Alienware m16 R2 laptop review: Big and risky changes

[NikoB]

Say that to Mark Zuckerberg; 14" laptop without numpad and even an external keyboard without numpad, yet the work is being done just fine

He hasn't coded anything for a long time and hasn't done anything serious; he has a laptop purely for consuming content (from employees) but not creating new ones.

He can afford it, but he is not the one who actually creates something on a laptop.

The argument is purely idiotic. As usual with a bot.

[Neenyah]

Oh, ok, didn't know you were buddies so I will trust your words about him more than his own.

You didn't write a single number in your comment though, do you really need a numpad for your usual delusional spamming?

[NikoB]

I generally doubt that he was ever capable of writing efficient and complex code. He very quickly stole ideas from others (which was proven in court) and raised the necessary money in time to hire those who were actually capable of doing something. Another "golden Jewish boy". What's new here?

[Neenyah]

I generally doubt that he was ever capable of writing efficient and complex code.

Yeah, true, he couldn't as he didn't ever use a numpad 😥 He is nothing but a numpadless billionaire.

[Aiman]

Fan noise is irrelevant because thermals are excellent so just adjust fan curves and make it quieter for a bit higher chassis temps, no big deal for those situations where you have to push it at prolonged 100% (work)load. Sweet package overall.

Could not disagree more! The thermals are much worse than on r1. r1 had great thermals. Lower fan noise while consuming 70watts more in Witcher3. With adjusting fan curves you could make m16 r1 a quiet but still powerful laptop which was an almost unique selling point of r1. With r2 you get significantly less performance (not great for a "successor" isn't it?) with same fan noise levels or same performance (= power draw) with much much louder fans. This m16 r2 does not deserve the name Alienware. You clearly don't know what you are writing about. It is just another slim and light notebook with crappy cooling. This does not deserve the Alienware logo on it.

And the huge disadvantage: the cooling. Up to 62db is just sick! And the other modes are also far too loud! In balanced mode 52db! What have they been smoking at Dell?

The m16 R1 is quieter in Witcher (51 vs. 54db) and at the same time consumes 70 watts more power! With the same power consumption, R1 could remain much quieter than this accident of a successor!

Exactly this! It is so sad that many people do not see those simple connections. m16 r2 is not only louder (3db are clearly audible) but also consumes 70watts less power (=less performance)! With the same total system power, the new m16 r2 gets much much noisier than m16 r1. How in the world could someone not call this the worst successor in notebook history??

[Neenyah]

Could not disagree more! The thermals are much worse than on r1. r1 had great thermals.

How? R1 48°C hottest spot, R2 48°C hottest spot. Right in the middle of the chassis, R1 40.8°C, R2 39°C. On the touchpad, R1 27.4°C, R2 22.2°C, all of those (from "Max. Load") measurements are clearly equal or lower on the R2, so how are the thermals "much worse"? 🤨

I agree with the rest of your comment, especially about the excessive fan noise which is certainly extreme for a direct successor.

[LinuxGamer]

R.I.P. Alienware. M16 R1 was an innovative product and one of the few options out there with great cooling. R2 is a scam. It is just another slim and light laptop like you can find one every corner. Highly stupid and disgraceful move by Dell. Not to mention the much less attractive and stylish design.

How can you disrespect your community more than with:

1. Less performance ("Our Core Ultra 7 155H is about 10 to 15 percent slower than the Core i7-13700HX on last year's m16 R1"). The author does not even mention the 13900HX which is double as fast as the R2's toy CPU!!!

2. Insanely worse cooling ("The more demanding Core i7-14700HX or Core i9-14900HX are not offered due to thermal limitations", insane 62(!!!) vs 53db (nearly DOUBLE as loud as the already super loud R1!!!) in stress test while consuming almost 70watts less power!!! This cooling is a piece of s***)

3. Almost same outdated 330 nits panel where others come with 500nits for years!

Sorry to say it with Torvalds' words: "f*** you, Dell!"

[RobertJasiek]

Alienware. M16 R1 was an innovative product and one of the few options out there with great cooling.

I agree with most of what you say but the M16 R1 cooling, although reasonable, missed the great advantage of the X16 R1 cooling having 4 (!) ordinarily (!) sized fans. This combined with easy fan maintenance of all (!) 4 fans, vapor chamber, liquid metal on both CPU and GPU, good cooling firmware and good airflow / vents would enable very good cooling in a not too thin chassis.

[Aiman]

Alienware. M16 R1 was an innovative product and one of the few options out there with great cooling.

I agree with most of what you say but the M16 R1 cooling, although reasonable, missed the great advantage of the X16 R1 cooling having 4 (!) ordinarily (!) sized fans. This combined with easy fan maintenance of all (!) 4 fans, vapor chamber, liquid metal on both CPU and GPU, good cooling firmware and good airflow / vents would enable very good cooling in a not too thin chassis.

