Review: Dell Alienware m16 R2

Dell’s Alienware line has been a staple of the gaming laptop scene for years, and the company has been continually refining these machines. The latest entry is the Alienware m16 R2, which brings an understated design, decent display, and an array of performance options, making this an excellent daily driver laptop that can still hold up to your gaming needs.

The Alienware m16 R2 starts at $1,500 with an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, Nvidia RTX 4050 Laptop GPU, 16 GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 1-terabyte internal solid-state drive. Dell offers upgrades that can beef it up substantially. The model I tested had an Intel Core Ultra 9 CPU and RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, which surprisingly only raises the price to around $2,100.

That flexibility in upgrades is welcome, because the design and performance of the m16 R2 lends itself well to running dual duty as both a work laptop and a powerful gaming machine you can play on at the end of the day.

An Understated Design

The Alienware m16 R2 is one of the more understated designs I’ve seen on gaming laptops, and I appreciate it. The chiclet-style keyboard is smooth and comfortable to type on, and it has a row of volume-control keys along the right side, including a dedicated Mute button for the microphone, which is handy when gaming online.

The trackpad is slick and spacious, with a tasteful RGB LED rim around it. Most gaming gear tacks RGB lights on random edges to give it that Gamer Look™, but here the LED rim looks nice and serves a purpose as the backlight on the keyboard, making it easy to find keys in the dark.

On the right side are two USB-A ports and a microSD card slot; on the left, there’s an Ethernet port and a headphone jack. I first thought the m16 R2 was relatively sparse on ports until I noticed how many were on the back: two USB-C ports (one Thunderbolt 4), a full-size HDMI port, and a proprietary charging cable.

Putting those ports at the back is brilliant, because connecting the laptop to external monitors or a docking station is easier. And, like most gaming laptops, the m16 R2 performs best when it’s plugged in. On most laptops, connecting to a dock means a ton of cables or dongles sticking out of the sides, but having the ports on the rear means that cable mess nearly disappears, leaving plenty of space for an external mouse and other accessories on the sides.

The Alienware m16 R2 uses a 2,560 X 1,600-pixel resolution IPS display that’s decent for its price but not particularly remarkable. The display lacks HDR support, instead opting for a basic sRGB color gamut. This isn’t a huge deal, but when similarly priced laptops like the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 pack vibrant OLED panels, it’s hard to ignore.

It peaks at 300 nits of brightness, which is slightly lower than some gaming laptops I’ve recently tested. Sitting next to a window during the day, I could still easily make out what was on the screen, but I started to struggle while outdoors in broad daylight.

The m16 R2’s display does have one advantage: It has a 240-Hz refresh rate, which is especially welcome in fast-paced games that can take advantage of it. While playing Doom Eternal on medium settings, I got an excess of 200 frames per second, which made jumping around and shooting demons a buttery-smooth experience.

Many other gaming laptops at this price (like the Zephyrus G14) are limited to 120 Hz, so that makes the m16 R2 an attractive alternative if you’re looking for extra-smooth gameplay. It’s worth noting that the refresh rate is useful only if games can take advantage of it, which means you’ll need to consider your spec options carefully.

For Work and Play

The base model of the Alienware m16 R2 comes with an Nvidia RTX 4050 GPU, but it can be upgraded to an RTX 4070, which was in the model I tested. With the RTX 4070, I played Overwatch 2 on medium settings while hitting well over 200 fps. In a competitive game where split-second decisionmaking matters, this is a huge benefit.

In more modern, graphics-intensive single-player games like Starfield, I reliably got 50 to 60 fps in crowded areas like New Atlantis, with higher frame rates in less-demanding areas of the game. Cyberpunk 2077 fared similarly, regularly maintaining 70 to 80 fps during combat, dipping to 50 to 60 fps while driving through crowded parts of the city.

All of these tests were done while plugged in, but it’s important to remember that if you plan to play on battery, more frames means more power drain. The m16 R2 has a substantial 90-watt-hour battery, which is among the largest you’ll find in a laptop. But cranking graphics settings to their maximum will burn through that fast. Performing normal tasks on the m16 R2, I achieved roughly nine to 10 hours of battery life on a single charge. Gaming dropped that number substantially, but I was able to get an hour and a half to two hours of continuous gaming if I was careful to optimize my graphics settings and not push the machine too hard.

Overall, the Alienware m16 R2 balances power with everyday needs. You can use this laptop as your daily driver for work and get a full day of battery life out of it, then plug it into a dock at the end of the day to do some pretty robust gaming.