Dell’s premium gaming brand at Computex 2019, the company is bringing that same design to its m15 and m17 laptops although unfortunately without the modular components of the Area-51m. The new design for the m15 and m17 borrows a lot from the Area-51m, to the point where the new laptops essentially resemble slimmed down versions of the flagship model. Keep in mind that they’re not that slim, though these are still Alienware gaming laptops, even if are the thinnest the company has ever made, they’re still pretty large machines.
The new design marks the second major redesign for Alienware’s main line of laptops in less than a year the m15 was overhauled last fall, while the m17 was refreshed at CES but changes here aren’t just cosmetic: there’s a new keyboard with further key travel, despite the thinner case, and a new glass trackpad, along with updated specs that include Intel’s latest 9th Gen processors and Nvidia’s latest GTX and RTX GPUs.
Unsurprisingly Alienware is dropping in new 9th generation Intel Core processors including support for the 8-core Core i9-9980HK. Options for graphics range from the more budget-friendly NVIDIA GTX series up to the RTX 2080 with Max-Q design. Indeed, the RTX 2070 and 2080 configurations also have 8 and 6-phase graphics voltage regulation for higher sustained performance. New Cryo-Tech Cooling 3.0 technology brings increased airflow and thermal efficiency to keep things from getting too hot.
The 15-inch and 17-inch models are virtually identical, aside from screen size and display options: the 15-inch model will offer a choice of either 1080p panels at 60Hz, 144Hz, or 240Hz or a 4K 60Hz OLED panel, with the latter two offering Tobii eyetracking as well in what Dell says is a first for a 15-inch laptop. Meanwhile, the 17-inch model will only offer 60Hz or 144Hz 1080p panels (with the 144Hz option also including eyetracking).
Unfortunately, unlike the Area-51m, which offered an unprecedented level of user replaceable parts for a laptop whatever specs you buy the new m15 or m17 models are what they’ll be stuck with. The only user replaceable parts here are the SSDs, so you’ll want to plan ahead when picking your CPU, GPU, and RAM.
The updated m15 and m17 models will be available on June 11, with both sizes starting at $1,499.
