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MSI Raider GE67 HX review: Big, bold, and bright
11:27 pm | March 24, 2023
Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets | Tags: , , | Comments: Off

MSI Raider GE67 HX: Two-minute review

The MSI Raider GE67 HX is a bit of a beast. 

Not, perhaps, as much as the ludicrously powerful and bulky MSI GT77 Titan (which really lives up to its name), but still a chunky, weighty gaming laptop that promises top-notch performance and - I’m pleased to say - delivers in spades, able to keep up with the best gaming laptops on the market.

At over two kilograms and packing a 15.6-inch display, the Raider GE67 HX is certainly a big-boy laptop, sitting firmly within ‘desktop replacement’ territory - sleek and portable, this device is not. But that chunky chassis contains some mighty components, most importantly a powerhouse Intel Core i9-12900HX (from which the laptop takes part of its namesake) and up to an RTX 3080 Ti graphics card for crisp, high-fidelity gaming.f

Straight out of the box, the MSI Raider GE67 HX feels durable and robust, with a premium design that sets it apart from some of MSI’s more budget offerings. Firing it up, the thick RGB lightbar that runs along the front edge spills rainbow lighting onto your desk, and the quality of the display becomes immediately apparent.

I’ll dig into the details further down in this review, but the screen is the obvious selling point of this laptop: it’s bright, colorful, and offers a crazy-fast 240Hz refresh rate, perfect for esports gaming. The keyboard - built in collaboration with gaming keyboard veterans SteelSeries - is also a highlight, quite literally since it also packs per-key RGB backlighting.

The MSI Raider GE67 HX photographed on a wooden desk with RGB lighting turned on.

(Image credit: Future)

In terms of performance, the RTX 3080 Ti in this review model more than pulls its weight: the screen resolution is 1440p, which means you’re practically guaranteed to clear 60fps in just about any game, higher if you use Nvidia’s DLSS upscaling software. In my time messing around with (sorry, carefully testing) the GE67 HX, I found that it ran all the games I played smoothly and looked good doing it.

Now, I had my gripes with the Raider GE67 HX, but they feel fairly petty in the face of its excellent performance and solid physical design. Yeah, it’s heavy, and sure, the battery life is typically lackluster (something even the best gaming laptop is going to struggle with), but these aren’t major failings as far as I’m concerned. My only major issue with the GE67 HX was how noisy the fans got, but if you’re going to use this laptop at home with a gaming headset atop your noggin, you should have no problems whatsoever - this is an excellent heavyweight choice, deserving to stand among the best laptops we’ve reviewed so far this year.

MSI Raider GE67 HX review: Price and availability

  • Starts at $2,499.99
  • UK version costs £3,099, as tested
  • Three different models available

With a starting price of $2,499.99 (around £2,030 / AU$3,730) for the RTX 3070 Ti model and a hefty $3,499.99 (£3,099, around AU$5,220) for the high-spec RTX 3080 Ti model I’m reviewing here, the MSI Raider GE67 HX isn’t exactly cheap. In fact, it sits towards the more expensive end of gaming laptops with the same GPU - but that’s not the only factor to consider here.

Most gaming laptops in the same weight class as the GE67 HX have normal laptop CPUs from Intel, denoted by an ‘H’ at the end of the name rather than this model’s HX variant. The HX chips are essentially desktop processors with more cores squeezed into a laptop profile, meaning that the CPU performance of this Raider will beat many of its peers. You’re also looking at a premium to pay for that gorgeous display, but I’d argue it’s worth the price - though anyone on a budget should definitely look at the best cheap laptops instead.

The MSI Raider GE67 HX photographed on a wooden desk with RGB lighting turned on.

(Image credit: Future)

Since this is an MSI product, you can’t buy it directly from the manufacturer in the US or Europe. Fortunately, MSI laptops are generally pretty easy to find on Amazon or similar big retailers; in fact, I spotted the 3070 Ti model of this laptop going for just $1,999 on Amazon, a seriously good deal.

  • Price score: 3.5/5

MSI Raider GE67 HX review: Specs

There are three main versions of the MSI Raider GE67 HX, which use the RTX 3080 Ti, 3080, and 3070 Ti respectively. The latter two models can come with a slightly cheaper 12800HX processor instead of the 12900HX found in my review unit; all come with 32GB of DDR5 RAM as standard, with up to a 2TB SSD depending on the model.

The MSI Raider GE67 HX photographed on a wooden desk with RGB lighting turned on.

(Image credit: Future)

MSI Raider GE67 HX review: Design

  • Beautiful display
  • Sturdy (if heavy) chassis
  • Great range of ports

First things first: wow, that’s a gorgeous screen. The 1440p OLED panel used in the MSI Raider GE67 HX is fantastic, offering VESA-certified TrueBlack 600 HDR with amazing contrast and great color reproduction along with a 0.2ms response time and 240Hz. I was consistently impressed with just how good the display looked across a variety of games, with colors that popped and deep, true blacks.

That means that it doesn’t just make games look great and provide super-snappy responsiveness and framerates for fast-paced games - it’s also capable of pulling double duty for content creators such as digital artists and video editors, thanks to the RTX 3080 Ti GPU. If you’re looking for a gaming machine that can also support your hobby (or professional work), this is a great pick.

Looking at the physical chassis, we’ve got a nice robust finish that practically screams ‘gaming’. From the prominent MSI branding on the lid and the large heat vents to the RGB lightbar and keyboard, this is a gamer’s product through and through. In other words, if you’re looking for something that won’t stand out in an office environment, this might not be the laptop for you.

The MSI Raider GE67 HX photographed on a wooden desk with RGB lighting turned on.

(Image credit: Future)

Connectivity is as good as it gets, with three USB-A ports and two USB-Cs (one of which is Thunderbolt 4 enabled) joined by HDMI video output, an Ethernet port, and an SD card reader - the latter of which has become something of a rarity on gaming laptops, and will no doubt appeal to photographers. These ports are quite evenly spread around the left, right, and rear edges of the laptop, with the charging port located on the back edge so it’s not in the way when you’re using it - since you’ll want to have it plugged in whenever possible.

The SteelSeries-designed keyboard is excellent, comfortable to use whether you’re typing or gaming, with a good level of key travel and no sponginess or noticeable input latency. The per-key RGB lighting can be easily synchronized with other SteelSeries products too, so if you’re planning on hooking up one of the best gaming mice or any other peripherals from SteelSeries, your whole setup can look fly as heck.

The trackpad is a bit less impressive; it’s not as large as I’d like for a laptop of this size, and the click feels a tad flimsy and unsatisfying. It’s not terrible, but if there’s one area where the Raider GE67 HX’s physical exterior falls down, it’s that. Fortunately, the ‘Duo Wave’ speakers deliver impressive audio in both volume and clarity - a department where many gaming laptops fall down badly. The webcam is also a decent 1080p offering, which makes a noticeable difference in video calls compared to its 720p brethren.

