Alienware M18 R2 (2024 Edition) Gaming Laptop Review

TweakTown's Rating: 93%

The Bottom Line

Alienware's M18 R2 (2024 Edition) gaming laptop is a slight upgrade over R1 and still offers top tier performance and features, but the price puts the hurt on your wallet.

Pros

• + Intel Core i9-14900HX CPU
• + GeForce RTX 4090 and 1600p G-Sync at 165Hz
• + DDR5 SO-DIMM
• + Four NVMe
• + Thunderbolt 4

Cons

• - Wi-Fi 6e
• - Expensive

Should you buy it?

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Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

The M18 R2 is Alienware's flagship offering, boasting some of the highest specs that can be configured in an 18" laptop chassis. Now in its second generation, hence the R2, Dell recently rolled out hardware updates to this top-tier offering, allowing the transition to Intel 14th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs while keeping with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4000 series graphics and the fantastic 18" 1600p G-Sync panel.

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The hardware for this machine comes in several configurations, and ours was specified in the image above. Like last year's R1, we start with an Intel Core i9 processor, with the Core i9 14900HX. This CPU features 24 cores and 32 threads with eight performance cores and sixteen efficient cores, with a boost clock ramp of up to 5.8GHz for the P-cores while E-cores land at 4.1 GHz. Memory is configured with 2x32GB of DDR5 5200MHz, with a maximum capacity of 128GB. For graphics, the R2 uses the 175W NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 with 16GB GDDR6 dedicated memory.

Storage options range from 1TB to 8TB from the factory; our machine is equipped with a 2TB option. In terms of connectivity, the R2 includes four USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports and two Thunderbolt 4 ports that support DP alt mode, along with HDMI 2.1. Additionally, it offers wired and Wi-Fi 6e networking options with the Killer 1750 suite from Intel, along with an SD card slot for those using this machine for productivity.

The Alienware M18 R2 pricing, as configured above, comes in at $3799.99.

Overview

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The R2 was delivered in retail packaging, complete with Alienware branding.

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As we continued unboxing, we found the laptop itself. We note the "18" embossed into the chassis and the centered Alienware logo.

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Moving to the back of the laptop, we have the rear I/O, which includes Thunderbolt 4, USB 3.2, and HDMI. Further to the right, we have MiniDP and the SD card slot.

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The right side of the machine offers a single USB-C port.

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The left side offers wired ethernet, two USB 3.2 ports using the Type-A connection, and a dual-purpose 3.5mm audio jack.

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The bottom of the machine offers a unique honeycomb venting pattern on the cover.

Keyboard & Trackpad

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Opening up the R2, the machine feels massive. The keyboard goes nearly edge to edge, with full RGB support. The keyboard is one of the most tactile units we have used, with a solid click with every press. The trackpad is unusually small for this large machine, but it also offers solid feedback with every click and smoothness. While not glass like you would get with a Razer Blade 18, it is still quite good for daily use.

Display

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The display on this model is an 18" 2560x1600p panel offering a fantastic 165Hz refresh rate alongside NVIDIA G-Sync. It is 100% DCI-P3 certified, so it's ready for video production. The colors on this panel were quite good - one of the better panels we have seen at this size. However, once again, not being OLED, the blacks can come out quite grey, and of course, we did have some backlight bleed that can be noted in the images above.

Cooling

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Opening the R2, we have the 97Wh battery at the bottom of the chassis, with speakers flanking each side. Above, things get busy for the M18, with four NVMe slots, two supporting the 2280 form factor and the other two 2230. We have the CNVio M.2 Wi-Fi slot in the middle, while both SO-DIMM slots sit just above.

Cooling is quite extensive for the R2. It includes four fans, the two large fans pushing heat out the side of the unit while a third aids the heatpipe network. Additionally, a fourth fan is in the center of the machine, pushing air toward the memory. All of this certainly brings the noise at full speed, but we noted in regular operation, the R2 was no louder than the audio from any game we were playing, not to mention most of us are wearing headsets these days; that said, noise could become an issue in a productivity environment where there is no gaming background.

Upgradability

The R2 is fully upgradable out of the box, minus the Wi-Fi 6e solution, which is CNVio, making it trickier. That said, we have noted the BE201 Wi-Fi 7 M.2 entering the market, so there certainly is hope. Memory is quite good out of the box at 64GB at 5600MHz. Storage is quite good out of the box. I believe Alienware uses Samsung drives, and there are plenty of slots to add additional storage if needed. If we were to upgrade anything, it would be a faster SSD to get the best from the machine.

BIOS/UEFI

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The BIOS is a GUI solution quite similar to past Alienware machines. The main page offers hardware information. The advanced menu moves into cooling modes and allows you to disable cores. This menu option also allows you to configure graphics switching.

