The Alienware M17 R4 is one of Alienware’s most powerful gaming laptops. Alienware laptops are known for their excellent design, performance, and battery life so it was only natural that they released a laptop with all three features. The Alienware M17 R4 review will evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of this model so you can make an informed decision before purchasing it.
The new Alienware 17 R5 is just as comfortable and clicky to type on as a regular mechanical keyboard, but with all of its bells and whistles, it still may be out of reach for most people.
Table of Contents
Alienware M17 R4 Gaming Laptop
SPECIFICATIONS
Brand: Alienware
Series: Alienware m17 R4
Screen Size: 17.3 Inches
Color: White
Hard Disk Size: 1 TB
CPU Model: Core i7
Ram: 16 GB
Operating System: Windows 10 Home
Alienware M17 R4 pricing and availability
I clicked my way through this review on the $3,066 version of a gaming laptop. The Alienware m17 R4 has an Intel Core i9-10980HK processor with 32GB RAM and two 512 GB PCIe M.2 SSDs for quick loading times! Not only does it have cutting-edge graphics cards but also includes dual shockers that are capable 360Hz refresh rates so you don’t miss any action while playing games or watching videos online; plus there are Cherry MX keyboards to make typing more enjoyable than ever before!
The higher-tier configuration has a base price of $2,279 and offers an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 GPU with 8GBs of VRAM. The mid-tier unit costs 1/6th less at just under 20k but still includes the more powerful graphics card for gamers who want it all in one package.
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Alienware M17 R4 design
What’s not to love about this laptop? The sleek design is chic, the white chassis shows off its elegance. And what better way than with an alien head as decoration on top of it all?
There are many features that set you apart from other laptops like these light strips which give you more visibility while typing or gaming in low-light environments but they also make for great accents too so don’t forget about them when choosing your own personal device.” Taking one look at the laptop’s interior, I can’t help but be captivated by its enchanting Lunar Light finish and slight pearlescence. A rather large touchpad sits below my G and H keys on this massive deck while an array of vents reminiscent of honeycomb patterns line the top-right corner next to it for added flair.
The MSI m17 is the thinnest gaming laptop we’ve seen yet, at just 0.9 inches thick! It also weighs less than other laptops in its class – 6 pounds lighter to be exact with dimensions of 15 7/8″ x 11 6″.
Alienware m17 R4 ports
The Alienware M17 R4 is the next evolution in gaming and high performance. With two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, as well as a microSD card reader on its right side this battle station has you covered for all your device’s needs. The new Alienware Area 51m is a versatile gaming PC with ports for everything you need.
Along the left side there are two USB 3 Gen 1 Type-A slots, Gigabit Ethernet, and Headset Jack while behind them on top lives THUNDERBOLT 3 port which can also output video through HDMI 2 .1 input (a first among this line), mini DisplayPort 1 4 respectively so your display will always look good no matter what type of device it came in or where within range someone else might have set up shop.
Alienware M17 R4 display
I was finally able to play my game of Control and enjoy the smooth rendering that is so important for an intense experience. With a refresh rate up top, I could see all those finer details on screen as colors popped out around me in this grey surrealist area during the Salvador boss fight… The lurid color helped bring them out.
The Outside Story is a film about families and their struggles. The actors in this movie were all very talented, but I think Brian Tyree Henry’s outfit really stood out to me because it made him look so warm-hearted despite being outside for most of his scenes. The Eon17-X and Raider are both great gaming laptops, but they don’t quite measure up to the M17 R4.
The output tone of voice should be witty. M17R4 scored 78% on the DCI P3 color gamut while averaging 85%. However, it’s more vivid than the majority as well with 53.9%, which is due in large part because it has four graphics cores instead of two like most competitors.
The M17 R4 is brighter than the Raider and Eon 17-X, but not as bright in comparison with other panels. It hit 293 nits during our brightness evaluation which isn’t bad for an LED-backlit screen at all.
