Alienware x16 review: krachtige prestaties in een opvallend ontwerp

Alienware is een van de grootste merken als het gaat om gaming laptops (en desktops), en met een goede reden. Het merk, eigendom van Dell, heeft een behoorlijke reputatie opgebouwd voor het leveren van krachtige prestaties en een direct herkenbare ontwerptaal. Hoewel Alienware-laptops, zoals veel gaming-laptops, bekend staan ​​als log. De Alienware X-serie in 2023 is bedoeld om nog verder te gaan door krachtige prestaties in een compacter chassis te stoppen.

De Alienware x16 is een van de nieuwste toevoegingen aan de serie, die krachtige prestaties en compact ontwerp combineert met de huidige trend van grotere 16:10-schermen voor gaming-laptops, en hij presteert. Het model dat ik heb beoordeeld, wordt geleverd met een hoogwaardige CPU en GPU, en het kan vrijwel elke moderne game aan die je mooi zou willen spelen. Ik hou ook van hoe de laptop eruitziet, een combinatie van een zilveren buitenkant met een zwarte binnenkant en een heleboel RGB-verlichting die voor sommige mensen misschien te veel is.

Like most gaming laptops, battery life is a notable downside, but it’s also not as bad as it could be. It’s also still pretty heavy, though you have to expect that from a gaming laptop.

 

Alienware x16"

Krachtige, slanke gaming-laptop

De Alienware x16 is een krachtige gaming-laptop met een groot 16-inch beeldscherm en een beeldverhouding van 16:10. Het heeft 13e generatie Intel-processors en Nvidia GeForce RTX 40-serie graphics verpakt in een compact chassis.

Merk

Alienware

Kleur

Lunar Zilver

Opbergen

Tot 4 TB SSD

CPU

Tot Intel Core i9-13900HK, 14 cores, 20 threads

Geheugen

Tot 32GB RAM

Besturingssysteem

Windows 11

accu

90Wh

poorten

1x Thunderbolt 4, 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2, 2x USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 2, 1x HDMI, 1x mini-DisplayPort, 3.5 mm koptelefoonaansluiting, 1x microSD-kaartlezer

camera

Full HD 1080p 30FPS webcam met IR-gezichtsherkenning

Weergave (grootte, resolutie)

16-inch IPS, 2560×1600, 240Hz refresh rate, 100% DCI-P3, up 300 nits

Gewicht

Tot 6 pond (2.72 kg)

GPU

Tot Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090-laptop

Afmeting

14.36×11.41×0.73 inches (364.81×289.98×18.57mm)

Netwerk

Tot Intel Killer Wi-Fi 6E 1690i + Bluetooth 5.3

Sprekers

Opstelling met zes luidsprekers (2x 2W tweeters, 4x 3W woofers)

Prijs

Vanaf $ 2,099.99

Model

Alienware x16"

Power

330W voedingsadapter

Finish

Anodiseert aluminium, magnesiumlegering

VOORDELEN

• Krachtige Intel-processors en Nvidia-graphics
• Compact ontwerp in vergelijking met andere gaming-laptops
• Geweldig scherm met solide kleurweergave en 240H verversingssnelheid
• Veel RGB-verlichting

NADELEN

• Erg duur in vergelijking met vergelijkbare laptops
• Het toetsenbord kan onhandig klinken

Alienware x16: prijzen en beschikbaarheid

The Alienware x16 was announced at CES 2023 and launched in the first quarter of the year. Pricing officially starts at $2,099, but there are various configurations available at different prices. The model I reviewed comes with high-end specs, including an Intel Core i9 processor and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, plus 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. That one is officially priced at $3,500, though it’s currently discounted to $3,100 at writing time.

Design

Eigenlijk een beetje slank

A big focus of the Alienware X series is slimming down gaming laptops so you can carry them around a bit more easily than the flagship M series. In the case of the Alienware x16, we’re looking at a laptop that comes in at 18.57mm thick, compared to the m16’s 25.4mm thickness. It also goes up to six pounds of weight, though that’s the maximum advertised by Dell. That’s still over a pound lighter than the m16’s 7.17 pounds. It’s still not a super portable machine, but slimming things down this much is a big deal for such a powerful laptop. It’s not rivaling the beste laptops voor algemeen gebruik out there, but for this segment, that’s impressive.

