Review: Alienware m16 R2, the gaming laptop that can do so much more

Earlier this week we published our Dell XPS 16 review and we came away impressed with it.  Next up is Dell’s gaming arm, Alienware, and their latest portable gaming laptop, the Alienware m16 R2.

Now I thought I would struggle to get this reviewed given I was going away for a couple of weeks but upon the suggestion of the folks at Alienware I took it with me – and loved it.  

Before I get into the crux of the review, two things surprised me, the relative lack of weight of the laptop and how usable it was for general productivity work such as writing articles for EFTM.

More on these two points later on let’s get started on the review. Read on to hear my thoughts on the new Alienware m16 R2.

Pros

• Decent gaming performance
• Keyboard is nice to type on for general productivity typing
• Solid build
• Compact and lightweight

Cons

• There are better gaming displays
• Loud fans

Design

The Alienware m16 R2 has undergone a major redesign this year with a much more compact and stealthy design.  Gone is the big thermal shelf that sat behind the monitor and looked extremely out of place and in is a much more compact design that still somehow manages to fit in all the gaming hardware you could wish for.

Alienware state that the m16 R2 is 15% smaller than its predecessor with improved airflow – possibly due to the fans that sound like you are in a cyclone.  The RGB lights are still present with the RGB halo light that was around the rear shelf removed and instead the touchpad has a RGB halo light.

For those who wish to save on battery life and also not let the whole world know they are using a gaming laptop there is a new stealth mode where all of the RGB lights are turned off – this is easy to switch to with a simple Fn + F2 combo getting the task done.  In stealth mode the keyboard is still backlit but now is in white instead of the garish colours normally associated with RGB keyboards.  Stealth mode will also quieten the fans which can get extremely loud at times.

The left-hand side of the laptop includes the ethernet port and a headphone jack while the right-hand side houses two USB-A ports and a microSD card reader.  The rear of the device has the charging port – a Dell special “barrel”, a full sized HDMI 2.1 port and a Thunderbolt 4 port with PD and DisplayPort alongside a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port, also with DisplayPort.

The back of the lid includes the traditional alien head that is Alienware’s logo along which can be displayed in full RGB.  Also on the lid is a big “16” indent, which is just a design queue and not functional at all.  No RGB for that one.

The keyboard

Open up the laptop and you’ll see the RGB-lit trackpad, the RGB keyboard and another Alienware head logo which doubles as the power button and also flashes RGB. 

The keyboard is nothing fancy such as CherryMX or anything like that but the keys, with 1.8mm of key travel and per-key RGB lighting is a pleasure to type on.  As the keyboard is not a mechanical keyboard you don’t get the clicky sound and sensation associated with mechanical keyboards that most gamers prefer.  

The keyboard is instead something halfway between a mechanical keyboard and a standard laptop keyboard.  It was actually great to type and game on – Dell and Alienware have aimed to make this gaming laptop not just a gaming laptop but an all in one and with this keyboard they’ve hit that mark well and truly.

There is a column of gaming-specific keys along the far right hand side of the keyboard – just like there is on the Alienware Pro Wireless Keyboard we reviewed the other day.  I didn’t use them much at all but they are there if you need them.

Typing and writing content on this m16 R2 is the best experience I’ve had on a gaming device (laptop or keyboard) ever and is a testament to Dell and Alienware’s attempt to build a hybrid laptop with the balance shifted towards gaming but not ignoring every-day productivity.

Hardware

The Alienware m16 R2 comes updated with Intel Core Ultra H series processors Which include a neural processing unit for AI use on board.  There is an integrated GPU in the chipset but I’m not sure the value of this considering you can, and should, make sure you get a decent graphics card installed when you purchase it.

RAM can be specced up to 32GB of LPDDR5X which is a bit disappointing, especially if you are looking to future-proof your laptop.  The XPS can be specced to 64GB so it is surprising to see that this cannot.  

The onboard storage starts at 1TB and can go up to 4TB to install all the games.

The big ticket item is the laptop graphics cards which can be added to the m16 R2.  The bottom of the range comes with a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 laptop graphics card and but you can upgrade to an RTX 4070 version of the laptop.

One of the most impressive features of the m16 R2 is its weight, or lack thereof.  Last year the m16 R1 clocked in at over 3.3kg but this year it is 700 grams lighter at 2.61kg (max).  While that doesn’t seem like much, stick it in your laptop backpack and you’ll be glad of that slightly lower weight – especially when travelling interstate.

The new compact size also allows it to fit into many more bags as well which aided me in getting it interstate without any hassles at all.

Cooling

Although Alienware touts several added cooling options this laptop gets very hot, especially when gaming a fast-paced game at full speed.  Apparently there are two fans underneath to direct cool air into the hardware and hot air out the cooling vents on the top and the bottom of the base of the laptop.

I’m not entirely sure if this is the extent of the “Alienware Cryo-tech cooling technology” but although the laptop got very hot when I ran a benchmark for a game it still handled the load well, so I assume the cooling of the components is working?

