Alienware’s Area-51m Is a Gaming Monster That Tackles Some of the Biggest Problems With Overkill Laptops

Like top - of - the - line Alienware portable before it , the Area-51 m “ laptop ” is mammoth , expensive , and wo n’t fool anyone into thinking it ’s anything but a machine for Rockstar - slop gamers . But at the same time , it ’s a departure from previous laptops in elbow room that a least prove to address some of those problems . And yes , of course of instruction , it ’s incredibly herculean and will scream through game .

Alienware Area-51 m

What is it ?

Photo: Alex Cranz (Gizmodo)

Alienware ’s big 17.3 - column inch upgradable laptop computer .

Price

offset at $ 2,150 ; reviewed at $ 4,250

Super fast desktop components you may elevate on your own ! Lights !

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The Area-51 m has a fresh new look that ’s meant to move forth from the supercar aesthetic that Alienware has sweep up for years , and if like me , you see a lot of gaming laptops , you ’ll notice and value the nicety . This is a attractively designed machine with gentle swooping curves , slim bezel , and buff that only softly whir .

Still , while examine the twist in common sphere of our office , more than one coworker arrest and stared . To summarize : This information processing system is mammoth and designed to appeal to geeks who flock to wink LED lights like moth to lamplight .

There is no amount of engineering that can extenuate the size of a laptop computer with the best potential moxie . Forget the 17 - in exhibit . Depending on the configuration , this thingcan count up to 8.54 pounds , and it ’s 1.7 inches duncical . ( Amore reasonable gaming laptopweighs a little over five pounds and is .75 inches chummy , whereas a 15 - column inch MacBook Pro weighs four pounds and amount .61 inches thick . ) Moreover , while the design might be more processed , the ominous Alienware logo still glows on the back of the exhibit , and a prominent ring of luminousness on the Alienware Area-51 m ’s huge butt search like accent lighting on a place ship .

What ’s more relevant is what ’s going on indoors , and how that affects the long - term cost of owning a very expensive equipment . This is the first laptop computer from Alienware to utilise desktop portion , and like a good desktop , the Area-51 m is upgradable , so you may swap out the storage , RAM , CPU , and GPU for newer guts when they start to show their eld in a few years .

It take me about three hoursto disassemble the twist and swap out constituent , which is a pain in the neck reckon I can do the same thing on my home desktop in under 10 minutes . On the other manus , my background stand well over two pes tall , and the idea that I ’m take that anywhere outside my house is nonsensical .

There are some unanswered motion about just how much additional economic value this upgradeability will add to the computer . The CPU plugs into an LGA 1151 socket that ’s been in use for several years , whereas the GPU ask a custom module that you need to obtain from Alienware . If you had to purchase a fresh i9 mainframe today , you would drop about $ 500 . Alienware has n’t hammered down pricing for what the GPU modules will cost in the future , but the company told us that the musical theme is not to sell them for profit , but rather as an added welfare to customer .

But with the interrogative aside , the concept at least is appealing : Here ’s a very powerful portable computer that will hopefully be upgradable as long as you’re able to get compatible components .

And improve the cost proposition would be great because Area-51 m starts at $ 2,150 , which is on the expensive side for something with an Intel eighth - Gen i7 - 8700 processor , an Nvidia RTX 2060 graphics scorecard , and just 8 GB of RAM . One might call that lewdly overpriced . The same move for the $ 4,250 translation I go over which come with an i9 - 9900 K , an RTX 2080 , and 32 GB of RAM ( overprice and spec overkill ) .

But the components are just a small part of this price puzzle . The Area-51 m feel a flock less overpriced when you think of it as the dainty PC shell ever made for a desktop — in fact , it ’s chintzy than a fancy desktop with luminousness and liquid cooling from Maingear .

So as the fancy PC case ever how is it ? Incredible . When I had to bring it into the government agency so we could shoot some video footage of it last week , I was annoyed because it imply I could n’t game on it for a few days . And because it ’s got screen background components inside it ’s incredibly fast , just as tight as my screen background , which has the same processor and GPU but half the RAM . In Far Cry 5 at 1080p , it did 126 frames per secondly , while my desktop managed 121 frame per secondly .

But it also has a 17.3 - column inch G - Sync monitor with a 144Hz refresh rate built in ( cheap soma strike down to a 60Hz non - G - Sync exhibit ) , and Tobii oculus trailing , which naturally clear up the screen when I ’m looking at it , and blind it when I look by . Those would both be matter I ’d call back about buy with a custom desktop , and they ’re very welcome here , particularly as they ’re some of the least flashy part of this very flashy laptop computer .

As we ’ve said , this thing is festoon with lights . All the trivial exotic head , the keyboard , the trackpad — even a line of lights around the machine butt — glow , and the lambency is customizable .

It looks adorable on the keyboard , which opts for low profile keycaps and softer switch that other gaming laptop makers build honking 17 - column inch gadget in this terms range .

The gleaming is also welcome on the trackpad , which is specify firmly in the center of the master part of the keyboard , not in the center of the ribbon rest . The keyboard has a full set of macro keys and a number pad , which are n’t used as often as the rest of the keys . Why put the trackpad center when your hand naturally sits a few inches to the left . I usually find off - mall trackpads irritating , but the style the Area-51 m balanced on my lap restrain me from getting annoyed . It ’s slightly weight down more to one side as well , which make everything feel very innate , and while it ’s much less pleasant on my desk , where stability ruins that funky balanced tactile property , there are sight of USB ports so you could connect a black eye , keyboard , and other peripheral gadget .

A final note about the blingy luminosity : Customizing them is a nightmare . The customization cleave the keyboard apart from all the other glowy bits , so if you require everything to match , you have to go into two separate menus . But that ’s a pretty small complaint .

My other charge is battery life . I could n’t really get past an hour and a half while dally biz , and it takes two 60 minutes to load using not one but two major power bricks . That feels pretty indecorous , but I likely should n’t moan and moan too much — this thing is using screen background components after all . The amount of power expect to run it would also need some self-aggrandising honking batteries for anything approaching real portable performance . So if you ’re planning on wager on the couch , you ’ll want a force airstrip William Christopher Handy .

But lousy battery life and pestering software ? Those are my complaints ? Yeah . Otherwise , as gaming laptops intended to look like they ’re primarily for gambling , this thing is the zenith . It ’s well balanced , flashy , and fast . While I would n’t urge the Area-51 m for someone just looking for a satisfying portable play laptop ( MSI ’s GS75orRazer ’s Bladeare good choice ) , I would wholeheartedly commend the Alienware it ’s the undisputed champ for hoi polloi looking for the very best execution out of a machine that can go .