There are two kinds of gaming laptop computer on this world. Those with attractive, so-good-I-want-to-lick-them OLED screens and those without. Happily, Dell’s Alienware 13 is without doubt one of the former, and by god is it lovely. If the paltry, washed-out display on Dell’s Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming laptop was like a banged up Ford Fiesta from the mid 90s, the Alienware 13 is a modern-day tremendous automobile, its OLED panel and oozing luxurious from each pixel.
OLED screens aren’t new, in fact. Mobile telephones and TVs have been utilizing them for years, nevertheless it’s uncommon to see one on a laptop computer. Indeed, going again to an everyday LED display now, even one as finely calibrated as my very own AOC Q2770PQU monitor, simply makes the whole lot appear drab, dreary and uninteresting by comparability.
So what makes OLED so particular? Unlike a traditional LED display, it doesn’t require a backlight to be unfold throughout your complete display. Instead, every pixel is self-emissive, able to creating its personal gentle when wanted. This implies that when a picture needs to show black, the related pixels can simply change themselves off, creating correct black as an alternative of the various whishy-washy shades of gray you usually discover on an LED display, like TN, IPS and VA screens.
With a better vary of blacks at its disposal, this additionally means OLED screens have an infinitely superior distinction ratio, as they’re naturally able to producing extra element and ranges of shadow gradient than their LED counterparts. OLED shows additionally look improbable it doesn’t matter what angle you’re viewing them from (colors will nonetheless look good even when the display’s tilted way back to the image above), and their color accuracy is correct god-tier form of stuff, making the whole lot look richer, punchier and extra vibrant throughout the board.
Indeed, the Alienware 13 hit 100% of the usual sRGB color gamut once I examined it with my i1 Display Pro calibrator, and it even lined 100% of the broader, professional-grade DCI P3 gamut as effectively (the one Apple retains banging on about with its newest iPhones), beating the almost-as-lovely-looking-but-twice-as-expensive MSI GT75VR by a good clip. This is about pretty much as good as screens get at the present time, and the very fact it additionally has a 2560×1440 decision is simply the icing on this already wonderful cake of a show.
Is it definitely worth the cash, although? That is the query certainly. For as pretty because the display is, I kind of want its decision wasn’t fairly so excessive, as essentially the most highly effective graphics chip on supply right here is Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1060, which is arguably higher suited to maxed out 1080p gaming than it’s 1440p. You may also go for a GTX 1050 or GTX 1050Ti on lesser fashions, however they’re even much less effectively outfitted to cope with 1440p than the GTX 1060.
Take The Witcher III, for example. At 2560×1440, I needed to accept the Medium preset to get a easy 45-50fps common, however dropping the decision to 1920×1080 allowed me to bump up it to High and get an much more secure 55-60fps within the course of. I noticed the identical factor in Assassin’s Creed Origins and Middle-earth: Shadow of War as effectively, the place Medium appeared to be the most effective compromise between body price and graphical constancy at 1440p, whereas High (and even Ultra in Shadow of War’s case) at 1080p yielded outcomes that not often dropped beneath 50fps.
Total War: Warhammer II proved a troublesome check for the Alienware 13’s GTX 1060 as effectively. On High at 1440p, zooming in to inside an inch of a Lizardman’s battle axe noticed the body price sluggish to round 30fps in fight, whereas Medium noticed outcomes of round 40fps. This was ok for essentially the most half, however as soon as once more High at 1080p proved to be the most effective stability between decision and wonderful element, producing a mean body price of round 53fps in battle and solely dropping to 50fps when watching items duke it out up shut.
This gained’t be the case for all video games, in fact. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus and Doom, for example, ran a lot better at 1440p, with Doom comfortably hitting the total 60fps with the whole lot maxed out. Wolfenstein II wanted slightly extra tweaking, as its high Mien Leben setting tended to settle across the 40-45fps mark, however dropping one rung all the way down to Uber shortly noticed the body price counter shoot again as much as a silky 60 frames.
Rise of the Tomb Raider, in the meantime, was additionally a bit demanding on its high graphics setting (Very High), however common outdated High at 1440p nonetheless produced a good common of 48fps throughout its three built-in benchmarks, which cowl the snowy mountain peak from the beginning of the sport, a scene contained in the early-on Syrian ruins and the final act’s notoriously power-hungry geothermal valley. Admittedly, all three dropped to lows of round 26fps every so often, however I noticed the identical factor occur once more once I examined it on Medium, suggesting you’re unlikely to flee the odd hiccup it doesn’t matter what setting you find yourself utilizing.
Clearly, although, there are many compromises you’ll have to make if 60fps at 2560×1440 is your high precedence right here, and it makes me surprise why Dell a) selected this decision within the first place, and b) why there isn’t one other graphics chip choice obtainable that would make full use of it. It looks like a little bit of a punch to the intestine contemplating how a lot it prices (essentially the most I examined prices £1849 within the UK and $2229 within the US), and hamstrings an in any other case extremely fascinating laptop computer.
