I re-purchased the Alienware 15 ( 2015 ) - Subjective Analysis

( NOTE: I have this posted on the AlienwareArena forums as well and edited with temperatures for Notebookreview )

I remember the first time I saw Frank Azor's up-close video of the Alienware 15 on AW's youtube channel and I was instantly sold on its feature-set/performance coupled with "incredible" battery life as he would say. My first-hand experience with the AW15 was short-lived due to manufacturing and hardware-related issues, prompting me to refund and purchase a fully-equipped AW13. While the AW13 is amazing in both mobility and battery life, I was too quick to judge the AW15 and didn't give it as much attention as I would like; the versatile performance is what I was definitely missing from the AW13.

So I sucked it up, returned the AW13 a month later and thanks to a particular sales rep with their powers of discounts, I re-purchased the AW15 notebook with the following specs:

i7-4710HQ, 16 GB of RAM, GTX 970M, 128 GB SSD + 1 TB HDD, 1080p IPS display. ( Please note that as I'm composing this, they've discontinued the 128 GB SSD + 1 TB HDD combo in the i7 models, effectively replacing them with 256 GB + 1 TB for $250 more. You can get the 128 GB + 1 TB in the i5-4210H model, however. )

I took certain factors into consideration when I was deciding on this particular notebook and gaming performance is definitely one of those factors. The AW15 shines in this regard, but you do have ONE sacrifice that is to be made when you're coming from a smaller form factor: mobility. I had mentioned in my previous article that I was spoiled by its performance and it still does. The notebook has more than enough performance to tackle through most of today's games on the market and thanks to the specs of the GTX 970m, you'll be able to add some Antialiasing settings to clear up any jaggies on the 1080p screen. I play BF: Hardline, Titanfall and Killing Floor 2 on all high-ultra settings, apply some AA and I'm still within the 60 FPS range. Tuning the graphics settings even lower ( again, I'm more of a frame-rate person than visual fidelity ), yielded above 80 - 100 FPS in the mentioned titles except for Titanfall which is capped at 60 unless playing on a 120 - 144hz monitor.

Let's take a look at the screen: even though I admired the 1440p touch screen of the AW 13, the 1080p matte display on the 15 is still beautiful. The colors may not pop out as well as its smaller touch screen counterpart, but it still retains excellent viewing angles and response times are quick enough that you won't notice a lot of ghosting if you're playing FPS games. Those that are into content creation like photo/video editing may want to opt for the 4k screen if you want to see proper color reproduction, though that comes at an additional cost.

I went off on a tangent there, but I had mentioned mobility. This is going to be either a pro or a con, your mileage may vary. The AW15 is built thinner than the previous gen AW14 and it shows! But it still retains a bit of heft and its still relatively thick. But not too thick and not too thin. It sits on the line between desktop replacement notebook and a mobile system. It's light enough for most to pick up and stay mobile with, but some may find it a little too heavy and will be just as happy leaving it on a desk. For me, though, the weight is NOT as bad as I made it sound in the previous review. I still get the mobility I need!! For the record, this notebook weighs 7.7 lbs. You be the judge!

The 1 TB HDD that is installed in my machine is 7200 RPM and unlike the AW13's 5400 RPM HDD, I plan on keeping this one installed as its read/write speeds are surprisingly good. Capping at 90 MB/s write, I was able to load my steam library with relative ease and definitely didn't hinder performance as I started up games from it. The 128 GB SSD that is pre-installed is an m.2 module and to be honest, it's one of the slower SSDs I've encountered. That's not to say its slow by any means, it's still MUCH faster than any HDD I've had, but there are better options that Dell/Alienware could've opted in this particular notebook. The SSD is a Samsung module and from what I've been able to benchmark, it maintains a respectable 400 - 450 MB/s read, but a paltry 150-177 MB/s write. Again, it's still quick and you definitely feel the boot time difference and there is a second m.2 SATA slot for another SSD.

Build quality is absolutely fantastic on this notebook. The materials definitely feel different, although I don't doubt that they've been built the same. The AW13's display lid had a more matte/plastic feeling whereas the AW15's display lid feels a lot more metallic. Both machines are built from " carbon-fiber" inspired materials, so it makes for an extremely rigid chassis. Opening up the machine, you're greeted with its keyboard which displayed no flex whatsoever unless you wanted to exert extreme force. I believe there's a backplate of some sort underneath these keyboards which explains the rigidity and that's always a welcome feature. The area around the keyboard is of a matte plastic material that collects fingerprints, grease and other messy things that you can think of, but that's all easily cleaned up with a soft cloth of sort. The notebook in general just feels like a premium device so I have no complaints in this regard.

The speaker system is very impressive for a notebook. Unlike the AW13 which used a realtek chip for audio, the AW15 is equipped with a Creative Recon3Di sound card and that makes for a better audio experience with either headphones or the speakers themselves. The software suite is also more feature-rich compared to the AW13's , allowing you to configure profiles and adjust the frequency of the sound-stage through the equalizer. The audio that the notebook outputs is balanced and powerful enough to fill a small room. They're also surprisingly punchy, so you'll definitely feel the bass. Good job once again, AW on audio!!

Battery life is something I wanted to reserve as I'm quite surprised at how long this machine lasted. It contains a massive 92-whr battery, so unplugging the notebook and spending some hours off the wall is definitely not an issue! On balanced power settings with AlienFX enabled ( all lights throughout the notebook ), I was able to retain a solid 6 hours. Idling with nothing running yielded a shocking 11 hours of life, provided you're not touching it. This is an instant-win for me, especially with a gaming notebook. Shifting to Power Saver profile with AlienFX disabled and WiFi on nabbed me another hour and a half of battery life. So for those students that are longing for a gaming notebook with battery endurance; this might be your machine!