  • Design score: 4.5/5

MSI Raider GE67 HX review: Performance

  • Strong 1440p gaming performance
  • Intel HX-class processor is powerful
  • Fans do get seriously noisy
Benchmarks

Here's how the MSI Raider GE67 HX performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

3DMark Night Raid: 55,726; Fire Strike: 26,805; Time Spy: 11,914
Cinebench R20 multi-core: 8,862
GeekBench 5: 1,888 (single-core); 15,841 (multi-core)
PCMark 10 (Modern Office): 9,079
PCMark 10 (Battery life test): 3 hours and 6 minutes
TechRadar Battery Life Test: 3 hours and 55 minutes
Total War: Warhammer III (1080p, Ultra): 92 fps; (1080p, Low): 218 fps
Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p, Ultra): 109 fps; (1080p, Low): 266 fps
Dirt 5 (1080p, Ultra): 134 fps; (1080p, Low): 293 fps 

Unsurprisingly given its powerful internal components, the MSI Raider GE67 HX made short work of our benchmarking suite. Buttery-smooth gaming at either 1080p or 1440p is no trouble at all for the RTX 3080 Ti, and there’s the option to turn on DLSS should you want to kick all the ray-tracing settings on in games like Cyberpunk 2077.

Our standard testing sees us benchmark games at 1080p resolution as a baseline standard, but I also tested all three games at 1440p to match the GE67 HX’s screen resolution, and all three cleared 60 frames per second at Ultra graphical settings without needing DLSS. This undeniably impressive showing demonstrates that even if the RTX 3080 Ti might be a generation behind now, this gaming laptop is still pretty darn future-proof.

Performance in synthetic graphical tests such as 3DMark Time Spy was similarly strong, and that HX-series CPU just sings in multi-core benchmarks, showing very strong scores in GeekBench 5 and Cinebench R20. Everyday workloads should be zero trouble here either, as evidenced by good performance in the PCMark 10 ‘modern office’ benchmark.

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The MSI Raider GE67 HX photographed on a wooden desk with RGB lighting turned on.

(Image credit: Future)
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The MSI Raider GE67 HX photographed on a wooden desk with RGB lighting turned on.

(Image credit: Future)
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The MSI Raider GE67 HX photographed on a wooden desk with RGB lighting turned on.

(Image credit: Future)

Just going back to the topic of future-proofing for a moment, this is a good place to mention that the RAM and SSD found in the MSI Raider GE67 HX are user-upgradable, meaning you can swap out your memory and storage for higher-capacity options further down the line should you so wish. I’d attest that the 32GB of DDR5 RAM in our review model is more than sufficient, but 1TB of storage won’t be enough for some users so it’s nice to see upgrading is an option here.

While the overall performance was very strong, I did have one point of contention while testing the GE67 HX: this thing is loud. Twin fans and seven heat pipes appear to do a reasonably good job of cooling the laptop (it certainly does get a bit warm, but nowhere near as hot as some of the gaming laptops I’ve reviewed), but those fans sound like a pair of tiny helicopters crammed into the plastic casing when you’re playing the best PC games.

Noisy fans are somewhat par for the course when it comes to gaming laptops these days so this is hardly a dealbreaker, but that doesn’t make me any less annoyed by it. It’s doubly frustrating here, where the performance is so good and the speakers are excellent - realistically, the best way to use this laptop is to grab yourself one of the best PC gaming headsets to block out the fan drone.

  • Performance score: 4/5

The MSI Raider GE67 HX photographed on a wooden desk with RGB lighting turned on.

(Image credit: Future)

MSI Raider GE67 HX review: Battery life

  • Giant battery doesn’t really salvage the battery life
  • Less than two hours of gaming
  • Less than five hours of light use

Gaming laptops are hardly famed for their stellar battery life, but the MSI Raider GE67 HX still disappoints. Despite packing a ginormous 99.9Whr battery (just barely below the legal limit allowed on airplanes!), it isn’t able to make it through an eight-hour workday even with the brightness on 50% and a workload of nothing more straining than web browsing and word processing.

Gaming is predictably even worse; I unplugged it at full battery one evening and played some Apex Legends with the volume at 50% and brightness at maximum, and it perished just shy of the 90-minute mark. Sure, most of its peers sit in the exact same boat, but it’s a shame to see when MSI trumpets the power of its titanic battery in the Raider’s marketing material.

Ultimately, the battery life falls in the middle of gaming laptops around the same price range: not the worse, but far from the best. Naturally, it’s worth bearing in mind that the lower-spec models of the GE67 HX have the same internal battery, so should offer somewhat better battery life. It also takes quite a while to charge to full (around two and a half hours) despite its chunky AC adaptor.

  • Battery life: 3.5/5

Should you buy the MSI Raider GE67 HX?

Buy it if...

You want a desktop replacement
The MSI Raider GE67 HX isn't the most portable of laptops, weighing over 2kg and possessing a fairly bulky chassis. If you just want to set it up and mainly use it in one place, it's the perfect replacement for a full-scale desktop PC.

You want to play esports games
Looking to play competitive titles like Valorant or Overwatch 2? That powerful GPU and snappy 240Hz OLED display mean you'll never have to worry about frame drops or input latency again.

You're a gamer and a creative
Oddly, this gaming laptop has a bunch of features that will likely appeal to creative types. A tonne of ports including an SD card reader and a high-quality display make this a good choice for photographers and video enthusiasts.

Don't buy it if...

You need something portable
This Raider is just a bit too big and heavy to easily carry around in a bad - consider something like a Razer Blade 14, or the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14.

You want a laptop for the office
There are plenty of minimalist gaming laptops that won't look out of place in a professional office environment - the MSI Raider GE67 HX, however, is not one of them. This is clearly a gaming product, and that's an aesthetic that won't suit everyone.

You're on a budget
The GE67 HX isn't ludicrously expensive for its components, but it's certainly on the pricier end of the gaming laptop scale. If money is tight, look for something with an RTX 3060 or 3050 Ti instead.

MSI Raider GE67 HX review: Also consider

If my MSI Raider GE67 HX review has you considering other options, here are two more laptops to consider...  

How I tested the MSI Raider GE67 HX

The MSI Raider GE67 HX photographed on a wooden desk with RGB lighting turned on.

(Image credit: Future)
  • Used for a week's regular work at home
  • Played games on it during the evenings
  • Took it with me to a friend's house

As with most gaming laptops I review, I simply replaced my everyday computers (an HP 2-in-1 from 2019 and my custom-built gaming desktop) with the MSI Raider GE67 HX for about a week, using it both for work and play.

