The Alienware m16 R2 is the first Alienware laptop in recent memory to drop the girthy thermal deck along the rear in favor of a smaller and lighter form factor. The end result is one of the most portable Alienware laptops ever created, but certain features have been omitted along the way.https://www.notebookcheck.net/Alienware-m16-R2-laptop-review-Big-and-risky-changes.804547.0.html
finally laptop producers started adapting the concept of 'enough power' instead of 'maximum power'.
Quotefinally laptop producers started adapting the concept of 'enough power' instead of 'maximum power'.
Not when it is a noisy machine.
Totally insufficient cooling so very loud under GPU load. Mechanical keyboard unavailable and German mechanical keyboard had already not existed. No 4080/4090. Next.
In general I am not a fan of Alienware aesthetics but this one is looking quite nice. It is also nice to see more 16" options without numpad (and with centred touchpad!). Fan noise is irrelevant because thermals are excellent so just adjust fan curves and make it quieter for a bit higher chassis temps, no big deal for those situations where you have to push it at prolonged 100% (work)load. Sweet package overall.
Quote from: RobertJasiek on March 09, 2024, 09:00:14...so very loud... Mechanical keyboard unavailable...
Mechanical keyboards on Alienwares are way louder (https://youtu.be/BruI_wB2PSE?t=150) than fan noise though. It's as loud as normal Cherry red switches.
thanks to marketing history made a full circle, first everyone was happy about replacing noisy long travel mechanics with silent slick membranes and hinges, now nostalgia took over and they are selling people 1986s keyboards for $300+ plus the obligatory wristpad of course, because 1986 keyboards are thick and kill your wrist
now just need to wait for another round of membranes popularity
Quote from: Neenyah on March 09, 2024, 10:32:12Mechanical keyboards on Alienwares are way louder (http://youtu.be/BruI_wB2PSE?t=150) than fan noise though. It's as loud as normal Cherry red switches.
Hehe, I understand your objection. However, I have never been annoyed by the noise (or loudness) of mechanical keyboards. Noise of key pressing differs very much from noise of fans: occasional versus permanent, pleasant versus stressing, confirming versus unwanted.
Besides, I do not type at public places so cannot annoy others by typing.
Fair Robert, but just saying that fans (fan curves) can be adjusted to be quieter while their mechanical keyboards are nowhere near the true typing experience of a proper mechanical KB yet they have the same loudness level as Cherry MX Red - so, very loud 😬 This option here in this laptop is better, IMHO, and you can always use a good external mechanical KB for better experience and quieter acoustics.
Quote from: Neenyah on March 09, 2024, 12:15:59Fair Robert
nah, roberto is just hating dell the same way he hates apple everywhere. guy failed to prove his 'dell rip-off' conspiracy theory so he immediately requires some other stuff he would never buy like mechanical keyboards and 4090. at least it's not esata, but who knows what would he say if it had mechanical keyboard + 4090 laptop.
Quote from: Neenyah on March 09, 2024, 12:15:59you can always use a good external mechanical KB for better experience and quieter acoustics.
If I need an external keyboard anyway, I prefer a desktop. Mine has low fan noise and a very good mechanical keyboard, of course. For convincing me to buy a notebook instead, manufacturers needed and will need to integrate a similarly good mechanical keyboard so that I can profit from the simple mobility advantage of the notebook formfactor. In 2023 to early 2024, the notebook manufacturers have failed to offer me a convincing combination of low noise, good mechanical keyboard and other wanted aspects (such as rip-off-free price, reasonable quality of hardware and firmware, longevity, easy maintainance and at least 4080 laptop).
ok so roberto's demands are:
* huge mechanical keyboard like his desktop one in laptop
* low noise 4080 in laptop
* has to be free or very cheap, otherwise it's a ripoff
totally legit, not a low-effort troll requirements
Quote from: RobertJasiek on March 10, 2024, 11:25:01very good mechanical keyboard
what model is your keyboard exactly? kinda hard to find both 'very good' and 'with numpad' mechanical keyboard.
Wow! This is the biggest downgrade I've ever seen! The m16 R1 was one of the best, if not the best 16 inch notebook in terms of cooling.
The fan control was suboptimal, but that should be fixable on any notebook via custom fan curves. The important thing is that the m16 R1 had the cooling hardware to be reasonably quiet and very fast! It was heavy, but thin and still portable. Almost all competitors are equipped with mediocre cooling in favor of unnecessarily high mobility, which can only do one thing: Either reasonably quiet and moderately fast or very loud and very fast.
A real shame for Alienware. They used to be a respectable gamer brand, but Dell has castrated them into a toothless tiger so that the m16 R2 swims along in the same mediocre mishmash as thousands of other thin & light gaming notebooks.
Dell doesn't care that the cooling is then super loud. That's ridiculous. They don't care for criticism about fan noise from buyers and testers for years, but as soon as some weak-chested customers find the m16 R1 "too heavy", they immediately destroy a great product!
I don't understand this at all. Alienware already has such a stupidly thin and light marketing shitbook with the x16. Why is the m16 now also built to be thin and light?
