*OFFICIAL* Alienware 13 R3 Owner's Lounge

Instead of obsessing over temperatures can some one please talk about build quality, screen, how the track pads is and keyboard. I'm looking at buying one of these and came to this forum in the hope I would get an idea of how the laptop is in all areas not just temperatures.

 

Build quality is very good, in my unit, like a tank, Keyboard and Track pad are awesome but I use my mouse the most. Its sturdy but heavy, that give a sense of "quality" to some depends on how you like it.

tbh I would worry more about temperature than the build quality, as AW has more or less perfect this design over the years.

 

It's probably the best built high performance gaming / professional workstation laptop in the market right now.

Trackpad is excellent, just that the driver takes up too much CPU power sometimes but that's not that big of an issue when you're plugged in.

 

So just contact Dell again, they have now given me 3 different stories as to why some orders are put on hold. They have given no information as to why they aren't shipping only that it's some sort of quality control check?
Surely this would be done at manufacturing center and not from the courier.
They really don't have a clue as to what going on.
Said there's no information at this time and to wait and they will send it out when they can.....
Absolute f'in joke all this.
Never had an issue with Dell but this is an absolute joke now......

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Just come off the phone with Dell, likewise my order is still on hold, no explanation as to why, has sent escalation to the "carriers team", am told will receive explanation within 24 hours, same as when I rang them middle of last week. No way of speaking to them directly. Very poor process, designed to work for them, not the customer.

 

Exactly the same story here. There's no info for the reps to view.
Also there doesn't seem to be anyone with any actual authority to see there's a tech issue and just send the courier a release request......

I got told that Dell are in contact with the courier to resolve the issue but I called the courier directly and they haven't had a single call from them regarding anything.

The couriers were actually OK and said they don't know why but I could possibly collect in person if Dell give the OK.

Dell said this could be possible but what a Ballache.

Just been fobbed off too many times now.

Dell's story is all over the place and there's literally no one with any authority to resolve this issue. And a simple one at that

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Seems there's some problems with different countries. UK got the laptops from china, I got mine from Ireland... My status was right from the get go. Got it delivered to my work as the transportation company called me beforehand. All in all a good experience, though the delivery time was 3 times longer than the actual build time. Ground transport from Ireland took 2 weeks, this could be a lot quicker with air transport on a laptop in this price range.

I can understand the frustration when the person in the call center is reading worthless answers right from the learning book. I hope you guys get sorted out as it's worth it in the end =)

 

Build quality as mentioned above is really great. I use my laptops in a work environment witch can be rough. I've plowed through different brands like clevo, asus, msi etc. all of them lasted only a year or so before I got problems like defective touchpad and/or keyboard and a lot of scratches. This beast seems to withstand this abuse without any problems.

I write a lot of documents and imo the keyboard on this laptop is one of the best keyboard I've been typing on in this small for factor.

The trackpad is good, not amazing. Probably one of the better I've seen on a gaming laptop, but not MacBook quality. Beats the clevo easily though.

The laptop seems reinforced with steel inlays and plastic where the usual laptops shows flex. I can't get it to flex without using serious force, witch is great!

I was lukewarm to the whole hinge systems, but even on this area dell did good. It's one of the better design I've seen and it will probably last a decade with normal use.

All in all if you're like me and build quality is a primary concern, there's nothing else out there with the same quality. You'll get the extra weight, in my case that's an easy tradeoff.

I will make a mini review and repaste guide when I'm back from my holiday. But so far it's been my best laptop to date,and I've owned my fair share of laptops as I usually replace them after a year.

 

If this can help you in any way .. )

 

here are there other two I just took

 

last chance for you guys to grab mine before Dell process my returns and give me my shipping label.

 

I didn't get an email notice...but I logged in and saw my EDD had changed to Dec 18th...which is a Sunday...

Ordered Nov 25th - pretty stock config but I upgraded Killer and chose Win10 Pro over Home. That's the only mods from the baseline OLED variant.

