The Alienware Area-51m R2 is big, and it’s mostly due to the large display. The bezels around the screen are large, especially on the bottom and sides. However, we think this is necessary for a gaming laptop because it allows for more room for cooling vents.
The Alienware Area-51m R2 has an aluminum chassis with a light silver finish that’s fingerprint resistant and easy to clean. The hinge design allows you to open up the lid with just one finger so you don’t have to worry about your hands getting in the way when playing games or typing up documents.
The keyboard features RGB backlighting with customizable colors through AlienFX software (you’ll need internet access).
Keyboard, Touchpad and Display
The keyboard and touchpad are great, with the former offering 1.3mm of travel and full-size keycaps. The latter is large and smooth, making it easy to move around the desktop quickly.
Though not as bright as some other laptops I’ve tested recently (such as the Dell XPS 13), it’s still plenty luminous for indoor use; under artificial light, you’ll have no trouble seeing what’s on your screen from several feet away.
Ports
The ports on the back of the laptop are where you’ll find the most action, with two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, one Thunderbolt 3 port, one HDMI 2.0b port and one Mini DisplayPort 1.4 (with support for up to four displays). There’s also an RJ45 Ethernet port so you can connect to wired networks without using your Wi-Fi connection. The only other connectivity option is an SD card reader located next to the power button on the left side of the device.
Performance
- The Alienware Area-51m R2 is an extremely powerful laptop. It has an 8th generation Intel Core i9 processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 GPU, and 16GB of RAM to ensure that you can run any software or game on the market today without hesitation.
- The Alienware Area-51m R2 is also very expensive compared to many other gaming laptops. At $3999 USD it’s one of the most expensive laptops we’ve reviewed and almost twice as much as Dell’s cheapest XPS 15 with similar specs (you can check out our review here).
- The Alienware Area-51m R2 has a great screen but isn’t lightweight at over 5 pounds for a 15 inch display which isn’t ideal for carrying around all day but is still small enough to fit in a backpack so long as you’re not going too far away from home (or office).
Specifications
The Area-51m R2 features a 10th Gen Intel Core i9-10900K CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super GPU, and 16GB of DDR4 RAM. The device also includes HDMI 2.0b for video output at 4Kp60 with HDR support; Thunderbolt 3 using the USB Type-C port with DisplayPort 1.4; and four USB 3.1 ports (Type A).
The power supply is a 350 W SFX unit that meets 80 PLUS Gold standards and has integrated noise reduction technology to ensure the system can operate quietly even under load conditions such as when gaming or performing other high-intensity tasks like video editing or rendering graphics heavy websites in Chrome
Final Words
The Alienware Area-51m R2 is a powerful, but overpriced gaming laptop. With a starting price of $3,049 (and going up from there), this machine will cost you an arm and a leg—but it has the power to back up its hefty price tag.
The Area-51m R2 comes with an overclocked Intel Core i9 9900K processor, which is capable of running at 5 GHz on all eight cores for maximum performance. It also has 32GB of DDR4-2666 memory and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 GPU with 8GB GDDR6 memory built in (along with support for up to four graphics cards). This system can handle any game you throw at it on its 1080p 144 Hz display; even if you’re playing at 4K resolution or higher, the RTX 2080 should have no problem keeping things smooth and playable.
The problem is that most people won’t need this kind of power unless they’re planning on doing something very specific—like developing their own video games or editing videos with high frame rates—in which case they’ll probably want something more powerful than what’s offered here anyway.