Software

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Performance can be tuned through the Alienware Command Center, which offers performance presets along the bottom, including a modest hardware monitor.

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AlienFX allows control of the keyboard's RGB, including preset modes and the option to make profiles.

System & CPU Performance

Cinebench

Cinebench is a long-standing render benchmark that Intel and AMD have relied on to highlight their newest platforms during unveilings. The benchmark has two tests: a single-core workload that utilizes one thread or 1T and a multi-threaded test that uses all threads or nT of a tested CPU.

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The R2 was a top-five performer in Cinebench 2024. We reached 1609 in nT and 125 single core thanks to its increased cooling capacity.

BAPCo CrossMark

CrossMark is an easy-to-run native cross-platform benchmark that uses real-world application models to measure overall system performance and responsiveness. CrossMark supports devices running Windows, iOS, and macOS platforms.

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CrossMark picked up 2325 overall, making the R2 the best system we have tested.

AIDA64 Memory

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Memory performance was 85K read, 70K write, and 77K copy. Latency was 83 ns.

Geekbench 6 and AI

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Geekbench scored 2864 in single-core workloads and 18132 in multi-core, once again the best system we have tested.

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We added in a quick AI run with the ONNX CPU workload.

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Looking at the GPU, we picked up 172K in OpenCL and 146K in Vulkan - both scores were interestingly lower than the R1.

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DirectML on the RTX 4090 gave us a second AI workload for the M18. The R2 pulled a solid 36K half-precision score and 25K single-precision.

Graphics & System I/O Performance

PCMark

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PCMark Extended landed at 12415, the middle of the pack of all gaming laptops tested.

3DMark

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The CPU Profile for one and two cores has our R2 right in the middle of the charts, with scores of 1184 and 2238, respectively.

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Increasing the core counts to four, eight, and sixteen, we pick up 4179 at four threads and 7463 at eight. We finished with a score of 10243 at sixteen threads, which was second best to the AMD-based Scar 17.

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Storage landed at the top of the charts with a massive 534 MB/s of throughput.

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Pushing into gaming benchmarks, Steel Nomad gives us a score of 5027.

Gaming Performance

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In Cyberpunk 2077, the R2 scored a solid 139 FPS with the low preset, followed by 119 FPS at medium settings and 100 FPS with the high preset.

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Forza Motorsport came in at 169 FPS using the low preset. Performance held quite well moving into the medium setup at 168 FPS thanks to the game engine using a variable quality engine. Last, we have high settings, finishing testing at 153 FPS.

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With the low preset, Ashes initially delivered 128 FPS. When we increased it to high, it dropped to 123 FPS. Upon further increasing to the crazy preset, we obtained 117 FPS.

Battery Life

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We did run through the gaming battery life test in PCMark, though we aren't sure how many choose to run games in this configuration. In this scenario, the Alienware M18 R2 managed just 31 minutes of battery life.

Final Thoughts

The Alienware M18 R2 is a second-generation model that maintains the design of the R1 but includes several hardware updates. The CPU is the most significant update, going from the 13980HX to the 14900HX, while the RTX 4090 stays as the best GPU you can get in a laptop. It powers the impressive 18-inch display, which provides us with a legit 1600p resolution and 165Hz refresh rate, delivering desktop-like quality and size. The colors are fantastic, and with its 100% DCI-P3 certification, it is well-suited for video production.

The laptop supports NVIDIA G-Sync and DDS and comes with a front-facing full HD IR camera, which is rare in some gaming laptops. It is also equipped with a per-key RGB mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX switches and a standard-sized trackpad that supports multi-touch gestures, although we found the trackpad to be quite small considering the size of the chassis. On the flip side, the keyboard is absolutely fantastic, with some of the best mechanical feel, especially for those who enjoy the heaviness you can get with a standard desktop keyboard.

The Alienware M18 R2 is the best laptop we have tested from Alienware in terms of performance and ranks among the top five overall. It performed exceptionally well in single-core workloads, achieving a Cinebench score of 125, the highest we have seen. System workloads like Crossmark and PCMark demonstrated class-leading performance. Gaming excellence is also a standout feature of the M18, with the hardware configuration providing over 100 FPS in all three gaming workloads we ran at the high preset.

As for pricing, the M18 R2 is a tough pill to swallow. At $3799, the price has gone up since we reviewed the R1 offering late last year to the tune of nearly $400. That makes the R2 a hard bargain in the current market as similar spec'd offerings from Dream Machines, Clevo, and even the AORUS 17X, a machine we will be looking at soon, come in nearly $900 cheaper.