Review: Alienware 15 Gaming Laptop
Many of the best gaming laptops cost hundreds of dollars more than they did six months ago. Back then, you could get a decent budget-tier gaming laptop with an RTX 5050 for $700 or $800. Sadly, that’s no longer the case.
In the current landscape of expensive hardware, the new entry-level gaming laptop from Dell’s Alienware line—the Alienware 15—offers just enough performance capability and quality specs to make it worth the price.
When Simple Is Better
The Alienware 15 doesn’t seek to be overly flashy or impressive in its design. With gaming gear, though, I tend to count simplicity as a positive. No overdone RGB lighting or aggressive edges. This model takes visual DNA from the Alienware Aurora laptops, with a similar-looking keyboard and chassis materials. I especially appreciated the gentle curve of the vents just below the lid.
Though the Alienware 15 is a notable 0.9 inches thick, a lot of that heft is in the lid, meaning the device doesn’t feel clunky while open. Its screen is chunky, but I like that the top-heavy design means the laptop doesn’t sit as high up off the table when I’m using it. On the other hand, it’s not much thicker than the more expensive Alienware 16 Aurora.
The Alienware 15 has some flex in the lid and keyboard deck, but nothing egregious. You won’t even notice it unless you start really pressing down where you shouldn’t. I enjoyed typing on the keyboard and also found it to fill its space nicely. The touchpad is large and feels OK to use; it’s not the best touchpad I’ve used on a cheap gaming laptop, but it’s also far from the worst.
One other compromise Dell made with this laptop is in its connectivity capability. It’s only on Wi-Fi 6, which is two generations back from what the latest devices use. You may not notice the difference in connection speeds, but if you have a newer Wi-Fi 7 router and are hoping to take advantage of it, you won’t be able to do so with the Alienware 15.
Fortunately, the laptop ports are plentiful and up-to-date, including two USB-A ports, two USB-C ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, and even an Ethernet jack. Both USB-A ports can support up to 5 GBps, and both of the USB-C ports are good for up to 10 GBps. The USB-C port on the left side can also charge up to 100 watts, which is not enough for gaming but is great for a quick charge. My only complaint is that the connectivity options are heavily on the left side of the device. Only the headphone jack and the other USB-C port are on the right side.
A Dismal Display
The 15.3-inch screen is the laptop’s biggest weakness. Its 1920 x 1200 resolution is fine, but like many cheap gaming laptops, the display uses a lower-quality panel than what you’ll find on higher-end models, including the Alienware 16X that I tested last year. The result is washed-out, desaturated colors. My colorimeter confirmed my hunch, showing the Alienware 15 covered only 63 percent of the standard red, green, and blue (sRGB) color space, compared with the 100 percent you see on higher-end laptops.
Though I’ve experienced similar issues with other budget laptops, including the Acer Nitro V 16, misery doesn’t love company in this case. That is, the commonplace nature of this problem doesn’t make a bad display any nicer to look at. Even white webpages have a sickly green tint.
This display conundrum is one of the main reasons to opt for the Alienware 16 Aurora instead of the Alienware 15. The 16 offers a better-quality screen with more natural (and accurate) colors. That model came out last year, and it currently costs $300 more.
The Alienware 15 has a 165-Hz refresh rate, which is perfect for this level of performance. It also has a total of 115 watts of performance, combining both the RTX 5050 and Intel Core Ultra 7 240H. This is last year’s CPU from Intel, but you’ll notice that many of the laptops that use the new 2026 Series 3 chips are quite expensive at the moment. Given the eye-popping prices, sticking with an older CPU seems to be a wise choice by Dell, as the performance difference in gaming isn’t substantial.
Even tougher to reconcile is that Dell is offering the $999 starting option with only an RTX 4050 graphics processing unit (GPU). This graphics card is well over three years old and only includes 6 GB of VRAM—it’s simply not worth buying. For all intents and purposes, I’d consider the Alienware 15’s starting configuration to be the $1,200 model that gets you RTX 5050 and 8 GB of VRAM. That said, Dell only charges an extra $150 to upgrade to the RTX 5060 from there, and I’d recommend buying it if you can afford to do so. I haven’t tested that configuration, but that’s a fairly cheap price increase for what should be a substantial performance jump. Regardless of which GPU you choose, you’ll get a starting configuration of 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage (with options to double those for a price).
At the RTX 5050 level I tested, I was satisfied with the Alienware 15’s performance. I could play modern, heavy games like Cyberpunk 2077, Marvel Rivals, and Black Myth: Wukong at close to or more than 60 frames per second (fps) in the Ultra preset without relying on upscaling (data captured in the table below).
I did need to tweak graphics settings (such as dropping to the Medium preset) to get there, but I never felt as if I had to destroy a game’s image quality to achieve smooth frame rates. In a world where integrated graphics are increasingly powerful, the faster frame rates help make the Alienware 15 feel like a proper gaming laptop worthy of carrying around, despite its bulk.
For reference, the Alienware 15 with the RTX 5050 is 77 percent faster for games than the best integrated Intel graphics, as tested in the latest Dell XPS 14. You’ll have no problem using the full extent of that 165-Hz refresh rate if you want to experiment with DLSS upscaling and frame generation.
| 1080p Ultra | 1080p Medium | |
|---|---|---|
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 65 FPS | 82 FPS |
| Marvel Rivals | 38 FPS | 63 FPS |
| Black Myth: Wukong | 30 FPS | 59 FPS |
A key disadvantage of not using the latest Intel chips, however, is that the laptop’s battery life will not be as strong. Gaming laptops typically don’t have the best battery life anyway, but this one likely won’t last more than six hours on a very light load, or more than just a few if you’re running a fuller work load of applications and browser tabs.
Close Competition
Throughout most of 2026, I’ve been recommending the Lenovo LOQ 15 for its incredible value. Despite having the RTX 5060 GPU, it originally sold for less than $1,000. Now, however, it sells for $1,200—the same price as the Alienware 15 with the less desirable RTX 5050. That’s a problem for the Alienware 15.
The LOQ 15 has a better display and faster gaming performance than the Alienware 15, and those are two of the most important measures of a gaming laptop. Otherwise, these two devices are largely similar. So given the two options, I continue to favor the LOQ 15.
The caveat is that Lenovo is releasing a new version of this laptop, the LOQ Essential 15, which I’m testing right now. This new laptop will be more expensive, closer in line with the Alienware 15, but the cheaper RTX 5050 configuration is not currently available. So, while the older LOQ 15 remains a better buy, I don’t know how long that configuration will remain in stock.
If your priority is snagging the lowest price for an RTX 5050 laptop, you’ll be tempted by either the Acer Nitro V 16 or the MSI Cyborg A15. Neither is as nice-looking as the Alienware 15, but both will get you equivalent performance and screen quality for less money—sometimes by hundreds of dollars. Ultimately, I like the look and feel of the Alienware 15 more than these other devices, but it’s slightly more expensive than I’d like—especially considering the quality of the screen.
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