Alienware 17 R4 preview – powerful and innovative gaming laptop

The Alienware company is well-known for its high-quality gaming laptops. Their products have proven on more than one occasion that serious gaming is not only for desktop machines but is also possible on more mobile devices. With their new offer Alienware 17 R4 it seems that they are taking things more seriously than ever before. Furthermore, the laptop boasts unique design and even though the price is high (as usual) the alien is here to combat the competition by offering great build quality and awesome gaming experience.

If you happen to show interest in this device, you can check its current price and availability here: http://amzn.to/2fDUq2l

Design and display

alienware-17-r417 R4’s design is undoubtedly impressive. Aluminum plates are found on the lid and bottom which brings a really premium feel. Additionally, the LED stripes on either of the screen sides catch one’s eye with their bright colors. This light show is further complemented by the keyboard and touchpad backlighting as well as glowing logos. What’s best in this case is that you have the freedom of choosing the color in which they light up and thus modify the looks. Also, the designers have come up with several stylish vents through which hot air passes.

Furthermore, the laptop boasts a big 17.3-inch IPS display. These aspects should ensure a really delightful experience with good viewing angles and bright images. Also, the Anti-Glare layer should significantly decrease the amount of light reflected off the screen.

It must be noted that there are two display variants. One with Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) resolution and one for those of you who are after the absolute maximum with 4K UHD (3840 x 2160 pixels) resolution.

Configuration and upgrade

alienware-17Alienware 17 R4 comes with top-notch CPUs Intel Core i7 from the Skylake generation and NVIDIA Pascal GPUs. There are two main configurations. One simpler with a quad-core Intel Core i7-6700HQ whose operating frequency is from 2.60 to 3.50 GHz and 6MB of cache memory, while the GPU is NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 with 6GB GDDR5 memory. That’s the Full HD model we mentioned above.

As for the more powerful configuration, it comes with a quad-core Intel Intel Core i7-6820HK whose operating frequency is from 2.70 to 3.60 GHz and has 8MB of cache memory, while the available graphics card is NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 with 8GB GDDR5 memory whose performance allows for the 4K (3840 x 2160) resolution when playing games.

Additionally, the configurations come with different RAM and storage capacities but you could also perform an easy upgrade. All you have to do to access the RAM or SSD slots is to remove seven screws which hold the aluminum bottom plate. After you do this, you will see a 2.5-inch slot for an HDD or SSD, two slots for SO-DIMM RAM memory and three slots for M.2 SSD storage.

The laptop has all the port it needs including a USB 3.1 (Type-C Gen 2) / Thunderbolt port.

Additional features

screenshot-2016-11-26-18-33-42If the exceptional design and hardware provided by Alienware 17 R4 are not convincing enough for you to fall in love with the machine, there is still more to be said because the laptop has a few other intriguing merits.

The model uses the Tobii Eye Tracking technology which tracts the movement of your eyes and allows you to relocate an object, receive info about it only by moving your eyes.

As for the audio experience, there is a stereo system consisting of two loudspeakers and a subwoofer for better lows (bass tones).


Specs sheet

CPU
  • Intel Core i7-6700HQ (4-core, 2.60 -3.50 GHz, 6MB cache)
  • Intel Core i7-6820HK (4-core, 2.70 – 3.60 GHz, 8MB cache)
RAM
  • 8GB (1x 8192MB) – DDR4, 2133MHz
  • 16GB (2x 8192MB) – DDR4, 2133MHz
  • 32GB (2x 16384MB) – DDR4, 2133 MHz
GPU
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB GDDR5)
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (8GB GDDR5)
HDD/SSDaccording to the configuration
Display
  • 17.3-inch (43.94 cm.) – 1920×1080 (Full HD), IPS matte
  • 17.3-inch (43.94 cm.) – 3840×2160 (4K UHD), IPS matte
Optical driveaccording to the configuration
ConnectivityLAN 10/100/1000 Mbps, Wi-Fi 802.11ac (2×2), Bluetooth 4.0
Features
  • 3x USB 3.0
  • 1x USB 3.1 (Type C Gen 2)/ Thunderbolt
  • integrated webcam 2.0MP
  • integrated microphone
  • headphones and loudspeakers output
  • RJ-45
  • Mini DisplayPort
  • HDMI (v.1.4)
  • SD card reader
  • microphone jack
  • Kensington Lock
  • keyboard backlighting
Battery8-cell
Weight4.15 kg

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Gnox Rumer
Gnox Rumer
7 years ago

Please post a comparison or advantages and disadvantages of the Alienware 17 R4, MSI GT73VR Titan, and G752VS OC. I am planning to buy either of those 3 with the 1070 GPU but I cannot decide which one to pick. Thank you!

joe
joe
7 years ago
Reply to  Gnox Rumer

i have a alienware 17 r4 with 4k screen.. looks nice but the tearing sucks. on regular use its beautiful, but the clarity when videos are full screen isnt crisp/sharp looking. computer feels smooth some times but laggy or slow sometimes too. try the lower model with the 1440pi screen instead and not the 4k if youre interested. also get the 6820k processor. other than that the machine is very nice looking and well built