Alienware M16 r2 vs X16 r2 Comparison - Which is the best 16" Alienware in 2024?

so we've recently reviewed both the new Alienware M16 R2 and the new Alienware x16 R2 and seem these two 6inch laptops are pretty similar gaming laptops we've decided to put them head-to-head to help you choose which laptop is right for you now before we start actually comparing the laptops we've got to talk about the specifications and although these machines start out with the same core Ultra 7 and RTX 4060 this new M16 R2 caps out with an RTX 4070 whereas the x16 R2 can go all way up to a 1490 now the other options remain pretty similar between the two but there are some big differences under the hood which we will cover later I also want to mention the price and as of making this video the base spec of core Ultra 7 rx460 16 GB of RAM and one table SSD in each of these machines comes in at, 1615 for the M16 R2 or 1915 for the x16 R2 that's a300 premium for this X Series laptop so let's see if it's worth the difference as of 2024 Alienware redesigned the actual chassis of the Alienware M16 whereas the x16 has remained the same as the 2023 model now with this M16 now you can see the biggest difference being they've removed that rear Grill which makes this laptop much more compact than last year's model now that is why the M16 caps out at an RTX 470 so when you put these two machines side by side you can see that the anywh M16 R2 is quite shallower than this x16r 2 with this extended rear Grill but the x16 R2 is very slightly thinner than the M16 and with regards to build quality for both these laptops they are both excellent now they come in a range of different aluminums uh and magnesium chassis so they are both very strong and durable but I have to be honest with regards to the build quality the x16 does feel very slightly better than the M16 there's a little bit more Flex on the lid on the M16 and the hinge just feels slightly more solid on this x16 series but you're going to be happy with the build quality of each of these laptops with regards to the weight the elw M16 R2 comes in very slightly lighter than the x16 R2 it's 2.61 Kg on this eliware M16 whereas it's 2.72 Kg on the x16 and a lot of that is due to the actual cooling solution and the materials used in the build of this laptop so before then we open up the actual laptop themselves I want to quickly talk about the ports now the x16 has all of its ports on the rear which does make the laptop look very neat when everything is plugged in although once you're using the laptop it is much more difficult put your hands around the back of the machine and seeing where to plug in the actual ports you need whereas on the M16 R2 we do get some of the ports on the rear but we also get some on either side which does make it more handy when you're actually using the laptop and plugging in dongles mice headset Jacks and that is the biggest feature here the headset Jack on the M16 is on the side the x16 they've got the headset Jack right here on the back which is a real pain especially when you got this sort of grill right alongside it it's so easy to accidentally plug it into the wrong space the ports themselves are very similar between these two laptops the M16 does get an RJ45 Port whereas the x16 gets a mini display port other than that they both get two usba ports one USBC one Thunderbolt 4 port and HDMI 2.1 a Micro SD C slot and the power jack so both of them overall have quite a good range of ports and with regards to the RGB it's much more muted on the anywhere M16 this year we do still have the lit head on the back of the lid like we get on the x16 but gone is the Tron ring on the back of the laptop now this doesn't overly bother me because you don't see it when you're using it but it is a shame it was quite an iconic Alienware feature whereas the x16 R2 we still get the beautiful multis Zone Tron ring around the back of the laptop which looks absolutely fantastic moving it around both these laptops have the per key RGB Lighting on the keyboards though in some regions on the anywhere M16 they do have a single zone back lighting uh and you have to configure it for the RGB per key so make sure you check on that when you're ordering your laptop and on the M16 we get a light around the actual touchpad which is quite a nice feature but the x16 gets the beautiful lit RGB touchpad I've got it on the wave mode at the moment like the keyboards and it does look fantastic fantastic now it does turn off very quickly by default but you can change that in the bio settings also with the Alienware M16 you'll notice we have the alien head power button which is blue when you're powered and on Mains yellow when you're on battery and it then alternates between blue and yellow when you're actually charging the battery and I love that feature I love that power button and that's something you lose when you move to the x16 you just get a very boring power button at the top right of the keyboard so now that we