Alienware 17 R4 Review
Specs
| CPU | 2.9-GHz Intel Core i7-7820HK CPU |
|---|---|
| Operating System | Windows 10 Home |
| RAM | 16GB |
| RAM Upgradable to | 32GB |
| Hard Drive Size | 1 TB |
Design
Alienware's trademark angular design is on full display with this 17-inch gaming laptop. The gunmetal-gray spaceship look hasn't changed much in the past few years: It's still aggressive and powerful, with its angles and two-toned mix of gray and black, but it's also classy and refined, with solid aluminum construction and soft-touch plastic. Still, the look is starting to get a bit tired after so many years.
The lid features the Alienware logo, and lifting it reveals a black, soft-touch deck; a complete keyboard with a number pad and macro keys; a Tobii eye-tracking camera; and the 17.3-inch, 1080p display.
But it's not a totally black-and-gray affair. The keyboard, touchpad, Alienware logo and light strips are on the sides of the deck and can be lit up with customizable RGBs. I preferred using solid colors, but you can change each light individually and choose some louder effects with AlienFX.
At 9.6 pounds and 16.7 x 13.1 x 1.2 inches, the Alienware is slightly thicker than its competitors, and heavier than most. The Aorus X7 v6 is a sleek 16.1 x 12.2 x 1 inches and just 7.2 pounds, and the 15-inch MSI GT62 Dominator Pro is unsurprisingly smaller, at 6.4 pounds and 15.4 x 10.5 x 1.6 inches. Razer's Blade Pro is 7.8 pounds and a slighter 16.7 x 11 x 0.8 inches. Only the Asus ROG G752VS OC Edition is heavier, at a full 10 pounds, but it's similar in size, at 16.4 x 12.7 x 1.9 inches.
The laptop is literally surrounded by ports, so there's plenty of room for expansion. On the right side, there's a single USB 3.0 port and some vents, while the left side is home to a Noble lock slot, a USB Type-C port, a USB 3.0 port, a microphone and headphone jacks. There's even more on the back: an Ethernet jack, a mini DisplayPort, HDMI output, a Thunderbolt 3 port, the power jack and a connection for the Alienware Graphics Amp, which lets you attach an external desktop GPU for 4K gaming and VR
Display
The Alienware 17 is available with several different 17.3-inch display panels with resolutions ranging from 1080p to 4K. The configurations we tested had the base-model 1920 x 1080 screen and the higher-end 2560 x 1440 display, the latter of which comes with Nvidia G-Sync technology. The more expensive panel is definitely worth the premium, thanks to its superior brightness and sharpness
The base-level 1080p screen is sharp and colorful, but it's not as bright or as accurate as its competitors. I played some Mass Effect: Andromeda with the brightness turned all the way up, but it still seemed a bit dark. A blue Asari was a tad purple, but I could see every pore in Sara Ryder's face. The game looked better on the 1440p G-Sync screen, where the Asari was the perfect shade of blue and the game was just as sharp.
Turning the brightness all the way up was an important first step when I watched a 1080p trailer for the movie Gifted on the base screen. Once I got that sorted out, Octavia Spencer's bright-pink shirt popped against the brown pew she sits on while watching a custody trial, and Chris Evans' unruly beard was sharp on his face. When I watched the trailer again on the 1440p screen, I didn't even need to have the brightness halfway to its maximum, and all of the details were just as vivid.
In our tests, the base screen and the 1440p screen covered a strong 113 percent and 114 percent of the sRGB color gamut, respectively, matching the Aorus X7 and falling just short of the 120-percent desktop-replacement average. The ROG and the Dominator Pro were within a few percentage points of the Alienware panels, but the Razer Blade Pro reproduced an astonishing 185 percent.
The 1440p panel had a very strong Delta-E accuracy score of 0.5 (0 is perfect), which is even better than the category average of 1.6. However, the base model's screen scored a mediocre 4.1. The Aorus X7 and ROG were just 2 and 2.3, respectively, and the Dominator Pro was slightly less accurate (0.7).
I jacked up the brightness on the 1080p display because it measured an average of 278 nits, putting it below the average of 295 nits, the Dominator Pro (301 nits) and the ROG (a radiant 476 nits). However, it was still brighter than the Aorus X7's 252 nits. The 1440p screen scored far better, though, at 340 nits, outshining the Blade Pro's 304 nits.
I should note that the1440p version supports G-Sync, which syncs the GPU with the screen so that there is no tearing while gaming, and it has a 120-hertz screen.
Keyboard and Touchpad
The Alienware's traditionally styled keyboard (no Chiclet-style keyboards here) is nice and comfortable, with 2.3 millimeters of travel and 75 grams of force required to actuate the keys.
Even though the keyboard is set farther back on the deck than I'd like, the soft-touch plastic made it comfortable enough to type on. My only wish is that the keys popped up with more force to match how hard I was pressing them down. I reached 105 words per minute on the 10fastfingers.com typing test, which is just under my 107-wpm average, with my usual 2 percent error rate.
The 3.5 x 2.2-inch touchpad feels a bit cramped, especially with so much room on the deck, but it's accurate and has enough room for Windows 10 gestures. I could pinch and zoom on photos, scroll on the browsers and flick programs into a minimized state quickly and easily.
Audio
The audio on the Alienware 17 was a bit muffled. When I listened to "How Far I'll Go" from Disney's "Moana," Auli'i Cravalho's voice was crystal clear, though the drums and orchestra behind her weren't very detailed. I didn't have much luck while playing with presets in the multimedia section of the Alienware Sound Center, but I found the default gaming setup provided a much-needed boost in volume. I recommend sticking with that no matter what you're listening to.
I had better luck with games. I kept the Alienware gaming default profile running as I played Mass Effect: Andromeda. I found it to be plenty loud, and characters' voices, background orchestration and intergalactic gunshots were balanced.
Gaming, Graphics and VR
The cheaper Alienware 17 and its Nvidia GTX 1070 GPU with 8GB of VRAM pack quite a performance punch, and the version with the GTX 1080 is even more powerful. With either configuration, you'll be able to play intense games at high settings, and even get buttery-smooth VR performance.
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