Alienware 15 Gaming Laptop Review: GeForce Infused, Bang For Your Buck

Name: Alienware 15 Gaming Laptop: GeForce Infused, Bang For Your Buck
Brand: Alienware

by Joshua Gulick — Thursday, June 04, 2015, 12:00 PM EDT

The Alienware 15 has few installed applications when it ships. Most of the apps already installed are Alienware utilities that handle everything from critical tasks (like system backups) to fun tasks like customizing the colors of the laptop’s lighting.

It’s customary to put a branded background onto outgoing PCs and laptops, so I wasn’t surprised to see the Alienware logo adding some flavor to the Windows Desktop. This particular background has the unintended side effect of making the screen look dirty, but hey, you’re probably planning to add your own background the minute you fire the Alienware 15 up for the first time anyway.

Alienware Command Center - AlienFX

AlienFusion

Alientware TactX

AlienAdrenaline

The centerpiece of Alienware’s software is Alienware Command Center, which lets you access other apps like AlienFX (lighting), AlienFusion (power settings), Alienware TactX (settings for the customizable TactX keys), and AlienAdrenaline (custom game modes, performance monitoring, and graphics amplifier settings).

AlienRespawn provides system backup and recovery utilities. It’s one of the few places on the Alienware 15 that you’ll see Dell branding. By and large, the Alienware 15 feels like its own beast, rather than a part of the Dell empire.

Tags: Nvidia, Intel, Dell, Alienware, Haswell, killer networks

Joshua Gulick

Josh cut his teeth (and hands) on his first PC upgrade in 2000 and was instantly hooked on all things tech. He took a degree in English and tech writing with him to Computer Power User Magazine and spent years reviewing high-end workstations and gaming systems, processors, motherboards, memory and video cards. His enthusiasm for PC hardware also made him a natural fit for covering the burgeoning modding community, and he wrote CPU’s “Mad Reader Mod” cover stories from the series’ inception until becoming the publication editor for Smart Computing Magazine. A few years ago, he returned to his first love, reviewing smoking-hot PCs and components, for HotHardware. When he’s not agonizing over benchmark scores, Josh is either running (very slowly) or spending time with family.