Alienware M18 R2 Gaming Laptop - 18 QHD+ 165Hz 3ms Display, Intel Core i9-14900HX, 32GB DDR5 RAM, 1TB SSD, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 12 GB GDDR6, Windows 11 Home, Onsite Service - Dark Metallic Moon

I've tried just about every name brand laptop in this category (gaming laptops) and this was the only one (Alienware) that I did not try. The reason I didn't try was because of all the not-so-great reviews and how the cons were just simply not 'acceptable' for 2024. After much trial and tribulation, I figured I had nothing left to lose except to not try this brand. Well low and behold! This laptop was PERFECT for me! I wanted a portable AND capable Beast and this fit the bill PERFECTLY! It maybe a little chunky for people who don't eat meat or work out, but for me it was a very acceptable compromise for what I was looking for in a laptop (a consistent gaming experience whether at home or abroad). It plays all my games at max settings without any problems at all. Others I've had always ended up throttling themselves (despite being 'higher spec'd' than this one) and either stuttered or over-heated to the point it would lock up or shut down. This laptop might get a little 'loud' but it never over heats, never shuts down, and to my surprise, never throttled, not even once. I bought a laptop backpack for this laptop here in Amazon (just look up backpacks for 18.4" laptops). It works PERFECTLY for my needs. Tech Support is practically built right into this machine too. Most questions I had about anything was easily found with the included software packages. I have no regrets with this purchase and can easily recommend this to people who want a great laptop and a Beast without all the marketing and fluff (and failures) of the other 'Top Tier' or 'Higher Spec'd' laptops out there (looking at you ASUS and LENOVO). Oh wait, I do have one regret, and it's that I didn't get this sooner and let my own bias and the bias of other laptop 'Professional Reviewers' sway me away from this brand early on during my searches for the PERFECT laptop for ME.

I absolutely love this machine now...switched to 32gb of kingston fury impact ddr5 running at 6400 mt/s and it runs amazing. I have hyperthreading on. Everything is turned on and running stable. No more crashing on Diablo 4 fenris error...Even with DLSS and frame generation turned on. My first ever Intel machine and I love it despite the rocky start we got off to. Alienware has a great aesthetic and the build quality of their laptops are second to none. I just wish they could do better in the display department, 165hz is a bit slow for a system with a 4080, and the FHD 480hz resolution leaves a lot to be desired in the 18in model. I have the 360hz FHD display on my M15 R5 that has a 3070 gpu, and its great for the smaller screen, I would really like to have been able to get this one with a UHD 4k option, also sound card is lacking. Speakers are the exact same junk that they used on my smaller laptop, considering there are smaller form factor machines in this size that they have managed to stuff a subwoofer inside of, Alienware is still late to the party when it comes to gaming devices and I believe Dell being largely to blame as their niche has always been in the office segment. They really need to step it up in their display technology as well as audio delivery if they are ever going to be as nice as Razer and MSI laptops in my opinion. Granted, I would have had to spend another 1000 dollars to get a Razer Blade 18 with similar specs.

I made the order on 9th of April and I have recieved the item in the promised time and the original package was intact and the laptop was brand new, but this is the only positive thing so far. Right after it was unboxed and started it started producing beeping sounds and the pre-Windows screen displayed an error that the main drive is not found. I have restarted the device and this time it started, however in Windows there were multiple updates found and recommended to be installed and I did that and I have restarted it.Again beeping and a new error that one of the CPU fans is not working and the laptop was running the fans on full speed.I have created a support request and I was told that the repair cannot be performed on-site even thought the warranty is repair on-site after online diagnostics. The support request was created on 9th of April and a box have been sent to me and recieved on 11th of April and I have packaged the laptop and send it to the repair facility the same day. It took 6 days for the package to be delivered to the facility in Texas(I live in Pennsylvania). Upon reciving the laptop in the facility the support case has been updated with "One or more parts needed to complete your repair are delayed. Your estimated completion date is Thu, May 8, 2025.". From the order to the repair date is almost a month...I will not be even able to return it to the Alienware store through Amazon as there are 30 days to do that. I should have done that in the first place. I have tried several times to reach out to the support and I was told that the date is ETA and it may happen that the parts will be available sooner.This is to be a warning for any future customer that you will have to bear with the supply chain issues of Alienware(Dell) for any repairs.I have paid $3000 and I will not be able to use what I own for a month and after that I will use refurbished product, but have paid for a brand new one. I was a customer of ALiernware and Dell for the past 20+ years, but this experience changed my mind.

Very strong and responsive machine with a good screen and sound love the battery life

Fantastic laptop, but Alienware’s cooling solution CANNOT keep this I9 from hitting temps a little too high. I’ve defaulted to “quiet” mode and lowered my CPU’s power by about 20% now it’s much better temp wise and as far as gaming goes 0 performance lost that I can tell

Exceptional performance. Ready for gaming. I needed to upgrade the disk (1TB is not enough), and it was very easy. I doubled the memory too. In high performance mode the noise is uncomfortable.