I ’ve have a expansive amount of two gaming laptops . It was depressing how quick they maturate . But the new Alienware 13 may not meet the same fate . It ’s the first gaming laptop that permit you connect a externaldesktop graphics card for freaking awesome , truly unheard - of speed .
What Is It?
A 13 - in gaming laptop with a crisp on its berm and something to prove . The successor to the fantastical Alienware 14 , shaved down to a far more reasonable 1 - inch thickness and 4.5 pounds of bulk . A laptop that get with a jolly meh 1366 x 768 screen and 1 TB hard effort for its $ 999 starting toll , but can graduate to a gorgeous 2560 x 1440 touchscreen display and multiple SSDs .
And for an additional $ 300 , it ’s a laptop computer that can come with Alienware ’s proprietary Graphics Amplifier — a corner that can allow you expend any recent individual full - length , dual - breadth PCI - Express x16 background graphic card , up to 375W , or else of your laptop ’s GPU . And contribute four USB 3.0 port wine , too . It ’s a gaming laptop that becomes a 4 K gaming background when you plug in a single cablegram .
Design
TheAlienware 14was an absolute tank . full-grown , beefy , solid . When the Alienware 13 repress those first two trait , it also fall behind a bit of the third .
Do n’t get me untimely : the new 13 - incher looks and feels like a fair agiotage software system , with those gilded silky - quiet soft touch Earth’s surface entire . The keyboard has n’t lose a beat , with the same large , absolutely RGB - customizable backlit keys with nice precise action . The trackpad struggles a bit with two - finger scrolling and dawn the pad feel a little weird , but it ’s still about as accurate with one finger’s breadth as I ’ve tried on a Windows car . I ’m just saying that there ’s a little less metallic element and a little more charge plate in the expression this time around . The seams are prominent , more seeable . I can hear the estimator creak a minute when I twist its frame or when I open up the lid . There ’s a niggling less attention to detail , period .
Of naturally , there ’s also no longer an ocular drive , and you also recede the wild running lights that made the Alienware 14 look like a spaceship ready for takeoff , though I ca n’t say I miss either very much . As far as I ’m interest , the full-grown omission is an SD card one-armed bandit . You get three USB 3.0 port , headset and mike jack , Gigabit Ethernet , HDMI , Mini DisplayPort and the proprietary Graphics Amplifier jack too , but for some reason an SD card socket did n’t make the cut . But another thing you ’ll notice embedded in the edges are a couple of side - mounted Speaker that ( at least combined with Sound Blaster Xi3 processing ) sound pretty damn good .
Performance
But enough with tool quilt : what about the game ? Oh , the Alienware 13 ’s dual - core 1.7GHz Core i5 - 4210U processor and GeForce GTX 860 M graphics are a pretty stiff combination … as long as you do n’t require them to outperform them to outperforma $ 2,100 Razer Blade . While the Blade could very nearly manage to toy intensive games on its crazy 3200 x 1800 screen with its quad - core processor and degraded 870 M artwork , my pumped up $ 1,800 Alienware 13 config struggled to run some of my favs at 2560 x 1440 . Tomb Raider and Borderlands 2 were playable at that resolution with a tidy sum of the center confect turned off , but we ’re still not talking pantry framerates . More intensive game like Titanfall , Crysis 3 and The Witcher 2 only thrive at 1080p . And because 1080p content foul up up to 1440p looks a small jagged , you ’ll have to spend redundant horsepower on anti - aliasing .
https://gizmodo.com/razer-blade-2014-review-great-for-games-overkill-othe-1602065469
But unlike the Razer Blade , you have two wonderful solutions to this conundrum . First , I ’d advocate you just buy a Alienware 13 with a 1080p screen , whereall your game will search gorgeous even if you ca n’t max out their place setting . Easy .
Or , you could spend upwards of $ 300 on the laptop ’s most exciting feature : the Alienware Graphics Amplifier .
It ’s a disgraceful vented boxwood roughly the size of a minor toaster oven . It ’s about as barebones as can be . punk charge card latches ( I already broke a few of them ) let you interchange open its hinge plastic shell to discover a 460W PC powerfulness supplying next to a tiny lap board with a PCI - Express x16 slot . I rip my GeForce GTX 660 Ti out of my background computer , clicked it into billet , fastened two screws and connected the two GPU power connectors . I plugged in the power cord . Ready . I stuck one goal of Alienware ’s proprietary cable into the back of the GFX Amp , and one into the back of the laptop — which move me to restart the computing equipment .
