Once again Alienware has granted us the opportunity to try out one of their dedicated game laptops, and this time, it’s one of their more portable ones, the Alienware m15 R7 Gaming Laptop and while it might not be the prettiest girl at the prom, it is still part of the cheerleading team.

As with most of Alienware’s line, this particular model can be upgraded to better suit the user’s requirements, and as such, the one we played with had a few extra tricks up it’s sleeve. Boasting the AMD Ryzen 7 6800H CPU and 16GB DDR5 RAM running at 4800 MHz, the GPU had been upgraded to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 8GB DDR6, and storage had been increased to a 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD.

Weighing in at just under 3kg, and with a 15.6” FHD 165Hz LCD display, this is one of the more portable gaming laptops on the market, but its slightly smaller size does come with one minor drawback – the keyboard. I’ve gotten used to using a full-sized keyboard and I typically make use of the number pad.

In saying that, the keyboard is wonderfully tactile, boasting Alienware M Series per-key Alien FX RGB keys with N-key rollover technology, meaning each key can be individually light, and each keystroke is independently recorded as you hit it. Above the keyboard is the speaker bank, with two 2.5W speakers driven by a Realtek ALC3254 Audio driver, tucked neatly behind a honeycomb pattern next to the Alienware logo power button.

Labelled as ‘Dark Side of the Moon’, the dark case is very clean and follows Alienware’s newer smooth design, with the rear case of the monitor featuring a beautiful stylised 15 and the mandatory light Alienware logo, which can also be changed by the user with the AlienFX app.

The rear panel houses the power port, an HDMI 2.1 output with HDCP2.3 support, a USB Type-A with Powershare, and a USB Type-C, which includes Display Port 1.4 and Power Delivery functions, surrounded by a stylish RGB loop. The right side houses an additional 2 USB Type-A ports, and the left side holds an RJ45 Ethernet connection and a single 3.5mm headset socket, combining headphone and microphone input into one connection.

User Benchmark scored the Alienware m15 R7 Gaming Laptop quite highly, averaging 160FPS during the tests for 3D DX9 and 3D DX10, but of course, this doesn’t always translate to games. Stepping back to play a bit of Arma 3, I found that with the graphics settings pushed to their highest, I was sitting around 120FPS, occasionally dipping below 100 if a lot was happening. Switching out to Warhammer 40,000: DarkTide, I noticed much of the same thing, but it’d drop down around 80FPS when surrounded by a horde of Pox Walkers.

Regardless of the lost frames, the gameplay was incredibly smooth, and while the audio was fairly decent, it’s still no comparison to wearing a good quality headset. Speaking of which, you can check out Stace’s review of the Alienware AW920H Tri-Mode Wireless Gaming Headset here.

The Alienware m15 R7 Gaming Laptop is available with an Intel CPU for $4324.10, but with the fully upgraded AMD version coming in at $3698.20, why would you want to? It’s more than capable of playing your games with higher quality graphics and smooth motions, it has all the connectivity you could want, and it comes in a nice portable package. It’s perfect for gaming on the go.

Written by: Mathew Lindner