. It can make a fair bit of noise during games, the keyboard isn’t spectacular, and some of the design elements are a bit dated. The RTX 4070 GPU also struggles to play games at the screen’s native 2,560 x 1,600 resolution, although it copes fine at 1,920 x 1,080, and you don’t get an OLED panel either.

Alienware has nailed the essentials here, though, and for a reasonable price, particularly if you take advantage of one of the regular deals for this machine on both Best Buy and Dell’s own website. If you’re looking for a 16-inch gaming laptop, the Alienware M16 R2 offers a great balance of specs, performance, build quality, and value for money.