Alienware M15 R6 review: Keyboard overlord

(Pocket-lint) - The Alienware M15 R6 is simply a high-end gaming laptop that isn't terrifyingly immense oregon heavy. But is it terrifyingly costly similar immoderate different Alienware kit?

Our reappraisal exemplary features an Intel Core i7 CPU, Nvidia RTX 3080 graphics paper and 2TB SSD storage. It's high-end stuff. And, yes, it's headed towards the 3 expansive mark, truthful it's acold from cheap. Go for a smaller SSD, however, and the terms tin beryllium overmuch person to 2 grand.

So astatine this outgo should you see buying one? The existent show hounds mightiness beryllium amended disconnected with the Lenovo Legion 7. That enactment gets you a overmuch sharper surface and a faster mentation of the RTX 3080. 

However, the Alienware M15 R6 has a concealed weapon: its keyboard. This happening offers deep-action keys and a precise satisfying feel, and our reappraisal illustration doesn't adjacent person the peculiar Cherry MX cardinal design, which is apt to beryllium adjacent better. 

Design

• Dimensions: 356.2 x 22.85 x 272.5mm / Weight: 2.478kg
• Aluminum, magnesium alloy and integrative construction

Alienware laptops person gone done a ocular improvement implicit the past fewer years. We've seen a maturation of sorts, a tiny determination distant from the gaudy towards a look those who don't worship astatine the altar of RBG volition find easier to appreciate. 

Alienware's M15 R6 lives successful a sort-of mediate ground. There's nary embarrassing G4M3R font connected the keyboard keys, and from the wrong it could astir walk for a stylish ultraportable were it not for the hexagonal vigor grille and light-up alien caput powerfulness button. 

The backmost has the large large vigor exhaust, but it's lone peculiarly eye-catching if you permission the LED ringing astir its perimeter switched on. You tin change its colour and intensity. 

We got successful interaction with Dell to find retired precisely what the Alienware M15 R5 is made of. It's a operation of aluminium, magnesium alloy and plastic. You'll person to spot our hands for the adjacent bit, but we judge the lid is aluminium, the underside magnesium alloy and the keyboard sheet plastic. 

You could impeach Alienware of cheaping retired successful making the portion you interaction the astir retired of plastic. And, nary doubt, utilizing integrative for the astir intricately carved portion volition trim manufacturing costs. However, the soft-touch decorativeness feels bully and the usage of integrative means the keyboard sheet is the slightest heat-conductive portion of the base. Makes sense, right?

The Alienware M15 R6 does deficiency the keyboard rigidity we'd anticipation for successful a laptop this expensive, though. Press down successful its centre and the keyboard bows a bit, thing you conscionable don't spot successful the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro. Or, heading backmost to the series's older days, successful the Alienware 15 R4. 

Build prime is decent, but not impeccable similar immoderate of the chunkier aged Alienware models. 

Screen

• 15.6-inch LCD display, 1920 x 1080 resolution
• 360Hz refresh rate
• Matte finish

This Alienware M15 R6 has a 1080p LCD screen. You tin get it with a QHD solution sheet alternatively if you want, which a laptop this almighty deserves really.

A fewer years agone ultra-high solution gaming laptops seemed a spot pointless, but arsenic this happening has an RTX 3080 it's beauteous punchy. At immoderate constituent successful the adjacent aboriginal we'd similar to spot Alienware's high-end gaming laptops commencement retired with possibly a 1440p solution screen. 

At 1080p pixellation is noticeable astir Windows 10, and successful games without a peculiarly bully exertion of antialiasing. The screen's opposition is besides not amazing, beauteous overmuch bog-standard worldly for an LCD. 

This is nary mean laptop screen, though. It has beardown colour reproduction and a maximum refresh complaint of 360Hz. That is ridiculously rapid, allowing for due show of framework rates truthful precocious they indispensable surely beryllium beyond the bounds of quality perception. 

The Alienware M15 R6's maximum brightness is good, and similar astir each different gaming laptop the surface aboveground is matte alternatively than glossy.

There are capable strengths here, but we'd beryllium happier with this entry-level show enactment if the solution were higher, adjacent if it came astatine the outgo of a little refresh rate. Alienware knows what it is doing, though. Right present the Alienware M15 R6's upsell QHD enactment is highly attractive. If the lower-spec mentation were sharper, the upgrade would not beryllium astir arsenic appealing. 

Keyboard and touchpad

• 1.8mm Cherry plan keyboard
• 4-zone RGB backlight
• Plastic touchpad

You astir apt attack gaming laptops looking for the champion imaginable show but, successful an antithetic twist, the Alienware M15 R6's keyboard is astir apt its astir notable part. 

There's heavy cardinal enactment here; each depress comes with an unusually refined premix of springiness and a bully clonk astatine the actuation point. 

The effect is the M15 R6 feels meaty and accelerated astatine the aforesaid time. This is simply a much satisfying keyboard than those of astir each rivals. It besides makes the somewhat flex-happy keyboard basal each the much grating. That said, you don't really announcement the bowing effect during usage much, unless you benignant successful a authorities of rage. 

We had initially assumed our reappraisal illustration had the keyboard Alienware co-designed with Cherry, utilizing mechanical switches. But it doesn't: adjacent the “basic” mSeries keyboard is great. The Cherry 1 is apt to beryllium adjacent better. 

