The first impression one has after laying eyes upon the new Alienware 17 R5 is that it looks remarkably subdued for a top-tier gaming machine. The second, and slightly more overwhelming characteristic, is that it is heavy, which is much more in line with expectations of a gaming laptop.
But the basics first: the Alienware 17 is the cream of Dell’s laptop hardware line-up. If a no-holds-barred performance is what you are after, this is the machine to consider over the likes of the Inspiron Gaming series, which trade in performance for practicality.
The overview
Speaking of practicality, there is very little on offer here. The R5’s massive footprint can only be accommodated in larger laptop backpacks, and even then it often will not fit in the laptop compartment. Its 4.42 kg weight means that while it is theoretically portable, you are best served setting it up on a table at home, hooking up the peripherals, and leaving it there for anything but emergencies that require it to be moved.
Alienware 17 R5 makes compromises, but offers greatperformance as well
While these are acceptable trade-offs for the performance this machine offers (which we will discuss in just a moment), what is a far more bitter pill to swallow is the laptop’s barebones IO. Along one side of the laptop you get headphone and microphone inputs, a USB Type-A and Type-C port, while on the other side, a sole USB Type-A port sits alone.
The chunk of the IO is at the back, where an Ethernet jack is joined by another USB Type-C with Thunderbolt support, a Mini Display Port, an HDMI 2.0 port, the input for the charger and Alienware’s graphics amplifier port which allows for external GPUs to plug in to boost the laptop’s already formidable graphics processing firepower. What this effectively means is that if you connect a keyboard and mouse to the R5, and then need to plug in a third USB peripheral, you’re out of luck, unless it supports USB-C, which is a huge blow for content creators who might want to leverage this machine’s processing hardware to use it as an on-the-go editing rig.
Alienware 17 R5 sports a well-spaced and posture-friendly keyboard with a relatively small RGB-lit trackpad
The laptop gets a comfortable TactX keyboard with excellent key travel and multi-zone lighting controls, as well as nine programmable function keys that can store in-game commands. Thanks to the abundance of space on the 17’s chassis, the keys are well-spaced and the keyboard is good enough, that a peripheral keyboard is not really required. However, the laptop has a relatively small RGB-lit trackpad, that feels like inefficient space utilisation. It also tends to get in the way while typing, leading us to disable the lighting and the trackpad altogether on occasion.
One of the highlights of the machine is that it does not shove its gaming credentials onto eyeballs. The laptop has a clean metal finish, and while it has LED strips adorning its edges, these can all be customised with the included AlienFX software. We did encounter a few issues getting the software to run properly, but once it did, setting lighting zones based on individual preference was a breeze.
Under the hood
We mentioned that the Alienware 17 seems to have missed out on a few opportunities in the IO and trackpad departments. This is not the case with the internals, however. The laptop comes in two variants, and the version we received gets a 17.3-inch 60 Hz Full HD display, a high-end Intel Core i7 8750H processor, 16GB DDR4 RAM, a 512GB SSD aided by a 1 TB HDD for storage, and an overclocked Nvidia Geforce GTX 1070 with 8 GB GDDR5 memory to handle the gaming. There is an even higher variant that gets a QHD 120 Hz display with Tobii Eye Tracking tech, a Core i9 8950HK (which supports overclocking), 32GB RAM and a 1TB SSD, and an overclocked GTX 1080 to ensure that it can run circles around even the most demanding games.
Side and ports view of the Alienware 17 R5
On the performance front, the Alienware proved formidable, easily outputting 1080p at max settings to an external display. The presence of HDMI 2.0 means that 4K outputs to external displays are an option here. Even demanding titles like Hitman and Rise of the Tomb Raider ran at a smooth frame-rate of over 60fps consistently. The laptop also remained relatively cool under load, and the large chassis showcased its benefits here, as the fans did not get irritatingly loud even when we were wreaking havoc on the screen. General performance was blazing fast as expected, and the battery gave us around two to three hours backup with conservative use, which can be extended a bit more depending on the workload placed on it.
Alienware 17 R5 makes compromises, but offers greatperformance as well
Is it worth buying?
There is no getting around the fact that at over ₹2 lakh for the lower-spec variant, this is not a cheap device. The odd trackpad and lack of ports also mean it is not well-suited as a gaming device that doubles up as a workstation. Add the fact that the competition in this price range is heating up, and it boils down to individual preference. However, if absolute performance and Dell’s robust aftersales network are factored in, the 17 does make some sense. Also, while the top-end variant is over a lakh dearer compared to our review unit, the higher-resolution display with a faster refresh rate, eye tracking, fast storage and the last word in video processing hardware might make it the more appealing option. Buyers will have to go broke, but all that money also brings the knowledge that very few competitors, or games, can keep up with the R5.
