Review Summary
Expert Rating
When you think of Alienware laptops, you probably picture a bulky machine loaded with RGB and a powerful CPU and GPU. If so, you’re not alone. In fact, I am willing to wager the majority of gamers have the same train of thought. After all, the company has put out outlandish gaming laptops for years, and the image of a behemoth of a laptop with a Blue Alienware logo is etched in everyone’s mind.
That’s partly why the company’s latest entrant – the M16 R2 – is turning so many heads. On that note, this is the most practical Alienware laptop on the market, which doesn’t chase godly specs and instead uses an efficient Meteor Lake chip. At the same time, the device is priced quite competitively (by Alienware’s standards, at least). This begs the question: Is it a better buy over devices like the Lenovo Legion 7i? I’ll be answering that and more in my review so let’s jump right in.
Table of Contents
Design and I/O
Alienware laptops tend to one-up others with their unconventional and ‘in your face’ design approach. However, the latest from the company takes the road less travelled and features a more subdued and understated aesthetic. Quite frankly, it looks like a generic laptop, only bigger. You can even turn off the RGB that lights up the Alienware logo on the lid to further conceal its identity.
Understandably, the design is somewhat polarising, and it may not sit well with gamers who want to flaunt an expensive Alienware laptop to their friends. That said, it will undoubtedly appease those who, like me, prefer to buy gaming laptops that are void of gaudy decals or garish colours. The M16 R2’s Dark Metallic Moon colour looks remarkably elegant, and the ‘16′ etched on the lid does just enough to break away from its monolithic design, adding a tinge of character in the process.
The laptop’s frame exudes solidity, and I didn’t find any spots that flexed or creaked under pressure. The hinge also offered adequate friction, keeping the display affixed at the desired angle. In addition, the laptop has rounded-off edges that don’t poke your hand when you pick it up or carry it.
That said, although the laptop is noticeably smaller than its predecessor, it’s still a reasonably big machine. I couldn’t help but notice its thick frame, which is decidedly meatier than my previous daily driver, the Lenovo Legion 7i. I am also not the biggest fan of the rubberized texture canvassing the keyboard deck, as it picks up a lot of fingerprint stains and smudges.
On the bright side, the laptop has a treasure trove of ports. These include two USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, a microSD card reader, an HDMI 2.1 connector, a Thunderbolt 4 port, and a USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2 port. An additional Thunderbolt 4 port and a full-sized SD card reader would have really sealed the deal, but even now, the port selection will not leave most gamers wanting more.
Note that, unlike most gaming laptops, the Alienware M16 R2 doesn’t have a fingerprint sensor. Instead, it uses an IR camera to facilitate Windows Hello facial recognition. I usually dock my gaming laptops and find Alienware’s approach more useful. Although not as swift as a fingerprint sensor, the camera array effectively detected my face even in low-light conditions, so no complaints here.
Display and audio
The Alienware M16 R2 has a 16-inch screen with a QHD+ (2,560 x 1,600) resolution. The panel has acceptable viewing angles and covers 100 percent of the sRGB colour space. In addition, the screen is G-Sync-Certified, meaning it will offer smoother gameplay with lesser tearing. It also refreshes at 240Hz, which makes it well-suited for hero shooters like Valorant, Apex Legends, and XDefiant.
While I don’t have any major issues with the display, I find it quite dim. In fact, I always had the brightness cranked all the way up, even in dark rooms. Other than that, though, the screen feels extremely fluid, and it strikes a better balance than, say, the Legion 7i’s 3.2K display, which refreshed at 165Hz. That said, the Legion 7i’s audio output was decidedly better. While the Alienware M16 R2’s speakers also get plenty loud and can drown out the fan noise, the sound lacks depth.
Keyboard and trackpad
The Alienware M16 R2 has a functional and beautiful keyboard layout. The rubberised key caps feel soft, and the keys are well spread out. Additionally, Alienware hasn’t crammed a Numpad inside the keyboard deck. Instead, the company has added dedicated keys to increase or decrease the volume or mute the audio playback. I prefer this approach more, as I am using Excel less and less. However, your mileage could vary.
Moving on, the keys offer good tactile feedback and adequate actuation distance. The RGB lighting adds to the flair, and the colour feels more vibrant and vivid than that of competing laptops. The laptop’s trackpad also stands out and features RGB lights running across its perimeter. The RGB lighting for the trackpad can also be configured from the Alienware Command Center app. In addition, it offers a smooth surface and should suffice for most routine tasks.
Performance and battery
I opened my review by calling the Alienware M16 R2 a practical gaming laptop. This can be attributed, at least in part, to its use of Intel’s Core Ultra 9 185H processor. While not the most powerful processor in this price range – the Core i7-14700HX CPU holds that title – it is much more efficient. In addition, the device comes with an RTX 4070 GPU with a 140W TGP, 32GB of LPDDR5 memory clocked at 5,600MHz, and a 1TB NVMe SSD.
This combination of specifications works really well together. While the laptop’s performance lags behind devices with an HX processor and a 4070 GPU like the Lenovo Legion 7i, it makes up for the performance delta by offering much better battery life.
I ran several benchmarks on the device, including 3DMark’s Time Spy and Fire Strike synthetic tests, which tax a laptop’s CPU and GPU. While the Legion 7i’s HX processor helped overturn higher scores, the M16 R2 wasn’t all that far behind. Take the Fire Strike, Fire Strike Extreme, and Fire Strike Ultra test runs, for instance, where the Legion 7i put forth 27,710, 13,890, and 7,007 points. The M16 R2 was hot on its tail, though, and logged 25,389, 13,477, and 6,827 points.
Similarly, in the PCMark 10 and PCMark 10 Extended benchmarks, the Legion 7i edged in front, outputting 7,963 and 10,861 points, respectively. The M16 R2 was not too far behind, with test scores of 7,524 and 10,497 points. Understandably, the gap widens in CPU-centric benchmarks. For instance, the Legion 7i benched 111 and 1,198 points in Cinebench R24’s single-core and multi-core test runs. The Alienware M16 R2, on the other hand, logged 106 and 1,028 points respectively.
It’s no surprise that the Alienware M16 R2’s gaming performance lagged behind that of the Legion 7i. While the difference wasn’t night and day, the Legion 7i did log noticeably higher FPS in demanding games. You can refer to the chart below above for more insights into each laptop’s gaming performance.
