Dell gaming laptop buyer’s guide
The best Dell gaming laptops & Alienware gaming laptops for 2021
If you’re in the market for a Dell gaming laptop then this is the page for you. We’ve selected the best of the lot, according to budget and user experience, to help you find the option that best fits your needs.
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Dell gaming laptops vs Alienware gaming laptops
Dell’s most premium range of gaming laptops are their own sub-brand known as Alienware. Whilst Dell do make ‘Dell brand’ gaming laptops, these tend to be budget to mid-range offerings, with the real high-end performers being the Alienware X17, Alienware Area 51m, and others besides. So whether you go with a Dell or Alienware branded gaming laptop really depends on your budget. We have options from both listed below.
Our Top Picks
The best Dell gaming laptop in 2022
In-depth Review
Alienware X17 (360Hz, RTX 3080)
Alienware X17 (360Hz, RTX 3080)
Out of the new Alienware X15 and X17, we’ve gone for the larger X17 with its 17.3-inch display for our premium pick of the best Dell gaming laptops. This is not only because the larger display helps give greater immersion in games, but also as the size constraints of the X15 hamper its performance by comparison, whereas the larger X17 iteration manages to have a nice high TGP for its GPU options, as well as good power supply for the CPU.
This means that gaming performance for either the RTX 3070 version or the RTX 3080 version of this machine are great, particularly considering that this is a slimline laptop. Dell have managed to pull off a very impressive technical feat with the cooling in this beast, despite its thin size, keeping thermal throttling to a relative minimum. The one downside to this is the massive powerbrick that the laptop comes with to pump all those volts in, which does hamper the portability of the machine somewhat. Battery life however, in general non-gaming usage, comes in at around 5 hours for the RTX 3070 version, which, for an Alienware laptop is far better than usual, and puts it up there with the majority of the competition at this price point.
The display on this Alienware is predictably superb in terms of color replication, contrast, and brightness. All display options cover at least 100% of the sRGB space, making them ideal for color work / graphic design in this space. Of all the display options we’d strongly recommend that you go with the 1080p 360Hz option, as this is the only one with G-Sync, a MUX Switch to disable Optimus (vital for ensuring the best performance) and also a stated 1ms response time, making it by far the best gaming option.
The mechanical keyboard and trackpad of the X17 are both great to use (though it does lack a numpad) and it comes with a handy microSD card slot. The motherboard is of the flipped variety, making it more difficult to upgrade the GPU and CPU should you wish to, but at least the RAM can be upgraded.
Ultimately the biggest issue with this laptop is the very high price, but if you want a piece of laptop excellence and can afford it, this is one of the best around.
Dell G15 5515 (165Hz, RTX 3060)
Dell G15 5515 (165Hz, RTX 3060)
The Dell G15 is a very worthy option for a mid-range Dell gaming laptop, coming as it does with some powerful core components capable of pushing those FPS in games. Though you can go with the cheaper all AMD option if you want (the Dell G15 5505), which comes with a Ryzen 5 4600H CPU and Radeon 5600M GPU, we’d recommend the option listed here, which combines a Ryzen 7 5800H processor and an Nvidia RTX 3060 graphics card. The RTX 3060 GPU is a particularly powerful one, with a high TGP that means it can perform to the equal of many RTX 3070 laptops in game.
As with many laptops since the global silicon shortage began, the stock RAM of this laptop is on the slow side, and this causes performance bottlenecking, but this is thankfully upgradable.
The 1080p 165Hz display (which is a good refresh rate for the majority of users) has good color replication, coming in at around 99% sRGB (though if you opt for the 120Hz version it’s a lot closer to 60% sRGB, so avoid this one!). The response time of the screen is however disappointing, only having a stated 13ms grey-to-grey, which means the actual real world response time will probably be even slower.
This highly charged RTX 3060 does mean that the laptop runs hot in terms of internal temperature, but, unlike most Dell machines, you don’t really feel this under your hands when gaming. Again, unusually for Dell, the battery life on this G15 is superb, coming in around 10 hours in general usage, which is one of the best you’re likely to find in a machine with this amount of power. Unfortunately the standard of the internal software is very typical for Dell, in that it’s extremely poor and annoying to navigate.
The overall build quality of the laptop is good, though the keyboard and trackpad could be better. If you’re not committed to Dell solely, you may want to consider the Lenovo Legion 5 as an alternative, which performs similarly in game but has a superior keyboard, trackpad, and onboard software, though it does have a worse battery life and is more expensive than the Dell G15.
All told though, the Dell G15 5515 is a solid mid-range choice.
Alienware Area-51m R2 (300Hz, RTX 2080 SUPER)
Alienware Area-51m R2 (300Hz, RTX 2080 SUPER)
The Alienware Area 51m r2 is essentially the predecessor of the Alienware X17 and so comes with the older gen Nvidia RTX 2080 Super graphics card, but it still packs a pretty mighty punch. The 10th gen Intel Core i9 10900K is actually of similar power to the 11th gen i7 11800H in the X17, and the overall gaming performance is around that of an RTX 3070 equipped X17, albeit with less impressive Ray Tracing support.
The display has the standard top-notch Alienware color replication, covering 100% of the sRGB space. The 300Hz version of the display has the best stated response time of 3ms, so that’s the one we’d recommend, although the 9ms 144Hz screen does come with G-Sync, whereas the former sadly doesn’t.
The Area 51m r2 is a chunkier and heavier customer than the slimline X17, but is of a reasonable size compared to most of the competition, not like the tank-sized Alienware machines of old, although it still comes with the standard weighty power brick.
The Area 51m r2 is a nicely designed machine overall, striking yet tasteful. The keyboard is membrane rather than mechanical but it is of a good standard, and comes with a numpad. The speakers on this machine are pretty good for a gaming laptop, superior to the X17, and the microSD slot is always a nice feature.
We can’t exactly claim that this laptop is cheap at full price, but as an older machine it is often on sale, so we’d try and snap one up if you see one reduced whilst stocks last, as this model has been discontinued from production.
Dell G3 15 (144Hz, GTX 1660 Ti)
Dell G3 15 (144Hz, GTX 1660 Ti)
The Dell G3 15 comes available in different configurations at different price points. The two we’d recommend come with the previous generation RTX 2060 graphics card, or the previous previous gen GTX 1660 Ti. Both these GPUs will offer entry level gaming performance, though don’t expect to be playing the most demanding games on anything but the lowest of settings.
The 144Hz display gets the job done, though don’t expect much in the way of response time. Color replication is only around 50% of sRGB, and brightness and contrast could both be better, so this isn’t a machine for any form of color work or visual editing. Still, for budget gaming its quite sufficient in this area.
Build quality, the array of ports, webcam and microphone are all about what you’d expect in this price range (i.e. middling to low quality), though battery life is significantly above average, especially for an Intel powered machine.
The main caveat we have with regards to the Dell G3 15 is that you should only really pick one up if it’s on offer, as at full price there are better, newer, and more powerful options from other manufacturers that cost the same. Fortunately you will frequently find them on sale during the usual periods, for several hundred dollars off or equivalent.
Final Word
This has been our guide to the best Dell gaming laptop in 2022. We hope it has proved useful and helped you find the option which is right for you. If you want to check our more options from different brands, then see our various best gaming laptop guides for different price ranges under Custom Gaming PC > Gaming Laptop in the main site menu. Alternatively, you can have a look at our best gaming laptop page for our selections across all price ranges and brands.