You are currently viewing Alienware (M17) 17in Gaming Laptop: Complete Review

Alienware (M17) 17in Gaming Laptop: Complete Review

Here, I will discuss Alienware 17in laptop in detail. If you are a gammer and looking for a high performance gaming laptop then this brief review will introduce to you one machine that will surpass your expectations.

Let’s get it into details…

The Alienware M17 has a lot to offer to enthusiastic gamers who do not wish to be restricted by their laptop’s performance. However, the powerful performance comes at a great price – a relatively low battery life.

If you have a low budget then don’t forget to check these gaming laptops under 300 dollars.

Alienware 17in Laptop – Alienware M17 Gaming Laptop Review

  • 17 Inch FHD Display
  • Intel Core i7-8750H
  • NVIDIA RTX 2060 6GB
  • 256GB SSD + 1TB Storage
  • 16GB RAM

Ever since its release, the Alienware M17 has created a sort of positive buzz around the market. When Alienware designed to revamp its flagship gaming designs in 2019, customers didn’t know what to expect.

However, Alienware lived up to the expectations by releasing a series of stylish and powerful gaming machines. The Alienware 17in laptop is a new addition to their already impressive lineup.

The M17 model, as the name suggests, follows a 17-inch screen format and comes with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 Series GPU and an attractive, sophisticated mechanical keyboard.

The introduction of the new model has been a success thus far, elevating laptop performance to a new level with its powerful features and satisfying keystroke experience. However, the Alienware 17in laptop is disappointing in one department – its battery-life.

The pros and cons are all there – what makes the difference is what kind of laptop you are looking for. In this article, we’ll give you an objective account of the new Alienware M17 to help you make a better investment decision.

In a nutshell, here are some pointers to help you get a gist of our review:

Pros

  • Powerful performance and attractive specs like Core i9 and GeForce RTX 3080.
  • A one-in-a-million mechanical keyboard layout.
  • Plenty of gaming-specific components to make the user experience more powerful and immersive.

Cons

  • An expensive choice.
  • Poor battery life.

Cost-Effectiveness

Gaming laptops are generally more expensive than their low-key counterparts. To top it all, Alienware already has an eye for producing highly-desirable models that customers would be willing to purchase at any price.

The new Alienware M17 is not immune to this trend. Despite its high price, the market is full of M17 admirers, simply because of how powerful the laptop is, along with the modern and sleek design, attractive gaming components, and so on. When you take the big picture into perspective, the big price tag doesn’t seem all that big.

The laptop is available in the market for a price starting at around $1350. For that price, users get to acquaint themselves with some powerful specifications including a 9th-generation Intel Core i5-9300H processor, Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti 6GB, 8GB RAM, 256GB of storage space in the SSD format, and a Full-HD display.

The specifications, in a nutshell, are a dream come true for any enthusiastic gamer who dreams of a laptop that can run any videogame.

Design

For people who have been following the M17 series for a long time, they’d be able to see the striking similarities between Alienware’s M17 R4 and R3 models. Except for the detailing in the mechanical keyboards, almost the entire structure and appearance of the laptops are similar.

That being said, the design for Alienware’s M17 is one of the best that you could get in the market without looking too flashy or extravagant. With its sleek and sophisticated appearance, the 17-inch laptop is a pitch-perfect representation of how simplicity can be made into something beautiful.

To accompany the great looks, Alienware has made sure that the customers enjoy the mechanics of the laptop as well. The M17 model is lightweight and thin, making it look exceptionally attractive and convenient to carry around.

The laptop just weighs around 2.63 kg at 18.6mm thick.

The good news for the gamers is that while Alienware M17’s appearance is simple and subtle to an extent, it is still remarkably suitable for a gaming laptop. The laptop’s body is comprised of magnesium alloy that makes it durable and immune to heavy damage.

Another great news for the gamers s that they don’t need to worry about overheating – the laptop comes with large exhaust ports that are responsible for pushing out the hot air generated by the high-performing gaming components inside.

Performance

The thing about purchasing a gaming laptop is that they never see it to be enough. Most of them are more than capable of running some high-profile games. But the amount of money they cost is just ridiculous.

The M17 model breaks the wheel – as it is one of the only laptops in the market that is worth every penny that you put on the table. Save for a couple of cons, Alienware’s M17 has enough pros for anyone to put an obscene amount of money on the table to procure one.

To put it simply, M17’s gaming performance is on another league. The laptop can run some of the most demanding videogames at high settings without breaking a sweat – that is, of course, with the charging port plugged in because of its relatively poor battery life.

If you tone the graphical settings to ultra, the M17 would still manage to provide 90+ frames per second when you play any good game on your laptop. The fact that consoles that are designed purely for gaming like PS4 Pro and Xbox One X hardly manage to hit 60fps makes this feat even more impressive.

Another con, for the gamers at least, is that the M17 model comes with a 1080p screen. While earlier this would’ve been a mouth-watering feature, it is only average in 2024, especially when it comes to PC gaming. So if you want to purchase the M17 model that comes with the RTX 2080, you would have to use an external screen to get the full experience.

If you are someone who likes a more immersive experience while gaming on your laptop, then having an RTX model would be perfect. That will allow users to enable the ray tracing feature, which provides a sophisticated lighting effect in video games to make the graphics more supreme and realistic.

The M17 model can run virtually any videogame that is available in the market right now. Not only that, the specs are enough to assure the users that the laptop would remain on the top of the food chain for many years to come, even if the new PS5 and Xbox Scarlett consoles are released early.

The performance of the laptop isn’t only limited to games – the M17 model is an equal amount beast when it comes to managing different tasks like video editing and rendering simultaneously. The M17 model has a lot to offer; it all depends on how much you want from it.

Battery-Life

We’ve reiterated multiple times in our article that the M17 model has one major disappointing flaw – its low battery life. Although the large, especially the 17-inch screen laptops are prone to having a not-so-impressive battery life, the M17 model has an abysmal record.

If you run the 1080p video at 50% brightness, the M17 would run normally for only a little over 5 hours, and this is when the laptop isn’t even using all the high-performing components that are packed majestically inside. If you are using the laptop for some regular but intensive day-to-day work, you can expect the battery life to only last for about 2-3 hours.

This is just for regular tasks like editing, viewing, and so on. If you are a gamer who wants to play video games without being plugged in, then you can only dream of that. Without the charging socket plugged in and working, the M17 model wouldn’t last half an hour if you are playing a high-performing game.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Why is the Battery Life so Poor in the Alienware M17 Model?

All the large laptops with high-performing components are expected to have a relatively poorer battery life than their counterparts. This is especially true in the case of gaming laptops. It doesn’t affect a buyer’s decision all that much as the laptop remains plugged in for most of the time anyway.

Can I Carry the Alienware M17 Model Around Conveniently?

Alienware’s M17 model is one of the sleekest and lightweight models available in the market, making it the perfect choice for people who have to move around a lot with their laptops.

How Much does the Alienware M17 Model Cost in the Market?

The starting price of the M17 model rounds up to around $1350. Customers can build it from there depending on the kind of model and specifications that they opt for.

Will I be Able to Run the Red Dead Redemption on Alienware M17?

Alienware’s M17 can run any of the high-profile games available in the market, including the Red Dead Redemption. That being said, the experts estimate that M17 would be able to run any of the games that will be released over the next few years.

Bottom Line

Despite the low battery life, the Alienware M17 has enough impressive and powerful features to make it worthwhile, especially if you want to purchase it for gaming purposes. With some next-generation features and powerful components, the laptop has cemented its position on the top of the market. The investment is not only for the present but also for the future as the M17 would continue to dominate for several years to come.