It has arrived. New Alienware 14 laptop is here. Video Unboxing!

Thought I would throw together a quick unboxing of the new Alienware 14 laptop. Written review to follow after I get some time with this system.
IPS 1080p is matte finished!!!!

 

Great video, first one I have seen.

 

Thanks for the video, Jwolf! I look forward to you posting some first-and second-impressions as well as temps, if you would, please. I hope you enjoy your new toy!

 

Thank you !!

 

First day with system I can tell you it gets warm. This is to be expected. Its a lot of power in one small system.

 

Does the Alienware 14x have Sleep & Charge ?
can we charge our phones when the laptop is off ?

Thanks

 

The 14* does, yes. The right side (facing the laptop) has a powered USB 3.0 port.

 

Greate video man. Please do as much reviews as you can. there is a comment in your video about USB2.0 port. All the usb ports on the AW14 are USB 3.0 ports. However one of them has powershare technology. Thank you again and waiting for more videos from you

Added:+Rep

 

Hi jwolf227, I just got my aw 14 in the mail yesterday. Was wondering if your hard drive gets really hot. It's located to the right of the track pad.That area gets really hot for me and I was wondering if I have a defective hdd. Does yours have the same problem?

 

Yes all 14 inch Alienware systems have this issue. My R1 R2 had this problem. Solution is throw in a SSD.

 

Quick 48 hour impressions.

The Good:
Display: The IPS display is amazing. I mean one of the best laptop screens I have ever used. No more glossy washed out colors. Its better than my W530 1080p display.
Colors are bright even at low brightness levels. This has to be one of the best improvements of this system. Quality wise its up there with the old Sony Z displays
Build: Overall build quality is tank like. As with most Alienware 14inch systems they have been build above the general consumer class systems. Its heavy but feels heavy in a good way.
Hinges feel strong along with the rest of the system. Its close to Thinkpad quality in terms of build.
Keyboard: This is the second best laptop keyboard I have ever used. Its only second to the Lenovo X220 or T420 keyboards. No flex, keys have excellent tactical feel with a smooth high quality finish.
Over time I dont see any grease issues you sometimes got with older Alienware systems.
Speakers: As always some of the best sounding speakers in a laptop. Alienware has been known for this so its of no surprise.
Lighting: I find the AlienFX lighting system to be very pleasant. the trackpad led light is rather nice. I was worried at first but works like a charm. Dims quickly when not using and lights immediately when in use.
As always if you dont like these lighting features you can turn them off.

The Bad:
Heat: This thing gets hot. I mean hot hot. You want one of the most powerful 14 inch laptops available. What did you expect. Idle temps are 15-20 degrees higher than my Lenovo W530 with the general average being 55-60 degrees on the Alienware 14.
When I say idle I mean typing this mini impression up while listing to music on spotify. That is what I consider idle. I will say the system is speedy. It editing the same 20 minute 3GB video in Adobe Premiere Pro around 10% faster than my W530. That being said temps were above 80+ degrees on the CPU side the whole time. System would really struggle editing videos on a daily habit. Standard HDD gets warm but who runs standard HDD's anyways. Throw a SSD in and your issue is solved. ***Here in the mid-west its hot right now. I mean humid and hot. Mid to High 80's during the day. Air was on and set to 70 degrees.
Battery: Never got over four hours battery life. This is what I was expecting. Smaller battery i7 CPU, 1080p IPS. This was just general use I was not trying to stretch battery life. I used it the same way I would use my Lenovo W530 laptop.
Compared to my Lenovo W530 which does have a 9 cell battery, the battery life was about half. I can get 8 hours easily on that system. This being said these are two completely different machines for different purposes.
Both have i7 Quad core cpu and Nvidia graphics though.
Weight: This is of no concern to me I enjoy larger systems. My girlfriend on the other hand complained about the weight. System is heavy for a 14 inch footprint. Its built like a tank which I would rather have than some plastic light system.
Gaming: I'm spoiled with the desktop gaming experience. System handled what games I threw at it. Most games wont play at high settings though. At least the one's I threw at it. Medium settings on most games should be fine. Crysis 3, Far Cry 3,
Metro and other demanding games it will be difficult to get a good gaming experience at 1080p. Again I do all my gaming from a desktop with a 780 in it. I'm spoiled with throwing everything on high.
I did play Civ 5 for a hour plus. It performed fine for my needs. Once the game progressed system did begin to struggle after the hour mark. Temps were hot and performance on battery was so so.
Again i'm use to a desktop gaming experience.