This meant I used it for about eight hours a day to do all sorts of regular tasks, then squeezed in some gaming (on various titles including Warframe and Overwatch 2) whenever I could in the evenings - I have a fiance and a dog who frequently demand my attention, but I did my best. Naturally, this was in addition to running our usual suite of benchmarking tests.

Most of my testing was conducted with the laptop plugged in, but I'm always sure to use it unplugged for a while to gauge its real-world battery life. I also threw it in my messenger bag and took it on public transport to a friend's house, which I wouldn't really recommend - it's heavy, and so is the charger.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed March 2023

Lenovo Legion 5i (2022) review: Lenovo delivers again – and it won’t cost the world
4:01 pm | March 17, 2023
Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets | Tags: , , | Comments: Off

Lenovo Legion 5i (2022): Two-minute review

Lenovo’s Legion line of gaming laptops has been putting out bangers for years. Back in 2021, we reviewed the previous model of this laptop - the RTX 2060-equipped Lenovo Legion 5i - and were generally impressed by the solid performance and fair pricing. More recently, we awarded the Legion 5 Pro a rare 5-star review, again citing its excellent gaming capabilities and sensible price tag.

We’re pleased to report that having spent some time with the most recent 2022 model of the Lenovo Legion 5i, it remains able to trade blows with the best gaming laptops and packs a punch despite its humble appearance.

The model we tested came with an Intel Core i7-12700H CPU and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card, which puts it pretty squarely in the mid-range space as far as gaming laptops go. There’s a variety of other models with different processors and GPUs, all of which look to offer a comparable price-to-performance ratio to our review unit.

The Lenovo Legion 5i (2022) gaming laptop on a wooden desk.

(Image credit: Future)

Although this model of the Lenovo Legion 5i (2022) comes with a 1440p display, the RTX 3060 inside it is arguably more of a 1080p card. You can squeeze some extra frames out of it at 1440p using Nvidia’s nifty DLSS tech, however, so the pairing isn’t entirely foolish. There are models of the Legion 5i (and the AMD Ryzen-powered Legion 5) that use a 1080p display instead, but we think opting for the higher resolution is worth it here since the display on our review model is actually excellent for the asking price.

On top of generally solid performance and specs, the Lenovo Legion 5i is also just a very nice piece of hardware. It might sound like a silly thing to fixate on, but all of the best laptops have an appealing physical design, and the Legion 5i is no exception; a sleek metallic grey finish with a backlit keyboard and a robust hinge.

Lenovo hasn’t skimped on the features here either, with a solid selection of physical ports and the latest Wi-Fi 6E capabilities. The DDR5 memory is a great added bonus (especially since a lot of more affordable gaming laptops are still rocking DDR4, and it’s not a mandatory upgrade for the 12th-gen Intel CPU), and we were surprised to see not just regular USB-C ports but also a Thunderbolt 4 port.

It’s a bit on the heavy side, and the battery life is unsurprisingly garbage, two pitfalls that almost every gaming laptop trips into. Ultimately though, this isn’t a laptop for on-the-go gaming; it’s a desktop replacement system, and it does that just fantastically.

Lenovo Legion 5i (2022) review: Price and availability

  • Starts at $1,099.99 / £1,293.49 / AU$2,349
  • UK version tested costs £1,800
  • Massive variety of configurations

The Lenovo Legion 5i starts at $1,099.99 in the US, which gets you essentially the same system as the one we’ve reviewed here, but with a 1080p display and an RTX 3050 Ti instead of an RTX 3060. For our money, the 1080p RTX 3060 model available in the US is a massively better value since it’s only marginally more expensive at $1,229.99.

The highest-spec model - which packs double the RAM and an RTX 3070 Ti GPU - costs $2,499.99 - not quite as much bang for your buck, in our opinion. There are also the Legion 5i Pro models and Legion 5 models of both (which use AMD Ryzen CPUs; note the lack of ‘i’ denoting ‘Intel’). The cheapest Legion 5 available costs $1,049.99, but we wouldn’t recommend getting the bottom-dollar model.

The Lenovo Legion 5i (2022) gaming laptop on a wooden desk.

(Image credit: Future)

Our review model is a UK unit that costs £1,500 (AU$3,169), which doesn’t quite hold up to the US pricing but is still decent considering the 1440p screen and i7 processor (the cheaper models in the US use a Core i5-12500H). It looks like this exact model isn’t available in the US; if you want a higher resolution, it means opting for a slightly bigger screen. We ran our tests in 1080p, though, so the performance stats found below will be useful for both British and American readers.

Overall, it’s not going to touch the best cheap laptops out there if you’re looking for a super-budget device, but it does offer a strong level of performance and a wide feature set for the asking price. It’s also worth noting that Lenovo has regular flash sales on its own online store, and many of its gaming laptops come with a free 3-month trial of PC Game Pass, further adding to the value.

  • Price score: 4.5/5

Lenovo Legion 5i (2022) review: Specs

The Lenovo Legion 5i comes in a wide range of configurations, with the CPU and GPU being the primary varying factor. It can come with an Intel Core i5 or i7 processor and a variety of Nvidia RTX 3000 GPUs, from the 3050 up to the 3070 Ti. RAM and SSD capacity also vary between models; you can see the version we received below, along with the highest-spec and lowest-spec configurations.

The Lenovo Legion 5i (2022) gaming laptop on a wooden desk.

(Image credit: Future)

Lenovo Legion 5i (2022) review: Design

  • Robust, well-designed chassis
  • Relatively thin, but heavy
  • Ports are mostly on the rear edge

Lenovo hasn’t made any huge changes to the physical design of the Legion laptop line for a little while, but that’s fine by us. This Legion 5i is a good-looking laptop with a relatively minimalist style, a far cry from the gaudy RGB-laden products that typically populate the gaming laptop section of your local tech hardware store.

The exterior is mostly brushed metal, which gives the chassis a solid, durable feel that should hold up to bumps and drops. It’s also thinner than many gaming laptops in its power and price class, making it a bit more portable, but this is somewhat counteracted by the metal construction resulting in increased overall weight. It’s not the heaviest gaming laptop we’ve reviewed, but at two and a half kilos for a 15-inch model, it’s certainly not lightweight.

While there are some USB ports and a headphone jack on the sides of the laptop, most of the physical ports are situated along the back edge. This will be a matter of personal taste; we’re divided here on the TechRadar team as to whether these rear ports are actually more convenient. Some gaming laptops position literally all the ports on the rear edge, which can make plugging in a USB mouse or flash drive inconvenient, so it’s good to see that at least some of the ports are more accessible here.

