Alienware AW15R2-8469SLV 15.6-Inch UHD Laptop (6th Generation Intel Core i7, 16 GB RAM, 1 TB HDD + 256 GB SATA SSD) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M, Microsoft Signature Edition, Windows 10 Home), Silver

Overall, impressive laptop. There were a few minor snags right out of the box which took several hours to resolve (super annoying)- apparently there is a KNOWN problem with the Killer wireless adapter and Windows 10 which = no wifi until fixed. It appears the most recent driver on Dell's site fixes the problem but you have to uninstall, reinstall, etc. the out of the box driver.There are also several other pretty important updates that don't load automatically when connected so you have to go in and do them manually either from Dell's site or the device manager (ie an 11/2015 BIOS update, audio drivers, etc.).I get having to do updates out of the box but this seemed much more intensive and time consuming than the several other laptops I've purchased (and built, and rebuilt) in the past. It seems to be Windows 10 growing pains from what I can tell BUT once all that was taken care of, it's been running flawlessly. I want to give the laptop 4.5 stars, so I opted to give it 5. Windows 10 is the love child of 7 and 8. I'm still getting used to it but it's not too bad other than the SNAFU with the networking/wifi out of the box.The sound is incredible for a laptop- normally I couldn't care less about this but i was immediately impressed.I'm glad I went with the FHD display instead of UHD, based on some research. Basically, the FHD is a nice, non-glare matte screen with more true to print colors whereas the UHD is glossy, ultra saturated for movies/media but images looks completely different if/when printed than they do on screen.The keyboard is solid and non-cramped. And, I freaking love the the customization options with the backlighting and you can easily turn it off with a key stroke. The touch pad is responsive and easy to move or do gestures on (and yes, you can also have this light up too).While I was installing the bazillion updates and rebooting several times, it did seem a little slow for an SSD. However, from a powered off state it takes seconds until you hit the login screen. I believe you can adjust to a quick boot in BIOS but I haven't checked yet to see if that solves the lag on the reboots. Battery life is also impressive for the size and power of the device. I had 5 or so hours on battery and still had about 20-25% remaining while doing all the installs, updates, etc.I'm not a gamer but use some heavy programs simultaneously. Even with the downloading, updating, several processes, browser tabs, etc. open this beast didn't slow down one bit. It's quiet and the cooling seems to be top notch. I may see if a cooling pad I have helps even more but so far I haven't needed it at all. My only minor gripe is that a 15+" laptop really should have it's own CD/DVD drive but that didn't seem to be an option on any of the AWs.I was torn between a 13" and 15" AW but getting the specs I wanted either wasn't possible in the 13" or made it so much more expensive, I may as well go with the 15". Overall, I'm glad I went with the 15- there's a heck of a lot of screen real estate considering the couple inch difference. Initially I had been looking at the Microsoft SurfaceBook but once I stopped laughing at the insane price (~$3k for similar specs to this AW), I started researching the various Alienwares, MSI, HP ZBooks, etc. Yes, you can get similar specs but I found I had to compromise in one area significantly to get another spec I wanted- especially on the processor or RAM, neither of which were something I was willing to compromise on.Compared to several other high end laptops like this one that I had been researching, this one seems to provide more value for the $$$ unless you have no issue paying $2-3k for a laptop. Will definitely update if anything changes but this thing is freaking phenomenally fast. Love it.

So after about two years of use. The laptop would freeze up every so often from day one. No one could tell me why. They blamed it on my steam program. Well today I decided to pull the back off to check the cpu because the sticker says Core i7 witch should be compatible with windows 11 but it keeps telling me it’s not that’s because it has an i5 processor not an i7 like it says but the best part was finding a Toshiba drive in my Dell Laptop. Makes me think that’s the reason for the random freezing. Paid almost a 1000.00 for a computer and it works for a gaming fine set up but disappointing it’s not what it was supposed to be. I’m not a IT tech just a dude who was looking for a good deal on a gaming laptop and now I can’t upgrade to windows 11 so the computer will no longer get updates after October. My bad should have done my homework better.

Excellent gaming laptop. With Alienware, you're usually paying a little extra for the look, but I think it's worth it as this thing looks pretty awesome. I'm not going to get into the specs much with this review because that information is available elsewhere.Pros:-Very fast laptop with lots of memory (If interested in comparisons of specs, see any tech site on the internet :P) I just finished playing the last installment of the Starcraft II series on Ultra settings. It looked beautiful and ran incredibly well!-Fully customize-able LEDs (colors, patterns, themes, etc.) I think there are about 12 different zones on the inside and outside of the laptop that can all be customized independently. This was something that I was a little worried about because all I saw was the ugly yellow in all the pictures from Dell and wasn't sure if you could actually change them all. Rest assured, you can!-Macro keys are kinda cool (haven't messed around with them too much at this point)-1080p display (this model) is very good. (Not sure if the 4K display is worth the extra $400 cost on a 15" display)-Very slick look on the outside.-Capable of combining with the Alienware Graphics Amplifier (peripheral that is sold separately which allows you to essentially add an extra graphics card) Note: after paying $1500-$2000 for a laptop, you then would need to pay ~$300 for the Amplifier, then $XXX for another video card... Doesn't really make a lot of sense to me. Anyway, I haven't seen a need for it yet since the laptop on it's own is quite a beast.Cons:-No number pad (not a big deal, but I got used to it on my other 15" Asus laptop)-If you're utilizing the trackpad for prolonged gaming be warned that there is a rather sharp edge (not like razor sharp :), but uncomfortable to rest your palm against) on the front of the laptop (below the trackpad) that is rather uncomfortable. (I already hear you, "Just get a mouse dummy!" and that is a good solution, but I like to play games on the couch and don't always have a place for the mouse/pad). Just something to keep in mind. :)-The trackpad is a little odd for me (may just need a software update or something) because I'll be scrolling down a page and suddenly it will jump all the way to the bottom... Still haven't figured out why it's so sensitive or if I'm doing something wrong, I did try changing a bunch of the settings, but no luck so far. (If anyone knows, please feel free to let me know! Thanks!)Overall, I really like the laptop and would buy it again. Hope this review helps.