Best Alienware 13 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals & Sales 2020:

Laptops stamped “gamers” are often synonymous with space, with a weight exceeding 3 kg and panels of 15 or 17 inches, or even more. Some manufacturers, however, sell machines that are both compact and powerful enough to play in good conditions. This is particularly the case of Alienware, which offers us a new PC in 13 inch format.

Presentation

The 2015-2016 collection of Alienware laptops is available in several formats: 13, 15 or 17 inches. Let’s take a look this time at the “small” range, which promises to combine good performance in games and a reasonably sized chassis. Note, as always with Alienware / Dell, that the machine is available in several configurations: screen definition ranging from 1366 x 768 px to 3200 x 1800 pixels, Core i5 or Core i7 processor, graphics card equipped with 2 or 4 GB of VRAM, and 8 or 16 GB of RAM. The prices remain fairly high, and range from € 1,249 to € 1,899 (or even a little more if you opt for even more upscale components).

Best Alienware 13 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals & Sales 2020

1. Alienware AW13R3-7420SLV-PUS 13.3″ Gaming Laptop (7th Generation Intel Core i7, 16GB RAM. 512 SSD, Silver) VR Ready with NVIDIA GTX 1060

2. Dell Alienware R4 15.6″ Full HD Gaming Laptop, 8th Gen Intel Core i7-8750H, 16GB Memory. 1TB HDD + 8GB SSD, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB, Windows 10

3. Alienware AW17R4-7345SLV-PUS 17″ Laptop (7th Generation Intel Core i7, 16GB RAM, 1TB HDD, Silver) VR Ready with NVIDIA GTX 1070

4. Alienware AW13R2-1678SLV 13 Inch FHD Laptop (6th Generation Intel Core i5, 8 GB RAM. 500 GB HDD + 8 GB SSD) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M

5. Alienware AW15R3-7001SLV-PUS 15.6″ Gaming Laptop (7th Generation Intel Core i7, 16GB RAM. 1TB HDD, Silver) VR Ready with NVIDIA GTX 1060

Construction

Like its big brothers in 15 and 17 inch format, the Alienware 13 benefits from a design that is both sober and worked, which strikes the right balance between the ” gamer ” machine and the working computer. The chassis thus opts for an aluminum coating on the top and displays the classic brand logo as well as two oblique lines, all with a discreet, but effective lighting effect.

The dimensions of the machine are quite small, even if we are clearly not facing the most discreet 13 inch on the market. The weight of 2 kg, in particular, remains quite high and quickly recalls the ” gamer ” orientation of the product. 

When we open the hood, we discover a coating of the ” soft touch ” type all around the keyboard, very pleasant to the touch, but which however lets pass a few fingerprints. The keyboard, meanwhile, offers the same typing experience as on the 15 and 17 inches and you have to get used to the keys with a fairly short stroke and a slightly soft typing return. The touchpad, on the other hand, is wide, pleasant to the touch and very precise. Click and double click respond impeccably well.

On the connection side, a 13-inch format necessarily implies a reduced number of ports. The machine is doing very well, however: 2 USB 3 ports, a USB Type-C port, an Ethernet port, two mini-jack inputs (one for headphones, the other for the microphone), as well as an HDMI port on the back. Note also the presence of an additional port, dedicated to the “Graphic Amplifier”, an external box which can accommodate a fixed PC graphics card, to significantly increase the graphics performance. However, we did not have the opportunity to test it.

More

Like all Alienware laptops, this 13 inch offers a hatch that allows access to part of the motherboard. It is thus possible to change the RAM or replace the SSD.

We were also curious to analyze the temperature and noise management of this Alienware 13, since small format and large power do not always go well together. The machine heats mainly from below, since it still rises to more than 66 ° C in this area. At the front, the figure drops considerably and it does not exceed 44 ° C. The noise is fairly well controlled and the machine only really blows when you launch a 3D game. We then reach 42 dB, synonymous with a fairly audible breath, but sufficiently diffuse and regular so that it is not annoying.

