Alienware m15 Gaming Laptop Preview: Thin, Light And Punches Above Its Weight Class
by
Dave Altavilla
—
Friday, December 21, 2018, 03:31 PM EDT
Gaming laptops are a tough gig for PC OEMs. Most times, they're either beastly heavy and loud machines, or if they're thinner and lighter they either sacrifice performance or battery life, or both. You usually can't have your cake and eat it too, as they say. However, Dell's Alienware division seems to have split the baby nicely, so to speak, with the new 15-inch Alienware m15 gaming notebook. We're just now getting beyond our kicking the tires phase with the machine here at HotHardware, but our full review is inbound in the weeks ahead, hopefully just before the new year. That said, first impressions are everything and with a well-engineered cooling solution on board, this machine not only maintains its performance over extended testing, it also does so with a relatively civilized acoustic signature and, when not gaming, decent battery life too.
Drop into our video guided tour here for some particulars and an early look ahead of our deep dive...
Though it may sound like a bunch of marketing and branding buzz-words, Alienware's "Cryo-Tech v2.0" cooling system in the Alienware m15 actually delivers the goods as well.
The folks at Dell-Alienware note that the machine's Dual-Intake, Dual-Exhaust Airflow Design "prioritizes performance with a dual fan design that pulls in cool air from the bottom and top vents while exhaling with plenty exhaust area along the rear and side vents optimizing cooling for the core components." That makes sense to us as well and it's the first time we've seen Dell's gaming division employ top-mounted ventilation in addition to traditional bottom cool air intake slots.
Alienware m15 Top Cooling Vents
That about wraps-up this quick tease of Alienware's new laptop gaming hotness. Stay tuned in the days ahead for our full deep dive review and Happy Holidays!