The Lenovo Legion 5i (2022) gaming laptop on a wooden desk.

(Image credit: Future)

The keyboard isn’t doing anything particularly revolutionary here, but it’s comfortable to use and the slightly curved shape of the keycaps means that your fingers easily find each key when you’re typing. Lenovo has done a good job of packing in a full-scale keyboard with a numpad here. Nothing feels cramped, and the arrow keys jut out slightly from the keyboard’s outline to avoid compacting the up and down buttons (as many laptops do).

The touchpad is perfectly fine but isn’t likely to see much use since this is a gaming laptop, and anyone using it for extended periods is almost certainly going to connect a gaming mouse. The same goes for the twin stereo speakers, which are functional but decidedly unimpressive. Know that you’re going to want a proper gaming headset - though again, this is a criticism we could level at the majority of gaming laptops.

  • Design score: 4/5

The Lenovo Legion 5i (2022) gaming laptop on a wooden desk.

(Image credit: Future)

Lenovo Legion 5i (2022) review: Features

  • Wi-Fi 6E and Thunderbolt 4 support
  • Good display
  • Legion software suite is just okay

The Lenovo Legion 5i’s display is a pretty straightforward 1440p panel, which offers a snappy 165Hz refresh rate for esports gaming and generally pretty excellent color reproduction. We do wish the blacks were a little deeper, but considering the price point here, we couldn’t reasonably expect visual perfection. Some cheaper versions are available with a 1080p display instead (specific model availability varies a lot between regions, though).

Above the display is a 720p webcam and mic array, which feel like a bit of an afterthought but are a welcome inclusion nonetheless for anyone who might want to use this laptop for video calls. We were pleased to see a physical kill switch for the camera on the side of the laptop, so you can disable it when you’re not using it. Don’t expect to use it for streaming, though, since we’d say 1080p is really the minimum for that.

All models of the Legion 5i (including the entry-level configurations) use Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.1. The former has been around for a while in more premium gaming laptops, so it’s good to see that it’s now becoming the norm - replacing the slower Wi-Fi 6 standard - in more budget-friendly devices too.

The Lenovo Legion 5i (2022) gaming laptop on a wooden desk.

(Image credit: Future)

There’s also Thunderbolt 4 support, specifically for one of the USB-C ports on the laptop's right-hand side. It can’t be used for input power delivery so you won’t be able to charge the laptop with this port, but the speed of Thunderbolt 4 will no doubt be a boon for users who intend to take advantage of the USB-C ports.

Lastly, we need to discuss the preinstalled software that comes with the Legion 5i. Lenovo Vantage is a relatively straightforward utility software for monitoring and tweaking your system performance; it’s nothing groundbreaking, but it does the job well enough. There’s also the Legion AI Engine, which uses deep learning to intelligently redirect power between the CPU and GPU to optimize performance.

Legion Arena, on the other hand, is pointless. It’s a ‘shared launcher’ tool that allows you to launch games from different apps (like Steam, Epic, or GoG) all in one convenient place. Every gaming laptop seems to have a version of this now, and it’s broadly useless. What’s wrong with desktop shortcuts?

  • Features: 4.5/5

Lenovo Legion 5i (2022) review: Performance

  • 1080p is ideal; 1440p is an option for most games
  • 12th-gen Intel i7 CPU works hard
  • Gets a little warm when gaming
Benchmarks

Here's how the Lenovo Legion 5i (2022) performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

3DMark Night Raid: 52,681; Fire Strike: 20,792; Time Spy: 9,753
Cinebench R20 multi-core: 7,313
GeekBench 5: 1,768 (single-core); 12,904 (multi-core)
PCMark 10 (Modern Office): 8,062
PCMark 10 (Battery life test): 3 hours and 32 minutes
TechRadar Battery Life Test: 3 hours and 59 minutes
Total War: Warhammer III (1080p, Ultra): 66 fps; (1080p, Low): 175 fps
Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p, Ultra): 70 fps; (1080p, Low): 113 fps
Dirt 5 (1080p, Ultra): 75 fps; (1080p, Low): 159 fps 

Considering the price point, the overall performance of the Lenovo Legion 5i (2022) is incredible. Sure, that RTX 3060 isn’t going to blow you away with 4K gaming delights, but it provides excellent framerates at 1080p in all the best PC games. You can comfortably play Cyberpunk 2077 at maxed-out settings in FHD without your fps dropping below 60.

It’s definitely competent enough to make full use of the 1440p display in our review model, too - provided you dial back the graphical settings a bit. You can also use DLSS to boost the framerate at higher resolutions. We don’t feature these in our benchmarking tests since they’re not running natively, but you should be aware that it’s an option!

The Intel Core i7-12700H at the heart of this Legion laptop is fantastic; the upgraded performance/efficiency split core architecture of Intel’s 12th-generation processors produces amazing multicore performance, meaning that the Legion 5i sings in CPU-intensive games such as real-time strategy titles. DDR5 memory support is also a nice bonus here; Lenovo could’ve easily stuck with cheaper DDR4 instead.

The Lenovo Legion 5i (2022) gaming laptop on a wooden desk.

(Image credit: Future)

CPU performance outside of games is great too, with decent results in the Cinebench R20 and GeekBench 5 multicore tests. The midrange GPU means that this isn’t going to be the perfect machine for high-end workloads like video editing or 3D animation, but it should be able to handle some casual creative work - something that is in increasing demand among younger users.

The twin fans that comprise the Legion 5i’s cooling solution aren’t too noisy - a rare sight among gaming laptops these days, which frequently sound like they’re about to blast off Team Rocket-style - but the laptop’s metal casing does get a bit warm on the underside during extended use.

It’s nothing too egregious (we’ve reviewed laptops that could double as space heaters) but it’s too hot to actually put it on your lap while you’re gaming. If you’re planning on using this laptop for long gaming sessions, you might want to invest in one of the best laptop cooling pads - or just get a hardback book to prop up the back edge and give the fans underneath some breathing room.

  • Performance score: 4.5/5

The Lenovo Legion 5i (2022) AC adapter on a wooden desk.

(Image credit: Future)

Lenovo Legion 5i review: Battery life

  • Maxes out at four hours
  • Significantly less for actual gaming use
  • Supports fast charging

We could fill this entire section in basically every gaming laptop review with a single sentence reading ‘look, it’s a gaming laptop; the battery life is bad’. But we won’t, because we’re professional journalists (and our editorial overlords would shout at us).

This wasn’t a shock. With any modern gaming laptop you’re going to spend most of your time near a wall outlet, and the overall battery life isn’t terrible, so we can’t count it too much against the Legion 5i. On the bright side, it charges very fast indeed, topping the battery up by as much as 80% in just half an hour. 

