Alienware X15 Gaming Laptop Review: A Svelte Stunner With Caveats

With the bottom lid removed, you get easy access to the laptop's massive 87Whr battery, as well as its two m.2 sockets, both of which are populated here, as well as the system's combo Wi-Fi and Bluetooth NIC module. System memory, is soldered to the top side of the motherboard, unfortunately (not seen here), so choose your RAM loadout wisely if you opt for the X15. Alienware gives you two choices only, with 16GB or 32GB configs. Part of the reason for the need to solder down the RAM is the fact that the cooling solution in this laptop consumes so much chassis real estate, and the motherboard design is so small and compact as a result, that there just isn't any room for SO-DIMM sockets.

The other feature there isn't a lot of room for here are large speaker drivers, and as such, the Alienware X15 really doesn't deliver much on that front. You're better off popping in a set of buds or strapping on your favorite gaming headset here. The X15's sound system is just not that loud and it lacks any sort of real low end bass response, no matter how much you fiddle with Alienware's Command Center software's EQ or bass boost features. 

Fortunately, hot spots were a non-issue for the Alienware X15. Though you can see we're reading a toasty 123ºF here, that temp was actually captured in the bezel area just under the display. The entire keyboard, palm rest and trackpad area stays relatively cool and comfortable, as does the bottom side of the machine, though of course it's still a bit of lap warmer. The outer side edges of the keyboard area (where the venting is) do get a little warm with 112ºF peak temps measured, but you don't actually rest your hands there, so it's not an issue. CPU and GPU temps in our config peaked at around 100ºF and low 70s, respectively. This is max junction temp on the CPU side of the equation but downright comfortable for the GPU. 

Alienware's new X15 is basically a case study in thermal engineering, as well as industrial design and feature trade-offs. The Alienware team at Dell engineered the heck out of this machine's thermal solution, but it costs the machine some creature comforts as a result. We would have appreciated even one USB-C port on one side edge of this laptop. And locating its microSD card slot on a side edge would have been glorious too, but it just wasn't in the cards apparently, having to accommodate the X15's quad-blower cooling solution. That quad-cooling solution is also a first for us, as we've never seen this in a laptop of any kind before, but it also drove the need to eliminate SO-DIMM socketed RAM in the machine. So again, with the X15 it's all about trade-offs. You get a fantastic, futuristic-looking, just a hair over 5lb laptop here, with great gaming chops, especially for its size and weight class. However, in exchange for its classy chassis and industrial design features, there are obvious concessions that needed to be made. 
  
All in, we're relatively impressed by the Alienware X15. It may be the nicest looking 15-inch gaming laptop on the market currently. And its performance is great, in addition to its sustained performance, as long as you don’t mind a little noise under serious gaming workloads, which is kind of par for the course with this class of machine anyway. That said, we’d definitely suggest saving a few pesos and opting for an RTX 3070 config, since Alienware has to dial down the RTX 3080 in this machine, resulting in what is essentially only slightly better than RTX 3070 mobile performance levels. Starting at $2,099 for an RTX 3060-based config, and well over $3K as tested -- though we’re still waiting to hear official RTX 3080 model pricing -- the Alienware X15 is not cheap, but in this day and age of component shortages and crazy GPU prices, it’s one way to get in on the action at least.