alienware 15 r3 opinions

The alienware 15 r3 has been properly announced to purchase now in the usual places.

Wondering what people thought about them? I have yet to find a review.

They seem to be one of the few laptops re-designed for the new 1060 and 1070 cards. They have thunderbolt / USB-C support and can take advantage of the Dell on-site warranty. (I hope it is the same as the business warranty is excellent on next day parts etc)

Only issue is price, it's a bit steep but includes 3 year warranty I need for work.

i7-6700HQ
Win 10 Pro
GTX 1070
15.6 FHD
16GB DDR4 2667MHz
1TB 7200 SATA
Killer 1535 WiFi
3 Year on-site support

£2058

I would then need to fit a Samsung 960 M.2 NVMe SSD on top.

What are peoples views on reliability?

I've had the previous Gen 17 inch and faultless tbh.

Sure they don't have the premium metal finish of MacBooks but they do the job. If getting for work (depending if ltd company or sole trader) you can normally get some hefty discount from Dell if you play your cards right and obviously the VAT savings.

I find it a shame they aren't offering the 1080 in the 17 at the very least.

I had assumed that the case was metal finish!

Interestingly, the difference in price when configured between the 1060 and 1070 is only £150

This machine will be used on the road a lot, so is the 1060 a better bet for battery life day to day or will both be similar if not gaming?
I'll save GPU activities to mains power mainly, then if I got the 1060 add the amplifier for when I am back home if needed.

For £150 I'd go for it tbh, with Optimus it will use the cpu igpu unless pushed and you can force it to stick to this as well to save battery. Will also make it easier to sell.

The outdid of the case for the most part has a small 1mm metal plate. Underneath that and on the inside when you open it up is plastic, but decent quality still, doesn't feel cheap still though.

For me personally I feel they've missed the mark a little.
Price is good, but it's missing G-Sync or high Refresh Rate as an option (unless I've missed something).

I believe it is a G-Sync panel by default?

The US and UK sites have changed several times over the past 2 days so I think they are still getting sorted in terms of unified product information :/

Spike_UK said:

For me personally I feel they've missed the mark a little.
Price is good, but it's missing G-Sync or high Refresh Rate as an option (unless I've missed something).

Click to expand...

You can get a G-Sync 1440p panel but not 4k.

kitkat9933 said:

You can get a G-Sync 1440p panel but not 4k.

Click to expand...

I guess the site isn't quite ready yet. It mentions the QHD 120hz G-Sync version for the R17" specs but it's not available as a configuration option.
Same on the R15. It mentions FHD 120hz, but unsure if that's what's on the configuration page.

Pricing wise though, the Alienware appears to slightly more affordable for GTX 1070 (only slightly and depends on how you spec it!!).

For me, a 120hz G-Sync panel is essential. I've been playing on a 144hz 1440p panel for the last 6 months and couldn't go back to lower refresh and without G-Sync.

Got confirmation from a business customer Dell rep that the G-Sync panel isn't available yet in the UK

Also asked about the 99 Wh battery option that is on the USA site, again, not for us here in the UK yet

Finally, asked about the 240w power supply as I'd want an extra one to leave at the office and again, not available to purchase as an extra yet.

Very disappointing

Despite all this, is G-Sync and 120Hz panel worth waiting for? I've never seen a 120Hz panel for real. I'm probably leaning more towards getting the higher image quality from the IPS panel than the faster TN one that supports G-Sync?

Shame really. It seems the only manufacturers that has their stock sorted are ASUS and MSI. All other vendors are lagging behind with delay or supply issues with certain models.

I've been using a 144hz G-Sync panel on my desktop PC for the last few months.
The difference is night and day for me. I couldn't go back to a standard panel.

The Alienware 15 comes with up to the GTX1070 card. The Alienware 17 will have GTX1080 available from November. I'm holding out for a 17 1080. i believe the 15 can come with a 2.5/3k screen, which should be nice with the 1070 card. Both chassis have been redesigned from the previous models and are noticeably smaller. They can be specced with a 99whr battery.

I've had 3 alienware laptops and my last one (14r2) has been faultless. I had throttling and overheating issues with a gtx580m card on my 17xr2 with an eventual failed card which I replaced myself with a gtx780m, that same laptop now wont work on battery alone. I had the m14x r1 as well and that started to get some graphics corruption.

Ultimately what I'm getting at is that the new cards are supposedly more heat efficient and I know the alienware chassis have generally improved with each revision. IMO they are well built (my 14 r2 gets lugged around the world in a trolley case which has been knocked about a lot for the last 3 years) but squeezing in all the high end components into a confined space is going to be risking some thermal problems at some point.

My m17r2 is too big and heavy for my travelling purposes as the power brick is also big and heavy, and in some ways has made the previous 17 a disappointment for me. I'm hoping that the new 17 is much lighter or else I'll be looking at a 15" 1080 option elsewhere.

Would you be considering the amplifier at any time? I'm looking at getting a laptop possibly with a 1060 inside as its cheaper, but I also want a GPU dock near the a 4K TV so I can put a 1080ti esq card and enjoy 4K gaming on the living room TV when it's free.