Review Alienware m15 R7 Review: Solid Gaming, Leading Endurance

[Admin]

The Alienware m15 R7 makes the most of its Ryzen 7 6800H and RTX 3060 while delivering stellar battery life for a gaming laptop.

Alienware m15 R7 Review: Solid Gaming, Leading Endurance : Read more

 

[-Fran-]

Very good review of the laptop. Thanks!

At that price, I have to say this thing is in direct competition with the G15 though, and that laptop runs around in circles this Alienware, even with the "older" 5900HX and 6800M.

One thing to note or ask: what is the M.2 drive this alienware uses? My G15 came with an Intel Optane drive and it is fast. I populated the second slot with a 980PRO and both seem to work at their max capacity given the 5900HX only drives PCIe3 X4 for them. That's one thing the 6800HS/X should have better than the 5900HX: PCIe4 speeds for GPU and NVMe. I'm surprised it does not show in your testing.

And one final thing, about support: while you should never ever have to (ideally), things do go wrong at times. How is Dell/Alienware support? I had my Realtek WiFi/BT module burned/damaged (no idea how) and I contacted Asus for help and options. They said I could change the module myself and keep the warranty, but it had to be the exact same part and they event sent me links to where I could buy it from. I told them I could not send the laptop as I needed it and could not afford the downtime. What I ended up doing, is buy an equivalent Intel WiFi/BT module and installed it instead, following the same spec as the Realtek one for my laptop. So, I would just like to know if Dell/Alienware would actually do that? Probably not? XD

Anyway, I do like Alienware machines, but I'm not fully sold on this one in particular.

Regards.

 

[saunupe1911]

You guys need to review the 2022 Razer 14 with a 3070ti!!! Best laptop on the market. Small, light, powerful, accurate color with a lit screen, and incredible battery life.

 

[helper800]

Anyway, I do like Alienware machines, but I'm not fully sold on this one in particular.

Hopefully not their desktop machines...

 

[-Fran-]

Hopefully not their desktop machines...

I guess I should've clarified: laptops. Yes.

Regards.

 

[helper800]

I guess I should've clarified: laptops. Yes.

Regards.

Yeah lol. Alienware Laptops are pretty great, their desktops are a steaming pile of hot garbage.

 

[PEnns]

Sounds like a decent laptop, but it seems Dell have their own versions of RTX 3060 (and other laptop RTX cards that show less VRAM), this one has 6 GB of VRAM instead of 12.

And if you dare ask for 1 GB of storage instead of 500 GB (it's a gaming laptop after all) , the price jumps by $300 ($1449 to $1749!! And 2 TB?? That's $500 more...!). We keep hearing the prices for SSDs have fallen so much, somewhere.

Now I remember why I disliked Dell!!

 

[velocityg4]

Very good review of the laptop. Thanks!

At that price, I have to say this thing is in direct competition with the G15 though, and that laptop runs around in circles this Alienware, even with the "older" 5900HX and 6800M.

One thing to note or ask: what is the M.2 drive this alienware uses? My G15 came with an Intel Optane drive and it is fast. I populated the second slot with a 980PRO and both seem to work at their max capacity given the 5900HX only drives PCIe3 X4 for them. That's one thing the 6800HS/X should have better than the 5900HX: PCIe4 speeds for GPU and NVMe. I'm surprised it does not show in your testing.

And one final thing, about support: while you should never ever have to (ideally), things do go wrong at times. How is Dell/Alienware support? I had my Realtek WiFi/BT module burned/damaged (no idea how) and I contacted Asus for help and options. They said I could change the module myself and keep the warranty, but it had to be the exact same part and they event sent me links to where I could buy it from. I told them I could not send the laptop as I needed it and could not afford the downtime. What I ended up doing, is buy an equivalent Intel WiFi/BT module and installed it instead, following the same spec as the Realtek one for my laptop. So, I would just like to know if Dell/Alienware would actually do that? Probably not? XD

Anyway, I do like Alienware machines, but I'm not fully sold on this one in particular.

Regards.

The SSD used is listed in the review.

There are two M.2 slots on the machine, one of which was populated with a Micron 3400 M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD (MTFDKBA512TFH).

 

[-Fran-]

The SSD used is listed in the review.

There are two M.2 slots on the machine, one of which was populated with a Micron 3400 M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD (MTFDKBA512TFH).

Oh, I must have missed it.

Thanks for pointing it out.

Is that NVMe any good? I can't find any reviews on it, doing a quick search on the name.

Regards.

 

[velocityg4]

Oh, I must have missed it.

Thanks for pointing it out.

Is that NVMe any good? I can't find any reviews on it, doing a quick search on the name.

Regards.

Don’t know about that one specifically. Crucial (Micron) is usually moderate. They’re reliable enough but not fast when compared to someone like Samsung. At least they are an actual manufacturer of the components (Micron).

I’ve got a few of their SSD.

 

[Tech_EE]

The Alienware m15 R7 makes the most of its Ryzen 7 6800H and RTX 3060 while delivering stellar battery life for a gaming laptop.

Alienware m15 R7 Review: Solid Gaming, Leading Endurance : Read more

Can you please share how you achieved 9hrs of battery life with this machine? I have a brand new unit and barely get 2hrs with just light web browsing in battery saver mode. Perhaps there are some more advanced power saver tricks that you enabled for the test?

Thank you!!