Dell Alienware m17 Gaming Laptop Launched, Alienware m15 Refreshed With Intel Core i9, Nvidia GeForce RTX GPUs at CES 2019

Dell introduced its first ever thin and light gaming laptop called the Alienware m15 last October and now at CES 2019, the company has added the Alienware m17 to its portfolio, which makes it the thinnest and lightest 17-inch gaming laptop in its arsenal. The laptop will be available in different colours such as Epic Silver and Nebula Red and goes on sale from January 29 for a starting price of $1,649.99 (roughly Rs. 1,14,600) in the US.

The company also refreshed its existing Alienware m15 with an option for an Intel Core i9 CPU and Nvidia's latest GeForce RTX series graphics cards. This will also be available from January 29 for a starting price of $1,579.99 (roughly Rs. 1,09,700), Dell said.

The chassis of the Alienware m17 is built from a combination of materials such as magnesium alloy for light weight and durability and copper, which according to Dell, provides better thermal management. Dell is targeting gamers that are looking for a large screen but who still need a relatively portable machine, which is why the m17 has an average weight of 2.63kg. The laptop comes with two different battery options (60WHr or a 90WHr) and features things like AlienFX customisable lighting across six zones, Alienware Command Centre software, Cryo-Tech 2.0 technology for keeping the surface of the palm-rest area cool, and their new m-series keyboard with 1.4mm of travel and a four customisable RGB zones.

Alienware m17 Specifications
Starting with the core components, the Alienware m17 is available with differnt Intel 8th generation ‘Coffee Lake' CPUs, which now includes the Core i9-8950HK six-core processor. The two RAM slots can accommodate up to 32GB of DDR4 memory running at 2,666MHz. Graphics options start with a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti but what you'll really want are the new Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics cards. You can pick from a GeForce RTX 2060, GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q, or a GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q. There's a plethora of storage combinations on offer too which range from single to dual storage options, which max out with two 1TB PCIe M.2 SSDs.

For the display, you have choice between full-HD, QHD or UHD panels - all measuring 17.3 inches diagonally. The QHD panel is the only one with a 120Hz refresh rate while the others are 60Hz panels. The laptop also features a full-HD webcam with dual-array microphones, stereo speakers, Killer Networks Gigabit LAN, a combo dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 5 chip from Qualcomm as standard, and of course, Windows 10.

Physical connectivity includes three USB 3.0 ports, one Type-C Thunderbolt 3 port, HDMI 2.0, LAN, a Mini-DisplayPort, a headphone and microphone combo and an Alienware Graphics Amplifier port which lets you connect an external desktop-grade graphics card from either Nvidia or AMD.

The Dell Alienware m15 now sports Nvidia GeForce RTX GPUs

Alienware m15 Specifications
The new Alienware m15 gets a higher CPU option in the form of the Intel Core i9-8950HK. RAM, storage and graphics card options are similar to what you get with the Alienware m17. The four 15.6-inch display options are especially interesting as one of them is a full-HD IPS panel with 144Hz refresh rate while another is a HDR-400 certified 4K panel which is said to have up to 500nits off brightness. The rest of the software and features are similar to the Alienware m17, including the physical pots. Oddly, neither of the laptops have an SD card reader.

Disclosure: Dell sponsored the correspondent's flights and hotel for the trip to CES, Las Vegas.

We discussed 5G, 8K TVs, Keyboards for Xbox One, and everything else you can expect to see at CES 2019 on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.