Screen

The Alienware 13 offers a 13.3 inch matte IPS panel, displaying a Full HD definition (1,920 x 1,080 px). As many very judicious criteria for a portable PC which wants to be ”  gamer  “, the choice of a matt panel being notably more than welcome. This provides excellent readability, despite maximum brightness (270 cd / m2) and a contrast ratio (820: 1) which are not the highest.

Colorimetry, for its part, could have been close to perfection, thanks to a color temperature of 6,150 K (a figure very close to the standard at 6,500 K) and an extremely stable gamma curve. We therefore benefit from a balanced rendering, deep blacks and well-defined whites. The only downside to note is located on the Delta E side (difference between the actual colors and the colors displayed, considered to be very good below 3), which nevertheless goes up to 5.8.

Anyway, the screen of the Alienware 13 is of excellent quality and totally in line with its video game orientation.

Performances

The Intel Core i7-6500U processor of this Alienware 13 has two cores engraved in 14 nm, for frequencies ranging from 2.5 to 3.1 GHz in Turbo mode. Our performance index is good, without being exceptional. In practice, the machine can very well withstand any type of use, from the simplest to the most advanced. While heavy photo editing or advanced video editing tends to be a bit of a pain, office work, web surfing, video playback and, of course, gaming are no problem. It goes without saying that Windows 10 is very fluid and responsive here, with a startup in 14 seconds and a complete shutdown in 13 seconds.

Games

The Alienware 13 benefits from an Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M graphics card, equipped with 2 GB of VRAM. It is a GPU that is frequently found on laptops dedicated to gaming, and which displays very honorable performance. If we are still far enough from the power of a GTX 970M, and even more than that of a GTX 980M, the 960M allows you to play in good conditions recent games, in Full HD, provided you lower the level of graphic details in the options.

On this PC, we noted the following results: 45 frames per second on Tomb Raider (maximum level of detail, Tress FX disabled), 35 fps on Battlefield 4 (maximum level of details), 17 fps on Metro Last Light (maximum level of detail) and 15 fps on Crysis 3 (maximum level of detail). 

Mobility / Autonomy

Here we address a critical point of Alienware 13: by mixing a very compact format and high graphics performance, what chance does the machine have of being truly autonomous? It is therefore very difficult to compare the lifespan of this 13 with other devices of the same format, which are for the most part much less powerful. Our reading test under Netflix (under Chrome, headphones plugged in, brightness at 200 cd / m²) thus reaches 4 hours. 

A figure quite low, but not so bad when compared to other laptops ” gamer“(the MSI GS40, 14 inches, does not exceed 3 hours, for example). In the context of a more versatile use, mixing office, Web and a little video, we can hope to reach 6 hours of autonomy, no more. On the game side, no miracle: the GTX 960M shamelessly consumes and it will be very difficult to play more than 1h30 on battery.

The transportability of the machine is also not optimal: in addition to its weight of 2 kg, the Alienware 13 is also accompanied by a charger as large as it is bulky.

Audio

The mini-jack output dedicated to headphones is of good quality: the distortion is quite low (0.011%) and the output power very high (270 mVrms). The entire sound spectrum is well reproduced.

Speakers side, not surprisingly, the balance sheet is much worse (graphic above): absence of bass and low mids, treble back … Only the voice passes correctly, as often with this type of product.

STRONG POINTS

  • Quality finish.
  • Very readable mat screen.
  • Full connectivity.
  • Good configuration to play.

WEAK POINTS

  • Average autonomy.
  • High weight.
  • Bulky charger.
  • Heats a lot from below.

CONCLUSION

With its GTX 960M, its Core i7 processor and its Full HD mat screen, the Alienware 13 is a good gaming machine, especially since it benefits from a compact format. We would have appreciated a little less weight, a less bulky charger and a lower temperature in the lower part.

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