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With enough power to play and do whatever you would like, the Alienware m18 R2 easily has you covered. Now that you can find it for under $2500/£2000, it is great value. It's gigantic size stretches the meaning of the word laptop though!
The Good
- Top-tier performance and power
- Keyboard is smooth and responsive
- Cooling keeps graphics card below 80C (175F)
The Not So Good
- Heavy, large and not very portable
- Display could be brighter
Need-to-knows
⚡️ Super powerful with a graphics card that can handle the latest AAA games with ease
💾 Choose from NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 up to 4090
🏋️ Not the most portable gaming laptop, serves better as a desktop replacement
💰 Great value for as low as £1899/$2499
Go back to the early 2010s and you’d find that Alienware was almost a dirty word in the world of gaming. Overpriced with sub-par performance. But that has all changed now, and the Alienware m18 R2 proves it.
In this Alienware m18 R2 review, I’m not going to reveal anything revolutionary about gaming laptop tech or unique that Dell is doing. But I will show you that the m18 R2 does everything you need it to for less than £2000/$2500. In a world where top-end devices regularly exceed £3000/$3000, that’s a big deal.
Here’s how I tested the m18 R2 to provide the best buying guidance possible:
- Played a range of genres from first-person shooter to RPG and grand strategy (aka had some fun)
- Analysed stress on hardware using the NVIDIA console
- Cross-examined benchmarking results to back up my own experiences
Configuration options
Just a quick note here. The main thing you need to know is that the Intel Core you have dictates the graphics card you can choose. If you pick the i7-14650HX for example, you are restricted to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060. If you want the 4080 or 4090, you need to buy the Intel Core i9 version.
| Feature | Intel Core i7-14650HX | Intel Core i7-14700HX | Intel Core i9-14900HX |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cores/Cache/Speed | 16 cores, 30 MB cache, up to 5.2 GHz Turbo | 20 cores, 33 MB cache, up to 5.5 GHz Turbo | 24 cores, 36 MB cache, up to 5.8 GHz Turbo |
| Operating System | Windows 11 Home or Pro | Windows 11 Home or Pro | Windows 11 Home or Pro |
| Graphics Options | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 or 4090 |
| Memory Options | 16 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB | 16 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB | 16 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB |
| Storage Options | Single: 1 TB, 2 TB, 4 TB | Single: 1 TB, 2 TB, 4 TB | Single: 1 TB, 2 TB, 4 TB |
| Dual RAID 0: 2 TB (2×1 TB), 4 TB (2×2 TB), 8 TB (2×4 TB) | Dual RAID 0: 2 TB (2×1 TB), 4 TB (2×2 TB), 8 TB (2×4 TB) | Dual RAID 0: 2 TB (2×1 TB), 4 TB (2×2 TB), 8 TB (2×4 TB) | |
| Display | 18″ QHD+ 2560 x 1600 165Hz ComfortView Plus NVIDIA G-SYNC 100% DCI-P3 FHD IR Camera | 18″ QHD+ 2560 x 1600 165Hz ComfortView Plus NVIDIA G-SYNC 100% DCI-P3 FHD IR Camera | 18″ QHD+ 2560 x 1600 165Hz ComfortView Plus NVIDIA G-SYNC 100% DCI-P3 FHD IR Camera |
| Cooling | Fan-assisted | Fan-assisted | Fan-assisted |
Design and portability – it’s huge
The main thing to note about the Alienware M18 R2 is how big and heavy it is. Calling it a laptop is in itself a bit of a misnomer. I mean, you can sit it on your lap but it’s like resting a small TV there.
It weighs 4.23kg (9.3lbs). For reference, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 weighs 1.9kg (4.3lbs) and the M4 MacBook Pro 1.6kg (3.4lbs). The M18 R2 is therefore not a portable laptop. This isn’t a device you will want to take with you everywhere you go or whip out on a plane for example (unless you book the seat next to you!).
Unless you want to really annoy the person sitting next to you. If that’s the case, then this is the perfect choice!
In all seriousness, the M18 R2 is more of a desktop replacement gaming laptop. You can take it around with you, it just isn’t very fun to do so, and finding a bag big enough for the 16.2-inch width might be difficult.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just something to consider.
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Beyond that, I think the M18 R2 looks great. It’s got a fully RGB backlit keyboard which, by the way, feels great to game on; super smooth presses with 1.8mm of key travel and the perfect amount of resistance. And there’s some nice LED lighting on the rear too, including Alienware’s signature logo.
The reassuring thing is that the M18 R2 feels built to last. The frame is made from anodised aluminium which is nice to see compared to some plastic-framed laptops and adds a sense of premium quality to it. And because of that huge display, it gets a chunky, sturdy hinge.