But once I rebooted , there was no constellation , no gadget driver to change , nothing of the sort . As far as the Alienware 13 was concerned , I had a GTX 660 Ti inside the laptop computer . The divergence was substantial . In Tomb Raider , I was able to jump up from 1440p and barely playable to 1440p and pantry smooth at high-pitched levels of detail .
So I resolve to go for broke . I stuck Nvidia ’s late GeForce GTX 980 graphics carte inside the Amp , and lift up a 4 K admonisher while I was at it . The issue : heaven .
With the most powerful play artwork card you could buy virtually inside my laptop , Titanfall , Crysis 3 , Tomb Raider , and Borderlands 2 wereall playable at 4 K resolution and sizeable levels of detail . And at 2560 x 1440 , go biz at the native resolution of the laptop ’s screen , I could max out the preferences for practically every plot . ( The Witcher 2 ran at 2560 x 1440 on High , in case you ’re wondering . )
Sure , you ’d probably carry that from $ 900 of additional hardware , not counting the price of a 4 K monitor , but this variety of upgrade has simply never been potential before . The only extraneous graphics options for laptop have been crazy bandwidth - modified hacks or one - off solutions that did n’t allow climb like theSony Vaio Z. Here , if you ’ve ever draw a spare computer graphic card lying around that ’s more powerful than the laptop computer ’s own , you may put it to utilise .
The only apprehension seems to be games that swear on physics : even with a GTX 980 , I had to twist off PhysX in Borderlands 2 and reduce the system of rules spec in Crysis 3 to get them running smoothly .
Like
Silky - smooth soft - feeling palmrests that no longer savvy into my wrist joint . Ahhh , delicate . The keyboard ’s also a pleasure to apply .
The machine stays nice and cool , and reasonably hushed , even lam at full eager . Ca n’t say that about the Razer Blade .
With a solid DoS drive , this PC screams . Everything is speedy . Everything .
Love the extreme stereoscopic photograph separation and practical surround sound from Sound Blaster ’s Xi3 sound processing . I used to make fun of software system audio processing , but it ’s produce so much better over the year . This version is tuned wondrous for the Alienware 13 ’s speakers . ignominy they ’re still a bit tinny . ( Insert “ All About That Bass ” jest here . )
Don’t Like
Despite using a nice low - voltage Intel Haswell processor , the Alienware 13 ’s battery life is middling stinky . I have n’t managed to get more than 3 hours and 10 hour of work done on the simple machine . The Razer Blade contend 4 hr with a quad - core group stock voltage processor , a higher - atomic number 75 screen AND a way thinner chassis . What hand , Alienware ?
The Graphics Amplifier works like a dream , but it feels reasonably janky for a $ 300 product . I ’d lie with to see it included in the price of the machine .
You have to reset the computer every time you plug away in or absent the Graphics Amplifier . It ’s not a prominent deal if you buy a substantial state drive , because reboots take like 10 second .
That soft - pinch material picks up finger fossil oil like nobody ’s business .
verbalise of business , Alienware has none outfitting this machine with a 1366 x 768 screen or a 5400RPM hard drive . Do n’t buy them .
Should I Buy It?
I ’m not entirely sure . The idea of taking all my games on the go , then coming home and plugging them into a desktop graphic carte , admonisher , mouse , and keyboard vocalise somewhat damn howling . But the Alienware 13 is still pretty squat and still lacks the battery living to make it as quite as portable as it should be . Right now , it ’s less knock-down AND less portable than the Razer Blade . Personally , I ’d rather buy a Dell XPS laptopwithout distinct graphics that open me the battery lifespan I demand for work , but also has the Alienware Graphics Amplifier port so I can take it home and play . But that does n’t exist . ( Yet . )
For now , the Alienware 13 is a pretty damn capable computer that can toy pretty much all your PC games at eminent preferences , and can be upgraded to levels of potentiality of which other laptops can only stargaze . If that ’s what you want , this is your machine .
The Alienware 13 will go on cut-rate sale tomorrow , October 28th .
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