“Thoughtful placement of components allows for efficient airflow and cooling…. Two fans with 94 ultra-thin fan blades move air through four copper heat pipes to ensure optimal performance.”

The display

The display has surprisingly relatively small bezels and at the top alongside the 1080P webcam are IR cameras for Windows Hello support – I love this option. 

The display itself in the m16 R2 is a 16.0″ QHD+ (2560 x 1600) 240Hz, 3ms, 100% sRGB, ComfortView Plus, NVIDIA G-SYNC + Advanced Optimus – there is no other option.  While the OLED display is a great addition, it is far from the best display I have used.  Side by side the XPS 16 OLED display put the Alienware one to shame as you would expect with an IPS display versus an OLED.

This may be an issue if you are going to be performing a lot of image editing on the laptop but for general gaming it is good enough, easily.  The colours still pop well enough for gaming but the gaming specs for the display are decent.

The display is capable of 240Hz refresh rate, which resulted in smooth gaming even with a fast-paced game.  It also has a 3ms Grey-to-Grey response time with support for NVIDIA G-Sync should you wish to really push the limits.

The QHD+ resolution still allows for fast games but you can drop that resolution in games if you so desire.  The display only has a brightness of 300 nits so don’t expect  it to be super bright so you may want to position yourself in a way where the brightness is not an issue affecting your enjoyment.

One thing to remember with the Alienware m16 R2 when thinking about the display.  The laptop is actually relatively affordable as far as gaming laptops go so don’t expect it to have the best display around inside.

Speakers

The bottom-firing speakers are decent but I’m not a fan of bottom-firing speakers because it limits where you can use the laptop and still get decent sound.  The fans underneath are also so loud that they can drown out the sound in some instances.  

Use a decent gaming headset is my advice.  I was gaming with the m16 R2 for an hour or so when I realised it was getting quite hot, took my headphones off and the fans were SOOOO loud.  The sound of the game without the headphones could barely be heard.

Performance and battery life

Before we get into the benchmarks we achieved with the Alienware m16 R2 I wanted to talk about real-world gaming as sometimes the benchmarks do not accurately reflect the true gaming experience.

I tested it out on a few Steam games but nothing too extensive there, some basic shooter games and it was fine.  I then installed some bigger games such as Battlefield 1, Red Dead Redemption 2, Forza Horizon 5 and Cyberpunk 2077 and really pushed it to its limits – well as much as I can at my slower reflex pace.

While these games ran well at the full resolution there were times when it seemed to struggle a bit while playing Cyberpunk 2077 – but that was with me being super picky with it.  Dropping the resolution of the display alleviated this.  

Keep in mind that our review laptop, although it has an Intel Core Ultra 9 processor, it does only have an RTX 4070 laptop GPU.  If you really want to push higher games like these to their extreme you should probably look into the more expensive gaming lapotops with bigger GPUs.

The cooling seemed to be working overtime while pushing these games with the battery seeming to drop as I watched it.  I could only get between three and four hours of gaming on battery (it varied based on which games I was playing of course).  This is actually pretty good for a gaming laptop but Alienware and Dell have set this laptop up to be a jack of all trades with a focus on gaming rather just a gaming behemoth only.  

When using the m16 R2 for productivity purposes such as writing and web surfing the battery life was much better, as you would expect.  I was able to get closer to six hours using the laptop for these purposes – this is on medium brightness and the power saving turned on.  This isn’t great for a productivity laptop but this thing is so much more so they are really trying to perform a balancing act between raw power and battery life.

Benchmarks, for what they are actually worth, were decent but not ground breaking. Using 3DMark the Time Spy Score was 10,151, the CPU profile was 6,805 max threads, and the Storage Benchmark Score was 1,711, all good but not top of the heap. It was comfortable comparable to gaming laptops of similar specs such as the Razer Blade 14 (2023)

Final thoughts

I have never been a huge wrap for gaming laptops. I mean, they are normally always great for playing games but that’s about it. The Alienware m16 R2 though, is “built different.” The keyboard allows for accurate, fast typing, mnostly because it is not a mechanical keyboard.

This hybrid laptop Alienware has built still favours gaming but can be used for other things easily enough — I know because I did exactly that for a week. I was easily able to fit it into my EFTM backpack, carry it onto the plane and transport it to my accomodation in Adelaide. There I could game all I wanted while also covering news and reviews for everyone’s favourite website, EFTM.com.

It may not get the highest benchmarks of gaming laptops its size but it is certainly comparable, and its price is certainly more affordable than most. I was able to play nearly every game without issues at all but if you really want to push it get the version with 32GB RAM and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 laptop GPU.

If you want a relatively affordable gaming laptop that can do so much more and is comfrtable doing anything and everything then I can highly recommend the Alienware m16 R2 laptop to you.

The Alienware m16 R2 is available at selected stores and online at Dell starting at $2,698.30 AUD for a 16GB RTX4060 version to up to $3,298.90 for the 32GB RTX 4070 version.