Alienware m16 R2 Review: A Gaming Laptop That You Can Use Daily

My first gaming laptop, which I bought in 2011, was an Alienware M11x R2, and I replaced it with an Alienware 14. Both were great machines, and I have fond memories of playing some incredible games on them. Alienware laptops have always been great, but they’ve almost always been bulky, big, and alien-like. However, a couple of years ago, Dell decided to change things up and make sleeker and less alien-like Alienware laptops. The Alienware m16 R2 is a gaming laptop with nothing much alien about it in terms of design.

It’s still a good gaming laptop with enough oomph to play all AAA titles. It comes with up to Intel Core Ultra 9 chipset and supports AI features. But has the weight reduction and design change cost the laptop its performance value? Can it be used as a daily driver? You’ll have to read till the end to find out.

The Alienware m16 R2 is priced at around Rs. 1,55,000 in India for the base option with an Intel Core Ultra 7 CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU. Our review unit was the top-end variant with the Intel Core Ultra 9 chipset and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU, priced at Rs. 1,96,990.

Alienware m16 R2 Design: Keeping it simple

• Dimensions – 363.9 mm(width) x 249.4mm (depth) x 23.5mm (height)
• Weight – 2.61 kg
• Colours – Dark Metallic Moon

The new Alienware m16 R2 is a total departure from the R1. The thermal shelf is gone right off the bat, or rather, the back. The metal lid has a matte finish, and the number 16 is carved onto the corner, but not in a nice way. It’s big and in your face. I could’ve just been happy with the Alien head logo. The bottom is made from aluminium and fairly minimal but has hexagonally shaped intake grilles. The exhaust vents are at the back and the sides. There are a lot of hexagonal design elements all over the laptop, and you’ll also find them when you open the lid and look above the keyboard. There’s an Alien head-shaped power button above the keyboard as well.

There are plenty of ports on the laptop

 

The area around the keyboard and the touchpad features a soft finish, making it very comfortable to lay your hands on. It does like fingerprints, though. As for ports, the right side has two USB Type-A ports and a microSD card reader. You’ll find an RJ45 Ethernet port and a headphone jack on the right, whereas the back houses two USB Type-C ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, and a DC port.

While Dell has shed some weight and dimensions, the Alienware m16 R2 is still heavy at 2.61 kg, but it fits much better inside backpacks. It’s well built, the hinges seem durable and can open at 180 degrees, and there’s hardly any flex.

Alienware m16 R2 Display: Very good with room for improvement

• Size – 16-inch IPS panel
• Resolution – QHD+ (2560×1600)
• Refresh rate – 240Hz

You get a nice 16-inch anti-glare IPS display on the laptop. The panel offers a 240Hz refresh rate, a 3ms response time, and a QHD+ resolution. It also supports Nvidia G-Sync and Dolby Vision HDR. Watching movies and playing games on the display is really nice, but I wish it were brighter. The panel offers 300 nits of brightness, which is lower than other laptops in the price range. The display has slim bezels on either side, but you get a nice thick chin and a slightly thinner top bezel that houses the web camera.

Overall, it’s a nice display that is great for playing games, thanks to the 240Hz refresh. You can lower the refresh rate to 60Hz to save on battery, but once you go 240Hz, it’s hard to go back.

Alienware m16 R2 Keyboard, Touchpad, speakers, and webcam

• Keyboard – Backlit keyboard with per-key RGB
• Touchpad – Multi-touch with RGB
• Speakers – Dual 2W drivers
• Web camera – 1080p with IR sensor

The Alienware m16 R2 has a nice keyboard that supports per-key RGB customisation and offers 1.8mm key travel. Typing on the keyboard feels nice, but that’s also thanks to the rubber-like coating. The backlight can get very bright at night, and I’d mostly keep it at half brightness when using it.

Below the keyboard is a decent-sized touchpad that features a smooth finish and RGB edge lighting. I’d have liked it if the touchpad was a little bit larger, but it does the job very well. It supports multi-touch gestures as well and has a nice click to it.

Typing on the keyboard is a pleasant experience, and the backlight is strong with this one

 

The speakers on the laptop aren’t anything to brag about. There are two downward-facing speakers with grilles on either side. They are loud enough, and the overall output is crispy but with hardly any bass. It’s a gaming laptop, and it’s best to just connect a nice pair of headphones and enjoy your games.