actually open these laptops and looking at the Palm rests want to quickly talk about the actual features of these Palm rests first is the materials we've got a black aluminium palmrest on the Alienware x16 which does feel very durable and it doesn't pick up fingerprints very easily whereas on the M16 we have the slightly older style rubberized texture on top of the actual aluminium shell this does feel more luxurious when you actually putting your hands on the actual palmrest I do much prefer the feeling of this but it does pick up f fingerprints much much easier and over the years this is more like to wear than just the basic aluminum we're looking at the touch pads we've got a glass touchpad with the Alienware x16 and just a plastic touchpad on the M16 now they both track well and click okay but the x16 touchpad does feel a lot more premium size-wise they're a very similar size it feels slightly more shallow on the x16 than the M16 and that's because they seem to push everything slightly further down to give you more room at the top for the air intakes moving up to the keyboard on the L 16 you do get either the option of the standard non- mechanical keyboard that's perky RGB LED or the Cherry MX mechanical keyboard switch which is absolutely fantastic although very noisy and clicky so you can choose that when you're configuring your laptop whereas on the anyware M16 they've taken away the mechanical keyboard options so you're just limited to the standard keyboard with either just the one zone back lighting depending on your region or the perky RGB keyboard which is what I've got here now I have to be honest the fact they've taken the mechanical keyboard away is a shame for the M16 but given how good just the standard non- mechanical keyboard is it's not the end of the world and other than the fact that obviously it is non- mechanical both these keyboard layouts are very very similar you do still get the cursors crushed into the edge of the keyboard but you also get the fullon multimedia keys at the end which are very handy at the top of both of these laptops here you'll see we've got air in intake grills these are not speakers on the any M16 you can see we do have speaker grills on the side now with these two laptops the M16 gets two 2 wat speakers which are downward firing this anyware x16 gets two two wat tweeters and four 3w woofers here's what they sound like speaker test of the Alienware M16 R2 versus the x16 R2 we're going to start with the M16 at 50% volume followed by the x16 at % volume now these are straight out of the box with no eqs turned on so M16 R2 x16 [Music] R2 now 80% on the M16 R2 [Music] and then 80% on the x16 [Music] R2 then finally 100% on the M16 or2 [Music] and then lastly 100% on the x16 [Music] R2 sweet baby Jesus there's no comparison there the x16 wins by a country mile moving up to the screens on these laptops and both these laptops have the same 2560 x600 240 HZ IPS panels these are great screens for gaming they're very responsive they're fluid they've got good colors but the only downside with all of alienware's laptops this year is they max out at about 300 nits which compared to a lot of the other competitors such as Razer Blade MSI or Zeus which often got up to 500 nit plus this is a real shame to see I'm hoping Alienware if you're watching this video you need to add more display options to the Alienware range you're really getting left behind now above the actual screens we've got 10 HP webcam with dual array microphones they look and sound like this and this is a test of the webcam and the microphone on the new Alienware M16 R2 this is a test of the Alienware x16 R2 108p webcam let me know in the comments section what you think it looks and sounds like as always with the new windows 11 we have the windows framing feature which is a little bit slow but can be quite useful so there we go you can see it is now framing myself in the sort of the center of the picture we get the eye contact mode and we get the blur background effects such as the standard blur or my favorite the portrait blur and both these laptops have Windows hello facial recognition built in which is amazing it's my favorite way of log into windows and they both work accurately and log you in every time okay so now we looked around the laptops I'm going to talk about the internals on both these machines now internally this is one of the biggest areas between these two laptops uh and probably where a lot of the cost has come into it now firstly with the M16 R2 the biggest Advantage it has over the anywhere x16 R2 is we do have upgradeable Ram with this model we've got two ddr5 slots uh which come with 5,600 speed and you can upgrade this up to 64 or 96 GB yourself if you wish we also get 2 m.2 hmm slots for your ssds whereas on the 8way x16 we get solded on RAM now it is slightly faster than the M16 but it maxes out 32 GB and I think that's a real shame on Dell's behalf the SPS range has sold on RAM and gets up to 64 GB it's