Alienware 13
Real gaming performance on the go
PRICE $ 2,699 www.alienware.com Proving
that you don’t need a behemoth of a laptop to power the latest games is Alienware’s shiny new Alienware 13. This tiny 13-inch laptop weighs a mere 2kg, yet has ample power to smash through the latest games on the market. You’re going to have to pay a little extra for the privilege, but if you want serious gaming grunt without back-breaking mobility, it doesn’t get much better than this potent little runt.
The 13.3-inch screen is a full HD 1920 x 1080 display, and shows off Dell’s trademark excellent panel quality, with rich vibrant colours and deep, inky blacks. There is one annoying bug though – no matter what setting we used for screen sleep, it would always turn off within a matter of minutes, even when switching it to high performance mode and disabling sleep entirely. We’re sure a BIOS update will fix this though. Just above this is the Tobii Eye Tracking system, which we’ve seen in the past on MSI laptops. Again, we’re not big fans of it – even though it’s relatively accurate, using it in-game feels very uncomfortable, as you have to take your eyes off the action in the centre of the screen to rotate the camera.
Given the small size, the keyboard is surprisingly large and comfortable to use. The touchpad glows when in use, an interesting design quirk that is really only aesthetic. Given the small size, the range of ports is impressive. A single Killer E2400 Gigabit Ethernet IPV6 delivers network connectivity in addition to the 802.11ac Wi-Fi. Twin SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Ports Type A are in addition to the Type C USB 3 port, which doubles as a Thunderbolt 3 port. Alienware’s proprietary graphics amplifier port is also included, though you won’t need it, while HDMI 2.0 is perfect for outputting to 4K TVs.
It’s what’s under the hood that impresses most though. It doesn’t get much faster than Intel’s i7 7700HQ, a quad-cored beast that Turbo Boosts up to 3.8Gz. Paired with 16GB of DDR42400 and a 256GB PCIe SSD, and it’s no surprise that this machine is super responsive and snappy. It’d be nice to have a slightly larger SSD, but this can be upgraded to a 512GB model. Finally there’s Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1060, and as our benchmarks show, it does a very capable job with even the latest games. Sure, you can buy a 1070-equipped machine for the same price, but it’ll be a damn sight less mobile.
Alienware has taken mobile computing to new heights with
if you want gaming grunt without back-breaking mobility, it doesn’t get much better than this potent little runt
this great little monster, all without attaching an exorbitant price tag. If you’re looking for a truly game-ready machine that you can carry around all day, look no further. And if you want to bring it up to 4K levels of performance, the additional graphics amplifier means you can hook up a GeForce GTX 1080 Ti when you’re back at home base. BENNETT RING