However, possibly surprisingly, this laptop does not person per-key lighting. There are alternatively 4 zones, spreading horizontally crossed its keys. This limits the benignant of out-there effects you tin create, but each of the zones tin beryllium animated, and acceptable to immoderate colour of the rainbow, utilizing the Alienware Command Centre app. 

The Alienware M15 R6's touchpad is overmuch little absorbing than the keyboard. It's the classical old-school gaming laptop pad that seems crammed successful nether the presumption it's not going to beryllium utilized that often. 

This is simply a reasonably tiny pad with a squeaky integrative surface, not a creaseless portion of glass. The clicker is inoffensive, if somewhat loud. Just don't expect it to consciousness arsenic bully arsenic the pad of a slick portable laptop similar the Microsoft Surface Laptop 4. 

Performance

• 115W Nvidia RTX 3080 GPU
• Intel Core i7-11800H CPU
• 32GB RAM DDR4 RAM

The Alienware M15 R6 is simply a bad-ass show laptop, but determination is 1 important portion you request to see that we'll get onto successful a moment. 

We're utilizing a precise high-end spec of this laptop. It has an Intel Core i7-11800H CPU, 32GB RAM ,and 2 1TB Samsung SSDs. It has treble the RAM and retention of the mentation you'll find sold commonly online, but successful astir usage cases the show volition beryllium similar. 

The Nvidia RTX 3080 is the crown here, though. It's truthful powerful, adjacent successful its laptop form, galore caller games won't get adjacent to challenging it adjacent astatine max settings - successful portion acknowledgment to the 1080p show resolution. The Witcher 3 pushes astatine 100fps with everything maxed. Subnautica is good implicit that. You tin play Control with ray-tracing enabled, each the fancy worldly turned on, and won't adjacent person to usage the performance-enhancing DLSS to get large framework rates. 

However, the Alienware M15 R6's RTX 3080 appears to beryllium hard capped astatine 115W powerfulness consumption. Other comparable laptops with this paper tin propulsion up to astir 150W, erstwhile the fans are allowed to make much of a racket. While this laptop has assorted show profiles, and adjacent a keyboard fastener that makes the fans rotation astatine their hardest, the 115W headdress remains.

We could already archer this was going to beryllium the lawsuit by the powerfulness proviso shipped with the Alienware M15 R6. It's a 240W brick, wherever a powerfulness proviso person to 300W is required for the astir power-hungry mentation of the RTX 3080. 

In galore games the quality successful existent framework complaint whitethorn not beryllium each that massive. This remains a existent bruiser of a gaming laptop, conscionable beryllium alert that immoderate rivals akin successful size and value whitethorn person a show advantage. The Lenovo Legion 7 and Asus ROG Strix Scar are 2 examples, and the 17-inch Alienware M17 R4 besides uses astir almighty laptop mentation of the paper available. 

The Alienware M15 R6's cooling strategy is beauteous effective. It brings acold aerial successful from the top, chiefly by the top-left portion of the keyboard, past blows blistery aerial retired of the grille astatine the back. Heat does dispersed crossed the keyboard reasonably swiftly arsenic you play, making the full laptop consciousness a spot warm, but it didn't get blistery during testing, similar immoderate genuinely bladed and airy gaming laptops can. There is simply a high-pitch constituent to the instrumentality noise, which we deliberation sounds much glaring, but the strategy appears to bash its occupation well. 

Battery life

• 240W powerfulness adapter, 86Wh artillery capacity
• Ports: HDMI 2.1, Ethernet, 3.5mm jack, 1x USB-C (Thunderbolt), 3x USB-A

Our Alienware M15 R6 has a beauteous ample battery, but you whitethorn find it drains rapidly unless you enactment this laptop successful the close mode. The archetypal trial we tried didn't extremity excessively well. 

Just streaming YouTube astatine middling brightness saw it die, from a afloat charge, successful conscionable nether 3 and a fractional hours. That was utilizing Windows's Battery Saver illustration too. 

We didn't deliberation this was the champion it could do, truthful we did immoderate much fiddling. First, we acceptable the refresh complaint backmost to 60Hz, and utilized the Nvidia Control Panel instrumentality to acceptable the graphics integrated into the main processor arsenic the superior GPU. 

The aforesaid video streaming trial past worked a full batch better, letting the Alienware M15 R6 tally connected for 7 hours and six minutes. That's much similar it. While you shouldn't expect this laptop to past done a afloat time of enactment distant from the adapter, we deliberation 7 hours isn't a atrocious effect for a full-on gaming laptop. 

Fingers crossed you shouldn't mostly request to bash each the tweaks we did, arsenic it seems the Nvidia GPU was draining much powerfulness than it should person successful our archetypal test. But it whitethorn beryllium an thought to power to a modular 60Hz refresh complaint erstwhile you request the Alienware M15 R6 to last. 

The Alienware M15 R6 does not spell all-out connected connections, but there's astir apt capable to fulfill astir of its audience. You get an Ethernet larboard connected the near side, adjacent to a headphone jack. Two USBs beryllium connected the different side. The remainder of the connectors are laid crossed the back: a USB-C with Thunderbolt, an further USB, and a classical HDMI. This is an HDMI 2.1 connector, which is good. 

And the speakers? They're not good. Just arsenic Alienware hasn't been excessively dynamic successful switching to a top-tier touchpad oregon taming the “gamer” plan completely, the M15 R6's speakers stay bass-free and person an enclosed, boxy sound. 

Writing by Andrew Williams. Editing by Mike Lowe. Originally published connected 10 November 2021.