GoKawiilis a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.
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I remember a time when Alienware refused to make a thinner laptop — the company didn’t want to compromise on its builds. But today, Dell is slapping the Alienware name on a piece of hardware that sounds utterly watered down. It’s partly RAMageddon’s fault.
The new five-pound Alienware 15 is supposedly an entry-level gaming laptop, one designed to invite those with less cash into the fold. That’s an admirable goal at a time when all kinds of gaming hardware suddenly costs more. But unlike Alienware’s affordable $350 OLED monitor, the laptop does not sound like good value for the money.
Even with a last-gen, entry-level Nvidia RTX 4050 graphics chip, you’ll pay $1,299 and up. (In some markets the laptop will start with an RTX 3050 — a five-year old chip!) An RTX 5050 will cost you $1,459 or more and a midrange RTX 5060 model costs $1,849 and up.
For that kind of money you could easily find more powerful specs from a competing brand. Generally, a 5060 laptop can be had for $1,400 MSRP or closer to $1,100 on sale. Dell’s RTX 5060 prices are squarely in RTX 5070 territory.
Not a bad design, and it’s got a 180-degree hinge, but it definitely looks like a Dell. Do note the chassis is plastic even if it looks like metal. Image: Dell
Did I mention that the 15.3-inch, 1920 x 1200, 165Hz screen only displays 62.5 percent of the sRGB color spectrum? Yes, sRGB, not the superior Adobe RGB or DCI-P3. Even the lackluster Alienware 16 Aurora, the company’s first stab at releasing a too-pricey budget machine, managed 100 percent of sRGB, and for less money too. That 16-incher could be had with a 96 watt-hour battery and an RTX 5060 for $1,469.99, while the Alienware 15 costs $380 more for a smaller 70Wh battery and the same GPU.
Not that you should pick an Alienware 16, necessarily, as both machines cut corners. Both only have a 720p webcam at 30fps, and most of their USB ports top out at just 5Gbps. You do get one 10Gbps, 100W USB-C docking port, but it’s USB 3.2, not USB 4 or Thunderbolt. At least the Alienware 15 has an HDMI 2.1 port, some form of Ethernet, and the keyboard is backlit — but in white, not the RGB you’d expect from Alienware.
I do like that the 5Gbps USB-C port has a “5” to let you know. Image: Dell
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