Alienware m15 R4 (2021) review
Our Verdict
The Alienware m15 R4 (2021) looks beautiful and runs games wonderfully. Its powerful hardware should make this gaming laptop relatively hereafter-proof.
For
- Sleek design
- Strong performance
- Decent keyboard and touchpad
- Highly customizable
Against
- Fan gets very loud
- Short battery life
Tom'southward Guide Verdict
The Alienware m15 R4 (2021) looks beautiful and runs games wonderfully. Its powerful hardware should brand this gaming laptop relatively future-proof.
Pros
- +
Sleek design
- +
Strong performance
- +
Decent keyboard and touchpad
- +
Highly customizable
Cons
- -
Fan gets very loud
- -
Brusque battery life
Alienware m15 R4: Specs
CPU: Intel Cadre i7-10870H CPU @ ii.20GHz, 2.21 GHz
GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070
Display: 15 inches, 4K OLED
RAM: 16 GB
Storage: 1 TB SSD
Dimensions: 15.3 x 12.0 ten i.0 inches
Weight: five.three pounds
EDITOR'S Note: The Alienware m15 R4 won a "highly recommended" honor for best gaming laptop at the Tom's Guide Awards 2021 for gaming.
The Alienware m15 R4 is what gaming laptops should aspire to exist. That'due south not to say that this $2,500 machine is perfect. But information technology does deliver everything you lot demand for a delightful, portable gaming feel, and very little that yous don't. From its powerful components, to its tasteful white chassis, to its comfy keyboard, the m15 R4 will let you play all of your favorite games – in full 4K, if desired – no thing where you lot want to fix up.
Admittedly, at that place are a few things that I wish the m15 R4 had done differently. Past default, the fan is extraordinarily loud, but quieter fan settings also upshot in a hotter machine. Some features, like centre-tracking, add together a lot of money to the asking price, in substitution for pretty niche functionality. The port placement is too not as frontward-looking as information technology could be, particularly when it comes to USB-C functionality.
Still, taken as a whole, I enjoyed but almost everything I did with the m15 R4. If yous're looking to spend more than $two,000 (and, to be fair, not everyone is), it'due south easily one of the best Windows laptops for gaming and one of the best gaming laptops you tin go, particularly since the state-of-the-art hardware should last y'all a long time. Its powerful components also make information technology well suited as one of the best laptops for applied science students. Read on for our full Alienware m15 R4 review.
Alienware m15 R4 review: Price and availability
The Alienware m15 R4 is bachelor right now from Dell, and takes about two weeks to transport.
In terms of pricing, the accented cheapest model we could customize costs $ii,150. This configuration includes an Intel Core i7-10870H CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 GPU, 16 GB RAM, a 256 GB SSD, a 1080p display with a 300 Hz refresh charge per unit and a four-zone RGB keyboard.
At the other end of the spectrum, you could customize a $4,140 behemoth. This version of the m15 R4 includes an Intel Core i9-10980HK CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 GPU, 32 GB RAM, 4 TB + 512 GB SSDs, a 4K OLED display with a threescore Hz refresh rate and Tobii center-tracking, and a per-key RGB keyboard. Information technology's hard to recall of a more powerful gaming laptop on the market at the moment.
The version we tested retails for $2,500, and its specs are somewhere in the middle. Our model includes an Intel Core i7-10870H CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 GPU, 16 GB RAM, a 1 TB SSD, a 4K OLED display with a 60 Hz refresh rate and Tobii centre-tracking and a 4-zone RGB keyboard. This seems similar a reasonable heart ground, although honestly, the specs for the $2,150 model are not bad at all – particularly if y'all prefer faster frame rates over higher resolutions.
Alienware m15 R4 review: Design
Gaming laptops tend to range from "manifestly" to "overdesigned," but the Alienware m15 R4 manages to observe a comfortable sweet spot. Our review unit had an elegant white chassis, with hexagonal vents on top, a colorful Alienware power button, a tasteful geometric design on the lid and just a small protrusion for vents in the rear. The m15 R4 doesn't wait similar a traditional work laptop, merely it wouldn't wait out of identify in a slightly futuristic office, either.
I also appreciated the laptop's size and weight: 15.3 x 12.0 x i.0 inches, and 5.3 pounds. As fifteen-inch gaming laptops get, that's a pretty minor profile, and the laptop should fit easily in most bags and backpacks. The power brick is pretty large and heavy in its ain correct, of class, but that's hardly unique to the m15 R4.
Aesthetics bated, the ports merit some praise and some criticism. The pick itself is in a higher place reproach. On the correct, yous'll discover ii USB-A ports and a microSD slot. On the left, in that location's an Ethernet port, a USB-A port and a 3.five mm audio jack. These are all well and skillful.
The back is where things get a little less optimized. In addition to a rather inconvenient power port (slightly left-of-center on the back – only far enough from annihilation to comfortably reach), there'south an Alienware Graphics Amplifier connection, a USB-C port with Thunderbolt 3 support, a mini-DisplayPort and a full-size HDMI port.