And the huge disadvantage: the cooling. Up to 62db is just sick! And the other modes are also far too loud! In balanced mode 52db! What have they been smoking at Dell?
The m16 R1 is quieter in Witcher (51 vs. 54db) and at the same time consumes 70 watts more power! With the same power consumption, R1 could remain much quieter than this accident of a successor!
In 2023, I really thought that some manufacturers had finally realized that not everyone wants thin and light notebooks. The m16 R1 was not a mass-compatible product, but it was a very good one! But I guess there is no room for quality if only inferior mass-produced laptops shall be sold.
I actually wanted to buy the m16 and was just hoping for a brighter display :-( Congrats, Dell for the worst successor ever!
In principle, for Intel this is an acknowledgment of its shame before AMD.
With a monstrous consumption of more than 100W in PL1, this long-term construction from Intel cannot score even a measly 3000 points in CBR15, while the Raptor cores are already closer to 3500+ at "10nm", not "7nm" from Intel.
Otherwise, the laptop is not very interesting.
In reviews, the authors constantly ignore key data on the SSD form factor - where is the information about which SSDs can be installed Double-Sided or Single-Sided?
The inability to install a Double-Sided SSD reduces the buyer's choice by an order of magnitude, especially among 2-4TB models. It's as if no one on this site in the editorial office cares at all whether it is possible to install there the maximum capacity SSDs and a significantly increased selection of models in the Double-Sided form factor.
Moreover, it is not clear in the photo where and how 2 M.2 SSD 2280 are installed - on top of each other?! But this is crazy in terms of thermal comfort for NAND chips!
The laptop negates all its versatility because of the 14" keyboard, instead of a full-fledged one with a classic numpad.
Such a laptop is completely unsuitable for work, but only for entertainment, which immediately reduces the value of the model by half.
Quote from: NikoB on March 11, 2024, 13:16:15The laptop negates all its versatility because of the 14" keyboard, instead of a full-fledged one with a classic numpad.
Such a laptop is completely unsuitable for work, but only for entertainment, which immediately reduces the value of the model by half.
Say that to Mark Zuckerberg; 14" laptop without numpad and even an external keyboard without numpad, yet the work is being done just fine:
https://imgur.com/swH8lG7 (https://imgur.com/swH8lG7)
Quote from: Neenyah on March 11, 2024, 14:10:49Say that to Mark Zuckerberg; 14" laptop without numpad and even an external keyboard without numpad, yet the work is being done just fine
He hasn't coded anything for a long time and hasn't done anything serious; he has a laptop purely for consuming content (from employees) but not creating new ones.
He can afford it, but he is not the one who actually creates something on a laptop.
The argument is purely idiotic. As usual with a bot.
Oh, ok, didn't know you were buddies so I will trust your words about him more than his own.
You didn't write a single number in your comment though, do you really need a numpad for your usual delusional spamming?
I generally doubt that he was ever capable of writing efficient and complex code. He very quickly stole ideas from others (which was proven in court) and raised the necessary money in time to hire those who were actually capable of doing something. Another "golden Jewish boy". What's new here?
Quote from: NikoB on March 11, 2024, 16:36:37I generally doubt that he was ever capable of writing efficient and complex code.
Yeah, true, he couldn't as he didn't ever use a numpad 😥 He is nothing but a
numpadless billionaire.
Quote from: Neenyah on March 09, 2024, 10:32:12Fan noise is irrelevant because thermals are excellent so just adjust fan curves and make it quieter for a bit higher chassis temps, no big deal for those situations where you have to push it at prolonged 100% (work)load. Sweet package overall.
Could not disagree more! The thermals are much worse than on r1. r1 had great thermals. Lower fan noise while consuming 70watts more in Witcher3. With adjusting fan curves you could make m16 r1 a quiet but still powerful laptop which was an almost unique selling point of r1. With r2 you get significantly less performance (not great for a "successor" isn't it?) with same fan noise levels or same performance (= power draw) with much much louder fans. This m16 r2 does not deserve the name Alienware. You clearly don't know what you are writing about. It is just another slim and light notebook with crappy cooling. This does not deserve the Alienware logo on it.
Quote from: Gastredner on March 10, 2024, 20:44:10And the huge disadvantage: the cooling. Up to 62db is just sick! And the other modes are also far too loud! In balanced mode 52db! What have they been smoking at Dell?
The m16 R1 is quieter in Witcher (51 vs. 54db) and at the same time consumes 70 watts more power! With the same power consumption, R1 could remain much quieter than this accident of a successor!
Exactly this! It is so sad that many people do not see those simple connections. m16 r2 is not only louder (3db are clearly audible) but also consumes 70watts less power (=less performance)! With the same total system power, the new m16 r2 gets much much noisier than m16 r1. How in the world could someone not call this the worst successor in notebook history??
Quote from: Aiman on March 11, 2024, 18:39:36Could not disagree more! The thermals are much worse than on r1. r1 had great thermals.