a real shame that Dell didn't offer a 64 GB option on this x16 CU if you're buying this expensive gaming laptop and you need more than 32 GB of RAM you're out of luck it also has the two 180mm m.2 slots for its ssds as well but the other biggest difference is the actual heat sink and fan setup now the M16 has the traditional heat sink with two fans pumping out the rear and the side of this laptop and the best news is this year finally is the actual heat sink and fans are facing the user so you can easily repaste and maintain the laptop yourself now the enare x16 R2 has a vapor chamber for fan system now this is obviously why we can have the bigger graphics cards such as the 40hm 1490 but it does mean it's a lot more complex and the motherboard is inverted meaning if you want to repaste this laptop you've got to take the whole laptop apart to get the motherboard out and take the actual heat sink off so now that we've looked at these Cooling systems let's see how they perform so looking at the performance and with the vapor chamber and four fans in the x16r 2 you would think it'd be a hands down win but when we compare the core Ultra 9 of the x16 with the core Ultra 7 on the M16 we can see there's not really a massive difference between the two laptops and the x16 only wins in the cinebench R23 scores because it is allowed 111 Watts on its maximum boost but it manages that at over 100° Centigrade throughout the entire test the CPU in the M16 although only allowed slightly less wattage of 90 wats on the performance profile gets a slightly lower score but with much better temps now this is also the same when we're looking at gaming now we can't compare the FPS on these laptops as the M16 maxes out with a 4070 whereas the x16 can be configured up to a 490 but when looking at the temperatures whilst we're gaming we can see that the M16 has much lower CPU temperatures and that's for the traditional heat sink and 2 fans now I do believe the CPU in my x16 R2 hasn't got the best Pace job but we're chatting with other X owners on the forums it seems that others are receiving the same temperatures as I am now temps aside gaming on both these laptops was a comfortable Affair and neither got hot on the keyboards or the Palm rest which I really appreciated though on the x16 it does pump a fair amount of hot air out the left and the right vents meaning you may want to move your mouse hand a fair distance from the laptop to avoid it getting hot and with regards to the fire noise the x16 fared better here coming in at 58 DB on the max fan mode as opposed to 60 DB on the M16 Max fans though if you switch them down to the quiet mode they both come in at a much more pleasant 45 DB moving over to the battery life and despite both these laptops having the same 90w hour battery the M16 R2 easily won this test coming in at 8 hours and 40 minutes and our usual test of streaming YouTube over wi-fi at 200 nits whereas the x16 only got 6 hours and 34 minutes both these laptops do have the 100 wat PD charging mode though meaning you can charge both your laptops via the USBC Port but the X6 did perform much better when using a 100 wat charger and even light gaming was possible but the M16 R2 had really poor 3D performance over the same 100 wat charger but was fine for work and browsing okay then so on to the conclusion now this year it's been quite a change from Alienware especially with this M16 R2 these are both very good machines I love both these laptops I've had more fun with this M16 than I thought it was going to be especially with how compact it is now when you're buying one of these laptops if you're buying a 460 or 4070 version laptop I definitely recommend that you consider this m692 it's a fair amount cheaper and unless you need those better speakers and the looks of this x16 R2 this makes a lot more sense the fact that you can upgrade the RAM and the fact that it is that much cheaper for essentially the same laptop this is very impressive but if you do need the RTX 480 or 490 graphics card then unfortunately you've got to look towards the x16 R2 now it does do an incredibly good job of cooling that 4080 or 490 considering how compact this laptop is but it does have some downsize it is very expensive all the ports are at the back though that could be a positive depending on who you are and is much more difficult to maintain with its solded on RAM and inverted motherboard so overall if you can put up with a 4060 4070 my advice is definitely buy that any M16 I do prefer it for a cheaper laptop but if you really do need that 48 or 490 it's going to have to be that xr2 or you have to choose a competitor well those are my thoughts on these two laptops as always I'd love to know what you guys think pop it in the comment section down below and I will get back to you and lastly thanks for watching

Channel: Mash IT

Views: 17,336

Keywords: mash it

Id: o2sG_0GB34A

Length: 15min 37sec (937 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 17 2024