Fully agree! The X16 has an awesome thermal concept, but Dell wastes the whole potential by making it absurdly slim! That is so dumb and shows that Dell does not care for great product quality and fan noise but for silly marketing slogans :( With the same 25mm like on the M16, the X16 would be the world's quietest high end laptop while retaining a thin profile and sufficient portability. Why don't they go for a slogan like that?

Lower fan noise while consuming 70watts more in Witcher3.

Sorry, I was wrong about that and copied Gastredner's typo. We meant 70watts more in the stress test of course.

R.I.P. Alienware. M16 R1 was an innovative product and one of the few options out there with great cooling. R2 is a scam. It is just another slim and light laptop like you can find one every corner. Highly stupid and disgraceful move by Dell. Not to mention the much less attractive and stylish design.

How can you disrespect your community more than with:

1. Less performance ("Our Core Ultra 7 155H is about 10 to 15 percent slower than the Core i7-13700HX on last year's m16 R1"). The author does not even mention the 13900HX which is double as fast as the R2's toy CPU!!!

2. Insanely worse cooling ("The more demanding Core i7-14700HX or Core i9-14900HX are not offered due to thermal limitations", insane 62(!!!) vs 53db (nearly DOUBLE as loud as the already super loud R1!!!) in stress test while consuming almost 70watts less power!!! This cooling is a piece of s***)

3. Almost same outdated 330 nits panel where others come with 500nits for years!

Sorry to say it with Torvalds' words: "f*** you, Dell!"

+1

[NikoB]

insane 62(!!!) vs 53db (nearly DOUBLE as loud as the already super loud R1!!!)

Every +6dBA by ear - exactly 2 times louder. +9dBA, this is about 2.5 times louder.

[Hey its me]

Have to agree to the previous comments. Dell failed disastrously on the m16 r2! Never seen such a shame of a successor. Much worse cooling capacity which removes the advantage of the predecessor's ability to deliver almost full performance at bearable fan noise.

Fan noise when gaming is tied closely to the power profile selected. For example, fan noise would settle at 52 dB(A), 54 dB(A), and 62 dB(A) when running Witcher 3 on Balanced mode, Performance mode, and Overdrive mode, respectively

52db is the quietest? Dell, are you kidding us?! This cooling is a disaster. Dell, please go back to R1 and give us laptops with appropriate cooling which can deliver at least 90% at no more than 40-45 db! There are plenty of customers who are fine with 2.8 to 3kg if it means quieter fans without compromising performance.

[TAIYU HO]

My first Alieware was a 4th gen i7 with 780M 17 inch machine and currently I'm using the 7th gen i7 with 1070 model, both are top class machines, there's no real competitor at the still reasonable price.

I was seriously considering the M18 last year until I got a chance to see the unit in a retail store, the M18 model with RTX4080 overheated in less than 3 mins of gaming, under 25C room tempreture, the CPU went straight to 100C. The M18 design simply could not handle the 13th gen i9.

Now, on this M16 R2, the cooling and preformance with drop further, what's the point?

The point is reduced manufacturing cost, amongst super heated gaming laptop competition, if you look at the Alienware prices in China, the M18 and M16 R1 is priced above $3,000 USD, top unit is priced above $5,000 USD, the price almost doubled to previous generations.

Now, interestingly, the M16 R2 is priced at $2,000 USD(R1 is $3,000 at same spec), why? Because competitors are no longer falling behind, the ROG performed super good with their G14 and G16 recently, and with only half of the price compare to same spec-ed Alienware models, the Alienware simply could not sell! That's why DELL eagerly to roll out a new model, and that is M16 R2.

[NikoB]

It is necessary by law, as with the ban on incandescent light bulbs, to limit the total consumption of all notebooks, including 80W gaming laptops, and then the problem is for manufacturers, as they will, for us consumers, to demonstrate performance growth at exactly the same PL1/PL2 as last year. Only corruption in power does not allow this industry to be forcibly limited to such a limit. The planet would say thank you. Although, against the backdrop of criminal miners (they serve exclusively the interests of corrupt officials/embezzlers in all countries), now all the attempts of the green ones look shameful and ridiculous...

And with a consumption of 200W+, it is not surprising that even the body of an 18" laptop does not allow us to properly cool these monsters with cheating consumption from year to year due to the shame of Intel with technical processes since 2016...

[Hotz]

It is necessary by law ... to limit the total consumption of all notebooks ... and then the problem is for manufacturers ... to demonstrate performance growth at exactly the same PL1/PL2 as last year.

Agreed. Then and only then we would see the real technical progress.

[Neenyah]

No. Why 80? Why not 74 or 92?

1W maximum for a whole machine. And inside a 0.3W TDP CPU which if benchmarked today could score 6135/94017 in Geenbench 6.2 by never going 1°C over the room temperature. We also have to completely eliminate gravity from the planet to increase efficiency (lighter weight of a laptop, less weight to carry around the globe, less energy is wasted in transport).

Then and only then we would see the real technical progress.

And laptops which would cost more than a small apartment so the real tech progress would be reserved for less than 1% of the global population.