Alienware 13

Alienware 13 Review – It might be due to the fact that our review sample had been used before, but the first thing we noticed about this laptop is how damn slow it is when using the Windows desktop. Even such simple tasks as opening a file took ages, surprising considering our sample had a 512MB SSD in place.

The Intel Core i5 4210Y is only a dual core critter, but it’s been paired with a relatively healthy 8GB of memory, yet its top speed of 1.9GHz is simply woeful compared to other gaming laptops. Graphics duties are handled by NVIDIA’s lacklustre GTX 860M, which explains why it did so poorly in our benchmarks, taking out the bottom spot in the roundup. Yet Alienware has paired it with a stunning 2560 x 1440 display.

It turns out that our review sample isn’t even offered on the Alienware website any more – the lowest version offered there has a newer Core i5 5200U CPU with an NVIDIA GTX 960M GPU. But even these specs will fail to deliver compelling gaming performance. If there’s one positive to this laptop, it’s the ability to hook up the Alienware Graphics Accelerator, a large box that can host a desktop graphics card. You’ll pay several hundred extra for this though, along with the additional price of the graphics card that you choose to install inside.

When our review sample is measured against the offerings from other suppliers, we simply can’t recommend it considering the price.

Pros

• Graphic accelerator is a cool feature
• Very portable
• Nice display

Cons

• Terrible performance
• High price

Alienware 13 Specifications

• Screen size 13 inches
• Screen resolution 1366 x 768
• Aspect ratio 16:9
• Screen typeLCD (Active, Color, Backlit, LED)
• Graphics adapter Discrete
• Graphics (discrete) NVIDIA (GeForce)
• GPU model GTX 860M
• Video outputs DisplayPort, HDMI
• Product page : http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-13/pd