Like its competitors, and like every year, the Dell group is taking advantage of CES and announcing its new laptop products for early 2022. Today, its Alienware subsidiary presented new configurations for its x15 / x17 and m15 / m17 … but also and especially unveiled its brand new x14: a 14-inch ultraportable gaming.
The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 and the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE have a new competitor, and it comes from Alienware. With its x14, presented on January 4, the Dell subsidiary also lends itself to the exercise of delivering a powerful and very compact gaming laptop PC. The device, the smallest ever launched by Alienware, is content like its competitors with a format of 14 inches and really contained measurements: 321.5 x 262.77 x 15.5 mm only for 1.84 kg. A small concentrate of technology that complements the Alienware x15 and x17 launched last year.
Alienware x14: a new player in the ultraportable gaming market
Under the hood, Alienware wants to make a good impression and combines the latest Intel Alder Lake processors (12e generation) to NVIDIA RTX Amps. The most powerful model of the x14 can thus count on a Core i7-12900H (14 cores and 20 threads, clocked up to 5 GHz, and 24 MB of cache), coupled with 32 GB of RAM (LPDDR5 at 5200 MHz) and a 6 GB RTX 3060 (85 W of TGP max). The device can also be equipped with an SSD of 2 TB maximum, while its Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity is provided by a Killer AX1690i modem.
The machine’s connections, entirely grouped together at the rear, for its part include two USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI 2.1 output, a USB-A 3.2 Gen1 port, a micro SD card reader and a USB- port. C 3.2 Gen 2.
© Alienware
On its x14, Alienware obviously wanted to offer good display quality, regardless of the configuration chosen. There is a 14-inch Full HD panel on the device that covers 100% of the DCI-P3 spectrum. It goes up to 400 nits of maximum luminance and benefits from a refresh rate of 144 Hz. This screen is also certified Dolby Vision and NVIDIA G-Sync. On the flip side, its response time is announced at 7 ms, which may disturb some players.
Alienware announces for the rest a chassis that mixes aluminum and magnesium alloy, and a dissipation system based on a vapor chamber and on the Element 31, encapsulated liquid gallium metal, which once again replaces the traditional thermal paste on the Alienware X range. Note however that due to its size, the Alienware X14 should not carry four fans like the x15 and x17, but only two.
© Alienware
The X15 and X17 still gain in performance
The x14 is one of Alienware’s most interesting novelties for the start of 2022, but the brand is also taking advantage of CES to renew the hardware configuration of its x15 and x17. If their chassis remains identical (it must be said that the two products are recent), they are now relying on Intel processors of 12e generation and the latest GPU innovations from NVIDIA. Like last year, both devices can finally count on an extremely refined design and a four-fan dissipation system that also takes advantage of the Element 31.
In detail, the Alienware x17 R2 allows you to choose between a Core i7-12700H (14 cores and 20 threads at 4.70 GHz in boost, 24 MB of cache), or a Core i7-12900HK (14 cores and 20 threads at 5 GHz in boost, 24 MB of cache), and between the RTX 3060, RTX 3070 Ti and RTX 3080 Ti from NVIDIA. On the display side, we have a 17.3-inch Ultra HD panel rising to 120 Hz (Dolby Vision, 500 nits, 99% DCI-P3, 4 ms, NVIDIA G-Sync) or Full HD 165 Hz screens (300 nits, 100% sRGB, 3 ms) or 360 Hz (Dolby Vision, 300 nits, 100% sRGB, 1 ms).
Alienware is finally announcing up to 32 GB of DDR4 at 4800 MHz and up to 4 TB of M.2 SSD on its new flagship. The device also has a relatively complete connection which includes a USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port, a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port, a USB-C Thunderbolt 4 port, an SD card reader and an HDMI 2.1 output.
© Alienware
Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 go through a Killer AX1675 modem, and there is an 87 Wh battery.
Overall, the Alienware x15 R2 benefits from the same hardware configuration and RAM options, but with a smaller diagonal (15.6 inches) and different display options. Alienware is satisfied here with a QHD 240 Hz panel (2 ms, 400 nits, 99% DCI-P3, Dolby Vision, G-Sync). Full HD 165 Hz (3 ms, 300 nits, 100% sRGB, Dolby Vision, G-Sync) and 360 Hz (1 ms, 300 nits, 100% sRGB, Dolby Vision, G-Sync) displays are also available.
© Alienware
Alienware m15 and m17 entirely in AMD colors
Alienware is finally renewing its m15 and m17, with the main innovation being the arrival of new AMD Radeon mobile graphics cards in the hardware configurations offered. As of yet, Alienware has yet to provide us with the full specifications for the m15, but we do know that the m17 will be able to count on Ryzen processors of 6.e Generation ranging from the Ryzen 7 6800H (8 cores and 16 threads running at 4.7 GHz boost, 20 MB cache) to the Ryzen 9 6980HX (8 cores and 16 threads running at 5 GHz boost, 20 MB cache).
On the GPU side, the device offers NVIDIA options ranging from the RTX 3050 Ti to the RTX 3070 Ti, but it is also possible to opt for the Radeon RX 6700M 10 GB (135 W from TGP) or the RX 6850M XT 12 GB (175 W from TGP). AMD aficionados will therefore find here a gaming product that can be fully motorized by the brand.
© Alienware
On the memory side, the Alienware m17 vintage 2022 can carry up to 64 GB of DDR5 at 4800 MHz, while its storage can be extended to a maximum of 4 TB of SSD. The connectivity of the device is also based on Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2, while the connectivity is structured as follows: one RJ-45 port, three USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, one USB port 4 Type-C, one USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port and one HDMI 2.1 output.
On the display side, Alienware gives us the choice between Full HD 165 or 360 Hz panels (300 nits, 100% sRGB) or an Ultra HD screen (500 nits, 100% Adobe RGB) which goes up to 120 Hz. screen chosen, we find the AMD Freesync, NVIDIA G-Sync and Dolby Vision certifications.
For now, the brand has not yet provided us with French pricing and the respective launch slots for its new devices. We will update this article as soon as possible.
© Alienware
Sources: Alienware CES 2022 Briefing, press release
1