How? R1
48°C hottest spot, R2
48°C hottest spot. Right in the middle of the chassis, R1 40.8°C, R2
39°C. On the touchpad, R1 27.4°C, R2
22.2°C, all of those (from "Max. Load") measurements are clearly equal or lower on the R2, so how are the thermals "much worse"? 🤨
I agree with the rest of your comment, especially about the excessive fan noise which is certainly extreme for a direct successor.
R.I.P. Alienware. M16 R1 was an innovative product and one of the few options out there with great cooling. R2 is a scam. It is just another slim and light laptop like you can find one every corner. Highly stupid and disgraceful move by Dell. Not to mention the much less attractive and stylish design.
How can you disrespect your community more than with:
1. Less performance ("Our Core Ultra 7 155H is about 10 to 15 percent slower than the Core i7-13700HX on last year's m16 R1"). The author does not even mention the 13900HX which is double as fast as the R2's toy CPU!!!
2. Insanely worse cooling ("The more demanding Core i7-14700HX or Core i9-14900HX are not offered due to thermal limitations", insane 62(!!!) vs 53db (nearly DOUBLE as loud as the already super loud R1!!!) in stress test while consuming almost 70watts less power!!! This cooling is a piece of s***)
3. Almost same outdated 330 nits panel where others come with 500nits for years!
Sorry to say it with Torvalds' words: "f*** you, Dell!"
Quote from: LinuxGamer on March 15, 2024, 08:30:16Alienware. M16 R1 was an innovative product and one of the few options out there with great cooling.
I agree with most of what you say but the M16 R1 cooling, although reasonable, missed the great advantage of the X16 R1 cooling having 4 (!) ordinarily (!) sized fans. This combined with easy fan maintenance of all (!) 4 fans, vapor chamber, liquid metal on both CPU and GPU, good cooling firmware and good airflow / vents
would enable very good cooling in a not too thin chassis.
Quote from: RobertJasiek on March 15, 2024, 10:15:23Quote from: LinuxGamer on March 15, 2024, 08:30:16Alienware. M16 R1 was an innovative product and one of the few options out there with great cooling.
I agree with most of what you say but the M16 R1 cooling, although reasonable, missed the great advantage of the X16 R1 cooling having 4 (!) ordinarily (!) sized fans. This combined with easy fan maintenance of all (!) 4 fans, vapor chamber, liquid metal on both CPU and GPU, good cooling firmware and good airflow / vents would enable very good cooling in a not too thin chassis.
Fully agree! The X16 has an awesome thermal concept, but Dell wastes the whole potential by making it absurdly slim! That is so dumb and shows that Dell does not care for great product quality and fan noise but for silly marketing slogans :( With the same 25mm like on the M16, the X16 would be the
world's quietest high end laptop while retaining a thin profile and sufficient portability. Why don't they go for a slogan like that?
Quote from: Aiman on March 11, 2024, 18:39:36Lower fan noise while consuming 70watts more in Witcher3.
Sorry, I was wrong about that and copied Gastredner's typo. We meant 70watts more in the stress test of course.
Quote from: LinuxGamer on March 15, 2024, 08:30:16R.I.P. Alienware. M16 R1 was an innovative product and one of the few options out there with great cooling. R2 is a scam. It is just another slim and light laptop like you can find one every corner. Highly stupid and disgraceful move by Dell. Not to mention the much less attractive and stylish design.
How can you disrespect your community more than with:
1. Less performance ("Our Core Ultra 7 155H is about 10 to 15 percent slower than the Core i7-13700HX on last year's m16 R1"). The author does not even mention the 13900HX which is double as fast as the R2's toy CPU!!!
2. Insanely worse cooling ("The more demanding Core i7-14700HX or Core i9-14900HX are not offered due to thermal limitations", insane 62(!!!) vs 53db (nearly DOUBLE as loud as the already super loud R1!!!) in stress test while consuming almost 70watts less power!!! This cooling is a piece of s***)
3. Almost same outdated 330 nits panel where others come with 500nits for years!
Sorry to say it with Torvalds' words: "f*** you, Dell!"
+1
Quote from: LinuxGamer on March 15, 2024, 08:30:16insane 62(!!!) vs 53db (nearly DOUBLE as loud as the already super loud R1!!!)
Every +6dBA by ear - exactly 2 times louder. +9dBA, this is about 2.5 times louder.
Have to agree to the previous comments. Dell failed disastrously on the m16 r2! Never seen such a shame of a successor. Much worse cooling capacity which removes the advantage of the predecessor's ability to deliver almost full performance at bearable fan noise.
QuoteFan noise when gaming is tied closely to the power profile selected. For example, fan noise would settle at 52 dB(A), 54 dB(A), and 62 dB(A) when running Witcher 3 on Balanced mode, Performance mode, and Overdrive mode, respectively
52db is the quietest? Dell, are you kidding us?! This cooling is a disaster. Dell, please go back to R1 and give us laptops with appropriate cooling which can deliver at least 90% at no more than 40-45 db! There are plenty of customers who are fine with 2.8 to 3kg if it means quieter fans without compromising performance.