Dell might have just changed the outlook of gaming laptops forever with the Alienware Area-51m. The very first fully upgradeable gaming laptop, not only will you be able to swap in a new CPU, you’ll be able to throw in a new graphics card.
Gaming desktop purists have long pointed out the limited lifespan of a gaming laptop due to an inability to swap out the graphics card once a more powerful model hits the market. The Area-51m, the very first laptop of Alienware’s revolutionary Legend range, bids goodbye to this flaw in spectacular fashion, allowing gamers to ensure their hardware never goes out of date.
That said, you’re likely to be waiting a while before the ultra-beefy components in the Alienware Area-51m become obsolete. With the options of an RTX 2080 graphics card and a 8-Core 9th Generation Intel Core i9 processor, Dell really isn’t using hyperbole when boasting that the Alienware Area-51m is most powerful gaming laptop on the market.
During CES 2019, I was able to get my hands on this powerhouse portable and see whether the Alienware Area-51m truly will prove to be a monumental game changer for portable machines.
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Alienware Area-51m – Release date
There isn’t yet a confirmed release date for the Alienware Area-51m in the UK, but it will launch in the US on 21 January 2019.
Alienware Area-51m – Price
There are no confirmed pricing details for the Alienware Area-51m in the UK just yet, but prices in the US will start at $2549.
Alienware Area-51m – Design
The Alienware Area-51m may be portable on a technical level, but personally, I wouldn’t want to get in a brawl with any man happy to haul this thing to the office and back. It weighs a staggering 4.4kg. Having picked it up myself, I reckon it would make a great substitute for my dumbbells.
But while it’s a big ol’ thing, the Alienware Area-51m isn’t as chunky as you’d expect. Its super-skinny bezel and sleek chassis help to ensure this laptop is unlikely to dominate your whole desk space. Sure, it’s still too large to fit in a typical rucksack, but this isn’t the point of the Area-51m – it’s a stay-at-home rig that will only occasionally leave the comfort of your home.
Unlike most super-powerful gaming laptops, the Area-51m is actually a rather attractive device. The “Lunar Light” and “Dark Side of the Moon” colour options may sound ridiculous, but they look gorgeous and compliment the sci-fi aesthetic for which Alienware is aiming.
The RGB backlit keyboard also helps in this regard, and while the light-up touchpad may be a tad overbearing for some gamers, I think it looks slick. Plus, I’m almost certain you’ll be able to turn this feature off if desired.
Dell has upgraded the Alienware TactX keyboard too. Now featuring 2.2mm of travel, I absolutely loved hammering away at the keys at the product display. Sure, I only spent a few minutes doing this, but my initial impressions are that this is one of favourite keyboards I’ve used on a gaming laptop in a good while. Of course, my opinion may well change when I get to put the keys to action for an extended period of time.
The one area where the Area-51m does look a little ugly? The rear. The result of having to accommodate numerous fans and ports is a bulky posterior, which looks as if someone’s glued a soundbar to the device’s back. The honeycomb-shaped vents and oval LED light found on its rear do add a helping of edgy sci-fi personality though.
On the positive side, such a design feature has helped the Area-51m accommodate cutting-edge thermal and cooling technology. Dell claims this results in a 50% boost in performance and 32% less volume than the previous iteration. I haven’t been able to put this to the test though, since I wasn’t able to boot up any games at the product showcase.
From Thunderbolt 3 to Ethernet, the Alienware Area-51 includes every port you’d need for your gaming marathons.
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Alienware Area-51m – Display
This beefcake laptop features a 17-inch 144Hz Nvidia G-Sync display to ensure a super-smooth performance, essential for competitive shooters. The G-Sync technology will help to prevent screen-tearing, too, by syncing up the monitor’s refresh rate and the graphics card’s frame rate.
However, a sore point is that Dell didn’t an announce a 4K option. Only a HD display has been revealed so far, which comes as a surprise since this laptop certainly has the grunt to play games in Ultra HD.
Ignoring the specs, how does the Area-51m display look in person? Honestly, it’s difficult to say. At the product showcase, the laptop was limited to its homescreen and a demo video, which is hardly a worthy substitute for in-game action. At this price I’d expect solid display, however – but don’t take my word on that until the final review.
Alienware Area-51m – Specifications
The Alienware Area-51m is a hulking beast when it comes to the spec sheet. With the option of a Nvidia RTX 2080 graphics card, an 8-Core 9th Generation Intel Core i9 processor and 64GB of DDR4 RAM, this machine boasts the very best components currently available.
By packing in so much power, the Area-51m should blast through any game with high frames. Plus, thanks to the RTX graphics card, it will be capable of ray tracing. I can’t offer any exact performance figures since I couldn’t fire up any games at the product showcase. However, on sight of the spec sheet I’d be very surprised if didn’t post jaw-dropping benchmark scores.
Clearly the headline feature of this laptop is that you can chop and change the components whenever you wish, never having to worry that your laptop will become out of date once a beefier graphics card is launched. This is the very first gaming laptop to be fully upgradeable, and could well spell a significant turning point for the industry.
The Alienware Area-51m has been designed to offer “full overclocking capabilities”, too, so you can crank up the performance even further if you’re completely power mad. With the very latest Alienware Command Center, customising your laptop should be a cinch too.
Dell has also sprinkled additional revolutionary features on top of an already impressive rig. This includes Tobii eye-tracking technology, which is a massive new innovation in gaming. In-game characters will be able to know when you’re looking at them, while UI elements will fade when you’re not looking at them. Sadly I wasn’t able to test out this extremely cool feature, but this tech alone has me immensely excited for the launch of the Alienware Area-51m.
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First impressions
Since I wasn’t able to play any games on the Alienware Area-51m, it’s difficult to give any verdict on the performance and display. However, its design and impressive spec sheet suggest that the Alienware Area-51m will represent a major milestone for gaming laptops in the years to come. The capability of upgrading components is a huge game-changer, and for the first time ever, we now have a laptop that’s a full-fat gaming rig in portable form.
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