18 Area-51 Gaming Laptop, 18" WQXGA 300Hz 2.5K Display, Intel Ultra 9 275HX (Up to 5.4GHz), NVIDIA RTX 5080, 32 GB DDR5, 1 TB SSD, Wi-Fi 7, 4K Camera, Backlit KB, Quad Fan Cooling, Win11 Pro

Depending on the type of computer user you are, you may find what I have to say noteworthy. Here goes:• 4GB of RAM = someone who only really uses one app at a time. Anything beyond this & your computer (typically) will start having problems.• 8GB = this is standard. most people live here. you might swap/multitask a bit, but for the most part, internet, email, and netflix live here.• 16GB = games. multimedia. Light graphic design/photography/general purpose.• 32GB = a good head start. Most apps these days (including Windows) don't consume near that in resources.....and last I checked, assuming you can find a 2x32GB DDR4 2666Mhz, this baby is expandable even further. In my opinion, while expensive, is worth the wait. Ask yourself: "....do you want to have to do this again in a year when the software/industry adapts; when the software finally becomes too much for your poor, old, oldie-but-trusty laptop? Or would you like to get ahead of the curve? In my professional opinion, you're better off upgrading now; migrating to a newer, more reliable workhouse, than attempting to delay the inevitable. I digress.The graphics on the M17 are absolutely phenom. While it's not the 2070/2080, it can be overclocked (why would you need/want to?!). Further, it's literally one of the lightest laptops I've owned.

We are an Apple family, reinforced by fact that the local school system gives every student a MacBook, but my oldest son has been wanting a gaming PC “forever”...Since he’s 12, “forever” equals about a year. Honestly, I was super hesitant, even with the enormous windfall of this showing up on Amazon Vine (without which, such a purchase would not even have been considered), but gave in to pleading and my initial impression is...pretty good.It’s relatively lightweight and while the battery life can’t compare to a MacBook when you’re actually playing games, it’s not terrible, and it requires a lot less room than a desktop set-up. My son knows more about game-play and latency and, while he doesn’t have a ton to compare it to at his age (mostly playing on PCs at friends’ homes), he’s impressed with how well this laptop handles gaming. He’s using a gaming mouse and, for some games, a Bluetooth controller (both of which we already had). We have gigabit Internet, so speeds and response times, even just on wifi, are quite good. For what it’s worth, he also thinks the alien-head insignia, “looks really cool.” There's also a backlit keyboard (green on black) to match the color theme.As a PC laptop is does everything I’d expect, and comes with Windows home pre-installed. It’s USB-C and has an HDMI out port. It's also got USB 3.0 for wired keyboard or mouse use. My biggest complaint is that the hard drive is pretty small at 512 GB for this price point, but it is solid state, and the RAM is adequate, though springing for the upgraded versions of both storage and memory will serve gamers well and is probably worth the price jump.So far, we’ve got no complaints, and really like the portability, though we’re still putting strict limits on playtime and access. Within those confines, having him be able to go and play somewhere other than the playroom where his younger brother and sister are also trying to enjoy themselves is a blessing for sibling fight prevention. And, being able to glance over his shoulder from time to time to check up that he’s following all the rules, is also essential.This laptop might fall a little short for a truly hardcore gamer, but in terms of portability, without forfeiting gaming potential, it’s hard to do better in the laptop form factor than Alienware, and for those without the room, or desire, for a tower, this is for sure the way to go.