  • Battery life: 3.5/5

Should you buy the Lenovo Legion 5i (2022)?

Buy it if...

You want bang for your buck
While there are certainly cheaper laptops out there, the Lenovo Legion 5i (2022) offers a perfectly sound price-to-performance proposition with affordable entry-level configurations.

You need lots of ports
The Legion 5i has basically every physical connection you could want from a gaming laptop, including Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, and an Ethernet port to ensure your internet connection remains speedy and stable.

You like esports games
The 165Hz screen is great for twitchy esports shooters like CS:GO and Valorant, where high refresh rates are king, and the RTX 3060 GPU should be able to easily handle running those games at buttery-smooth framerates. 

Don't buy it if...

You’re a streamer
Anyone hunting for a gaming laptop to stream on Twitch with should probably be looking at some slightly higher-end hardware; the 720p camera and RTX 3060 on offer here aren’t quite going to cut it.

You don’t want to wear a headset
While most gamers will be perfectly happy with donning a pair of cans to play, some prefer speaker audio - and in this area, the Legion 5i underdelivers. If you want to be playing music, movies, or game audio out loud, you may be better served elsewhere.

You want ultra portability
The Lenovo Legion 5i (2022) is actually fairly thin and compact for a gaming laptop, but its all-metal construction makes it quite heavy overall, and it’s still a 15-inch laptop so it won’t fit in smaller bags.

Lenovo Legion 5i (2022) review: Also consider

If our Lenovo Legion 5i (2022) review has you considering other options, here are two more laptops to consider...  

How I tested the Lenovo Legion 5i (2022)

The Lenovo Legion 5i (2022) gaming laptop on a wooden desk.

(Image credit: Future)
  • I used the laptop for everyday work for two weeks
  • I played games on it for just under eight hours in total
  • I dropped it on my kitchen floor

Anyone who knows me won't be shocked to hear that I've reviewed dozens upon dozens of gaming laptops, and at this point, my testing process is quite refined. I spent close to eight hours just playing games such as Destiny 2 and Cyberpunk 2077 on the Lenovo Legion 5i (2022) - outside of work hours, to be clear - as well as using it for general tasks during the day.

I specifically used it to write the majority of this review (along with some other articles) in order to get a good feel of the keyboard quality, and specifically used it without a mouse for the majority of my non-gaming time with it - something I would never normally do, but it's useful for gauging the performance of the trackpad.

I also, upon first unboxing the Legion 5i, managed to drop it directly onto the wooden floor of my kitchen. This was not an intentional piece of durability testing, but the laptop was mercifully undamaged, allowing me to remark on its robust chassis. While years of testing laptops may have attuned me to their strengths and flaws, it has not made me any less of a klutz.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed March 2023

MSI GT77 Titan (2023) review: a gaming laptop that lives up to its name
12:01 am | March 15, 2023
Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets | Tags: , , , | Comments: Off

MSI GT77 Titan (2023): Two-minute review

The MSI GT77 Titan (2023) is the first laptop I've gotten my hands on that features Nvidia's latest mobile RTX 4000-series GPUs and Intel's latest 13th-gen Core i9 HX processor, and I can confirm that the hype around this hardware is very, very justified. If anything, the media buzz can't even prepare you for how powerful this laptop actually is in practice, especially the RTX 4090 mobile GPU.

To start, the GT77 Titan can be configured with either an Nvidia RTX 4080 or Nvidia RTX 4090 mobile with the Intel Core i9-13980HX. There are no options for a Core i7 or lower, because that's for peasants, probably. There will be no scrimping with this laptop.

Obviously, the specs are the reason you are buying this gaming laptop. There is nothing all that compelling about its design, which is the same standard black stealth-bomber-car-transformer looking thing with twinkly RGB lighting that gaming laptops have been sporting for a very long time now. 

Yes, it's a stale design, but if you're worried that someone might see it and roll their eyes, this thing is never leaving your desk because it weighs close to 7.5 lbs / 3.5kg. This is strictly a desktop replacement. 

In terms of ports and other features, this is a very solid laptop, with just about every port you could ask for with a gorgeous 4K display running at 144Hz and seemingly as bright as a headlight on a car when turned all the way up. There's even a privacy shutter over the webcam, which is something you just don't see on too many gaming laptops out there.

Finally, when it comes to performance, there are some slips in terms of CPU performance (which is still generally outstanding) and the RTX 4090 GPU offers best-in-class gaming performance, but the premium you're paying for that performance might be too much for some to stomach.

MSI GT77 Titan (2023): Price & availability

An MSI GT77 Titan on a pink desktop mat

(Image credit: Future)
  • Starts obscenely expensive and goes up from there
  • More or less in line with competitors running the same hardware

Ok, so you will need to understand that the MSI GT77 Titan (2023) is more like a Ferrari than it is a Ford Focus or Dodge Neon. This is a top-tier kit, but you will be paying a very high price for entry, or about as much or more as the best gaming PC with comparable performance, and in terms of value, I don't very much that this laptop will compare well to the latest crop of gaming laptops set to start coming out in the first half of 2023.

The GT77 Titan is available in the US for $4,299.99 (about £3,570 / AU$6,240) as its starting price. This will get you an RTX 4080 GPU, 64GB DDR5 RAM, and a 2TB NVMe SSD. For $4,699.99 (about £3,905 / AU$6,820), you can get it with an RTX 4090 GPU, while a $5,299.99 (about £4,400 / AU$7,690) configuration can get you an RTX 4090, 128GB DDR5, and 4TB of storage. All three models come with the Intel Core i9-13980HX CPU.

I can (and I will) argue that this is possibly the best gaming laptop I have ever come across, performance-wise. But it is also something that most of us will only ever look at online and go "That's wild, man!" before going for something far more affordable, like the model in our Lenovo Legion Pro 7i review. 

If you're in the position of hitting the "Buy it now" button, then this is probably one of a small handful of laptops you should consider. But if that isn't you, the Legion Pro 7i is about half the price and is still going to give you outstanding performance.

As always with tech this premium, availability outside the US is also a bit of an issue, and we've reached out to MSI about when the GT77 Titan will be available in the UK and Australia and at what price. We'll update this review if and when we hear back from the manufacturer.

  • Price score: 2 / 5

MSI GT77 Titan (2023): Specs

  • Latest Nvidia RTX 4000-series GPUs
  • Intel Core i9-13980HX processor
  • Bright, 144Hz refresh 4K mini-LED display 

The MSI GT77 Titan features the latest and greatest both Intel and Nvidia have to offer, with every model of GT77 Titan for purchase coming with the latest Intel Core-i9 13980HX CPU, which is as good as it gets for mobile processors this generation. 