On the one hand, the USB-C port is an integral part of Alienware's eGPU setup, and then there needs to be one on the back of the m15 R4. On the other hand, USB-C is already a common fashion to charge phones and connect peripherals. Giving users merely a single port, then hiding it abroad on the back of the machine, makes the laptop feel much less future-proof than it should.
Alienware m15 R4 review: Keyboard and touchpad
While some gaming laptops incorporate full mechanical keyboards (with mixed results), the Alienware m15 R4 keeps things simple with an elegant membrane setup. Each key feels pretty decent, with short travel, fast actuation and a rapid leap-back. While I was very happy to go back to a full-size mechanical model afterwards I was washed testing the m15 R4, the keyboard felt perfectly comfy while I was working with it.
Absolutely, the keys tin can be a footling cramped, and commutation errors were more common than I would have liked. Furthermore, there'southward a ton of bezel space effectually the keyboard, which makes me wonder whether the keys could have been spaced out a little amend – or fifty-fifty if it might have been possible to include a few programmable keys. On the other paw, I was reasonably pleased with the four-zone RGB options, which sent a gentle rainbow wave beyond the keys every bit I typed. (You can change colors or deactivate the RGB entirely in the Alienware software.)
The m15 R4's touchpad, on the other hand, earns the highest praise I have e'er bestowed upon a gaming laptop'due south touchpad: "pretty decent." Unlike the vast majority of laptop touchpads, this one never got in the mode, even when I rested my hands on either side of it while typing. It's positioned in such a way to avoid errant palm inputs, and tracks purposeful movements accurately. I still recommend a mouse – especially for gaming – but I wish more gaming laptop touchpads were like the m15 R4's.
Alienware m15 R4 review: Display and audio
The Alienware m15 R4 that we reviewed came with a 4K, 60 Hz screen; you could besides get it with a 1080p, 300 Hz screen, if you lot adopt higher frame rates. While I can't comment on the 1080p screen, I can say that the 4K screen is extremely bright, and offers a rich color palette – not surprising, perhaps, since information technology's an OLED brandish.
The screen offers an average of 460 nits of brightness, which can feel downright overwhelming, especially at night. Compare and dissimilarity to the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 at 323 nits, or the Acer Predator Helios 300 at but 276 nits. After I gear up the m15 R4, the very get-go thing I did was plough downwardly the brightness, and now I empathise why.
In terms of color, the m15 R4 can display a whopping 211% of the sRGB spectrum, with a delta-East color accuracy of 0.32. (Closer to zero is amend; this is a very skilful score.) The G14 scored 117% on sRGB gamut and the Helios 300, only 106%. Any you brandish on the m15 R4'south screen, it'due south probably going to look gorgeous.
From a qualitative perspective, I have only a handful of issues, and none of them is a dealbreaker. First, the screen is highly cogitating, especially if you sit with your back to a window, as I frequently exercise. There'south actually no way around this event, except to wear dark vesture, or to change where you sit down. 2d, the webcam is a 720p model that produces fuzzy, done-out pictures. This feels underpowered for a laptop that uses such powerful hardware otherwise.
Finally, if you want the 4K screen, you lot have to get a secondary Tobii eye-tracking webcam likewise, which I couldn't find a employ for. Getting into the pros and cons of eye-tracking for gaming and streaming is beyond the scope of this review, but I don't think it's too controversial to say that the number of people who want eye-tracking is probably a lot smaller than the number of people who want a 4K screen.
The m15 R4's born speakers get the job done, although I didn't take much occasion to use them. That's because even during productivity tasks, the fan blasts loud streams of air almost constantly at default settings. In guild to hear music, movie, Television set show and game sound, I had to plow the volume way up, and the speakers can distort sound fairly easily. "Just become a gaming headset" is a cliché when it comes to gaming laptops, but you actually should simply get a gaming headset.
Alienware m15 R4 review: Operation
The Alienware m15 R4 delivers where it counts most: gaming performance. This machine is a powerhouse at 1080p, and even holds its ain at 4K with graphical settings cranked all the way upward. (To save you some suspense: Information technology can't practise 4K/60 fps, unless you turn down a lot of the secondary graphical settings. But I tin't think of many laptops that can.)
Tom'south Guide put the m15 R4 through its paces with Assassin's Creed Valhalla (70 fps at 1080p; 35 fps at 4K), Chiliad Theft Auto V (108 fps at 1080p; 35 fps at 4K), Scarlet Expressionless Redemption 2 (68 fps at 1080p; 27 fps at 4K) and Shadow of the Tomb Raider (77 fps at 1080p; 33 fps at 4K). Of those games, only Red Dead Redemption 2 fell below our threshold for a comfortably playable 4K feel – and yous could e'er compromise with a QHD resolution.
Compare and contrast this to the Zephyrus G14, equipped with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060: GTAV scored 115 fps at 1080p and Shadow of the Tomb Raider scored 49 fps at 1080p. The similarly 2060-equipped Helios 300 scored 55 fps at 1080p for Assassin's Creed Odyssey (the Odyssey/Valhalla benchmarks are comparable), and 81 fps at 1080p for GTAV. Neither the G14 nor the Helios 300 had 4K displays, so the m15 R4's versatility already gives it a leg up over the competition.