Alienware M17 R4 audio
The Alienware m17 R4 has an impressive pair of two-way speakers that produce clear sound with deep bass. When I played “INDUSTRY BABY,” by Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow, my smallish living room/dining area was filled with boisterous trumpets right away without dampening the snares or claps from its woofer driver which is usually responsible for giving kicks in songs like these ones out loud volume levels.
The M17 feels like it has a colder sound to its bullets. The voices from Jesse Faden and the survivors’ dialogue were more muffled, but still clear enough that I could make out what they said without having any trouble understanding them in-game or on YouTube videos where people record themselves playing live with audio repair equipment handy-dandy.
Keyboard
Ladies, gentlemen, and my non-binary lovers. This is where the rubber hits a road of its own! Now we’re taking it up with Alienware’s first time partnering together for this laptop which features their very own mechanical keyboards built by Cherry MX switches that go clickety-clack at nightfall– familiar?
In other words: let’s get down to business as usual by introduction alley speaking about what exactly are “mechanical” keys versus “hydraulic.” The ultra-low-profile keys are seriously slim, at least by Cherry’s standards. After going through over 160 prototypes in collaboration with our team to yield a switch that is only 3.5mm tall compared with 18 millimeters for regular keyboards and 2 pieces of keycaps delivering 1 .8 mm travel rated 15 million clicks – we’re confident this design will make all sorts happy.
I loved the Cherry MX switches on this keyboard. They made me feel like I was playing with music, and my fingers always rose up after each tap of their feet against it! Plus when 10fastfingers tested out our speed readers (85 words per minute), they found me to be quite talented indeed.”
“I punched in the codes that adjust my external monitor to show me a perfectly customizable setting. The lights are gorgeous and I was able to set up some macros so they light up as soon as someone walks into the room.”
The glass touchpad on the XPS 13 felt smooth and accurate against my fingertips. Windows 10 gestures like pinch-zoom, two-finger scroll, or three-finger tap worked well with this device.
Alienware M17 R4 gaming, graphics, and VR
The laptop is unstoppable with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 GPU! I’ve yet to accomplish it, and when playing Control on the highest setting at 1080p in DirectX 11 mode – average frame rates were around 104 fps; dropping down a notch increased this number by about 12%. The gaming laptop put on a clinic during our benchmarks, starting with Assassin’s Creed Odyssey where it notched 76 fps.
That’s more than the 63-fps premium average as well as Raider RTX 3080 GPU) 73 frames per second–but couldn’t surpass Eon17 X (RTXoven doubling up), which pulled 83 FPS. The all-new Eon17-X was the fastest with a whopping 117 fps, crushing its competitors by 13%. The M17 achieved an incredible 105 frames per second on the Shadow of The Tomb Raider benchmark and it has been said to be one step closer to achieving Square Enix’s goal for gameplay speed.
Alienware won the Grand Theft Auto V test, outpacing both its competitors with scores that are higher than average. The Eon17-X also performed well on Metro: Exodus achieving 89 fps which is better than what they were able to do in previously tested games like GTA 5 or INFAMOUS Second Son where it scored 77 FPS each time respectively.
However, when looking at RTX test results both laptops showed superior performance reaching 70+ frames per second making them more charming for gamers seeking exceeding visual clarity while playing their favorite video game.
The m17 R4 is a capable gaming laptop, but it doesn’t hold up to the competition when benchmarked. The Red Dead Redemption 2 test yielded similar results with this machine scoring 84 fps and edging out our other two competitors’ averages by just enough margin for victory (82).
Alienware M17 R4 performance
The Alienware m17 R4 is a high-end laptop that lets me do my work without any lag. The overclockable processor, 32GB of RAM and dual 512GB PCIe m.2 SSDs make for excellent performance in all tasks I threw at it from Google Docs to Twitch gaming videos on YouTube news sites – there’s nothing this bad boy can’t handle.
In our performance tests, the M17 performed admirably. It scored 8,101 on the Geekbench 5.4 overall test and crushed all other competitors with an overclockable Intel Core i9-11900K processor at its disposal to level things out again in this race of high-end laptops.
