2013 Alienware Notebooks revealed

I wasnt aware that they were selling it already, thats great news

Im going to guess that for costs sake it should be the same panel as the m14, so Id venture IPS, without enough certainty to even say that I actually put the cat in the damned box or not

 

Well, looks like this press event didn't answer my question about color options for the chassis... The specs sound fine to me, but until I see that "Nebula Red" is still a color choice, I'm not gonna commit to buying one.

That's gonna be my first question to their reps at their E3 booth when I go to E3 on Wednesday.

 

in india they are selling both, the R5 and R4
so if i ask for a replacement for my R4 will get an R4

 

Damn. That sucks. Anyone know the reason why they don't make 3D for the 18?

 

Right now that sounds correct. I was about 3 weeks into the R4 release when my R3 (6 months old) finally died completely and I got an R4 replacement...

 

AW Australia still selling Older models

Also I missed the E3 launch (damm work), can someone link me a video, cannot find it anywhere

 

So the M14 is, at very best, the same price, twice as thick, hideously ugly and not anymore powerful than the Razer Blade 14. It's dead on arrival. I'm utterly disappointed by what AW have to offer this new generation.

 

Well, the R5 17x has now turned up on the UK site with 3D option - shame you can't build it as they have missed the LCD cover needed for the 120hz display....

 

Just got an email from Dell/AW Aus, have to wait for M18xR2 as LCD parts not available, hopefully they send me a R3

 

You know everything about this redesign has said to that it has saved them in costs. I am not sure I even like it.
To me it seems like a step backwards for what Alienware is. Loud and proud.

Side note UK spec machines:
17
17.3 inch (439.42 mm) WLED FHD (1920 x 1080) Anti-Glare Display
17.3 inch (439.42 mm) 120Hz WLED FHD (1920 x 1080) TrueLife w/3D Bundle

18
18.4 inch (467.36 mm) WLED FHD (1080p) TrueLife TN 400 Nit Display (1920 X 1080)

 

Engadget has stated that they are all IPS screens...? Apparently the 18 incher is a PLS.

 

Surprised they go such an early review but according to the test's didn't fix any of the R1/R2 flaws, still runs hot and is very loud when gaming.....not good at all

Little harsh, I wouldn't call it hideously ugly but agree with the rest, I could forgive the M14 if it ran cool and relatively quiet but the Laptop Mag review is pretty damning and gets uncomfortably hot and loud when gaming....I'm out. Good try AW but not good enough.

 

I see the 18 only comes with dual GPU's now. No more buying one cheaper aftermarket, shrewd move but kinda annoying if you're on a budget

 

Glad I didnt stay up to watch the streaming - from what I've read, it was a wash-out. Still, is there any way to re-watch it? - I'd love to see the 'party' myself LOL.

Oh, and PLS screens? - just Samsung rebranding of LG's e-IPS technology, which means it's a budget, entry level IPS panel - still, might be good....reviews would confirm this.

Where are the new machines on the UK website? link please ....

 

Gaming Laptops - Customise a Powerful Gaming Laptop | Dell UK

 

Cheers mate...:thumbsup: - oops, no longer available. That was quick hahahaha

 

Np, I was on that page when your post hit . Try to do a 3D build, messed up ;(

 

Wow, soooo many configuration options to choose from...NOT. I hope that changes....reminds me of Henry Ford saying, you can have any colour Model T, as long as it's black....

 

Yeah, pretty cra* really but I'm sure they will want to limit the supported configs early on. I would expect the offerings to change over the next few weeks (hopefully)...

 

I think it's time we added a poll to see what NBR thinks.
I am still wondering if the palm rest and sides are plastic/metal.

The new pricing structure by Dell is really cheeky, instead of choosing exactly what you want, they force you to pay to upgrade other components along with it.
For example, if you want the GTX 780m SLi then you have to choose the highest tier, which is the most expensive and comes with a choice of the two top end CPUs. If you just want the high end graphics card and a relatively low end CPU you cannot do that.

 

Palm rest is soft touch plastic as before, the chassis and externals are metal.

 

So do I get any credits for predicting HDMI in/out on the same port

 

I'm pretty sure you nailed it first :thumbsup:

 

No difference in heatsinks:

 

is dell doing? this is the worst distribution of laptops i've ever seen!
though i'm happy india got it before US

 

So I have heard in some of the reviews that these new models are even a tad thicker then before? The biggest GPU in the 14 is a 765m which is the same as the blade 14. The blade 14 is very thin and yet seems to keep its cool better according to some reviews. I think Alienware should have done some more innovation. From that pic above with the heatsinks, I see that the computer is in many pieces which I can see very little is aluminum anymore. Such a shame.

I was really really disappointed with the reveal. They knew there were plenty of people watching via stream and they cast us aside by giving no details. I wanted them to feel proud of their machine like I hate to say apple does. Make this thing sound like the greatest thing in the world and not just toss it out there. I am going to stick to my M18x R1for a long time to come...

 

Oh wow. They killed the design. Seriously, IMO, those things are ugly. Only thing that seems appealing are the screens...wonder if someone could get one of those new 18 screens into an M18x R1/R2?

