Alienware m18 R2 review: A gaming juggernaut with speed to spare

Alienware made its name by offering cutting edge gaming hardware in a clean, refined package. It hasn’t always offered the best value, but you’ll never be wanting for power. The new Alienware m18 R2 gaming laptop is very much in that vein—it has better specs than most desktop gaming PCs, and it’s technically portable. You won’t necessarily want to carry around this nearly 10-pound behemoth, but you can.

The Alienware m18 R2 has a starting price every bit as hefty as the computer itself, but the $1,900 base model pales in comparison to the staggering $4,500 fully souped-up version. The laptop I tested is a bit more modest (and $1,000 cheaper), but it still has the best Intel CPU and Nvidia GPU you’ll find in a laptop, and the 18-inch display won’t leave you feeling claustrophobic. If gaming is your primary use case, it’s hard to find a more capable laptop, but the price will be hard to swallow for casual gamers.

Looking for more options? Check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best gaming laptops available right now.

Alienware m18 R2: Specs and features

Even the base model m18 R2 is a beast of a laptop, with an Intel Core i7 14650HX and an Nvidia RTX 4060. My test unit is priced at $3,550 with a Core i9 14900HX, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 (16GB), 32GB of DDR5 RAM, a 2TB NVMe SSD, and a backlit mechanical keyboard.

Dell offers two 18-inch display options that cater to different kinds of gamers. There’s a 2560×1600 LCD with a 165Hz refresh rate or a 1920×1200 LCD with a faster 480Hz refresh. I tested the former. For people playing fast-paced competitive shooters, the speedy low-resolution display might be preferable.

All of the peripherals are best-in-class, as well. You’ve got an Intel Killer Wi-Fi 7 card, Dolby Atmos speakers, and Thunderbolt 4 connectivity. Here’s the full spec sheet for the review unit.

• CPU: Intel Core i9 14900HX
• Memory: 32GB DDR5, 5600 MT/s
• Graphics/GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 (16GB GDDR6)
• Display: 18-inch QHD (2560×1600) LCD, 165Hz refresh with G-Sync
• Storage: 2TB M.2 PCIe NVMe
• Webcam: 1080p at 30fps with HDR
• Connectivity: 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C, 2x Thunderbolt 4 Gen 2 Type-C (alt display supported), 1x RJ45 Ethernet, 1x 3.5mm audio jack, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x mini-Display Port, 1x power adapter
• Battery: 6 Cell, 97 Wh
• Dimensions: 16.15 x 12.59 x 1.05 inches
• Weight: 9.32 lb
• MSRP: Starting at $1,899.99 ($3,549.99 as tested)

Alienware m18 R2: Design and build quality

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

The exterior of the Alienware m18 R2 is clad in anodized aluminum, and it’s available in a single color called Dark Metallic Moon. The lid has the iconic glowing alien logo, and there’s another one inside (above the keyboard) that serves as the power button. Not enough RGB for a gaming laptop? The keyboard is also fully backlit with RGB LEDs, and there’s a glowing ring around the rear thermal shelf. All the RGB is controlled via the bundled Alienware Command Center app, which also manages your performance profiles. .

As you can tell from the measurements above, this is a huge laptop. Unlike the slightly smaller Alienware m16 R2, the m18 R2 keeps the thermal shelf on the back, which blasts heat away from the internals with the aid of four cooling fans. That also makes the device even larger than the 18-inch display measurement might suggest. It almost feels wrong to call it a laptop as you’ll never willingly use it on your lap—this is the epitome of a “desktop replacement” machine.

The Alienware m18 R2 does have aggressively tapered edges, which helps hide its substantial girth. The hinge, fan grilles, and overall structure feel completely solid. Even with under sustained load, the fans produce a smooth drone with no rattling or clicks.

Alienware m18 R2: Keyboard and trackpad

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

The trackpad on the latest Alienware machine is responsive and large—as it should be on a laptop with so much real estate. The surface is soft-touch plastic instead of glass, which is common on high-end laptops. The rubbery finish attracts finger smudges, but my finger glides smoothly, and taps are detected well. It’s perfectly good for productivity, but let’s face it, you’ll want to use a real mouse for gaming.

The Alienware m18 R2 comes with a standard laptop keyboard by default, but you can (and should) upgrade to an ultra-low-profile mechanical keyboard for just $50 extra. The switches were co-designed with Cherry, and they provide a much more precise typing experience than other laptop keys. Because this is a laptop, the switches don’t have very much travel compared to a standalone keyboard, but the consistent feel is a huge upgrade over traditional laptop keys.

Noise might be an issue if you’re doing a lot of typing or gaming in a room with other people. These switches do have an audible click that’s louder than non-mechanical laptop keyboards. That said, the added tactility and stability makes up for the racket.

Alienware m18 R2: Display and audio

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

Laptops with 4K OLED displays have become increasingly mainstream, but the Alienware m18 R2 doesn’t go that far. I tested the sharper of two options, a 2560×1600 IPS LCD with a 165Hz refresh rate. At 18 inches, that resolution works out to 157 pixels per inch. The image is sharp enough at normal viewing distances, and the viewing angles are excellent. There are two video outputs (DisplayPort and HDMI) if you want to connect a sharper 4K display—this machine has enough power to play any current game at 4K.

The panel brightness tops out at 300 nits, which is a bit lacking for such an expensive laptop. It doesn’t get bright enough to support any HDR standards—again, that feels like a missed opportunity for a high-end gaming machine. On the plus side, there’s no unsightly backlight bleed around the edges even with the brightness maxed out.

If the laptop never leaves your desk, you won’t mind the middling brightness too much. I mostly used this machine at nearly maximum brightness, and it looked good in all indoor lighting scenarios. The anti-glare screen will ward off unsightly reflections indoors, but you will probably find the panel too dim for use outdoors. A laptop this size probably isn’t going with you to the park, but I’d still like higher peak brightness.