Ik hou ook van hoe deze laptop eruit ziet. Het wordt geleverd in wat Alienware een Lunar Silver-kleurstelling noemt, waarbij een zilveren buitenkant wordt gemengd met een zwarte binnenkant om een ​​uniek ontwerp te creëren. Het grootste deel van het chassis is gemaakt van geanodiseerd aluminium, maar sommige onderdelen gebruiken een magnesiumlegering, waardoor de laptop wat lichter blijft.

The best part — if you enjoy flashy laptops — is just how much RGB there is. Of course, the keyboard has per-key RGB lighting that you can fully customize, and the Alienware logo also lights up. There’s also a light ring around the back, with over 100 micro-LEDs lighting up in different colors, so you can customize the look of your laptop. But what really gets me is that even the touchpad lights up. There’s a line of lights along the top edge that illuminates the entire thing. The light only stays active when you’re using the touchpad, though.

Interessant is dat de laptop aan beide kanten geen poorten heeft, waarschijnlijk omdat het chassis zo dun is als het is. In plaats daarvan bevinden alle poorten zich aan de achterkant. Dat omvat twee USB Type-C-poorten, één die Thunderbolt 4 ondersteunt, twee USB Type-A-poorten, HDMI, mini-DisplayPort, een 3.5 mm koptelefoonaansluiting en een microSD-kaartlezer. Als u al deze aan de achterkant heeft, komt er ruimte vrij aan de zijkanten als u bekabelde accessoires wilt gebruiken zonder dat er kabels in uw werkruimte komen.

Toetsenbord en touchpad

Laag profiel en comfortabel in gebruik

Een van de hoogtepunten van mijn recensie-exemplaar is dat het is uitgerust met een toetsenbord dat is ontworpen in samenwerking met Cherry, en dat het onopvallende CherryMX-schakelaars gebruikt, vergelijkbaar met die op de Kers KW X ULP keyboard I reviewed not too long ago. This allows it to provide a mechanical feel while still fitting in a laptop chassis, and frankly, it’s great.

Whether it’s for gaming or typing, I really loved this keyboard. There’s a satisfying amount of tension and travel distance, and the keys don’t bottom out harshly. My only complaint is that the switches occasionally felt a bit clanky. While it wasn’t always noticeable, I could sometimes hear the metallic mechanics inside the laptop as I typed, which didn’t feel quite right. I wouldn’t say it was overly distracting, but it wasn’t the most comfortable for my ears.

Het touchpad is groot en soepel

Aside from looking fantastic with its RGB lighting, the touchpad is also comfortable to use. The surface is smooth, and it’s more than big enough for moving the mouse cursor around as needed. Clicking is a bit louder than I’d like, but it’s not a major problem. If you’re buying this for gaming, you’re probably getting a proper mouse anyway.

I don’t have many complaints, but I had some issues with the touchpad glitching out occasionally, acting as if there was some kind of dirt or water on the touchpad and causing unwanted inputs. I described the problem to Dell, and I was told that this is the first the company has heard of anything similar, so it’s possible I got a faulty unit.

Display

It’s sharp, smooth, and has great colors

One of my favorite trends with gaming laptops this year is the transition to the 16:10 aspect ratio as standard. We’ve been seeing that in premium ultrabooks and creator laptops for a couple of years, but since 16:9 is the most popular format for gaming, most laptops have stuck with that. Thankfully, that’s changing, and that makes laptops like the Alienware x16 great not just for gaming but also for productivity or content creation.

But if you want to use it for just gaming, you’ll have an excellent time. It has a very sharp screen, for one thing, coming in Quad HD+ (2560×1600) resolution. It also has a super-smooth 240Hz refresh rate, which means you can get an extra smooth gaming experience, especially in esports titles. There’s also a cheaper model with a 165Hz refresh rate if you don’t need it to be so high.

If you do opt for the 240Hz panel, though, there’s another benefit. You’ll get improved color reproduction, covering 100% of DCI-P3. This makes for a better screen for general use, whether that’s watching movies or working in color-sensitive fields like photo editing. Surprisingly, Dell only advertises 300 nits of brightness, which isn’t very impressive if you want to use this laptop outside. Unfortunately, I can’t test these claims due to some personal circumstances keeping me away from my color calibration tool. However, these advertised specs are often very close to reality, and I can confirm the viewing experience is great, at least indoors.