Also, the Alienware 14 just seems crap compared to the Blade 14". No better in specs, far far thicker and heavier, runs hot and loud...just seems no reason to go for it when a well spec'd AW14 is not much cheaper than the Blade. Also, 1366x768 displays should die, particularly in laptops with four figure pricetags.

All I can say...glad I've got my M18x R2 after seeing that thing. Surely I'm not the only one who seems to think they're really ugly? Now I just need to be able to stick a pair of 780Ms in here and I'll be really happy...

 

So long story short i'm not missing anything ?

 

What I meant was that compared to Razer's offering the M14 is pretty ugly, thats not to say it doesn't come out on top when matched against MSI/Sager/Clevo branded laptops, they're truly hideous.

I too was willing to forgive the controversial redesign if only they gave us the option of equipping it with a top drawer performance card and improved the cooling, they've delivered neither so with regret, I'll be shopping elsewhere for my next laptop.

 

I was waiting for this announcement to decide whether to upgrade my m17x r3 6970M with a 680M card from ebay, or just to buy (what we now know to be) the new 17 as a better upgrade in the long term. I actually like the new look, and the 780M version is seriously tempting, but I think I'll wait for some more reviews before taking the plunge.

The super-glossy TrueLife screen would put me off getting the 3D version. Do anti-glare and 3D not go together well, or something?

 

Seems it is anti-reflective, wonder how well that works?


Dell TrueLife™ LCD Screens - What is it?

 

Looks like all of the competitors for the 17 and 18 flopped: Clevo with its BIOS and input devices; MSI with its bizarre designs, small PSUs and drawing every watt over ~180W from the battery (NOS); ASUS with few customization options. I hope Alienware comes through.

The 780m in LaptopMag's 17 review until performs 30% lower than usual. That could be a problem.

The 17 is now thicker than the MSI GT70.

Sound quality seems better.

 

Just ordered my M17, they are up on the Dell's site if you go to Dell and then select gaming.

 

To tell you the truth the MSI looks the most appealing out of all of those.

 

Its up now!

Alienware Gaming Laptops

 

Very limited options though, limited pick-n-mix

 

Alienware 18 HD Gaming Laptop Details | Dell
Alienware 14 Laptop Details | Dell
Alienware 17 Full HD Gaming Laptop Details | Dell

 

After reading the 17's review there definitely must be something wrong with the unit, 5903 3D mark 11 score, and 5492 on PC mark 7, the msi with the same gpu and inferior cpu scores 7,352 and 6,025 respectively in those benchmarks, for the PC mark 7 scores the msi ssd's are probably helping it quite a bit, but I cannot understand that 3D mark 11 score .
Any ideas?

 

all 1080p's (14, 17, 18) are ips according to the Alienware rep I just chatted to.

 

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty content with the 14. The real selling point is the 1080p IPS display which I need, no 900p for me. I honestly don't know if I can do a 17 inch for college but that's just me, and I also don't think I'll NEED a 780m gpu so its all good for me.

 

That would be almost as bad as forcing everyone to buy low gamut glossy screens. I can see all of the complaints about image retention and black glow sprouting. I'm not sure if I believe it.

 

Just saw on the m17 in the US it states the 750gb drive is sata 6gb/s, and the UK is 3Gb/s - wonder which it actually is? Also lightboost seems to have been dropped with this new display for 3D, not that I really noticed the difference between my R3 and R4

 

yes :thumbsup:

 

Alienware's new configuration options are a joke, do we no longer have the freedom to configure as we wish? now if you want nvidia's top card it comes bundled with intel's top cpu ?!!

Edit: Gaming laptops are already quite the investment, if we can no longer choose what parts we want in them and are forced to buy the most expensive option for this or that piece of hardware then I prefer to give my money to MSI, Clevo or Asus, at least I will be able to shop smart, choosing the right hardware at the best price for performance ratio, opting to not upgrade this or that part in favor of aftermarket upgrades...

 

I think they are just limiting the options at release of a new model - keeps risk down. I would expect them to address this after the machine has been 'in the wild' for a period.

 

Not run at the same resolution maybe?

 

Bit more background info on PLS screens for those interested: PLS vs IPS - bit-tech.net Forums

 

I think this is the case as well. They can charge higher prices for a newly released products for people who want to pay the full wallet breaking price like any retailer should to get it RIGHT NOW or before everyone else.

Wait a few months and I think the configuration options should open up as supplies are more available.

If it doesn't, there's probably no chance I'd get this neither, but I'm pretty confident this will happen. I also doubt you'd have to wait that long. It's the end of the school year this week, but back to school is in 2 months and there's probably going to be deals then. Holiday sales in 6 months as well. If not, then their competitors will certainly have sales and I can wait for the price I want.


Edit:
Lastly, the 2nd 18 inch option allows you to select the 780m cards so it's not the "most" expensive 18" option to get that...

Edit2:
It looks like you need the 3rd option to get the blu-ray drive...To bad I don't see WirelessHD anymore which seems dead nowadays as well as the ExpressCard slot being gone.

 

So the casing is all that really was changed in this new design... the setup inside is exactly the same as the R3/R4... I was hoping for a 3 pipe heatsink in the new revision so we can truly use XM cpus, damn.

 

Well the MX cpus are offered in the US store so there is still hope. WirelessHD as standard is a definite plus for me.