Dell’s Alienware graphics amplifier port is the humorous one with the triangle
To be truthful, you may all the time use the Thunderbolt three or Alienware graphics amplifier ports on the again of the laptop computer (see above) to improve it sooner or later (for the latter you’ll want to purchase the titular £160 docking station individually), however I’d argue laptop computer’s graphics card ought to be tailor-made to suit the display it to comes with. It wouldn’t be so unhealthy if there was a 1920×1080 OLED choice, however alas, the one Full HD display obtainable on the Alienware 13 is an IPS panel – which, judging by the state of Dell’s Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming’s IPS show, virtually definitely isn’t definitely worth the downgrade. If I ever get one of many different fashions in for testing, I’ll let , however what I can inform you is that it’s best to keep away from the entry-level 1366×768 mannequin in any respect prices – that’s an entire waste of house if ever I noticed one and an enormous disservice to each the GTX 1050 or GTX 1050Ti chip it comes with.
It all makes the Alienware 13 is a barely irritating piece of equipment, as the remainder of it gives virtually the whole lot you may probably need from a high-end laptop computer. The mannequin I examined had a quad-core 2.8GHz Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor and 16GB of RAM, giving it loads of heft exterior of gaming (it scored 3566 and 11,440 respectively in Geekbench four’s single and multicore assessments), and its backlit keyboard was a pleasure to kind on. Yes, the only 256GB SSD choice doesn’t present a substantial amount of storage, however not less than there’s the choice so as to add a 1TB HDD to the combo (or just get a better capability SSD) once you come to purchase it by means of Dell’s web site.
One minor annoyance is that the Alienware 13 solely has two common USB3 ports, as the opposite two are USB-C (together with the aforementioned Thunderbolt three port). This means anybody with a mouse and a USB headset may discover themselves a bit brief in case you additionally need to connect a USB drive or exterior HDD, so investing in a USB hub may be smart. Elsewhere, you get separate headphone and microphone jacks, an HDMI 2.zero output, a mini DisplayPort output and Gigabit Ethernet.
The Alienware 13 additionally comes with a Tobii Eye Tracker constructed into the highest of the show. This futuristic doodad is kind of a intelligent little factor relying on the way you take a look at it, as it may robotically dim or flip the display off once you transfer away, serving to you save energy, and even going into sleep mode with out you having to press a single button. Alternatively, you may discover it’s essentially the most annoying factor ever, as I found when trying to benchmark Hitman and it instantly paused the sport as a result of I wasn’t sitting straight in entrance of it your complete time.
Support in different video games varies, however Assassin’s Creed Origins might be one of the vital comprehensive examples available, together with the flexibility to manage the digital camera WITH YOUR VERY OWN EYEBALLS. The drawback with that, in fact, is that there are such a lot of good issues to have a look at in AC Oranges that you simply run the chance of turning the digital camera right into a schizophrenic nightmare beast that flits from one rustic market rug to the following in dizzying succession.
You higher get used to that blinking purple gentle if you wish to maintain the attention tracker turned on…
FPS followers will most likely get extra out of it, although, because the variety of instances I’ve noticed enemies solely to get insta-killed as a result of my mouse hand’s too sluggish is just too nice to even take into consideration. I simply want the tracker’s flickering purple gentle wasn’t fairly so distracting, as I discovered this extra irritating than the large, illuminated ALIENWARE emblem embedded into the display’s over-sized decrease bezel. Still, you possibly can all the time flip the tracker off if it will get too distracting.
Despite its flaws, I believe I’d nonetheless suggest the OLED model of the Alienware 13 (obtainable direct from Dell UK and Dell US), if solely as a result of the display is simply so rattling lovely. Yes, it might be good to have a graphics chip that actually makes essentially the most of its 2560×1440 decision, however when neither of its bigger, extra highly effective siblings, the Alienware 15 or Alienware 17, fill that hole both, I’d fairly have a beautiful OLED display than get a probably disastrous Full HD show in a bid to economize.
Another level within the Alienware 13’s favour is its measurement. For me, a 13.3in laptop computer is good for taking over the transfer, and whereas its sci-fi, blatantly-stolen-from-Area 51-style chassis might not be to everybody’s tastes, it definitely appears to be like a heck of rather a lot much less embarrassing than different laptops of its ilk. Its weight of two.6kg (or 5.8lbs) didn’t really feel like a ton of bricks once I took it dwelling over Christmas both, which is all the time a plus.
More than something, although, opening up that lid by no means fails to make me smile. Games simply look completely beautiful on it and it’s an actual feel-good little bit of equipment – one thing I wouldn’t commerce for all of the anti-aliasing choices on this planet. It may be a bit flawed, however I’d be mendacity by means of my tooth if I stated I didn’t need one for myself.