Pair that with the new Nvidia RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 mobile GPUs, and you've got about as powerful a machine as you're going to find. You also start out with 64GB DDR5 RAM and can get as much as 128GB DDR5, with either 2TB or 4TB of storage space.

The display is one of the biggest draws here beyond the incredible hardware under the hood. The mini LED IPS panel is 144Hz at 4K resolution, so this is not only as crisp and fast a laptop display as you're going to get, but also makes it possible to get HDR 1000 as well as one of the brightest laptop displays I've seen outside of a MacBook or OLED panel.

Finally, it's packing a 99.9WHr battery, managing a decent amount of battery life for what it's packing. Though that also means it's absolutely huge and weighs a metaphorical ton at 7.28 lbs (3.30 kg). This is purely a desktop replacement-level kit.

  • Specs score: 5 / 5

MSI GT77 Titan (2023): Design

An MSI GT77 Titan on a pink desktop mat

(Image credit: Future)
  • Plenty of ports
  • Full-sized keyboard
  • Physical webcam privacy shutter
Spec Sheet

Here is the MSI GT77 Titan (2023) configuration sent to TechRadar for review:

CPU: Intel Core i9-13950HX Processor
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090
RAM: 64GB DDR5 (32GB x 2)
Screen: 17.3-inch IPS, mini LED, 4K, 144hz
Storage: 2TB SSD
Ports: 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 2, 2 x Thunderbolt 4 w/ DP, 1 x HDMI 2.1, 1 x Mini DisplayPort 1.4, 1 x 3.5mm combo jack, 1 x SD card slot, 1 x RJ45
Camera: IR 720p HD w/shutter
Weight: 7.28 lbs | 3.30 kg
Size: 15.63 x 12.99 x 0.91 inches | 397 x 329.95 x 23.11 mm

Since this laptop is largely going to sit on your desk and nowhere else, we'll start with its rather massive footprint. At nearly 16 inches wide and over a foot deep, even the best backpack around isn't going to fit this laptop unless it's one of those massive hiking ones you see at Machu Pichu or something. 

And God help you if you try to carry this thing up the block, much less up a mountain. At 7.28 lbs (3.30kg), not including its brick of a power supply, only the strongest backs can support carrying this thing around anywhere.

Still, for something that's going to sit on your desk, it's the standard MSI sports car hood aesthetic. To its credit, it's about the pinnacle of the form, even if that form is getting a bit old. 

Open the lid, and you're looking at a per-key RGB backlit mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX switches for a very satisfying experience. Is it overkill for a gaming keyboard? Absolutely, but this entire laptop is overkill, and to its credit, the GT77 Titan leaves everything on the field.

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An MSI GT77 Titan on a pink desktop mat

(Image credit: Future)
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An MSI GT77 Titan on a pink desktop mat

(Image credit: Future)
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An MSI GT77 Titan on a pink desktop mat

(Image credit: Future)

There are plenty of ports, which we would expect from something this huge, and there really isn't a need for a dock. With three USB 3.2 Gen 2, two Thunderbolt 4 (w/ display output), one HDMI 2.1, and one Mini DisplayPort 1.4 port — as well as a 3.5mm combo jack — you're not going to be left wanting. There's even an SD card slot and an ethernet port to round everything out.

Finally, I want to shout out the physical privacy switch on the webcam, which slides over to close the lens. It has been just over three years since the first Covid-19 lockdowns and everyone has been using the webcam on their laptops for just about everything, but not enough laptop makers have been including this essential privacy function. It's not hard, but it's not ubiquitous, so good on MSI for making sure this laptop is up to speed with the times.

  • Design score: 4 / 5

MSI GT77 Titan (2023): Performance

An MSI GT77 Titan on a pink desktop mat

(Image credit: Future)
  • Best-in-class gaming performance
  • Sounds like a jet engine under load
  • Solid sound out of a laptop

It's still the early days of the new Intel and Nvidia mobile kit, so we don't have a whole lot to fairly compare the latest MSI GT77 Titan to. But it absolutely blows last year's Titan out of the water in our benchmark tests, and the model we tested is less powerful than the i9-13980HX that you would actually buy (though not that much less powerful).

In terms of gaming performance, both processors are fairly close in our Cyberpunk 2077 test on the low end of the resolution spectrum, with the GT Titan (2023) pulling out a solid gain of 9.09% over the previous year's model. Push that up to ultra settings at 1080p, however, and you get a 74.62% jump for 2023's GT77 Titan over the 2022 model.

Similarly, in Total War: Warhammer III, we get a much larger gain with the GT77 Titan (2023) over the 2022 model at low resolution (about a 75% improvement), while it doubles the frame rates at ultra resolution and 1080p. 

Things get somewhat more complicated when looking at the GT77 Titan (2023) against the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (2023). These two gaming laptops aren't even in the same class really, with the Legion Pro 7i sporting a Core i9-13900HX and an RTX 4080. But the Legion Pro 7i still outperforms the GT77 Titan in processor performance by a decent amount.

The i9-13900HX is only slightly slower (5.4GHz boost compared to the i9-13950HX's 5.5GHz), but it can score anywhere from 12% to 15% better on processor benchmarks than the GT77 Titan's i9-13950HX. These advantages extend to gaming performance on low settings where processor speeds are more determinative, but all these differences fall away when the GPU comes into play, such as when playing on ultra settings or using features like ray tracing and DLSS. 

Now there are a lot of reasons for why this might be the case. If I had to pick, I'd argue that Lenovo is a much better system integrator than MSI, and so Lenovo is better able to squeeze some extra performance out of the same specs. But it could also be a matter of the settings used, the cooling, etc. Still, the difference is there, even though you're likely not going to see the same kind of performance I did since the only chips that will be going into the GT77 Titans to hit the shelves will be the faster i9-13980HX.

Another thing to note about gaming performance here is that we don't benchmark using DLSS or ray tracing generally, since not all hardware is capable of those features - though I will say that DLSS 3 is the 2023 GT77 Titan's secret weapon here. 

An MSI GT77 Titan on a pink desktop mat

(Image credit: Future)

DLSS has been far more of a revolutionary graphics technology than even ray tracing, and DLSS 3 is absolutely next-level incredible in terms of the performance gains you can get.

Turn on DLSS 3 with Frame Generation, and you can get an average fps of 167 in Cyberpunk 2077 with ultra settings at 1080p, which is better than a lot of desktop PCs, and 30 fps better than the Legion Pro 7i with DLSS 3 turned on.

Turn things up to max settings with full ray tracing and DLSS 3 set to ultra performance with Frame Generation, and the GT77 Titan can get an average of 131fps, with a minimum of 100fps. Boost the resolution to 1440p, and you can get an average fps of 126 (59fps minimum), and at 4K, you can get an average of 110fps, with a minimum of 35fps.