 

Thank you this is the sort of thing I wanted see here

 

Hi yes build quality is up there on my list so thank you this is what I came to this forum for

 

So I just received my lap top this weekend and i must say build quality is great and sturdy. I did notice some issues with it already. I purchase the i7 16 gig model and notice that performance isn't that great when plugged in. Trying to just stream a few videos from netflix and youtube and it was stuttering all over not sure what the reason for this is but will look into it more tonight. My other main concern is this thing gets really hot when gaming. From playing world of warcraft on their prefix setting 4 @ 720 resolution the bottom left of the lab top was getting really hot where my wrist was resting. I owned another alienware laptop around 10 years ago which had this same issue and it ended up burning the area that my left wrist sits in. This is causing me to rethink this purchase and it might get sent back.

 

Did you try performance or fan mode?

 

I haven't tried that yet I will try when I get home its just very concerning that world of warcraft causes the laptop to heat up so much when its not running at very high settings.

 

@sparkle999
Apologies for inputting negativity into this great thread. I do know this should be a place to discuss all things relative to the machine but I finally have an update as to what's going on for anyone who has an order on hold in the UK.

Just got off the phone to a great Dell rep, she was brilliant. Very informative and went out of her way to get to the bottom of this ON HOLD issue.

So, for myself and sparkle999 the issue is that there are a lot of battery issues at manufacturing affect a certain serial number of batteries (she wouldn't give the exact details) so this in turn has affected a large amount of UK builds.

They have held everything because of this and aim to rectify at the couriers by sending Dell techs to replace with new batteries.

This should be happening Thursday or at least an update by then.

Why they couldnt say this last week instead of outright lying to customers is beyond me.

Anyway, I digress.

I told them of my disappointment in the time it's taken to get a straight answer and asked for extra warranty as a sweetener.

She has sent me in writing that I will receive a 10% refund on the order once delivered and in my hands as a thank you for sticking with them whilst they fix this battery issue.

I would recommend calling and being persistent to see what they can offer as I do think we'll struggle to get these laptops by Xmas myself. (even though she stated it should be with us next week......)

That's all the info I have at the minute so just a waiting game until end of week for a proper update.

(I didn't wat to push her for more of a discount as I thought for her honestly and helpfulness the 10% is fine by me)

Again, apologies for adding negativity into this thread. But at least we have solid info now.

Thanks


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That's not negativity at all! That's good information and seems legit since it's U.K. Laptops that delayed. Mine came from Ireland and I'm still scratching my head trying to understand why U.K. Customers get theirs from china...

Anyways it's good to have it sorted out at least. And the 10% is very nice for those buyin it at 12% off in the first place!

 

Even better if we get them next week!
Yes it was very kind of her, I didn't push for it she just threw it into conversation. I thought she meant to cancel my order at first....... Didn't want that!
She was really great and pleasing to see as the the other 3 reps just outright lied or didn't have the information available and made it up as they went whilst they awaited the info.....which is still lying.

Still, the extra 10% is great and will go to more warranty I think.

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No problem.
It is a very, VERY well built system. Overall it just feels great [weight, color scheme, attention to details].
For the life of me, I don't know why, but I get such a massive M11X vibe with this one... Maybe just because I loved my M11X that much )

 

Why are you playing at 720p with such a low preset on a machine with a 1060?! :O
I'd be interested in knowing how it runs at 1080p with a high preset

 

That's very helpful indeed... I agreed this morning to give them 24 hours to get to the bottom of what's going on, so I will re-engage with them tomorrow morning. This information will be invaluable, thanks a lot for sharing your progress. This is a gift for someone in my family, so it's going to be a close call timewise.

 

It runs great @ 1080 and 1440 but it runs really hott which is why I lowered it.

 

Not a problem, just sharing my experience in hope it will help people.

Very nice gift indeed

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Hey, yes you can definitely fit a DS4 in there.
As for the earbuds, i have no clue man, never use earbuds, only headphones.

 

So that's uk orders, what about u.s. orders?


Last I called they were blaming it on stock problems with the oled and hard drive but yet some of the orders placed later are still being shipped out before me not to mention new orders say 10days

 

Anybody have any issues with leaving the 13 R3 lid closed while gaming (i.e., warping the OLED screen due to heat from keyboard) for use with external monitors?

 

I would not think closing the lid on the 13 would be an issue as the keyboard barely gets warm under heavy gaming, however if it was me I would leave it open, I can't imagine leaving it open being a big deal?