Overall is this system for you. It depends on your needs and wants. Its a unique laptop that will draw attention. Took it to work one day and people did notice. It drew more attention in just one day were if I carry my Thinkpad no one seems to even know I have a computer. Is this system for me. No in a huge way. Main reason is for me the gaming experience is not worth it. My desktop setup has spoiled me in a huge way. I edit around 2-5 videos a week with some photoshop work thrown in. For my needs the system has the power just has a few limitations that annoy me.

I must say I would like to take this display with me and throw it on my Thinkpad. Its that amazing in my option. Plus the keyboard is actually better than the new Thinkpad island style setup. My error rate along with speed is much improved over the island style keyboard layout. This is more personal preference though.

Hopefully this helps a few people out. If anyone has any questions just let me know. I will answer anything I can.

 

Good comparison. I was wondering how these new laptops compare to business-grade laptops in build quality, keyboard feel, and screen quality.

 

From my experience the build of the 14inch Alienware systems has always been more business build quality than the standard Best Buy consumer systems. As for screens I like the Alienware screen much better than my W530. As for the cooling system the W530 destroys it by a huge margin.

 

In terms of heat or fan noise? Alienware has lessened the noise at the cost of higher temperatures. Also, do you plan to test the 17?

 

No plans to test the i7. Others with more knowledge will produce better results. 5-15 percent performance increase is what we can expect.

 

I meant the 17-inch Alienware.

 

Nice feedback, JWolf. The heat issues are a concern for me, and with Alienware's low GPU temperature limits, performance is sacrificed for efficiency, which is absurd for a gaming system. What are they thinking?

 

They are doing the best that can with the size. Its still amazing the amount of performance thats in the system.

 

did you happen to try WoW at all? just want an estimate of the fps ill be getting on max settings.

Thanks for all the info though

 

@jwolf7722

Can I use this laptop on my lap while gaming or heavy work??

Also whats the maximum battery life can u get??

 

I wouldn't expect that you could play WoW on ultra with full multisampling. The GTX 765m seems for the most part to be equal to my 6990m and I have to lower some settings and bring multisampling down to 2x when in pandaria zones.

 

Dont have that game. Its a poor video quality game so should play ok. May have to adjust a few settings. The thing is at 1080p the demand on the GPU will be huge over 900p. My guess is you could always just play at 900p and get better FPS.

 

Lowering resolution makes everything look worst and jaggy. Better to stay native resolution and turn down graphic settings from ultra to high or high to medium to gain more FPS than staying ultra or high settings and lowering resolution to gain fps.

 

yea that was the plan, plus if i had my ui config'd and switched to my desktop it would mess it all up.

 

OP; Does it have a MXM Card/Port?

 

Jwolf,Thanks for your feedback on the system but did you notice any throttling issues some other users are seeing?you said the system was hot while gaming but does this lead to decrease in frames? after 2 hrs or 3?and what about the screen bleeding?did you notice this on your screen?

 

Hi Jwoff7722,

Thank you for spending time reviewing this new model of Alienware 14. It's kidda funny because I see you trying to compare with Thinkpad too. I have been using thinkpad all my life so far and love it. Right now I'm considering to buy an Alienware 14 and kind of confused between either buying an older model (Alienware m14x good deal from Dell outlet) and newer (Alienware 14). Personally, I hate things that run hot because you know that Thinkpad is very quiet and cool and I have been used to that for so long that I don't know if I can handle to see the idle temperature greater than 48 degree Celsius at all. Do you think this is something they can fix in the near future by sending out a software patch, bios update or I should not buy it at all. To be honest, I don't game much but I would love to have something to carry around and be cool and of course be able to play games. I like the newer model because of its design, I think it gets closer to business with metal case and keyboard new design, but the "hot temperature" of the new Alienware 14 really let me down.

Please let me know your opinion

Thanks

Tuan

 

How does this thing handle BF3 (FPS, temps)? I love that game. I'm not sure if I want to sacrifice performance for more portability, especially when it comes to the newer games coming out this year (i.e. BF4).