Qualitatively speaking, I got similar results with Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition, Doom Eternal, Control and Concluding Fantasy XIV. Since the 4K screen maxes out at a 60 Hz anyway, I generally turned upwardly the resolution and didn't sweat the frame rate. All of the games ran smoothly, even at Ultra settings – with the exception of Control, with ray-tracing turned on. This caused the frame rate to drib into the 20s, and forced me to cull between QHD resolution and gorgeous lighting effects. If games with ray tracing running at full 4K is a requirement, yous'll probably want to get with 1 of the m15 R4's more expensive configurations.
Given the m15 R4'due south powerful hardware, I wasn't surprised that it ran games beautifully, whether I was exploring populous cities in Eorzea, or building up Dutch armies in the New Globe. What did print me, though, was but how rich the colors looked, particularly in Doom Eternal's rocky blood-red landscapes. The OLED screen supports a gorgeous, vibrant palette (recollect: 211% of the sRGB spectrum), and no other medium shows this off as beautifully as gaming does.
In terms of artificial benchmarks, the m15 R4 earned a Geekbench 5.iii score of 7,636 — quite high, in a vacuum, although we haven't run the test on whatsoever other gaming laptops just yet. Instead, compare and contrast the m15 R4's score on Geekbench 4.3: 30,043. This is simply shy of the G14 Zephyrus' 30,181 points, although information technology's admittedly odd that a newer, more powerful machine would earn a lower score.
It's too worth mentioning the Alienware suite of software, which lets you set up fan, lighting and performance profiles for various games and apps. The software can too go along your system up to date, and connect you with customer support representatives. As built-in software goes, it's inoffensive, and it actually works better here than information technology does on Alienware's R11 desktop. Once I installed all the requisite hardware updates, however, I didn't see much need to use it again.
Alienware m15 R4 review: Rut
One of my biggest complaints about the Alienware m15 R4 has to do with how the laptop manages heat. In terms of raw temperatures, it's not so bad: I rarely saw the GPU exceed 60 degrees Celsius. While running productivity software, the touchpad hovers around 81 degrees Fahrenheit, and the keyboard seldom exceeds 96 degrees Fahrenheit, which is just a pilus due north of our 95-degree comfort threshold.
While gaming, however, the keyboard can reach temperatures exceeding 108 degrees Fahrenheit, which can exist troublesome if you residuum your fingers on the keyboard in-between actions. (The touchpad does not get very hot, but I also don't know many people who game with a touchpad.)
The bigger upshot is that the fan, which does an admirable job of cooling the organization off, makes a huge, constant racket. My domestic partner was sitting next to me at our dining room table while I tested the car, and asked why her papers kept getting blown around. The fan was as well loud to hear music or Netflix sound tracks, to say nothing of games. It wasn't until I discovered the "Serenity" fan contour in the Alienware software that I was able to restore a modicum of peace in my apartment.
I realize that a loud fan is very much the lesser of two evils when it comes to gaming laptops. Later on all, a GPU overheating is a much worse outcome than a lot of unwanted dissonance. But fifty-fifty past gaming laptop standards, the m15 R4 is an incredibly loud device, and its default settings are not skilful at finding a residue betwixt noise and temperature.
Alienware m15 R4 review: Battery life
If the Alienware m15 R4 has one significant weakness, it'due south in the product's battery life. While our general laptop battery test – surfing the Web constantly in Microsoft Edge – rated the m15 R4 at four hours and one minute, I was never able to get anything shut to this, even just working with Microsoft Discussion and Google Chrome. With medium brightness and a stable Internet connexion, the laptop had, at best, most two hours of life in it.
While gaming, the state of affairs is fifty-fifty bleaker at one hour and fourteen minutes, co-ordinate to our lab tests. In do, I got about 45 minutes. It'due south improve than nothing, but the m15 R4 is non a very good companion for taking long trips – unless you're seated side by side to a ability outlet.
Alienware m15 R4 review: Verdict
The Alienware m15 R4 is easily ane of the all-time gaming laptops I've ever reviewed. And, to be fair, for $two,150 (at least!), information technology really should be. You do indeed get what yous pay for, betwixt a powerful GPU, a fast SSD, a gorgeous design and a vibrant screen.
While I wish the fan were a little quieter, and the battery lasted a little longer, these are ultimately acceptable sacrifices in a machine that's designed primarily with home gaming in mind. If yous decide to invest in an Alienware Graphics Amplifier and use the m15 R4 as an ersatz desktop, so much the meliorate.
In terms of competitors, the Zephyrus G14 is yet worth considering, although since that calculator has a last-gen GPU, information technology'south a tougher sell at present than it was a year ago. Stay tuned while nosotros review some more laptops with 30-series GPUs – or selection upward the m15 R4, which should serve you well for the next few years.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/alienware-m15-r4-2021
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