You might assume the grilles above the keyboard are speakers, but that’s actually part of the cooling system. The speakers are on the left and right edges, so they don’t project sound directly at you. Regardless, they’re clear and loud, at least for a laptop. Even cranking the volume close to maximum, there’s no detectable distortion.

Alienware m18 R2: Performance

There is no reason to purchase a 10-pound gaming laptop unless you intend to make use of all that power. This machine packs the most capable Intel Raptor Lake CPU and Nvidia’s top-of-the-line RTX GPU, so yes, it can run any game imaginable at maximum settings in 2024.

I’ve tested the Alienware m18 R2 with titles like Baldur’s Gate 3, Armored Core VI, and Diablo IV, all of which ran perfectly. It was also able to run Cyberpunk 2077 in RT Overdrive mode, which is no joke even on the most capable desktop gaming PCs.

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

Our first benchmark test is PCMark 10, which is designed to measure system performance across a variety of metrics. It focuses more on CPU performance than GPU, though. The Alienware m18 R2 eked out a win here, besting even the MSI Raider GE78 gaming laptop. Core Ultra 7 and Core i7 chips naturally take a step down in performance, but all these models are generally speedy.

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

Cinebench R20 is another CPU-focused test, this time demonstrating multithreaded performance in short bursts. The encode test only takes a few minutes, so heat isn’t a concern.

The m18’s Core i9 14900HX chip with its 24-core design tears through this benchmark, outdoing even the MSI Raider, which has the same CPU. The 16-core Ultra 7 155H falls behind, which is expected despite it being a newer chip.

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

Our next test is in the same vein, a Handbrake encoding job on a 35GB file. This is another CPU test that favors multithreaded operations. The Core i9 14900HX puts up a good number here, beating every other laptop CPU.

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

Our first graphical benchmark is 3DMark Time Spy, which runs DirectX 12 for accurate testing of modern GPUs. Here, we see big performance gaps between more modest gaming laptops with RTX 4060 or 4070 GPUs and the 4090-based Alienware m18 R2. This laptop squeaked past the MSI Raider, which has the same RTX 4090 GPU.

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a few years old, but it has a built-in benchmark that offers a good comparison of real-world game performance. The Alienware m18 R2 manages 205 fps on average. Again, this is just a bit higher than the MSI Raider and far ahead of machines like the Alienware m16 R2 with its RTX 4070 GPU.

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

Lastly, we have the Metro Exodus benchmark, which we run at 1080p with the “Extreme” detail setting. This is more demanding than Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and it shows. The Alienware m18 R2 clocks in with a 97 fps average, which is one of the best we’ve seen. It’s up there with the $5,400 MSI Raider, and more modest gaming laptops like the HP Omen Transcend 14 are left in the dust.

All of the above tests were conducted with the laptop plugged in, allowing it to run at full speed. By default, the machine drops down to balanced mode on battery, and that’s still enough to play modern games with medium-high settings. When the GPU flips on and the fans spin up, this laptop sounds like a tiny jet taking off. It’s noisy enough that you might want to use headphones when playing a game with a lot of dialog. If the game isn’t too demanding, you might consider using the aforementioned balanced mode, which trades some performance for less noise.

During my testing, I noticed that switching from the integrated graphics to the GPU causes the system to hiccup for a moment, hanging for a couple of seconds. That’s not the end of the world, but it can be annoying if you aren’t expecting a program to ping the GPU. I have hope this can be smoothed over, though. While I was testing the machine, Alienware firmware and Nvidia drivers updates improved the switch-over.

Alienware m18 R2: Battery life

In case the hefty measurements didn’t tip you off, the Alienware m18 R2 is tuned for performance, not portability. When plugged in, the machine can draw up to 360 watts of power, which is in the range of a modest desktop PC. The battery is as beefy as the rest of the machine, with a 97 Wh capacity. That’s one of the largest you’ll find in a laptop. Still, it doesn’t run for long in our battery life test.

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

IDG / Ryan Whitwam

This test consists of running a 4K video loop at 250 nits of brightness, but that’s near the maximum for the display. We run this test in airplane mode with all the LEDs turned off. Even with those advantages, this laptop doesn’t manage a big number, clocking in at 278 minutes (just under five hours) before the battery ran dry. That’s a bit stronger than other super-powerful gaming laptops like the MSI Raider GE78, but it’s a far cry from more mainstream gaming systems like the Alienware m16 R2, which runs for almost three hours longer on a charge.

The battery life is even worse if you try to play games on the go. Alienware configured the machine to switch the GeForce GPU on only when needed, and the difference is immediately noticeable. When the RTX 4090 runs, you can see the battery gauge start to drop. You’ll get maybe an hour of gaming between charges.

None of this is a shock—laptops with super-high-end hardware just don’t last long on battery power. Still, it’s something to consider before picking up the m18 R2 over something more efficient.

Alienware m18 R2: Conclusion

The Alienware m18 R2 is an incredibly powerful laptop—it can max the settings on any current PC game, and it will probably be able to run any title at native resolution for at least a few years. The mechanical keyboard is fantastic, and for a 10-pound laptop, the design is rather sleek. Just don’t expect to game for hours on battery power. The RTX 4090 will bleed the big 97 Wh battery dry in under two hours.

The Core i9 CPU and RTX 4090 inside bump the price of my test unit to $3,550, but even the base model with a Core i7 and RTX 4060 is almost $2,000. This is an objectively expensive laptop, but every laptop with this kind of hardware comes with a big price tag. It’s a matter of priorities. If high-fidelity gaming is what you want from your laptop, it’s hard to do better than the Alienware m18 R2.