The presence of an NPU on-board makes the Alienware X16 R2 future-proof and capable of accelerating AI-related tasks. However, as far as gaming is concerned, an NPU brings nothing to table, at least right now. If anything, they’re slowing down raw CPU performance which is dropping gaming performance. We’ll let you decide whether or not that makes sense for a gaming laptop.
Last year we saw the release of Dell’s new super sleek and slim Alienware X16 series with the launch of the Alienware X16 R1. For 2024, we’ve got the Alienware X16 R2, featuring Intel’s new Meteor Lake processors. In terms of externals, the Alienware X16 R2 looks identical to the R1, so it’s only the internals that have seen a change.
Our review unit comes with the latest Intel Core Ultra 9-185H, paired with a 175 W NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU. You also have a large 1600p QHD display with a refresh rate of 240 Hz, and Cherry MX keys. All of this will set you back by a staggering 4.6 lakhs, but is the Alienware X16 R2 truly worth the price? Let’s dive in to find out!
CPU: Intel Core Ultra 9 185H
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
RAM: DDR5-7467
Storage: 1 TB NVMe SSD
Display: 16-inch, QHD+ (2560 x 1600), 240 Hz refresh rate
Price: Rs. 4,61,990
Like we mentioned, in terms of build, the case remains the same as last year’s model. However, that doesn’t mean we weren’t drooling all over it at the Digit test labs. The laptop’s design is quintessential Alienware, with a silver aluminium lid, hexagon ventilation grilles, a rear LED ring, the matte black keyboard, and of course the lit alienware logo in the centre of the lid with the X embossed near the bottom.
The laptop comes with a backlit keyboard featuring Cherry MX mechanical switches. You probably don’t need us to tell you how much better they feel to use compared to the chiclet keys that normally come with laptops. The travel distance and feedback feel great, and the overall typing and gaming experience is amazing. The laptop also comes with a backlit touchpad. Yes, the touchpad. The backlighting for both the keyboard and touch can be customised via the Alienware Command Centre.
The laptop is very slim at just 18.57 mm, but at around 2.7 kg, it’s not lightweight at all. It’s also on the larger side for a 16-inch laptop, thanks to the extended rear which houses all of the Alienware X16 R2’s ports.
Speaking of ports, you’ve got a 3.5mm audio combo jack, 2 Type-C ports, one of which is a Thunderbolt 4 port, the other supports PD + Display. You also have 2 USB-A 3.2 gen 1 ports, a mini DisplayPort, an HDMI 2.1 port, a microSD card reader, and the DC-in port. Not counting the missing ethernet port, this is a solid offering of I/O options.
Coming to the display, our unit came with a QHD+ (2560x1600p) resolution IPS display and a refresh rate of 240 Hz. You also have a 1920×1200 display variant which features a blistering 480 Hz refresh rate. During our testing, we saw a peak tested brightness of 349 nits, which is a bit on the lower side as far as laptops in this price segment are concerned. Coming to colour accuracy, we tested 100 percent sRGB coverage and 98.4 percent DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage, both of which are great.
Before we get to the numbers, we ran all of our benchmarks on the ‘Performance’ preset in the Alienware Command Centre. That said, there’s an ‘Overdrive’ preset as well, which will give you roughly 2-5 percent better numbers. The Alienware X16 R2 features the latest Intel Core Ultra 9 185H which is paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU with a TGP of 175 W. This is the highest allowed TGP for the RTX 4090.
The biggest difference between the R1 and the R2 is the processor. So far, the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H has consistently underperformed in both single and multi-thread benchmarks when compared to the previous 14th gen and even the older 13th gen Intel Core i9 processors. This includes the Intel Core i9-13900HK which was present in the Alienware X16 R1.
We’ve compared the numbers from the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H to a 14th gen Intel Core i9-14900HX and a 13th gen Intel Core i9-13980HX, both featured in similarly priced gaming laptops.
As you can see from the scores, the Ultra 9 doesn’t surpass either processor in any benchmark. The difference isn’t very small either, and is especially noticeable in multi-thread performance.
The RAM on the new R2 is faster though, with the laptop offering 7467 MT/s compared to the 6000 MT/s on the R1. Read, Write and Copy speeds are faster across the board, but latency is on the higher side.
Coming to gaming performance, we started off with synthetic performance for which we used the 3DMark benchmark.
Here, the numbers are fairly close, and sometimes even better when compared to other non-ultra processor gaming laptops featuring RTX 4090s.
However, it’s an entirely different story in real-world gaming benchmarks. Here, numbers are lower across the board with the non-ultra processors giving better numbers in every title. While we’ll add that the numbers aren’t terrible by any means, they do disappoint when you start comparing them to other gaming laptops with the same GPU (and the same TGP) in this price segment.
Having tested several other ultra processor gaming laptops which have similarly displayed weaker benchmark results, we believe that it might be better to avoid Ultra processors if you’re looking for a purely gaming machine. At least for the time being.
During our stress tests, the peak CPU core temperature hit the 92 degree Celsius mark. Meanwhile, the GPU hit the 80 degree Celsius mark. Surface temperatures averaged around 34 degrees, with the WASD cluster at 44 degrees Celsius.
The presence of an NPU on-board makes the Alienware X16 R2 future-proof and capable of accelerating AI-related tasks. However, as far as gaming is concerned, an NPU brings nothing to table, at least right now. If anything, they’re slowing down raw CPU performance which is dropping gaming performance. We’ll let you decide whether or not that makes sense for a gaming laptop.
