Dell Alienware 15 R4 Laptop Review

Alienware’s products are very famous in the gaming community. The powerful performance and great display, and stunning gaming performance are promises of Alienware. Dell mostly manufactures laptops, PCs, and other equipment and other kinds of stuff related to computing. Today we are reviewing here the Dell Alienware 15 R4.

The Review is based on the testing, buyers’ thoughts, research, and experience. After reading this article finally you will be able to decide whether the Dell Alienware 15 R4 is a good option for you or not.

Read the article completely without leaving any part because this article has very valuable information for you.

Specs & Review of Dell Alienware 15 R4 Laptop

Content:

• Specifications
• Pros and Cons
• Review
  • Display
  • Design & Built
  • Keyboard & Touchpad
  • Performance
  • Gaming Performance
  • Audio
  • Connectivity
  • Battery
• Conclusion

Dell Alienware 15 R4

Technical Specifications

Pros and Cons

Dell Alienware 15 R4 Review

The Dell Alienware 15 R4 is obviously a gaming laptop as Alienware is a separate subbrand of Dell for High-level gaming devices. The Alienware laptops are really good for gaming and other heavy tasks but like other laptops, these laptops also have some pros and cons that we will discuss here and will provide you with the final decision.

Display

The Dell Alienware 15 R4 has a decent standard display of 15.6 that mostly comes with the laptop as a standard laptop. It is an FHD display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080p and IPS technology. There are multiple options available with the display you can choose according to your requirements and the price varies as per their quality. Moreover, the screen refresh rate options are available from 60Hz to 120Hz. The display options which are available with this laptop are as below:

• 60Hz (IPS G-Sync) FHD (1920 x 1080)
• 120Hz (TN) FHD (1920 x 1080)
• 120 Hz (TN G-Sync) FHD (1920 x 1080)
• 60Hz (IPS) UHD (3840 x 2160)
• 60Hz (IPS G-Sync) UHD (3840 x 2160)

Currently, we are discussing the standard default model of this laptop Dell Alienware 15 R4 which has the FHD 60Hz IPS G-sync Panel. The Adobe RGB score of the display is around 63.1 which is average, not good although the previous model 15 R3 has a little better around 66.2. On the other hand, the display has fine brightness and decent contrast. Whereas the sRGB Coverage score stays around 86.4 and the Display P3 is 65.7. When we talk about the display response time the laptop’s response time is fine for an average user but for professional gamers, it is very slow.

Design & Built

The Dell Alienware 15 R4 is very premium in design and look. Normally, we see a huge chassis with a gaming laptop. But here the case is different it is not as slim as a casual laptop that we use daily but comparatively to the other gaming laptops it is decent in slimness. Moreover, it looks premium and the case is very stable. The laptop that is in our hand right now has gray chassis with Alienware embedded logo that gives an eye-catching look. In addition to this, the built materials are metal and plastic both but the use of metal is decent.

It is completely designed just like the other laptops of the Dell Alienware R-series. Like others, the LienHead design power button is placed next to the keyboard in the center. Although, it has less empty space there as it is 15 inches laptop. Moreover, the RGB lights are placed on certain parts of laptops like Alienware logos, sides, keyboard, and touchpad. Overall, the laptop has a smooth and sleek look which looks good to the eyes.

Furthermore, it is comparatively heavy in size as it has a normal size just like the casual laptop but it weighs around 7.75 lbs which is nearly equal to a 17 inches laptop and slightly lighter than the previous Alienware R3 model. As the Acer Predator Helios 500 is a 17 inches laptop but it weighs around 8.82 pounds which is lighter compared to the 15 inches laptop. But this is due to the build material as Acer Predator Helios 500 is made up of plastic material and plastic is lighter in size than metal. Still, Dell needs to do some improvements in the weight department as we are seeing mostly issues regarding weight with most of the Alienware laptops. Like Dell Alienware 17 R5 weighs nearly equal to 10 pounds.

Keyboard & Touchpad

The laptop has an excellent-quality keypad with smooth keys. Moreover, the position of the keypad is fine with also the touchpad. Here the Numpad is not available on the Keypad as it is a 15 inches laptop so not much space available to insert the Numpad. As with other laptops of Alienware R-series the separate Macro keys row is present on the left side which you can adjust function-wise according to your requirements. The keyboard is comfortable to use and some keys have two symbols on them which are used by Dell here to increase typing fluency.

Furthermore, the keyboard of Dell Alienware R4 has RGB Backlit and RGB per Key which looks stunning and premium. In addition to this, you can adjust colors according to your taste.

The touchpad is also premium, responsive, and nicely placed with good built quality. Moreover, it is also equipped with RGB light.

