While we’ve done heaps of reviews on Alienware in the past, it’s been a hot minute since we were able to review a gaming laptop.
I have to admit that I am, for the most part, a console gamer, but after getting to play around with the Alienware 18 Area-51 Gaming Laptop over the Christmas break, I might just switch sides.
Design
I know I should’ve been thinking more about the look and design as a whole, but as mentioned, predominantly being a console gamer, the first thing that honestly that ran through my mind when I picked up the gaming laptop was how bulky and heavy it was, with a weight of 4.34kgs, not including the 1kg power adaptor. Seemingly the heftiest gaming laptop in recent years and not a device that’s easily portable (if at all).
The design of the gaming laptop itself is a lot sleeker and cleaner than the quirkier designs they’ve had in the past; coloured in an anodized aluminium deep Liquid Teal lid (that is just subtle enough if the colour isn’t your cup of tea), a black plastic interior, the classic LED lighting on the touchpad, keyboard, and exterior that is a staple with Alienware products, and a Clear Gorilla Glass window the underneath the laptop gives sneak peak of the impressive hardware.
I did find that fingerprints were easily transferable on the exterior of the laptop, which can be an issue to some, but can quickly be removed with a microfibre cloth.
Display & Sound
The Alienware 18 Area-51 Gaming Laptop doesn’t come with an OLED or mini-LED display option, but instead has an 18 inch IPS display with a 300Hz refresh rate.
Some people have mentioned seeing a negative difference, but I personally didn’t find it disrupting towards any of my gameplay at all. The picture and the colours were clear and high quality enough that the lack of an OLED or mini-LED didn’t cross my mind.
In terms of the speakers, at 100% they were no doubt loud, but sometimes loud doesn’t always warrant the quality to be good, particularly when playing music. At times the audio felt a bit staticky at 100%, but luckily it wasn’t too much of an issue while playing games. If anything, the quality of the sound while playing games helped the worlds in the games feel so much more immersive.
Performance
I mainly used the laptop to play a couple of RPGs, FPS games, some chill and cosy games, and for a few admin things here and there. Mainly playing Starfield, Counter Strike 2, Overwatch 2 and 2019’s Call of Duty Modern Warfare all over 250fps to truly test the limits of this device (the max being 300fps for this device), which to no one’s surprise, runs perfectly.
With the NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 5090 with 24 GB of GDDR7 VRAM being one of the most powerful graphics cards in the market, there’re no doubt helps the gameplay for the FPS games in particular to run really smoothly and boosting the quality of the frame rates.
While it’s mentioned that the laptop would work 15% quieter due to the new thermal architecture, the fans still ran quite loudly but not enough to notice if you were playing a game, more-so a noticeable sound when just using the laptop for regular admin tasks.
But it is of note that during the peak of Australian summer, I never felt like the laptop was ever running too hot, even after hours of gameplay, which is a plus if you end up wanting to play games in bed (like I tend to do).
The gaming laptop is also packed with ports, with the rear holding the bulk. The left side of the laptop has a headset jack and SD card slot, where the rear has three USB-A ports, two Thunderbolt 5 ports, one HDMI, and one Ethernet port.
It can be a bit of a play around plugging everything in because of the size of the laptop, and I think the design would benefit from a few ports on the side of the laptop for ease of access.
Battery Life
One of the more annoying problems with the Alienware 18 Area-51 Gaming Laptop was to do with the battery life. Obviously there aren’t any issues when it’s connected to the power adapter, but I found that playing competitive games, or RPGs drained the battery in around 80 minutes.
Which is another reason why this gaming laptop wouldn’t really work as a portable laptop, unless you were using it for lighter tasks like admin or streaming. But again, because of the weight, it’s not practical to be carrying it around either way.
Verdict & Value
Alienware has one of the most recognisable logos in the game, and there are so many reasons why the brand is so well regarded – mainly due to their high performing hardware and aesthetic designs, which we most definitely see with this device.
With the high price point, the Alienware 18 Area-51 is no doubt an investment, but if you’re looking for a gaming laptop that is strong, reliable, and powerful, then it might be worth it.
FOUR STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Highlights: Incredibly powerful laptop with the ability to run content heavy games at ease
Lowlights: Very high price point; the battery life when not plugged in is poor; the device itself is quite heavy so it isn’t a good portable gaming laptop
Manufacturer: Dell
Price: Starting off at A$5,699.10 depending on your particular configurations
Available: Now on the Dell website HERE.
Review based on loan unit provided by Dell.