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Fans are located on the bottom and rear of the bottom half (we’ll get onto those later). My only real gripe is with the trackpad. It felt quite unresponsive and you’d never want to use it in something like a first-person shooter, but then again who games without a mouse?
Graphics Performance – you can play them all
The main worry people have with buying a gaming laptop is whether or not it is going to be powerful enough to play what you want. A PC, you can very easily upgrade any parts if you notice a problem.
So you want to be sure when making a purchase that you’re getting the oomph that you need. I’m pleased to report that you get that and plenty more with the Alienware M18 R2.
The model I tested has the Intel Core i9 -14900HX processor with 24 cores and 16GB RAM. Right off the bat, I’d recommend opting for the i9 processor. You don’t need it by any means, you’ll be able to play what you want with the i7, but the extra you spend on the better processor will future-proof you for longer. You cannot upgrade your CPU later with this laptop.
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Handling the graphics is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 with 12GB of VRAM. I tested a range of games from grand strategy to first-person shooter, open-world, the newest releases across a range of different developers. The Outer Wilds, Minecraft, COD: Black Ops 6, Warhammer: Total War 3 and more.
The M18 R2 handled them all without really breaking a sweat. Optimisation seemed excellent, the graphics card was working at near to 100% all the time on most titles and the temperature never breached 80c, averaging around 75c.
Frame rates were stable above 30fps, even on more strenuous games like The Outer Wilds, and I never encountered any stuttering. Honestly, I have nothing to fault with the performance of the M18 R2. You can buy without worries about not being able to play certain titles.
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Regular readers will know we aren’t about in-depth benchmarking numbers, but there are some easy-to-understand stats that may help you compare. The PCMag Time Spy DX12 benchmark score (which measures graphics card performance) is 21,158 for the m18 R2, which is about 900 more than the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 and Lenovo Legion 9i Gen 8.
PCMag has the CineBench score (which tests the CPU performance) at 27,790 which is about 1000 less than the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 and equal to the Lenovo Legion 9i Gen 8.
Those are, indeed, some numbers. But they help to show that the m18 R2 is a strong performer compared to other leading gaming laptops. They should put you at rest about any performance misgivings you may have!
Display and Battery – crisp visuals, good stamina
The m18 R2’s display isn’t the absolute tip-top of display tech, but it isn’t far off and makes absolute sense on a gaming laptop.
First off, it’s big. At 18 inches, it is more than adequate for gaming, especially when you’re travelling.
With a QHD+, 2560 x 1600 resolution, it looks sharp and crystal clear. The 165Hz refresh rate is also enough to effectively meet any game’s minimum requirements. It comes with G-SYNC technology, NVIDIA’s bespoke V-SYNC alternative, which acts to mitigate screen tearing and allows you to set a fixed frame rate limit.
The only way you could move up in terms of the display is to go 4K, OLED or more brightness (you only get a fairly dim 300 nits with the m18 R2). And for that, you’ll be spending a lot more money, or going to a desktop monitor.
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But there really is no need for any of those things on a gaming laptop beyond luxury. The m18 R2’s display does a perfectly good job. The Outer Wilds looked great on it.
As for the battery, it has a 97Wh capacity with a six-cell design. From my testing, which involved playing for a few hours, leaving it idle and watching some content, you get about six hours out of it at most which is good as far as gaming laptops go.
The MSI Titan 18 HX, which caught a lot of people’s eyes upon release, only lasts for about two hours. Most competitors sit in and around the 4-5 hour mark. And for such a chunky laptop as the m18 R2, you’d hope the battery was large enough to match.
A brief word on the 280W power adaptor that comes with this thing; it is also appropriately huge so just another weight consideration to think about if you want to travel with it.
Conclusion: performance and price make the Alienware m18 R2 a sensible purchase
I have a simple verdict about the Alienware m18 R2. If you were on the fence about buying it over fears it wouldn’t be able to play the games you wanted, then you have no reason to worry. This laptop will serve you perfectly well in that regard.
The only other advice I would give is that the previous generation m18 is basically just as capable but with a few minor spec downgrades. Even so, the m18 R2 is still very competitively priced and therefore offers great value for money if you can stretch the extra cash.
It is big though. So if you want an ultra-portable gaming laptop, this isn’t the choice for you.
You can pile on even more value for money by buying refurbished. Back Market sent me this device to review and the one I received honestly felt like new. They currently sell the m18 R2 with the NVIDIA RTX 4070 card for £1,899 which is an absolute steal considering it’s on Amazon at the time of writing for £2,329!
Before You Go
