Alienware m16 R1: Reddit's Divided Verdict on Dell's Tinkerer's Laptop

Runs like a dream literally not a single hiccup this entire year. knocks on wood. Zero cons.

Thank you for the detailed explanations. It seems like only the software side is inadequate in this laptop. I will be waiting for a good deal for it this year.

I got mine from Dell for 1600 back in April and it was the best decision I made. Coming from a desktop user for years I was skeptical. But having portability is great. There hasn't been a game I've thrown at it that it can't run constant at 1440p.

I've got the m18 r1 4080 and absolutely love it!

Yes it will spike 100 degrees. My m18r1 and x15r2 do but your average temps look good. You're pulling serious wattage with these machines and that is going to get warm. Intel says 100 is fine on their spec sheet.

3 days ago I bought the same, you don't know how happy I am to hear you say that. I bought it just for gaming so battery life isn't so important to me since it's always plugged in.

I must have a lemon, had to buy extended warranty, have had to send it in 3 times already and I've had it just over 18 months.

Alienwares always get the hottest.

Mine burned up at 1 year and 7 months. The port for the charger got loose then this. Didn't buy the extended warranty so I'm having to get a new motherboard.

My m18r1/4090/6TB is 4 years old and holding steady, zero issues.

I really love my Alienware M18 with a 4090, it's a monster. Really my only complaint about the current Alienware lineup is that their displays are vastly inferior to other gaming laptops. These really need a OLED or Mini-LED panel in them.

Never ever buy Dell/Alienware product again. They bricked my M15 R5 by forcing BIOS update through Win11 update and bricked it. They keep releasing untested BIOS and take no responsibility and try to sell warranty afterwards. What a scam.

For plug and play people this is not the perfect choice laptop. In my case I went even further and applied liquid metal got a boost of 10% maybe even 15% or 20% if the CPU is cooled enough but the throttling is still there, just it happens with a better performance.

That's exactly why I returned it. I had the exact same model. Received it about 3 weeks ago and had it for 4 days before returning. Very disappointed that I had to do that but I felt that if I held onto it I'd end up blowing the thing up.

I got the m16 with a 4090 and its been extremely good from setup, no tweaks needed (other than updated drivers). I've been playing all VR games and forza horizon 5 on ultra with raytracing on high, DLSS on quality, with 200-250 fps clean. No dips no microstutters. I'm loving it.

My problem was fixed with the most unexpected solution ever. My charger was not the right wattage and once I got the correct charger it works fine.

True for me as well. Best quality Alienware I have after m14x. Cold, reliable, fast. The only issue is uncommon size (so wide), it doesn't fit some bags/suitcases.

It is a raw performance beast, but lacks battery autonomy.

Bought mine a year and a half ago, zero issues. For a gaming laptop it runs pretty quiet and cold, battery life is meh but it's always plugged in anyways.

I have an Alienware m16 r1 and would much rather have a Lenovo Legion Pro 7i for the brighter screen and full size keyboard. I haven't had any problems with my Alienware and would definitely recommend it to folks who can find it on sale.

Same here! Have had to send mine in 3 times as well. Constant graphics card issues, and the latest returned laptop came with the added feature of a trackpad that doesn't click plus dell diagnostic software left on.

I always been an Alienware fan because aliens involved. But after buying it I decided dell isn't worth it.

I had this issue with the error tdr video fail. I deleted all Dell apps and SupportAssist and it solved my issue. SupportAssist seemed to be the main culprit.

Got the same one. Had to have the power port replaced because it was a loose fit (still not as tight as I'd like it but better), and also had the heatsink repasted because I wasn't happy with the temps. It is a beast, no question.

I also have an m16 r1 I purchased last November. It is a great laptop. I got mine as a desktop replacement so I don't use it mobile really. Just home gaming through a much larger monitor.

The battery life isn't good on this laptop, it's such a power hog that I'd recommend only gaming while plugged in since the laptop will throttle down performance if only running off of battery.

This laptop equipped with AMD has been disappointing due to its performance throttling to 35W and around 1.8GHz after approximately 10 minutes of gaming. This significant reduction in performance is a major drawback. If possible, I recommend returning it and opting for a model with an Intel processor or choose other brand.

Windows sleep mode can be a bit of a headache. After a few hours, it goes into deep sleep and sometimes, you might not be able to boot up again. Try hibernating instead of sleeping. AMD Ryzen HX CPUs in laptops tend to get hot, even though they use less power than Intel chips.

I love my alienware but it comes with a lot of problems and I don't think you should go for the alienware if the legion is in your budget. My alienware's cooling is shitty so I've changed the power settings for it not to reach temps of above 90 but that comes with a performance reduction.

The smoke and sparks were coming from somewhere on the motherboard, which is also what Dell said they ended up replacing. And since I've seen a few other people with similar problems, it's really starting to feel like this might be a design flaw.

I had an M18 R1 shoot out a red hot spark about a year and a half ago. Absolutely no one believed me, support or this subreddit. Thing ran like shit up until about 3 months ago when I had the MOBO replaced and all components repasted. Runs like a top now, not a single crash or issue since. Quality control is a thing of the past.

My M16s keyboard can't stay lit up in idle for longer than like 30 seconds, it's so annoying. But other than that my first impressions of the machine are also good. Esports games at 240 FPS/G Sync/QHD is amazing and I'm excited to test it in creative workloads.

This is the review I was looking for. I have watched and read reviews from a lot of tech magazines and YT channels but yours felt genuine for some reason. Everyone is complaining about how big the laptop is and how poor the panel is, but I get from your review that it just isn't always the case.

I just ordered a M16 with the 240hz 32GB 2x 1TB 4090 and the CherryMX keyboard. My only concern is that the M16 weighting in at 7lb, any complaints about the weight?

I tried three before settling on the M16 R1. Every single one needed tweaking to run even reasonably well. The best out of the box was an Asus G14 / 4060, but even that one gained over 10% after tweaking.

I like it now only after tweaking it, out of the box the laptop performs only slightly better or even worst with the stutters than my other laptop with a 3070ti.

I got a refurbished M16 R1 AMD with an rtx 4070 and a Ryzen 9 7845HX from dell as a replacement for my m15 r7 that was constantly blue screening, and it had been stuttering and dropping frames until I repasted it and disconnected my external monitor, which made the stuttering stop entirely.

I have the intel version with the 4070 and get significantly better performance. In helldivers 2 I play at 4k, mix of high/medium settings and sustain around 65ish fps. RDR2 at 2560x1600 resolution everything cranked and quality dlss I sit around 70-80 fps.

I managed to find an open box model at Best Buy 2 days ago. In Helldivers 2 on ultra at QHD resolution I'm getting 60+ the entire time. Every game I've tried so far I just set to ultra and qhd resolution and go to town and it's chewed through everything so far.

I think the general starting point for brand new Alienware machines diagnosis is to do a complete fresh windows reinstall. Then download all the relevant drivers directly.

First thing I will do is to install a clean version of windows without dell bloat ware. Then set the right bios setting for undervolting the 13900hx. Alienware laptops come with very stupid and useless presets.