Above the display is a 1080p web camera and an IR sensor with Windows Hello support. The video and image quality from the camera is decent in daylight conditions, but you’ll see some noise when there’s not enough light.

Alienware m16 R2 Software: Clean and useful

• OS – Windows 11 Home
• Alienware tools – Command Center, AlienFX, Fusion

In terms of software, the laptop runs Windows 11 Home out of the box and offers Microsoft Office Home and Student 2021. There’s no extra bit of software that you don’t need. As for Alienware software, there are a couple of them. For controlling the RGB lights on the laptop, changing power modes, and all other types of customisation, you have the Alienware Command Center.

The Command Center includes features such as AlienFX for lighting control and Fusion for switching between different power modes. There’s also a Game Library that offers auto-tuned game profiles. The Alienware m16 R2 also has a Stealth mode, which turns off all lighting and tries to be a regular laptop.

The Alienware Command Center lets you do all kinds of things to the laptop

 

Microsoft’s Office tools also support AI functions, but I didn’t find the Cocreator option in Paint. You also get access to the Copilot chatbot, which works quite well, thanks to the Intel Core Ultra 9 SoC onboard.

Alienware m16 R2 Performance: Plenty of oomph

• Processor – Up to Intel Core Ultra 9 185H
• RAM – Up to 32GB DDR5
• Storage – 1TB M.2
• GPU – Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 with 8GB DDR6 VRAM

Our review unit was equipped with the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H CPU paired with 32GB RAM and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU with 8GB VRAM. This combination works well for all kinds of tasks, including video editing and gaming. However, since the Intel Core Ultra also features a dedicated NPU, you can run AI tasks on the laptop. While this isn’t branded as a Copilot PC and doesn’t have a dedicated Copilot key, it does have the firepower. As mentioned earlier, the Copilot chatbot works quite well and creates images quickly. I also ran an AI benchmark on the laptop, delivering impressive results.

As you can see from the synthetic benchmarks above, the Alienware m16 R2 with its Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor performs well on the AI front. That’s not all, though, as the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU also helps the laptop handle pretty much any AAA game. I played Hogwarts Legacy, Forza Horizon 5, NFS Heat, and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order on the laptop with the highest settings available. All games performed well and delivered an average of 90 FPS and above.

The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H is excellent for productivity and AI functions

 

With the new design, Alienware also had to reconfigure its cooling system. The system got hot during gaming, and I felt the heat around the arrow keys. During a 45-minute gaming session, the area around the laptop also got quite warm. I could continue gaming without being uncomfortable, though, as most of the hot air is kicked out from behind.

Meanwhile, the connectivity on the laptop is also quite good. It gets Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, both of which worked well during my time with the laptop.

Alienware m16 R2 Battery: As expected

• Capacity – 90Wh
• Charger – 240W adapter

Battery life isn’t a strong suit of the Alienware m16 R2. If you game on battery power, expect it to last about 1 hour with demanding titles and slightly longer on some less demanding games. Running the laptop in stealth mode got me about 4 hours of usage, which is pretty good, but I wouldn’t recommend leaving home without the charger. You can get more if you just use the laptop to watch videos, but any productive work – it will die in about 4 hours.

There’s a lot of hexagon-shaped grilles on the laptop

 

The laptop has a 90Wh battery, and you get a 240W charging adapter in the box. Charging takes about 1 hour 30 mins, but you get quick charging support where a 30-minute charge can deliver up to 60 percent battery life.

Alienware m16 R2 Verdict

The Alienware m16 R2 is not what it used to be, but if you’re looking for a machine that can do more than gaming, then this is a good choice. Everything on the laptop is good for a laptop at this price. It’s got a nice design, it’s built well, you get good performance from both the CPU and GPU, the display is fast, and the battery life when not gaming is pretty good. If you’re also looking for a gaming laptop that can blend well among other lower-tier laptops so you don’t feel weird in coffee shops, the Alienware m16 R2 is a great choice.

As for competition and alternatives, you can take a look at the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 (Review), the Asus ROG Zephyrus M16, or the HP Victus 16, all of which offer slightly better performance but can also cost more and aren’t as lowkey as the Alienware.