 

So they're trying to pretend like they haven't touched the money they took out of my bank account 2 weeks ago (dell is most likely already deposited it their business account and making interest)

And their responds is to wait 24hrs for an update (3rd time pm'ing them and 3rd time being told I'd be updated)

If they expect somebody to wait they could atleast tell us what we're waiting for. I find it kind of odd that they haven't been able to receive more stock of oleds in 2 weeks but yet there are other people that are receiving theirs.

I got a default option and the only thing extra was that my sales rep upgraded my NIC because they had to reorder my laptop/took 5 days for the reorder.

And last I heard it was the screen that was out of stock not the NIC

 

The keyboard on my R3 gets hot while playing World of Warcraft on 720 resolution and preset 4.


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what is your max temps?

 

Whats the best software to measure temps. I am basing the heat based off my left wrist and keys burnt and the area to the left of the track pad getting discolored after 2 days of use


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HWinfo64

 

I will download it tonight and post results. My 15 inch sager from 6 years ago doesn't even get so hot.


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I would be very concerned with this unit, even the razer's I have had got damn hot but never to the point of discoloring plastic.

 

Please provide some pictures because that is a pretty extreme outcome for ANY laptop let alone one with pretty capable cooling. Curious to see what you are experiencing

 

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keys burnt? discoloration? left of trackpad? you could be sitting on something that could go kaboom.

you should open up your laptop and look at the battery (it's right under the trackpad area), be careful and make sure to disconnect the battery on right side first.

 

Uhhhh dude....that looks like grease off your palms...wiped down with a cloth? The rubberized surface shows oil from your skin pretty well

 

It was wiped down multiple times


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Used a little water and a microfiber rag?

 

ye I agree that is just oil from your skin. And also the palm rest is far away from the cpu/gpu the hottest area should be around the w key row.

 

Like stated above, this area should be fairly cool. If it's hot in these areas it's not a CPU or gpu problem. If it is indeed not just sweaty palm doing that, you should not use the laptop at all as I am afraid of a battery burn. I would contact dell if the heat is like you describe in those areas. It's not common but you could have defective battery pack...

 

hot battery? I smell another Note 7

 

Yeah agreed, very concerning if its the battery. As @Rairch mentioned, his was apparently held back and not delivered because there is a bad batch of batteries - maybe this is one that made it into the wild?

 

Post #1118 regarding bad batch of batteries.

Can you see the battery once the back plate is took off or is it a full disassembly to get to it?

Might be worth checking batch number against the reps to see if this is the case. As the issue has only just become public knowledge.

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Confirmed. Circa 200 devices affected by the issue. Dell have not made the effort to proactively contact the impacted customers, rather they have elected to wait for those customers to contact them directly to chase. Dell cannot currently provide a date for when replacement devices will be provided. Neither can Dell provide a firm date for when it will have any further clarity. I have been asked to ring back next week to see if anything has changed. Despite the fact that the orders were put on hold on 7th December, it has taken nearly a full week and three calls to establish some semblance of the truth. I have little confidence that they will be able to fulfil before Xmas.

 

That's an extremely disappointing service by Dell.
I was told that Dell techs would be sorting this issue Thursday. Or at least an update as to when my system (and others) are getting fitted with new batteries.

They do seem to be proactive about the issue now. But if the shipment of batteries is getting sent to the courier, how long will this take?

I'll just have to wait until Thursday for an update. I will have to wait as the 12% initial saving plus the 10% refund on delivery is too good to pass up and reorder at full price.


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Hi guys, got yesterday my R3 from china, I'm in Italy btw.
Like I read here while gaming one cpu core goes to 88° unless I use cpu performance mode, so I want to ask you some questions, since you seem to be more experienced with alienware notebooks than I am :

1. what do cpu performance and fan performance mode do really? what is the difference?
2. is 88° too much in the long run?
3. on a dell I had a few years ago I remember having a software that could change fan speed depending on load, is there anything like that now?
4. I tought these new alienware notebooks did not use iGPU, and had no optimus, is that true? If not how can I check wich GPU is in use while not gaming?

Anyway I've got to say this notebook is a beast for the few hours I could used

EDIT : I saw a nice thread about undervolting on reddit, I think I'll do that