Just bought in to Alienware 15 R2

Just dropped the button on this, however people keep saying Alienware are trash, please tell me i didn't screw up>?

Base
Alienware 15 R2
Processor
Intel® Core™ i7-6700HQ (Quad-Core, 6MB Cache, up to 3.5GHz w/ Turbo Boost)
Operating System
Windows 10 Pro English
Video Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 980M with 8GB GDDR5
LCD
15.6 inch UHD (3840 x 2160) IGZO IPS Anti-Glare 300-nits Display
Memory
32GB Dual Channel DDR4 2133MHz (16GBx2)
Hard Drive
512GB PCIe SSD (Boot) + 1TB 7200RPM (Storage)
Wireless
Intel 8260AC Wireless Card
Keyboard
Internal UK/Irish (QWERTY) Backlit Keyboard
Support Services
1Yr Premium Support with Onsite
Accidental Damage Support
1 year Accidental Damage Protection

 

Alienware are certainly not "Trash" and the spec you have there is very nice indeed. The reason for many people slating Alienware these days are those that bought the AW machines of old, those that had more upgrade options like MXM GPU's socketed CPU's. Since Dell took over those kind of upgrades are no longer found and that left a sour taste....

The current machines are very well built, with a quality not found on many of the competitors machines in the same price range. The pricing is also very competitive, especially if you get an Outlet machine like I did.

Yes some machines have issues but you'll find the same with other manufacturers. I have a very similar machine, you certainly didn't screw up!

 

Great to hear.

Ive been looking for well over two months for a machine fit for blogging, video editing and some gaming.

I've bounced between lenovo, dell xps, aorus etc. All finding either a lack of gaming power, or dreadful battery life.

Benchmarks have said 7 hours is possible and that is as long as my surface pro 3 which will be fine, while gaming will be plugged in to the wall, with a 980m in tow, perfect. In future I plan for a amplifier and a 1080gtx

Its great to hear that you rate the system as I pressed the button on a purchase the feedback I got went from neutral to negative making me feel most uneasy.

I didn't think it was a bad laptop considering I will pay £1500 through work rather than £2400. I used there summersale and £50 off as well.

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Pretty much what I meant @Luke Taylor from my comments in the other thread. There are machines now with more options in thinner chassis, often even for better prices.

One of the of best things Alienware still has going for it is the battery life, and with the deal you got on it there's no way you shouldn't go for it. It also comes in I would say second place overall for build quality, with first place going to the unibody aluminum Razer Blade, but Alienware easily gets second compared to the rest of the field.

It's definitely a great machine, but heh yeah a lot of the factors it had that people used to love are gone now.

 

You most certainly did not screw up. The specs you got are totally high end at the moment, 980m w/ 8GB? Very nice. As sirlee stated previously, AW used to offer laptops with socketed CPU's and interchangeable GPU's which now a days, aren't found.

Personally, my next laptop is going to be an m18x r3 for that reason. That doesn't mean they are bad quality though.

My m11x r3 which I've had for nearly 5-5 1/2 years now hasn't stopped working once due to it being an Alienware. Those times were because of my screw ups

As for build quality, they are second to none. I can't say how durable the new gen are because they use new materials now (they used to use magnesium on the bottom of some and what seems to be stronger plastics) such as carbon fiber injected composite. My 13 r2 feels very solid in general and yours should to as it's thick. My m11x I dropped from 5 ft up onto cement in my classroom and nothing broke or came disconnected.

You got yourself a very nice machine. The accidental damage protection is also a good decision. The dudes who came to my house the 3x I've had them here have been nice and professional. Except the last one was very professional but the problem wasn't 100% fixed

Overall, Alienware is a superb brand. All my buddies in High School had 1-2 alienware laptops each (dont ask why) but they never broke down a single time in my 4 years of that place.

Hope you enjoy your new computer!

 

Thanks, i hope it will be as awesome as i hope. I got it for gaming and blogging, more blogging than anything else, I wanted something with decent battery life, which funnily the ultra books didn't seem to have, so this seemed like a good idea, still have my gaming ability while blogging off the wall socket, perfect.

Glad everyone is being positive so far, after people saying alienware are trash I was a little concerned.

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I have to say the battery life isn't amazing when your running 4k screen. Lasts about 2 hours for me... roughly. My machine is about 8 months old.
It is a beautiful machine though and fantastic screen!

 

Oh what you doing on it? Most people have reported 6 to 8 hours

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Just surfing the web. Nothing too challenging. Maybe my battery is dying on me. I haven't always had 4k so I put it down to that.
Let me know how yours goes

 

OK will do. Just googled it, every review gives it a thumbs up for 5 hours minimum

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Its a very nice laptop. I have the same specs minus the 4K screen and I am enjoying it a lot. Currently on a business trip for a month and I took this laptop with me and it enables me to work and have some videogame fun after. The laptop is reliable as long if you dont install bios 1.2.12 or higher.

