Hands-on review: Alienware 13

YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSmH3f8i8HUThe Alienware 13, when it ships in December, will have a lot of firsts for Alienware.First and foremost, it's the first 13-inch gaming laptop from Dell - an interesting statistic as Alienware, the gaming arm of Dell, isn't exactly new to the scene. The Alienware 13 is also the thinnest laptop they've ever made at just over one-inch thick. That's still a fair amount larger than the Razer Blade, which measures in at an incredible .66 inches, but the fact that Alienware is closing that gap is amiable.If it's only one-inch thick and 4.5 pounds, how can it withstand the everyday dings and bumps that occur in our bags? Don't worry, the Alienware 13 will also be one of the first to be made with carbon fiber chips infused into the case. OK, but if it's one-inch thick and 4.5 pounds it must have some pretty lackluster components, right? Yes, but not exactly. The Alienware 13 will, more or less, be as powerful as you want it to be ... if you're willing to shell out for it. An Alienware representative told me to expect pricing to start at $999 (about £600, AU$1,100) for the basic model equipped with a fourth-generation Haswell i5 U processor, Nvidia GTX 860M GPU, 8GB of DDR3L memory and a mechanical hard drive, but upgrade options include two SSDs in place of the one mechanical drive and a boost in memory to 16GB of DDR3L instead of 8. What will hurt the longevity of the system are the switch from standard Intel Core mobile processors to the ultra-low power Haswell U line and foregoing the opportunity to include the latest Nvidia 970 and 980M Maxwell GPUs. Thankfully, Alienware has a solution.More important than the polycarbonate case or 860M GPU is the recently unveiled Alienware Graphics Amplifier that the company is selling in tandem with the Alienware 13. A disCERNing additionSo it's not exactly the Large Hadron Collider of the gaming world, but the Alienware Graphics Amplifier is still pretty darn cool. It supports any double-wide desktop GPU from either AMD or Nvidia and connects via a proprietary cable to the back of the Alienware 13. It's essentially an external GPU that can handle the workload of high-end games and applications and stream the results to the laptop.Inside the case you'll find a 350-watt PSU and PCI-E x 16 slot that will accommodate almost any GPU - I say "almost any" because you won't be able to fit dual-linked cards (like the Nvidia GTX Titan Z or AMD Radeon R9 295x2) in the allotted space.It's not hot-swappable, but plug in the Amplifier before you start up your machine and you'll be running off the external GPU. If it does happen to get unplugged during operation - an event that the Alienware reassured me won't be an issue thanks to the locking mechanism on the cord - the machine just forces a reboot. The implication here is that the compromise between choosing either a laptop or a desktop is gone. Alienware's Amplifier allows you to have the easily portable 13-inch notebook to take with you throughout your day then, when you go home at night, plug into the external GPU and ratchet up the settings on to ultra for a better gaming experience.That solution, however, comes at a cost. The Alienware Graphics Amplifier will launch alongside the Alienware 13, but costs an additional $299 (about £200, AU$340) for a unit without a card. Drop an extra $800 (about £500, AU$900) on a full-size Nvidia GeForce GTX 980, and your $1,000 laptop setup is now a $2,000 (about £1,250, AU$2,300) laptop system that only plays games at the highest settings when it's plugged in.Display, battery, networking and LEDsBut what's a high resolution if you don't have a screaming screen to display it on? The Alienware 13 has you covered, no matter what your budget is, by offering three options: an HD anti-glare 1360 x 768 option; FHD anti-glare 1920 x 1080 option; QHD touch-capacitive 1920 x 1080 IPS screen. If those don't tickle your aesthetical fancy, the Alienware 13 has mini-display and HDMI-out ports that let you connect up to two external displays.Concerned about battery life? Don't be. During my hands on time with the unit I was told to expect at least seven hours while perusing the internet and an hour or two less while watching netflix or playing games. Yes, the four zones of customizable LEDs located in the keyboard and lid will suck up some juice, but ultimately they won't break the camel's back so to speak.Networking won't be a problem either as the Alienware 13 comes built-in with Killer technology that supports 802.11ac.Early verdictI see a lot of potential in the Alienware 13. As a standalone laptop without the Amplifier, you've got a solid rig that should play games like Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor at a respectable 60 frames per second while live streaming on Twitch. Add an external GTX 980 or 970 GPU and you should have more than enough power to blow through Metro Last Light (or any other game for that matter) with the graphics set to high.Alienware's solution, though, is an expensive one. In order to get the best of both worlds, you'll have to shell out for it. But, honestly, if you've got that much to spend you might want to think about a better-equipped laptop instead of a two-piece setup. Let's file this one in the "cautiously optimistic" category until it launches later in November.

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