If you’re a gamer, you’ve probably a fan of Alienware, a well-established manufacturer of gaming laptops. Dell Alienware has been around for quite some time and is still one of the best gaming laptop manufacturers on the market so far in 2022.
Their products are revolutionizing the gaming world and continue to provide high-quality, high-performance products at affordable prices.
The Alienware m15 R5 Ryzen Edition is one of the newest gaming laptops from Dell Alienware. A mid-range gaming laptop.
But this isn’t just Alienware. This is a Dell Alienware M15 with a very unique R5 designed for versatility and not other gaming laptops.
Alienware M15 R5 Ryzen Edition Gaming Laptop Review 2022
The Alienware m15 R5 is one of the cheaper laptops you should consider buying. Quality is the biggest differentiator when it comes to laptop hardware. The more experience, expertise, and money you have, the more you can expect your computer to perform.
The Alienware m15 R5 is the latest addition to this popular line of gaming laptops. Despite the new additions, this laptop can handle most games at a decent level with not much framerate drop.
Build quality
It’s easy to open because there was no help on the front, so it was angled to open easily. As with most laptops, there is a slight bend in the cover, but that’s not a problem. The rubber feet below don’t seem to slip as well as the others.
The keyboard seems to have a little more flex than usual, but it’s not notable when using. It’s easy to see that the bottom panel has a quiet hole for airflow and an air intake at the back.
Design
The gray chassis is reminiscent of Asus TUF Dash 15, which doesn’t fit the company’s flagship high-performance laptops. The matte lid is impregnated with a glossy foreign font, but it’s not very noticeable until you turn it on. The lid is accented with an illuminated RGB Alienware alien face logo that seems to favor alien-themed colors over primary colors. Inside there is another button that acts as a power button.
Opening the lid of the Alienware m15 R5 reveals stylish hexagonal vents beneath the screen. The keyboard is RGB-backlit, but the highlight is the rear of the chassis, which resembles a UFO’s propulsion system. It’s more like Alienware.
The keyboard itself is a full-size Scrabble tile with full-size arrow keys (no number pad). Due to the partnership reported here, each key also uses a Cherry mechanical switch. They are moderately weighted, accurate, and very comfortable to type on.
However, it can be a bit stiff for continuous use throughout the day. Our only real concern is that it’s one of the loudest keyboards we’ve ever heard on a laptop! It stinks when used in quiet, populated environments such as libraries, offices, or airplanes.
The trackpad is smooth and accurate, with an HD webcam on top of the cover. The Full HD screen has a fast refresh rate of 165Hz, so fast motion is expressed smoothly. The colors seem a bit faded, but the bright screen offers great contrast with detail visible in both highlights and shadows.
There is some banding in the color gradients and some blunt artifacts in the solid transitions, but it’s still very impressive for fast gaming displays.
Screen
The 15.6-inch 1080p 165Hz screen offers a decent color gamut and excellent contrast. This model does not have a MUX switch, but the 1440p 240Hz or 1080p 360Hz models have the advanced Optimus with G-Sync.
However, FreeSync is still available. In maximum mode, the screen is quite bright. This means you can expect different results with different panel options.
Camera and Microphone
There is a 720p camera in the center of the screen and you cannot set up Windows Hello Face Unlock on this laptop, but the Alienware website states that it can be used with either a 1440p 240Hz or 1080p 360Hz model.
The sound is very good, but the results from the camera are not very satisfactory. The microphone itself works very well, so you can hear everything while making noise.
Keyboard and Touchpad
This laptop comes with the option of a mechanical keyboard with CherryMX miniature keys with per-key RGB backlighting, but there is also a regular 4-zone RGB option.
Unfortunately, the backlight doesn’t illuminate the secondary, and it looks like you can use the F7 hotkey to turn the brightness on or off, but it’s pretty buggy sometimes.
Typing on this Alienware M15 R5 laptop is very exciting. This gives a clicky feel to the keys. Well, we’re not sure how to describe it other than the feeling of having to hit the floor right away with a click of a key after applying more force than usual.
It doesn’t, as the power button is separate from the keyboard and has RGB lighting. It can be controlled via software along with the keyboard, giving it different colors and effects depending on whether it’s charging, charging, or sleeping.
The logo on the lid is also customizable, and of course, the light ring on the back is also customizable, allowing for a lot of customization. The precision touchpad clicks and works anywhere. Okay, it feels a little baggy, but I didn’t notice it. It felt a bit small as the vents above the keyboard make the keyboard feel closer to the front.
Performance
Under the hood is a powerful octa-core 3.3-4.6GHz AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU with 16GB of DDR4-3200 RAM and a 1TB NVMe storage. In PCMark 10, they all scored 6934, along with other highs from AMD sports machines. Scored 2044 in the Cinebench r15 rendering test and 12,240 in the longer r23 test.
These are good, but they are a bit behind the smaller Razer Blade laptops with the same processor and this is frowned upon. There shouldn’t be more heat/power regulation on a bigger machine.
The Alienware m15 R5 has an Nvidia RTX 3070 GPU. This scored 9486 on 3DMark Time Spy, which averaged 60fps. It hit 11,766 (54 fps average) on FireStrike Extreme and 5946 (27.5 fps) in the Port Royal ray tracing test.
The Alienware Command Center software offers some monitoring and basic overclocking features, but it’s not the most intuitive or responsive app we’ve seen.
Ports
On the right, there are two USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports, which also have air vents on this side. On the left side of the laptop are air vents, a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port, and a 3.5mm audio combo jack.
The main port is on the back and between the two air vents on the left-to-right corners is a USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C port with Displayport support, a third USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A port, and HDMI 2.1. There is an output and a power input on the right.
Unfortunately, the Type-C port cannot be used to charge the laptop, but both this port and the HDMI port connect directly to Nvidia discrete graphics. In other words, connecting an external screen will improve gaming performance.
Speakers and Portability
The speakers are on the left and right facing the front. There is a little bass and the sound can be loud. They are too obvious, but the latency results look ok.
At 2.5KG, the Alienware m15 R5 isn’t the lightest, but it’s not overly heavy for such a powerful machine.
Battery
The m15 R5 has an 86Wh battery that can last up to 8 hours. In most cases, with a few exceptions, the battery is larger compared to other Ryzen-based laptops. Battery life while playing games will be one of the best we can expect.
Should I Buy the Alienware M15 R5?
At $1,999, the Alienware M15 R5 Ryzen Edition is a good budget gaming laptop for a cutting-edge 15.6-inch high-performance that offers top-notch performance and great features overall.
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[i2pc pros_icon=”icon icon-thumbs-o-up” cons_icon=”icon icon-thumbs-o-down” show_title=”false” title=”Pros & Cons” show_button=”false” pros_title=”Pros” cons_title=”Cons” ][i2pros]Powerful performance
Attractive looking design
Great keyboard and touchpad quality
Enough storage space.[/i2pros][i2cons]A bit heavy
Not good speakers.[/i2cons][/i2pc]
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