The best Alienware 17-inch gaming laptops in 2023

❘ Published: 2023-04-27T07:50:41

Alienware

Buying the best Alienware 17-inch gaming laptop in 2023 is getting more difficult, as the company has since pivoted to an 18-inch form factor for their latest laptops. We’ve managed to find everywhere you can still grab one.

Alienware laptops are now synonymous with the best gaming laptops, and their 17-inch behemoths are no exception. These laptops deliver gaming desktop-level performance in a laptop’s body.

The Dell-owned brand unveiled new additions at CES 2023 in January. These upcoming laptops will gradually become available in various sizes, and across different price ranges.

Big, bulky and not suitable for travel, larger Alienware laptops serve more as a ‘desktop’ replacement PC. They allow for heavy usage, while still being somewhat portable. Just make sure that you have a plug nearby in case it runs out of juice. Calling it a laptop may be misleading for a computer that weighs just as much as your gym gear.

Is Alienware still making 17-inch laptops?

Unfortunately, No. Dell has chosen to adopt a modern 16:10 aspect ratio. This means 18-inch models will replace the tried and tested 17-inch models starting from 2023. It’s still likely that you might see some 17-inch models on cheaper laptops, but at the high-end, they’re dead.

Alienware 18-inch gaming laptops

As of right now, Dell has one 18-inch laptop out. The brand-new Alienware M18 was announced at CES 2023, and it’ll harness all of the powers of Intel’s 13th-generation processors, with a 65W chip that will absolutely drink power.

It is also equipped with an RTX 4080 mobile chip, too. The Alienware M18 will also have user-replaceable RAM. But, don’t expect this beast to come cheap. We’ll be sure to update this page once we hear more regarding pricing.

Not much has changed in the world of Alienware’s 17-inch range. The various machines all still top out their price spectrum, but we expect they’ll get a touch cheaper as they get phased out by the upcoming 18-inch monstrosities.

Alienware m18 specs

Spec	Details
CPU	13th Gen Intel® Core™i9 13900HX
GPU	NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4080 12GB GDDR6
Screen	18″ QHD+ (2560 x 1600) 165Hz, 3ms, ComfortView Plus, NVIDIA G-SYNC + DDS, 100% DCI-P3, FHD IR Camera
RAM	32GB, 2x16GB, DDR5, 4800MHz
Storage	1TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
Keyboard	Alienware CherryMX ultra-low-profile mechanical keyboard with per-key AlienFX lighting
I/O	1 USB 3.2 Gen 1 port with PowerShare 3 USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports 2 Thunderbolt™ 4 Gen 2 Type-C® ports with DisplayPort Alt Mode/USB4 1 RJ45 Ethernet port 1 Universal audio port 1 HDMI 2.1 port 1 power-adapter port 1 mini-Display port 1 SD-card slot

Get the Alienware m18 direct from Dell

New Alienware 16-inch laptops

The CES announcements didn’t just stop at phasing out of the 17-inch laptops – which are still by far and away one of the best buys you can get – but also introduced a new line of 16-inch laptops.

These are equally just as powerful as the 18-inch version but at a smaller cost to you.

Aside from the designs, it appears the internal specs seem to be an Intel 13th gen i9, RTX 4080, and 32GB of DDR5 RAM.

See the new 16-inch Alienware laptops

The best Alienware 17-inch gaming laptop of 2023: Alienware x17 R2 (i9/ RTX 3080 Ti)

Key specs

Processor: 12th Gen, Intel Core i9-12900HK
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, 16 GB GDDR6
RAM: 32GB DDR5, 4800 MHz
Screen size: 17-inches
Screen resolution: 1080p
Refresh rate: 360Hz
Storage: 2TB M.2 NVMe
Operating system: Windows 11
Connectivity: 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports with PowerShare, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port with DisplayPort™ and Power Delivery, Thunderbolt™ 4 port with Power Delivery, Universal Audio Jack, HDMI 2.1 port, Mini DisplayPort™ 1.4, RJ45 Ethernet port, power-adapter port
Features: High refresh screen, Nvidia G-Sync, AlienFX Lighting, Wi-Fi6
Price: Starts at $4048.99

You can get the Alienware x17 R2 with an i9-12900HK and RTX 3080 Ti from Dell, starting at $4048.99.

Coming in at a whopping $4049.99 (on sale), the Alienware x17 R2 with an i9 and 3080 Ti is one of the most expensive consumer-grade laptops on the market. It is, without a doubt, a beast. A ridiculous monster that will squash everything put in its way and do it without even breaking a sweat.

Battery life is not your concern here. This isn’t something you expect to get hours out of. This is something you need a heavy-duty charging bank for. Plug sockets are your friend.

Inside is 32GB of DDR5 RAM, as well as the aforementioned i9-12900HK and Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti. Games? Content creation? Actual science? It’s all doable. You’ll even be able to store a lot of games on this, with its 2TB NVMe drive offering a speedy way to get into the games you love at the quality you expect.