 

Great write up and video dude!! +rep from me.

Pretty sure the 14 does not have an MXM Slot, You're stuck with the card you buy with the system.

Should be able to play BF3 high/maxxed out if the 765m is comparable to my 6990m. Battlefield 4 on the other hand I have no idea about.

 

Ya sorry dont have BF3. The system runs hot. I mean you wont be using it on your lap. Around 20 degrees warmer than a w530 I have to test against. For this reason and low battery life I dont see this laptop working for me. ***Temps here in midwest are 90+ so that does not help.

Its a great laptop, just not for my needs.

 

I figured that would be an issue, again... I'm glad I went with the 17. Anyway, your feedback is much appreciated.

 

wonder if manual fan control would help at all? Previous models didn't have that aggressive of a fan table to keep fan noise down. Just a thought

 

even though its not for you, id still like the review video to be made

think iv watched your unboxing 3 times lol, boredom+anticipation=insanity

 

Does it still do that thing in the original 14x where it cuts the use of dedicated graphics to save battery? Do games lag without playing them while plugged in? Does the fan constantly turn on even for just browsing the internet? and last question...is it really worth it to upgrade from the original 14x?

 

Yes the new Alienware 14 makes use of optimus to conserve battery when you are't running games or other GPU intensive apps.

Power is still an issue so I'm guessing the still do. I haven't seen a single powerful gaming laptop that can run games great on battery.

Can't answer this one

I'd say most definitely if you have the money to spare. The GPU is much much more powerful if you go for the 765m and you also get haswell and all the goodies that come with it.

Edit: And also a beautiful IPS 1080 display

 

Well after testing with a few games, I have to say that optimus dont work so good, dont know why, but for example Borderlands 2 in discrete mode only works like a charm, pretty fluid, but when I go to integrated, it even doesnt open, For bioshock infinite it works excellent in discrete graphics, but when you switch them, it open but its too slow.... even that the nvidia monitor in the clock shows that its working in the game, but with a very low FPS, so if you want to play you need to be only in discrete mode, otherwise, at least for me, or the game doesn't open, or run at low FPS, in my M14xR1 nvidia Optimus switch just excellent

 

Check that it's not trying to run it off the integrated with the low FPS.

 

Well, in the nvidia monitor come that 1 application its running, and its the game, but very low FPS, only in discrete mode works ok, every time I want to play I need to reboot!

 

What is the config u got on ur new AW m14x ?

 

It's a i7-4800 and a gtx765m, 16 GB Ram

Enviado desde mi LT26i usando Tapatalk 2

 

You are probably getting throttled at 66C--the temperature limit is too low right now when using switchable graphics, there is a big discussion about it in the GPU throttling thread. Hopefully Dell fixes it, but right now it basically is working for you as they intended it to. You shouldn't have a problem with less demanding games that don't reach the higher temps

 

The Razer Blade and Razer Blade Pro run games on battery without throttling. Meaning if you're get 60 fps on BF3 on high settings, it will run the same if you unplug it. Although battery life suffers, you will only get ~2 hours of battery life while gaming

 

This looks awesome...I tried the previous M14x but couldn't get passed the "meh" TN screen. This screen looks excellent, though; I'll have to see it in person.

 

No I dont think is that because even some games dont open, as I explain in this thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...aphics-work-new-aw14-what-im-doing-wrong.html , its so strange that I'm even planning to do a clean install and see what happen

 

What hard drive do you have ?
is it better to get it with the SSD ?

 

Yes Far Cry 3 did not play well when not plugged in. This is a very demanding game though.

 

the razer blade also has a downclocked cpu and a really crappy screen. each to their own though.

 

Nice review mate, very informative.

It looks a lot better in the review than what it was made out to be.
Did you end up getting the 720p screen on your original M14X? Because you mentioned something about your original M14 being horrible in terms of quality.
I've got an R2 with a 900P glossy screen and I honestly can't tell the difference between that and a 1080P one at that resolution, the only problem was with most of the older units is the colours are washed out, so saturation has to be turned up slightly, then it looked great.

Also, side note; Would you or anyone else be able to tell me if the GPU throttling issues are existant on the new machine?

 

Yes, the throttling is there on the new AW14.

 

Baaaaaah, that was one of the only things that threw me off the M14X and why i refrain from using it -_-