To say these numbers are phenomenal is an understatement. These are high-performance desktop numbers, and the RTX 4090 mobile pushes out performance akin to an RTX 4070 Ti desktop card, which is the best graphics card most people can get right now. All of this is to say that the MSI GT77 Titan (2023) is a top-tier desktop-replacement gaming laptop, and few laptops are going to effectively compete at this level of graphics performance.

Something like the Legion Pro 7i might be configurable with an RTX 4090 at some point as well, and so it could theoretically get this kind of performance. Sadly, right now, you can't buy one with an RTX 4090 mobile in the US so the point is a bit moot.

  • Performance score: 5 / 5

MSI GT77 Titan (2023): battery life

An MSI GT77 Titan on a pink desktop mat

(Image credit: Future)
  • Pretty decent given the hardware
  • Charges reasonably fast

The MSI GT77 Titan isn't a laptop in name only, thanks to its 99.9WHr, as-large-as-legally-allowable-in-the-US battery. While you might think that the Nvidia RTX 4090 mobile chip would be the energy hog here, it's actually pretty decent. It's the Intel CPU that's really going to cut into that battery life if you're using this laptop for any length of time.

Still, it's good enough to get four hours and 30 minutes of video playback, though its PCMark 10 battery life test result is actually a smidge worse than its predecessor, coming in at three hours and one minute.

It charged from empty to full in about two hours, which is impressive given the enormous size of the battery that needs to be recharged. But considering the 330W power adapter you plug into this thing, it damn well better charge that fast.

  • Battery Score: 3 / 5

Should you buy the MSI GT77 Titan (2023)?

Buy it if...

You want the best gaming performance around
With an Intel Core i9-13980HX and an Nvidia RTX 4090 mobile GPU and DLSS 3, no game will put up much of a fight here, even at 4K.

You want an absolutely gorgeous display
This is the best-looking gaming laptop display I've seen that wasn't a high-end OLED panel.

You want lots of customization options
With per-key, lid-logo, and accent RGB, you can really get that gamer twinkly light look exactly to your liking.

Don't buy it if...

You want something affordable
The price of this laptop puts it out of reach of just about everyone reading this review.

You want something portable
Lulz. Better get a donkey if you want to cart this one around.

MSI GT77 Titan (2023): Also consider

If my MSI GT77 Titan review has you considering other options, here's another laptop to consider...

How I tested the MSI GT77 Titan (2023)

An MSI GT77 Titan on a pink desktop mat

(Image credit: Future)
  • I spent about a month testing the GT77 Titan
  • I used it as my main PC gaming machine for several weeks as well as creative work
  • I used in-game benchmarks from titles like Cyberpunk 2077 in addition to 3D Mark, CineBench R23 and others.

To review the MSI GT77 Titan (2023) I set the Titan up at home as my main PC gaming and content creation workstation (Lightroom, Photoshop, etc). I used it extensively for over a month to get a true sense of how well it performed.

This is ultimately a gaming laptop, so I focused most of my efforts in that direction, but with 100% DCI-P3 coverage, I also tested out its creative chops by editing photos and videos. 

I've reviewed dozens of laptops in this class over the years, including high-end desktop replacements and professional creative workstations, so I'm very keen on the subtleties of HDR 100 vs HDR 400 and what it means to have proper color coverage. As a lifelong gamer, I am also very sensitive to performance issues that can trip up PC games.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed March 2023

Alienware m17 R5 AMD Advantage review
6:46 pm | March 13, 2023
Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets | Tags: , , , | Comments: Off

Alienware m17 R5: Two-minute review

Is AMD Advantage - the red team’s moniker for machines using its Ryzen/Radeon combo rather than mixing and matching with Intel and Nvidia - truly the advantage its name suggests? That’s the unavoidable premise of this Alienware M17 review, but we won’t drag out the answer: it’s yes.  

The fact is that, AMD focus or not, this is one heck of a gaming laptop. It is as smooth as butter covered in grease on a plate made of Teflon. That feeling could easily be attributed to its ludicrous 120Hz 4K screen, were its numbers are not so strong. As it stands, the all-AMD m17 can muscle through your games as well as any. 

As well it should, given the investment you’ll need to make to get it going. At $2,350 (around £1,950 / AU$3,410), you’re talking the same spend as a fully-kitted-out gaming desktop PC, one which comes with a clearer upgrade path. You can switch out the RAM and SSDs here - an extra chunk of storage would not be a bad idea - and we doubt the processing package is going to feel dated any time soon, but that restriction is always a consideration when shelling out on a premium laptop.

Alienware m17 R5 AMD Advantage test unit on a table

(Image credit: Future / Alex Cox)

And this laptop really is premium. The chassis is an utter beauty, constructed not only with tough-enough materials and just the right amount of RGB lighting but with some very clever design touches. The sticky-out rear end gets rid of exhaust gasses, makes room for ports, and shoves the screen forward into your face; those ports which do make it onto the m17’s flanks are the ones you need for peripherals, placed exactly where you’ll want those peripherals attached.

The keyboard - not, on our review machine, the upgraded mechanical version but Dell’s membrane board - is decent, holding its own in gaming and eschewing a not-really-needed number pad in favour of giving itself room to breathe and your fingers room to move. The trackpad, slightly off-centre, works just fine. Even the battery lasts longer than you’d expect.

And none of that matters, because this is a big expensive gaming machine, and this Alienware m17 AMD Advantage review is proof that AMD has gained back any ground it might have once lost against Nvidia in the graphics department. It does get noisy when you’re pushing it, but the results speak for themselves.

Alienware m17 R5: Price and availability

  • AMD Advantage is a USA-only spin for now
  • Drop the specs if you’re looking for savings
Alienware m17 R5 AMD Advantage: Spec Sheet

Here is the Alienware m17 R5 AMD Advantage configuration sent to TechRadar for review:
CPU: Octa-core AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX 3.3GHz (4.9GHz boost), 16 threads
Graphics: 12GB AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (discrete), AMD Radeon 680M (integrated)
RAM: 32GB DDR5 @ 4800MHz
Screen: 17.3” 3840 x 2160, 120Hz, 3ms refresh
Storage: 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD
Optical drive: None
Ports: 3x Type-A USB 3.2 Gen 1 (one with PowerShare), 1x USB4 Type-C Port, audio combo jack, HDMI 2.1, RJ45 ethernet
Connectivity: MediaTek Wi-Fi 6 MT7921 2x2 and Bluetooth 5.2
Camera: 720p, 30fps RGB-IR webcam
Weight: 7.3 pounds (3.3 kg)
Size: 15.6 x 11.8 x 1.06 inches (39.7 x 29.9 x 2.7cm; W x D x H)

If you’re not in the US, you’re out of luck at the time of writing: Dell isn’t offering the Alienware m17 R5 AMD Advantage spin in any other region. Specced as our review model is, it’ll cost you a not insignificant $2,350 (around £1,950/AU$3,410) - though if you’d prefer to step down from a Ryzen 9 to a Ryzen 7 6800H (and take the forced downgrade to an RX6700M GPU) you can cut $300 from that amount. 

