Alienware 17 R4 USB ports and terrible display

Soooooo wtf?? Am I missing something? This laptop only comes with two USB ports? I'm really in disbelief.... I really hope I'm blind or something.... How am I supposed to use Oculus Rift with the xbox controller and/or the touch controllers? I even bought a USB hub, but that doesn't seem to fix the problem.... When I connect everything, the Alien FX lights even start to turn off... Am I missing something?

Also, instead of making two threads, I thought I would add my other main issue.... The display sucks, or is it just me? I don't have light bleed issues, but the colors are.... TERRIBLE! Does anyone have the same problem?

I'm honestly about to return the laptop, just thinking I have to re-paste and deal with the above problems is already giving me a headache as it is....

 

Cant say anything about the display before seeing it. But play around with the gamma settings in Window Color Calibration tool.

Regarding the USB ports. YOu might have a crappy hub that messes with the power delivery of your USB ports.

 

Could you recommend a good hub? And what about that thunderbolt port? Could I put a thunderbolt to usb hub there and make it work? Would that work?

 

Yes that would work. Thunderbolt3, which this has, supports up to 40Gbps of bandwidth. Which is enough to allow for MANY USB 3.0 ports. Probably more ports than are available on a Hub or for a reasonable amount of money lol

 

While the display isnt amazing, i dont think its that bad for a TN panel. I would say its on par with my asus vg278he TN monitor i have. The alienware panel is much brighter though, so thats a plus.

I do agree with you on the USB ports though. It really is a joke that a 17 in laptop comes with 2 USB ports. There should be two on the left, two on the right and ideally one on the back. It blows my mind a bit that someone thought two USB ports was acceptable.

 

You guys aren't taking into consideration the USB type C port, thunderbolt, or the AGA port... You look at the specs before you buy the laptop. You don;t buy it first and then complain about it lacking ports. That's stupid. From what I remember, I think the AGA has 4x USB 3.0 ports. The USB Type C supports 10Gbps. TB3 supports 40Gbps. There are PLENTY of ports

 

Yeah we must be really stupid to assume that a laptop that is advertised as VR ready isn't technically VR ready out of the box, especially when all the alienware laptops I've owned have had AT LEAST 4 usb ports... I better go into a zoo with the monkeys because that must be where I belong.

Anyways, just updating for anyone who encounters this issue. I bought a type-c to usb adapter and connected one of the sensors to it with success. But at the moment, I don't really have any free ports available, unless I purchase a good hub.

 

The reason Mac and other laptop manufactures are putting usb c and thunderbolt ports with less usb 3.0 ports is to force the peripheral manufacturers to support the future. We need them to do this. Sure it's an awkward few years of dongles and hubs but it will be worth it in the end.

 

Make sure to look at the specs in the future, this is called a user-error lol. Also, VR ready means it has enough GPU power to support VR at reasonable resolutions/quality. You can take a old PC and do some VR with it - but will it be 720/1080/4K? Hell no. Don't be silly. "VR Ready" means nothing, you just assumed what it meant.

 

Yeah, I made assumptions, that still doesn't make me stupid. I did look at all the specs I thought mattered before I made the purchase and I made assumtions based on reasonable expectations for the rest; then I tried to fix the problem by asking. If that makes me stupid in your eyes, too bad. Anyways, getting a little off-topic here; there's no point in dragging the conversation any further.

Also, good point @Oreok4

 

Well I wasn't trying to sound mean, I gave you a lot of info and explained how it was by no means lacking in ports. I won't go into posting a bunch of links but if you check other brands (ASUS, MSI, AUROS) They'll have 2-3 "USB 3.0", as well as Type C and usually TB3. Like the previous user said, they're not only making a thin and efficient laptop, but they are also preparing us for the future tech. Your only choice to get a laptop with 2+ USB3.0, which I doubt is a choice since you already bought the HUB, but likely Sager/Clevos have 3+ USB 3.0. But they're about double or 30% larger laptops than this.