Alienware 13 R2 Gaming Laptop And Graphics AMP Review
Preloaded Software
The Alienware 13 R2 ships with Windows 10 Home 64-bit. When configuring a setup, you can also bundle an assortment of software, such as Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat, McAfee (12 months or 36 months), and so forth.
Alienware partnered with Klipsch and Creative to handle audio chores, the former through a pair of stereo drivers and the latter through Sound Blaster X-Fi MB3 processing. The result? It heavily depends on the source material. We loaded up some old school rap courtesy of Eazy-E and were underwhelmed by the lack of bass response and overall sound quality, but when we switched gears to country music, the speakers and audio processing showed a bit more life. Nevertheless, we recommend a good set of headphones or external speakers if high quality audio is required.
Our system configuration arrived with a clean desktop, just the way we like it. If you've been around PCs for as long as we have, then you remember the days when OEMs would liberally shovel third-party bloatware onto systems to make a buck or two. That was also one of the advantages of buying from a gaming boutique like Alienware, which still applies today -- you pay a bit more upfront, but spend less time uninstalling performance robbing crapware later.
One of the utilities that Alienware does include is its own Alien FX software. This is your control center to the laptop's lighting effects. As you can see in the shot above, there are four different lighting zones on the main keyboard. You can also adjust the color of the Alienware logo above the keyboard, indicator LEDs, Alienware branding on the bottom bezel of the display, and the Alienware logo on the lid.
Alienware tapped Rivet Networks and its Killer line to take charge of the Alienware 13 R2's wireless and wired networking. The Killer Network Manager is your graphical front end to accessing various statistics and settings.
