Sighting a UFO outside of your home is something you can cope with, but an alien in your home! No way! Well, you need to take off the Oculus VR and see what I’m talking about. Seen it… I mean the Alienware 13?
One word… magnificent.
A downgrade from the Alienware 17, the Alienware 13 has everything you want in a gaming laptop and much more, so you might just quell the idea of buying the Predator G1. Take a look at the stunning screen, and the 13-inch OLED display will make your jaw drop in awe.
The Alienware 13 now holds the title of the “first OLED gaming laptop” – a round of applause, please.
The QHD 2560 x 1440 10-point touch capacitive OLED screen isn’t the only awesome feature the gray colored laptop with its backlights and the new design that sees a shift from the status quo in the previous models. That does not mean the laptop has no flaws, which though they are negligible, are worth mentioning – it has just 2 standard USB 3.0 ports, one to the left and another to the right. There’s a single USB 3.0 Type-C port and a Thunderbolt 3 port, as well as the HDMI port, a MiniDisplay port, audio jacks for the microphone and headphones as well as the Ethernet port, and the “Alienware Graphics Amplifier” port.
So what other features of this 5-pound machine would make you jump up? Its graphic chip perhaps.
The laptop comes in various configurations
- A 2.6GHz (can be turbo boosted to 3.5GHz) quad-core Intel Core i7-6700HQ model which sports 16GB RAM, a 512GB SSD, and the almighty Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 graphics chip with 6GB memory. This variant has an 8GB RAM with 256GB SSD.
- There’s also the non-OLED version of the laptop though VR capable, with its 1366 x 768 screen, Intel Core i5-6300HQ, an 8GB RAM and an 180GB SSD which like other models, can be upgraded to 1TB. The other variant has a 1920 x 1080 IPS screen with 256GB SSD.
A standard feature on all the variants of the Alienware 13 is the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 graphics chip as well as the Alienware HD + IR presence detection camera, Bluetooth 4.1 and Killer 1435 802.11ac 2×2 WiFi .
The superb TactX keyboard and the swift responsive touchpad are a sight to behold especially when you tweak the backlights to shine any color from the 20 available using the AlienFX software while the laptop’s sound system churns out great sounds that will make you nod your head in agreement unknowingly.
The battery life on the Alienware 13 is something the Alienware team should work on given that the laptop cannot last for up to 4 hours under heavy use. Under heavy use, a cup of water placed on the Alienware may get hot, given that some users reported temperatures as high as 108 degrees Fahrenheit.
In all, this 5-pound machine with its OLED display and an affordable $2,000 price tag – considering its features, it’s quite affordable – will win the hearts game lovers who’ve been waiting earnestly for a powerful gaming rig in the guise of a laptop and not the MacBook pro with the Touch Bar that doesn’t even meet the HTC Vive’s minimum requirement in spite of its high price tag.