 

i have same config except killer wireless and FHD yellow fever, trust me ive tested few times, standard balanced power mode, i got around 5-6 hours of browsing with 2-3 chrome tabs open, skype and steam running in background, i would roughly give 5 hours of medium usage.. i watched 3 movies in a row.. for gaming on battery, if u enable nvidia battery savings option you get around 2hours.. depending on game.. consider 1hour 20minutes to be on safe side..

 

how the heck are you guys getting above 2.5 hours, i just can't no matter what

 

Is your cpu not constantly under full load?i could watch 4 movies in an airplane with brightnes on 30%.

 

You've far more components incl. multiple ssd's definitely that increase power consumption. You could try disabling auto OC in UEFI or switch to Balanced power plan.

 

SSD's use less power than traditional hard drives...

Besides, I have 2 SSD's and a spinner and get around 4 hours of moderate use on battery, I reckon he might have a duff battery....

 

Might want to set HDD spin down in a shorter time

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He doesn't have a spinner!

 

2ssd + spinner?

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Nope, he has 2x Samsung 850 EVO one of which is sata and goes where the spinner used to be, the other is an M.2 drive slotted in next to the SM951 which is an M.2 NVMe drive

 

Ahh I missed that.

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Yes, I admit i got carried away upgrading but it makes no sense to me why I have such poor battery life - although I just looked at HWMonitor and my battery's wear level is at 8% - I'm guessing that's too high for a 6 month old machine, I may give Dell a call.. thanks again SJ

 

Sounds too high to me. Have you done some full cycles in case it being stupid.

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I have only 1.8 for 6 months but i had 1.8 out of the box.

 

Do you mind checking battery app in settings to verify which apps are sucking more juice than needed. FYI, just disable MS edge from staying in background to save some power.

 

Do you mind checking battery app in settings to verify which apps are sucking more juice than needed. FYI, just disable MS edge from staying in background to save some power.

 

FYI Edge consumes the least in windows 10, its efficient even when running on background comparing chrome and firefox, with latest chakra JS, its better.. 8% wear level in 6months is pretty bad, i had that on my old R1 becuase of Fast Charge Option on BIOS.. put it to standard charge it saves ur battery life..

 

Can we get back on topic lok

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I found interesting fact about Dell AW batteries as per their ref. guide, the battery lasts only for 300 Charge/Discharges.

 

That can't be right unless their not using lithium ion

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I have 5 percent, because one day I switched off my laptop, but it didnt switch off at all, and i put it on my bag ... my bag became really hot !! when i took it out, it was 0 % of battery and i inmediately checked the wear and was 5%.... before that was 0 %

 

well I have a wear level of 3% and mine is just 2 weeks old now, right now I'm testing on battery mode with optimal drivers and bios 1.2.2.. 40% brightness, WIFI, Bluetooth on, EDGE with 4 tabs open.. so far 1 hour done, 87% battery left.. seems like chipset drivers and COMPAL drivers seems to make some difference, ill update you about the total runtime.. after the normal browsing test, ill also do a heavy usage test ill run witcher 3 with NVidia battery boost, 30fps lock and high settings ingame.. ill post it later..

 

mine is more than a year old and was in 0% wear ... only present wear after the incident

 

hmm, I'm not sure how mine got 3% so fast.. yesterday I checked on battery runtime, YouTube Live streaming video ran for 5hours along with few tabs open, WIFI, Bluetooth ON, 40% Brightness.. So total would be 5-6hours on average use, today ill check gaming on battery mode.. and update you..

 

The battery is a Li-ion battery as stated by Dell AW ref guide with 300 C/D. Did anyone install dell battery utility that optimally charges battery to only 60% with a click of a button. My current Lenovo battery capacity is 80.2% even after 4 yrs, actually those 19.8% damage was actually done by Lenovo's faulty calibration utility. I noted that half down(using Linux), and ended that faulty thing.

 

i never heared about dell battery utility.... where is the link ?

 

300 cycles life span is really bad, the new hp spectre 13" have 1000 cycles

 

Sorry my bad, I thought Dell quickset was compatible with AWs. Use Dell AW's On screen display as suggested by reddit user wonknrolla, https://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/comments/2fp1rn/what_is_battery_wear_level_alienware_14/

 

Dell could've provided with an option to set charge thresholds in BIOS to increase battery longevity.

 

I have a feeling this isn't right. Lithium ion batteries aren't that ****.

I looked through the manual posted up and the spec I've chosen isn't even in there.

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Another thing you may want to consider is a laptop cooler pad for when you're home or in one place for a while. I got one for my 13 and it made a big difference in terms of my wrists and hands straining as it raises the laptop a bit.

 

Thanks for the advice. Are there any premium brands?

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