When Alienware announced its new X series of thin, high-end gaming laptops at the beginning of the year, I was looking forward to seeing Razer take on what is essentially a version of the gaming MacBook, as it has been doing for some time now with the Blade laptop. [With the rise of 16-inch gaming laptops, we are now in uncharted territory.

The system is powered by an Intel Core i9 13900HK and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080, with 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 1TB of NVMe SSD support for memory and storage. Configuration price is $2,949. Systems start at $2,049 and offer a wide range of configurations from RTX 4050 to RTX 4090, with a choice of RTX 40 series cards.

While expensive, I was surprised to find that the $2,949 price point is comparable to competitors with similar specs, such as the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 16 at $2,900 and the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i at $2,750. Knowing Alienware and its product pricing, I expected this to be around $3,300. Still, I was pleased to see that the company is becoming more competitive, especially with its premium laptops and its seeming abandonment of the "Alienware tax," as we often joke.

The first thing we notice is the sleek design of the Alienware X16, which Alienware calls its Legend 3.0 design, using lots of aluminum in a thin and light chassis. How thin and light it is: it's about 0.7 inches thin and weighs only 6 pounds. It's a more understated flair that I like. In other words, you get the power of a workstation without the size of a workstation.

As for size, hats off to Alienware for miniaturizing the power supply. There is nothing more disgusting than carrying around a gaming laptop with a power brick the size of an actual brick. As a design quirk, I still can't get used to the headphone jack being on the back of the system (along with all the other ports). Maybe I'm just a headphone jack traditionalist, but I understand the idea of relegating the messy cable out of sight.

For many people looking for a modern gaming laptop, 16" is probably the sweet spot; it's still a larger screen than a 14" or 15", but still easier to travel with than a 17" or 18" gaming monster.

RGB is also featured on the mousepad, keyboard, Alienhead logo on the lid, and, of course, the "stadium" lighting ring on the back of the laptop. 100+ micro-LEDs bring the colors to life, and the new design is a great addition to the laptop's design. If you were worried that the redesign would make the new X Series laptops look less like Alienware, don't fret. However, if you are buying Alienware, you are buying all of its glitz and glamour.

The display is a 240Hz QHD+ display, bright and vivid there at 300 nits. I initially did not like the new 16:10 gaming laptop trend much. However, the aspect ratio became familiar to me and working on a laptop other than 16:10 began to feel odd, especially from a productivity standpoint, and seemed like a natural evolution. Aspect ratios give you a little more screen real estate without increasing size.

Also, if you are going to pay nearly $3000 for a laptop, you are more likely to use it as a thin workstation or gaming console. How about making the screen useful for both aspects of your life?

I really like the look of the display. I play a lot of Diablo 4 and Fortnite and both were buttery smooth experiences with great color accuracy. The only downside to the screen is that it seemed darker than the advertised peak brightness of 300 nits.

Another thing I like about the X16 is that Alienware allowed the webcam to be mounted above the display. I hate it when other laptop makers leave out the camera or mount it below the center hinge. I would rather not have a camera than attend a meeting with it pointed up my nose. There is no need to opt for a webcam, as a 1080p camera will work well enough. The same can be said for the microphone, but if you're chatting with teammates, it's still best to get a gaming headset.

Sadly, it is performance, not design, where the X16 stumbles; the Intel Core i9 13900HK on the Alienware X16 is almost as good in both gaming and productivity as the Strix Scar 16's i9 13980HX and Legion Pro i7's i 9 13900HX in almost every CPU performance category, which is unfortunate since the 13900HK is the only Intel i9 CPU available in the X16 selection.

Comparing the three GPU performances, the Alienware came in last in many synthetic tests at both 1080p and 1440p resolutions. To be fair, it was third in gaming benchmarks, except for triple-digit frame rates in Hitman: World of Assassination and Metro Exodus Enhanced.

None of these games, of course, used Nvidia's DLSS 3 or any of the wild frame generation wizardry that can significantly boost frame rates in many games. For example, Cyberpunk 2077 went from about 51 fps with the Raytracing Ultra preset to about 132 fps with DLSS turned up and Frame Generation turned on. Frankly, I don't see any reason to play a DLSS 3 compatible game without it.

However, I am disappointed with this laptop, because at nearly $3,000, I should be looking for performance, but when I know I can get it in a system that is a few hundred dollars cheaper, I have to assume I am paying more for style than substance.

Not surprisingly, when this starts to work, it gets pretty loud. This is something that comes with these new RTX 40 series GPUs, but a small part of me was hoping someone would figure it out. I played Diablo 4 many times in my office with headphones on and could feel how frustrated my co-workers were trying to figure out where the noise was coming from. Not all bad, the Alienware SSDs performed well and were well ahead of the competition. The battery lasted 66 minutes, 6 minutes longer than the Legion Pro 7i and performed much better than we expected, but it pales in comparison to the 83 minutes of gaming we were able to get on the Scar 16.

Despite its competitive price, the Alienware X16 R1 is the most expensive of the premium RTX 4080 laptops we tested and also one of the weakest. While there are some things we really like about the design, the excellent webcam and microphone, and the speedy display, it's hard to recommend this high-end notebook over more powerful, less expensive options.