The sound system is also impressive. The six-speaker setup can get very loud, and it’s great for filling a large room or even a small apartment with sound. I did notice some distortion with a lot of the bass notes, however, so it’s not the best setup for high-quality sound.

Het heeft een 1080p-webcam

Another great thing to see in gaming laptops this year is better webcams. While most high-end ultrabooks started getting higher-quality webcams after the work-from-home boom in 2020, gaming laptops didn’t really follow that trend very closely, but that’s finally changing. The Alienware m16 has a 1080p webcam, which is solid for a gaming laptop.

Sterker nog, de Alienware m16 ondersteunt ook Windows Hallo gezichtsherkenning. Dit is iets wat veel gaming-laptops nog steeds missen, waaronder mijn vorige favoriet, de Lenovo Legioen Pro 7i. It’s such a convenient feature that I always have to dock some point from laptops that don’t have it.

Performance

Intel’s H series is still totally fine for gaming

Many gaming laptops this year have started opting for the super-powerful HX series of processors, which are basically shrunk-down desktop processors. However, to achieve this thinness, the Alienware x16 sticks with the typical H-series processors; my unit specifically comes with an Intel Core i9-13900HK, with 14 cores and 20 threads. It also comes with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU and 32GB of RAM, so it’s a pretty specced-out machine.

While using H-series processors may be a technical downgrade from the HX models, I think this laptop proved to me that CPU performance isn’t as important as those laptops might make it seem. I tried to play a few games, including Forza Horizon 5, Cyberpunk 2077 en Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and found the results to be pretty close to the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i, which has more powerful Intel processors. Here are the average frame rates I saw for these games when running them at the native 2560×1600 resolution:

Real-life performance for gaming won’t suffer that much from having an H-series processor compared to an HX-series model, at least if the games you’re playing aren’t particularly CPU-intensive. Most games tend to focus on the GPU, and in that aspect, the Alienware x16 delivers.

Natuurlijk zul je in benchmarks een verschil zien. Vergeleken met de 24-core processor in de Lenovo Legion Pro 7i, blijven de prestaties in de Alienware x16 zeker wat achter. Toch zijn benchmarks die afhankelijk zijn van de GPU veel evenwichtiger.

Depending on the tests, you can see some big differences between these processors, but there are also some tests where the Alienware x16 comes out on top. I found it especially interesting that performance wasn’t greatly affected while using battery power, giving the Alienware x16 a big advantage in that specific scenario.

On that note, battery life is, unsurprisingly, not amazing, but it’s also better than a lot of competing laptops, especially those with HX series processors. I got anywhere between 1 hour and 54 minutes and 4 hours and 3 minutes (with display power savings enabled). Most times, I was close to three hours, which is about as good as you can ask for in a gaming laptop. In my usual battery test playing back a YouTube video, I got about 4 hours and 32 minutes, which is lower than I would expect, but it did have a lot of RGB lighting enabled, so that probably didn’t help.

Moet je de Alienware x16 kopen?

U moet de Alienware x16 kopen als:

• Je wilt een krachtige gaming-laptop
• You’re looking for something that’s still somewhat portable
• Je geniet van veel RGB-verlichting

U moet de Alienware x16 NIET kopen als:

• De meerprijs ten opzichte van een Alienware m16
• You’re not planning to travel with the laptop frequently
• U wilt een lange batterijduur

The Alienware x16 makes a very compelling argument for itself if you care about portability. It delivers all the performance you could want in a gaming laptop, letting you run the latest and greatest games with no issue and at high frame rates (in most cases), yet it fits in a chassis more compact than the vast majority of its competitors. Whether it’s Alienware’s own m16 or something like the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i, this kind of power usually comes at a bigger cost in portability, and the Alienware x16 does a very good job balancing those two things.

However, it does come with a higher price tag, too. Compared to an Alienware m16 with similar specs, this one will set you back an extra $550 outside of sales, and that’s a big difference to pay for more portability. I would say it’s hard to justify, but it depends on how much you care about having a compact chassis that can do almost all the same things as a thicker one. Personally, it seems like a little too much, but if you can find it on sale, it may be easier to justify.

 

Alienware x16"

Krachtig en draagbaar

De Alienware x16 is een krachtige gaming-laptop met een groot 16-inch beeldscherm en een beeldverhouding van 16:10. Het heeft 13e generatie Intel-processors en Nvidia GeForce RTX 40-serie graphics verpakt in een compact chassis.