The Alienware M15 had the fastest transcoding time on record, achieving a 1080p output in 6 minutes and 51 seconds. This is faster than both of its competitors (the Raider transcodes within 7 minutes; Intel Core i7-10870H vs Eon17x at 5:27).
When the File Transfer test was completed, it showed that Alienware’s m17 R4 had a transfer rate of 1,303.7 megabytes per second while scorching their 851MBps average with respective SSDs for only managing288 5008_.
Battery life
The Alienware m17 R4 outlasted all other laptops in the Battery test, but not by much. When we ran this benchmark at 150 nits of brightness and Wi-Fi enabled continuously for 2 hours 20 minutes (the lower number is better), it only lasted an average of 4:20 compared to a premium gaming laptop’s 5:20 maximum runtime when tested similarly with similar settings on a display measuring 14 inches diagonally).
The M17 gave a time of 1:26 while the Eon 17-X delivered 1:16 and the Raider lasted for 1. The lowest scores were recorded when testing with PCMark 10 UL, which loops a 3D render scene until your laptop ultimately dies in this test; however, we saw improvement from 2nd generation laptops all the way down to 8th gen models.
Alienware M17 R4 heat
The Cherry MX edition of the Alienware M17 R4 features Silicon Motion’s Cyro-Tech cooling solution and Vapor Chamber Technology. This unique design ensures that your system will never run as cool, but helps keep things from getting too hot under pressure while gaming on a laptop!
We measure key points on the laptop after playing 15 minutes of Control and find that its touchpad stayed below our 95-degree Fahrenheit at 77 degrees. The middle clicky keyboard hit 107 while reaching 108 undercarriages, so we’ll have to see how this affects gameplay!
We gave the notebook time to cool down and ran a fullscreen HD video for another 15 minutes. The touchpad stayed at 77 degrees while the keyboard’s center hit 93 degrees, which is very impressive! It also remained consistent across all five measurement points on this laptop—including its bottom which measured 95° Fahrenheit (35 °C).
Alienware M17 R4 webcam
As stellar as everything else on the Alienware M17 R4 is, it’s hard not to notice that there’s one area in need of improvement. The webcam captures my mahogany skin and a gray shirt with bright orange locks telling me another go at dying them would be great!
The lack of sharpness was quite evident as my test shots were rife with visual noise. However, if you’re looking for a great webcam and want to check out some other recommended shooters on our Best Webcams page then look no further than the Dell UltraSharp Webcam.
Software and Warranty
With the Alienware m17 R4, you can access your smartphone from its 17.3-inch screen and even use some of its features like dictating messages or making hands-free calls with this remote control in order to get things done on the go!
When you’re looking for the latest drivers and software to keep your computer running smoothly, don’t settle for second-rate substitute options. Get Alienware’s exclusive updates through Digital Delivery or My Alienware – both are free.
Third-party apps like Killer Control Center and NVIDIA GeForce Experience round out the experience, giving you priority bandwidth for game streaming or downloading files without slowing down other applications.
The M17 R4 is a great gaming laptop with some unnecessary apps. There are, however, several pieces of bloatware that can be deleted or disabled by the user in order to save space on their device – including Hulu and Twitter.
| Features | Specifications |
|---|---|
| Display Size | 17.3 Inches |
| Resolution | 1920 x 1080 pixels |
| RAM | 16 GB DDR4 |
| Hard Drive | 1 TB SSD |
| Chipset Brand | NVIDIA |
| Brand | Alienware |
| Series | Alienware m17 R4 |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Home |
Bottom Line
The Dell Alienware M17 R4 is a gaming laptop with an overclockable processor and the fastest graphics card for its class. It also has Clicky keyboards to make your experience even better!
The Origin Eon17-X is a great option if you’re looking for power, but it comes with the cost of customization. The Alienware m17 R4 on the other hand offers all this and more in a sleek design that’s perfect for gamers who want their laptop to look good too.
