Massive Alienware m18 and x16 gaming laptops with new ‘Legend 3’ design language appear at CES 2023

At every Consumer Electronics Show, Dell and Alienware take the lead with their work and gaming laptop designs that constantly push the envelope in terms of innovation and performance. For CES 2023, Alienware has taken the wraps off a slew of gaming laptops spearheaded by their massive Alienware m18 gaming laptop that is as powerful as it is huge.

What is the Alienware m18?

The Alienware m18 takes advantage of their latest Legend 3 design language that blends aesthetics with practical ergonomics and design. While it retains their distinctive looking dual-toned matte flatback chassis with a rear mounted thermal shelf that is iconic of their Alienware designs, the new m18 has been made easier to open and close by dint of a new V-rail grip at strategic points around the laptop. The underside of the Alienware m18 has also enjoyed a revamp as well for better airflow. 

Aesthetics aside, the new Alienware m18 is as thick as the older m17 while adding 14% more screen real estate via its 18-inch display that comes in 165Hz QHD and 480Hz 1080p with G-Sync and FreeSync support. The larger form factor also enables the m18 to have

enough space for a full-sized keyboard complete with numeric keypad, upgradable DDR5 SO-DIMM slots for RAM and a somewhat absurd ability to upgrade it to 9TB of storage.

Under the hood, the Alienware m18 features up to a 13th Gen Intel Core i9-13980HX CPU or AMD Ryzen Zen 4 CPU and either a latest gen NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40xx series GPU or AMD Radeon graphics.

Keeping all this hefty hardware cool is their Element 31 thermal cooling material on both the CPU and GPU as well as seven heat pipes and a quad fan array to ensure optimal heat venting even under heavy gaming loads. Combined, this offers a substantial total system power of 250W .

The display itself has a taller 16:10 aspect ratio with ComfortView Plus tech to reduce blue light emissions to make it easier on the eyes along with a Dolby Atmos tuned six-speaker system which has two tweeters, a pair of woofers and two drivers for all-round audio thumpery.

Up top, the display has a 1080p webcam up top for video calls. If the idea of toting around a massive 18-inch gaming laptop is a bit much, Dell also issues a slightly smaller Alienware m16 that has a similar amount of hardware with a smaller display and form factor.

Fancy a slightly more compact powerhouse? There is also the newly unveiled m16 which provides many of the same technologies, ergonomics, design qualities and experiential benefits as the m18. 

For gamers looking to tote around something that’s less of a monolithic slab of steel and silicon that compliments every aspect of their lifestyle, including beyond gaming, Alienware also revealed the smaller x16 at CES 2023.

To date, it’s their first 16-inch gaming laptop since 2004 and is a bit smaller than last year’s X17 R1, has a tall 16-inch 16:10 display with 100 micro-LEDs on the rear for sexier RGB bling as well as a six-speaker design, per-key RGB lighting and optional Cherry MX keys with your choice of 13th Gen Intel Core H processors, NVIDIA GeForce 40xx GPUs and AMD hardware.

It is also the first Alienware laptop enhanced with the new AlienFX Scanner as well as Loop and Rainbow lighting mods. Additionally, the illuminated RGB touchpad is now 15% larger than the one found on the x17 R2. Slightly smaller is the refreshed Alienware x14 R2 that has a more refined design with smaller bezels and optional USB-C charging and enhanced cooling. 

How much is the Alienware m18?

There’s no official word on availability or if the Alienware m18 will arrive in Malaysia just yet but the official prices Stateside starts from USD2,899 which works out to about RM12,770, starting with configurations toting Intel CPUs and NVIDIA GPUs first and those with AMD-issued hardware later on in the year. The smaller Alienware m16 is slated to cost about USD2,599 (about RM11,449)  for the higher end variants and up. 

In terms of pricing, Stateside prices for the Alienware X16 start from US$3,099 for the higher end variants while the entry-level variants clock in at about USD$2,149. The Alienware x14 is slated to cost about USD$1,799.

To be clear, these are prices for the U.S market and they’ll likely be different when and if they arrive in Malaysia. We’ll keep you posted the moment we get any updates from Dell on pricing and availability.