The PC gaming experience is guided by our fingertips. It is why gaming keyboards are crucial – they’re the gateway to connecting a gamer to their PC. But let’s face it: not all gaming keyboards are created equal.

Delivering the next level of immersive gaming to mobile gamers, we’re thrilled to bring you the CHERRY MX mechanical keyboard on the new Alienware m15 R4 and Alienware m17 R4.These are the world’s first gaming laptops designed in collaboration with the leading German switch maker CHERRY MX.

Our partnership with CHERRY MX (aka Project X) began over three years ago. We had the shared goal to create a “binary mechanical switch experience” and shrink it down into a laptop form factor—something that’s never been done before. Not an easy task, but one that has brought the benefits of a mechanical keyboard to mobile PC gaming, delivering the edge needed to dominate virtual battle arenas.

How it was made

Upon experimenting with an array of material and mechanical changes across 160+ prototypes, Alienware and Cherry MX co-developed a 3.5mm ultra-low-profile design that incorporates stainless-steel mechanical components for an experience like no other. Inspired by the upward-opening gull-wing doors of the iconic DeLorean sports car, the goal was to engineer the keyboard to be an extension of the gamer’s senses and allow you to press deeper with more emphasis.

This original mechanical switch delivers a full 1.8mm of key travel in a self-cleaning mechanism tested for 15 million keystrokes per key. Along with its durability, you can count on consistent and accurate performance, with its two-piece keycap structure and gold-based cross-point contact system ensuring absolute precision and wobble-free keystrokes. All of this was accomplished without changing the dimensions of Alienware’s thinnest notebooks to date.

On top of all this, gamers will achieve incredibly responsive and tactile feedback with full-height keys that provide light actuation force and distinct acoustics at each click, hear it for yourself here. In addition to keeping the keyboard safe from freezing up with 100% anti-ghosting and NKRO, gamers can optimise their notebooks with fully programmable keys for macro key assignments and AlienFX per-key RGB backlighting with up to 16.8 million brilliant colours.

The thin and powerful Alienware m15 and m17 offer a range of impressive specs including 10th Generation Intel® Core™ mobile processors and up to NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3080 Laptop GPU for powerful gameplay. The laptops also come with HyperEfficient Voltage Regulation technology to extend performance for the long haul, up to 4TB of storage[1], a micro-SD card reader, and Thunderbolt 3 capable of PD fast charging. It will cost an additional +$269.50 AUD difference for the CHERRY MX keyboard configuration.

For powering the next generation of PC gaming and content creation, we also introduced new 11th Generation Intel® Core™ desktop processors alongside NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 30 Series GPUs to the Alienware Aurora R12 and Dell XPS Desktop. Both desktops are available from 30 March, with the Alienware Aurora R12 pricing TBC and the Dell XPS Desktop starting at $1,608.99 AUD.