Connecting this to one of our recommended 4K monitors, or even including this as a replacement for the desktop in our best PC setup will bring you so, so much performance.

This is a laptop we like to put into the upper echelons of laptops. This is something that will last you a long time and you shouldn’t expect to replace it – other than critical damage being done – for at least ten or so years.

Once the 3080 Ti has been surpassed, it will keep going as a top-tier card, because DLSS is going to keep that thing on life support forever. You can probably game on this for far longer than you currently realize.

The best mid-range Alienware 17-inch laptop: Alienware x17 R2 (i7, RTX 3070 Ti)

Key specs

Processor: 12th Gen, Intel Core i7-12700H
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, 8 GB GDDR6
RAM: 32GB DDR5, 4800 MHz
Screen size: 17-inches
Screen resolution: 1080p
Refresh rate: 360Hz
Storage: 2TB M.2 NVMe
Operating system: Windows 11
Connectivity: 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports with PowerShare, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port with DisplayPort™ and Power Delivery, Thunderbolt™ 4 port with Power Delivery, Universal Audio Jack, HDMI 2.1 port, Mini DisplayPort™ 1.4, RJ45 Ethernet port, power-adapter port
Features: High refresh screen, Nvidia G-Sync, AlienFX Lighting, Wi-Fi6
Price: Starts at $2859.99

You can get the Alienware x17 R2 with an i7-12700H from Dell, starting at $2859.99.

If you’re wanting something that will securely game on the go and then also game in 4K at home, this is the one for you. Alienware’s ‘mid-range’ 17-inch laptops aren’t mid-range in the same way as we’d recommend out of something like a back-to-school laptop but are just an entirely different beast.

On a regular list, this would go in the premium tier.

However, don’t be deterred by its 1080p screen, you’re going to need all the battery life you can get, and upping this to the 4K screen will not only cost you extra, but you’ll be losing out on potential excellence with a 144Hz response time. Yes, while it can go up to 360Hz, most games won’t benefit from going much higher – until you begin to place Nvidia Reflex on it.

This is a special kind of laptop, in that it can and probably will replace your desktop experience entirely. Getting an extra keyboard and mouse wouldn’t go amiss, as closing the lid on the Alienware x17 would provide you with a top-end gaming experience if you leave the portability behind.

Nvidia’s 3070 Ti is pretty much the go-to recommendation for gaming, content creation, and more right now, as it offers price-to-performance unparalleled, even by Nvidia’s own line of cards. Inside, the i7-12700H won’t give you the same battery life as the AMD alternatives, but it provides a hefty amount of performance in comparison.

According to UserBenchmarks, it provides 16% single-core performance over its AMD rival and an overall 10% better performance once multicore is taken into account.

The best entry-level 17-inch Alienware laptop: Alienware m17 R5 (Ryzen 7/RTX 3060)

Key specs

Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 6800H
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060, 6GB GDDR6
RAM: 16GB DDR5, 4800 MHz
Screen size: 17-inches
Screen resolution: 1080p
Refresh rate: 165Hz
Storage: 512GB M.2 NVMe
Operating system: Windows 11
Connectivity: 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports with PowerShare, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port with DisplayPort™ and Power Delivery, Universal Audio Jack, HDMI 2.1 port, Mini DisplayPort™ 1.4, RJ45 Ethernet port, power-adapter port
Features: High refresh screen, Nvidia G-Sync, AlienFX Lighting, Wi-Fi6
Price: Starts at $1849.99

Usually, with our other laptop buyer’s guides, we will split them into ‘budget’ and so on. However, because Alienware’s budget option for a 17-inch laptop nearly clocks in at $2000, we decided to go with the entry-level tag.

The Alienware m17 R5 with its AMD 6000 series CPU, the Ryzen 7 6800H is an absurdly great laptop, with its specs essentially browbeating various games from a glance. The 3060 and DDR5 RAM combination will punish anything that tries to look at it funny for a while.

Nvidia didn’t update the 3060 Ti also to include a laptop version of the GPU. While the rest of the specs on these laptops got a massive kick with the new generation of CPUs and RAM, the 3060 still seems to be ruling the roost.

This isn’t to discredit the GPU in any capacity though, as Nvidia is making headway with their DLSS supersampling and the 3060 will still be kicking around in plenty of desktop PCs for the foreseeable future.

While the SSD inside is stuck at 512GB, it does have a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port included, so external drives will make excellent alternatives instead of upping the price and having to shift to the AMD 6700M.

While a better card on paper means you’d lose out on all the fancy Nvidia additions like DLSS and RTX Broadcast.

You can get the Alienware m17 R5 from Dell, starting at $1849.99.

Our recommendation for an external SSD is the Crucial X8.

Also, make sure to check out our other guides:

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