Performance

As it is a gaming laptop so it provides value in the performance sector. If a laptop gives a good performance in gaming then it never faces difficulty while performing any heavy tasks. Here the gaming laptop does not mean it can support medium size games but we are talking about the heavy games which require a good GPU, Processor, Display, and Memory. The Dell Alienware 15 R4 is equipped with a coffee lake CPU core i9 8th generation which is quite powerful to handle any type of heavy task.

Although, this laptop is also with a core i7 processor which is also good in performance. Comparatively, the Core i9 has a 4.8 GHz clock speed and 12 MB L3 cache which is 0.7 GHz and 3MB more than the core i7 respectively. Thanks to the coffee lake Intel processor it is better than the Razor Blade 15 2018 and Alienware 15 R3 in performance. When we talk about the CPU score the Alienware R4 scored 197 points which is up to many extents better than its competitors. On the PC mark, the Alienware 15 R4 scored 6008 points.

Moreover, this laptop is integrated with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 but here with this laptop company offers 3 different GPUs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060, GeForce GTX 1070, & GeForce GTX 1080 Max-Q. Currently, The GTX 1070 is integrated with this laptop which we are reviewing here. Now here when we talk about the 3DMark – 1920×1080 Fire Strike Graphics it scored 17675 Points you can say that the performance of the GPU is around 73%. The previous model R3 was equipped with the same GPU and the score was also similar to this laptop. The turbo performance of the GPU is quite better than the CPU as it has a clock speed of 1,443 MHz and can go up to 1,645 MHz.

There is a little downfall on this laptop; its fans generate noise especially while performing heavy tasks. Sometimes the cooling fan sound went up to 58db in the situation of load which is quite high if you are a gamer then our recommendation is to use headphones. The fan’s noise is high because of the powerful components in a thin body. With this, it also has a heating issue with its temperature, when you start imposing a load on this laptop it starts heating up.

Gaming Performance

The Dell Alienware R4 has very decent gaming performance thanks to its powerful CPU and GPU. Moreover, the Nvidia G-Sync is available with this laptop which helps you to eliminate screen tearing. The coffee lake Core i9 processor and the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 lets you play heavy games easily on this laptop. The games which are given below can be smoothly played on this laptop.

• Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus 
• Witcher 3
• Fifa 18
• Far Cry 5
• Fire Strike
• Destiny 2
• Need for Speed Playback
• Rainbow Six Siege
• Farming Simulator 17 
• The Crew 2

These games can be playable on ultra frames with decent graphics.

Audio

Moreover, the speakers are quite louder but have a negligible amount of bass. When we discuss this in facts and figures it has the 87dB of volume and 100-315 Hz frequency of bass. But when we estimate the overall sound quality we will give the average grade to this laptop. Still, there is multiple premium software available to adjust the bass and other sound factors but that optimization does not look natural. The headphone can be the mandatory choice for pro gamers with this laptop as it has fan noise issues which can interrupt your gaming experience and also the average quality of the speakers’ sound does not look good.

Connectivity

Alienware mostly does not disappoint its users in connectivity. It provides a wide range of port options with the laptop and also in the wireless department. You will not need to install any external expansion for increasing numbers of ports. Following are the available ports options with this laptop

• 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 (Type-C)
• 1 x  USB 3.1 Gen 1 with Powershare
• 1 x  USB 3.1 Gen 1
• 1 x Thunderbolt 3 (USB Type-C
• 1 x Ethernet port
• 1 x HDMI 2.0
• 1 x microphone/headphone
• 1 x Headset
• 1 x Mini DisplayPort 1.3
• 1 x External Graphics

Furthermore, if you want to add RAM or Storage there are also options for that like Three M.2 card slots for SSD. For the wifi and Bluetooth combo card, One M.2 card slot is available.

In wireless communication, this laptop has Wi-Fi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.1.

Battery

The Dell Alienware 15 R4 has a very decent battery life as it is equipped with a big 99.9Wh battery. Moreover, the great optimization of GPU saves power and makes the laptop’s battery stay long. With Normal use, it can give you a screen time of 6h 10min and with a little heavy work, you can say that one or one and a half hours less than this.

Conclusion

So, in conclusion, the Dell Alienware 15 R4 can be a good choice. Although it has cons like heating issues, and fan noise with this it also has some great pros like stunning premium design, Connectivity options, and top-level Gaming Performance. Especially, for gamers, this laptop can be a considerably good choice. Normally, we don’t find a good battery with these types of laptops but this laptop has that. So, Now everything is clear and identified you can make your decision; whether this laptop is suitable for you or not. Comment your thoughts about this laptop.