Temperatures is something everyone is always asking about and I'm happy to say, this machine doesn't get overly hot. Yes, they're warm at the surface but the machine handles the thermals very well. At the time of this article, it has already undergone 3 BIOs revisions. The BIOs I'm using is A00 and I admittedly haven't tried the other BIOs version simply because I have the GTX 970m and I don't have a particular need for the 240W power supply nor do I have any throttling issues. So temperatures in my environment is 20-22 degrees C and with that said, the notebook idles at a relatively cool 45-47 degrees C on the CPU and once the games are fired up, it can peak at 82-85 degrees with the GPU staying cool at 68 degrees C.

Despite those temperatures, I don't recommend having this machine on your lap!

So after revisiting this notebook, I'm VERY much impressed. It has desktop-level gaming performance thanks to its Quad Core i7 CPU coupled with a GTX 970m and it still remains relatively light enough, whether you're putting it in a backpack to head to a friend's house or you're taking it from a conference room to another. The AW15 is a versatile machine that checks nearly every box on the list from audio to battery life. I have no issues recommending this notebook at all as long as you have the GTX 970m GPU. Even the i5-4210H Dual Core CPU won't cause any bottlenecks unless you introduce the graphics amplifier into the mix, so it's good if you're wanting to save money in that regard!!

That's it for now and I'll continue to update my experience with this notebook as the weeks go by. If you have any questions, feel free to post!!

 

I can never seem to get the 6 hours of battery life. Most I could do is 5 hours or less. My brightness is at minimum with alienfx off. Although, i'm always using utorrent for downloading most of the time. And do you notice the sound coming from your hdd near the touchpad? Is that normal?

 

Actually the GTX 965m GPU is darn good in its own right. Depending on the types of games you play it may be all you need. It smokes the 860m, which many manufacturers are still selling.

 

I dont recommend anyone getting the dual core cpu if you are planning to do any serious gaming on it. Also, a lot of programms are optimized for quad core CPUs these days so you would probably even see differences when using software like photoshop and such.

 

I'd stick with the quad for gaming too if possible, especially if you want to use an AMP down the road.

 

Nice review thanks!

 

You should download BatteryBar and check out the discharge rate. I've been finding that the battery performance across all AW13/15 users are inconsistent and I think that's due to poor power management in the ACPI. I should update my article, but I still manage 5-6 hours of life on a balanced profile.

I do hear a noise from the HDD, but that's usually when I shut my machine off and that's simply the hard drive slowing down before the pin seats itself. Doesn't bother me and you'd have to have a REALLY good ear to notice it.

 

Regarding battery, what you could do, is go into battery - balanced / powersaving, and set CPU performance to 99% when running on battery. this disables the turboboost feature which sometimes happens, even when doing stuff like text, browsing, installing programs, downloading. it can help with battery. On some laptops at least!
Also we have to remember that no matters are equal. Like laptop screens and CPU yields, battery is another lottery. We need a Lithium revolution soon.

 

OP, also a question. I've been a bit shocked about the lack of instability on the Alienware 15. Judging by this review it seems like there is considerable flex on the keyboard ( ) would you say it is worse than the Alienware 13 which also has some flex?


It's a strange trend, now that Asuss Republic of Gamers newest laptop, G501 also has flex. These brands are known for their build quality. It's bizarre to see this.

 

I'm not too sure about that particular review, but my keyboard hasn't exhibited any of that flex. I've fake-raged all over the keyboard and it's held up really well. The only time where it flexes is when I intentionally push down with tons of force and even then, it didn't flex as hard as that keyboard. :S

Also, the G501/Lenovo Y50 probably have some of the worst keyboard/chassis flex I've seen in a thin notebook. It is becoming a common trend nowadays. Not too sure if its skimping on materials or if its just general construction, but those two machines are the reason why I decided on the Alienware 15.

 

Battery life is pretty much acceptable for a gaming laptop. Such numbers are hard to achieve even for regular laptops.

Regarding the build quality, only two minor issues are present. the first is that some keys (S , A and arrow left) seem to feel weird. Like they are rubbing with other keys due to incorrect placement. They work fine but it's there when you feel it. The second is a single huge speck of thing in the webcam. Again it does not affect webcam quality but not sure in the long run. Regardless of build quality, still don't thing anything should be inside a laptop that isn't metal or silicon. Again, both are relatively minor and didn't really affect the laptop performance. Really great laptop that I have to nitpick to find fault with it

Glad to hear the hdd sound isn't an issue though. And the keyboard flex in the video is simply shocking. Never seen flex like that before.

 

That is good to know that not everyone has that problem! And yeah it's a real shame about the G501.



Like you I also wanted portability but I am getting to this point where I think, that it's important for me to have a laptop that is solidly build first, that doesn't overheat, and that doesn't make me a vampire charge. I don't only game, and I think a lot of gaming laptops ignore the other aspects of laptops. You can be a gamer and still want good battery. you can be a gamer and still care about accurate colors, and moderate temperatures when doing productivity work.


It's really hard to get a clear assestment of Alienware as there is a (and this is coming from an apple guy who has Ipad/Iphone/Macbook) dedicated hater train of people who are completely irrationally against AW. It's almost comically. Granted I have never owned an Alienware, but a lot of that negativity is just crazy talk. it has to be.

 

the keyboard is solid as ever, feels like there is a steel plate behind it, have noticed no flex whatsoever.

 

I say go with your gut instinct -- the AW15 is a gaming notebook first, everything else second. So it's got a bit of everything, but it prioritizes performance among all else. The battery life is really good, all things considered.