Alienware M15 R6 - Review

The Alienware M15 R6 Gaming Laptop is a laptop that comes equipped with the 3000 series of graphics card, and the 11th generation Intel Core i5 and i7 CPU sets and offer a really powerful unit in a really compact size.

I had the pleasure of getting to have a play with the Alienware M15 R5 system in August and wrote up my positives and cons about the system. So, I was interested to see what sort of difference I could notice between the AMD based system compared to the Intel based on in the R6.

Alienware like to supply the goods when it comes to letting me have something powerful in my hands to really experience what is on offer. I got to have a play around with the model with an Intel i7 11800H CPU and a very powerful NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 8GB GDDR6 GPU. This is a step up again from the RTX 3070 offered as a top of the line in the R5. Whilst I believe the Ryzen R9 comparable to the i7 (and AMD being my preferred brand) the fact that the top-of-the-line model packs a RTX 3080 into the same size laptop as the R5 is beyond impressive.

The immediate upside for me, is that whilst the R6 sports the AlienFX RGB the default colour for the backlight of the keys is that iconic Alienware blue/green glow. Instead of the strobing RGB that was glaringly painful from the word go that comes with the R5, the R6 is immediately more pleasant on the eyes. The blue backlight on the keys should be the default across the board with any RGB backlighting on laptops. It’s pleasant, doesn’t need to be changed and it doesn’t strobe.

Unfortunately, the R6 suffers from a few of the same issues I founded with the R5. The keyboard is identical to that of the R5. Assuming, the same shell is used for both, so it makes sense that the keyboard would be the same. The problem here, is that the keyboard keys are just substandard. They feel cheap, they are stiff to press and they have a weird design layout. Without repeating myself all over again, this is most definitely a problem I see coming from primarily using mechanical keyboards. For the average user, the keyboard will be fine, but may prove somewhat problematic for the more avid gamer. These issues also extend to the lack of USB slots that I had as a problem with the R5.

The thing I found most impressive, is that the heat issues I was having with the R5, seemed to be completely missing with the R6. The R5 felt like a fully heated saucepan on my legs. The R6, whilst it does heat up and CAN get very hot, doesn’t seem to run anywhere near as hot as the R5 did. This may be a case of the AMD Ryzen 9 being significantly hotter, and in turn making the laptop run hotter. It may even be a case of the RTX 3070 being slightly less efficient at moderating its fan speeds compared to the RTX 3080. Whatever the cause being, it was very, very nice not to have to constantly worry about the laptop turning into a hot iron against my skin.

When the unit needs to cool down, the fans are still incredibly loud, but because it doesn’t seem to be heating up as hot, as often, this is far less problematic with the R6. Whilst you will still have to deal with the occasionally noisy laptop, you won’t be at risk of burning your legs or fingers unknowingly and you definitely have to worry about a jet engine turning on from just watching too many YouTube videos in a row.

The upside to this, is that I found whilst playing around with Skyrim at the highest graphics, and Sea of Thieves as my main game, is that even at maximum graphics, the laptop ran smoothly. It maintained nearly 160FPS at 1080p. Even if the few games of League of Legends I played, I was topping out at almost 250fps. This laptop is a little behemoth of surprisingly light, not skin melting stature.

The Alienware M15 R6 is definitely the next step up from the M15 R5. You will be looking at a slightly steeper price tag, but the extra dollars are definitely going to a good place. The laptop runs incredibly smoothly, it takes much longer to heat up, it doesn’t turn into a jet engine playing old school games like RuneScape or watching YouTube videos. In terms of a gaming laptop, I don’t think there is a better market alternative available without building your own desktop. Alienware have done something truly impressive here, between the R5 and R6, there is almost no comparison; the top-of-the-line M15 R6 is the way to go.

The Score

8.5

Review unit provided by Alienware

The Pros

+Very sleek design, complete with rear-entry charger port

+Runs very smooth, with Fans that are efficient, doesn’t turn into an iron

The Cons

-Keyboard feels cheap

-Loud fans

-Lack of USB ports