Further switching out for a 1080p screen (in delightful 360Hz form) and putting up with an entirely reasonable 16GB RAM and 512GB storage can bring the price down to an achievable $1,700. Ditching the AMD Advantage gimmick altogether and speccing down further to an RTX 3050 Ti and 165Hz FHD screen brings us to $1,250 - close to half of the price of our full-throttle example.

If you’re in other regions, you can still get the Alienware m17 R5 in a whole host of specs. Dell’s website is the place to go to find out exactly what each will cost - but AMD graphics aren’t yet available.

  • Price score: 4 / 5

Alienware m17 R5 AMD Advantage test unit on a table

(Image credit: Future / Alex Cox)

Alienware m17 R5: Design

  • Gorgeous, well-laid-out chassis
  • Clever cooling paths and port placement
  • Heavy - but worth it

Alienware’s big-boy laptop shell - also seen, in slightly slimmer form, on the x17 line - remains possibly the sexiest laptop design on the market. That’s a subjective assessment, one which assumes that you prefer curves, subtle hexagons and a noticeably rotund rear end over the harsh gamer angles of certain competitors. But we’re sticking by our assessment: it’s lovely.

Alienware m17 R5 AMD Advantage test unit on a table

(Image credit: Future / Alex Cox)

Practical, too. The junk in the m17’s trunk is far from just an aesthetic touch. It pulls the screen forward around 3cm (1 3/16”), putting the action closer to your face, allowing the exhaust to leave peacefully, and leaving room for power, HDMI 2.1, and one each of Type-A and DisplayPort-compatible 10GBit/sec Type-C out of the way on the rear. The hexagonal intake grille offers the internals a huge amount of air without compromising the looks or rigidity of the base and gives the onboard Atmos audio every opportunity to shine. 

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Alienware m17 R5 AMD Advantage test unit on a table

(Image credit: Future / Alex Cox)
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Alienware m17 R5 AMD Advantage test unit on a table

(Image credit: Future / Alex Cox)
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Alienware m17 R5 AMD Advantage test unit on a table

(Image credit: Future / Alex Cox)

The Dell design genius doesn’t stop there. The company’s beloved central screen hinge is here and it’s both plenty rigid and the perfect way to disguise what might otherwise be a fairly chunky chin. A scalloped-in base works to trick the eye into ignoring the understandably fat internal dimensions. Side ports are limited to a pair of Type-A sockets on the right - leaving lefties to trail a mouse cable around the back - and 2.5G Ethernet and audio on the left. It’s not a setup that feels cumbersome or cluttered if you’re gaming on a desk.

You may indeed be tempted to leave this firmly on a flat surface, given that it’s on the weightier end of the laptop spectrum at 7.3lbs/3.3kg, though it’s not necessarily as heavy as its bulk might suggest - nor as bulky as its hardcore internals could have led Alienware to make it. 

It’s upgradeable, to an extent. Beneath the bottom panel are a pair of PCI-E SSD slots, and the DDR5 is supplied by a pair of SODIMMs rather than some soldered-on package. You could also switch out the wireless card if you want the extra bandwidth of Wi-fi 6E since this features the 2x2 MediaTek MT7921, which tops out at Wi-fi 6.

Alienware m17 R5 AMD Advantage test unit on a table

(Image credit: Future / Alex Cox)

A note here on the lighting. Our review model of the Alienware m17 came with the middle-spec keyboard fitted, which offers per-key RGB - the lower spec offers a single zone, while the highest sports per-key lighting beneath Cherry MX switches for an extra fee. Aside from that - and the cute little Alienware logo - you’re not bombarded with a focus-breaking light show at the front; the rear does illuminate, and we think that’s enough.

Besides, the screen itself is plenty bold enough to scorch your retinas by itself. Dolby Vision support and a very generous 120Hz speed ensure that this 17.3” panel is as impressive as it is large.

  • Design score: 5 / 5

Alienware m17 R5 AMD Advantage test unit on a table

(Image credit: Future / Alex Cox)

Alienware m17 R5: Performance

  • Slick gaming performance
  • Great feeling keyboard
  • Automatic APU/GPU switching is cool
Alienware m17 R5: Benchmarks

Here's how the Alienware m17 R5 AMD Advantage performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

3DMark: Night Raid: 57530; Fire Strike: 28132; Time Spy: 11788
Cinebench R20 Multi-core: 5056 points
GeekBench 5: 935 (single-core); 5811 (multi-core)
PCMark 10: 7013 points
Battery Life (TechRadar movie test): 6 hours and 27 minutes
Total War: Warhammer III (1080p, Ultra): 86.5 fps; (1080p, Low): 202.7 fps
Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p, Ultra): 42.4 fps; (1080p, Low): 43.1 fps
Dirt 5 (1080p, Ultra): 109.7 fps; (1080p, Low): 185.2 fps

For the money, you’d expect the Alienware m17 to offer barn-burning performance, and it doesn’t disappoint. Our review model - mashing together AMD’s outrageous octa-core Ryzen 9 6900HX and the company’s up-and-coming 12GB Radeon RX 6850M XT GPU - slices merrily through almost everything, and its screen looks magnificent while doing it.

There’s an ‘almost’ there, but we’re not sure it’s something we should critique this m17 for. Playing Cyberpunk 2077 felt smooth enough - its recent addition of FSR 2.1 support probably doesn’t hurt - but its benchmark numbers didn’t reach the kind of lofty heights we’d expect, hovering around 40-ish FPS no matter what settings we applied. We’re going to paint that as an anomaly; Dirt 5 felt like it had unlimited frame overhead, and was smooth even when pushed to the extremes of the m7’s resolution; Total War: Warhammer III proved a doddle.

Even without the luxury of the mechanical switch upgrade, the m17’s keyboard is tight and deep enough to provide the kind of positive feedback that makes gaming good; the layout is entirely satisfactory and comfortable, to the point where we never even thought of reaching for an external keyboard. This fulfils the brief, and it’s hard to pick any holes in it; if we must be critical, extreme situations can lead to an understandable and perhaps slightly excessive amount of fan noise, but the m17 is happy to calm itself down when doing desktop duties. 

Admittedly shuffling windows around seems like too trivial a task for a machine of this price and game-friendly specification, but you’re going to be doing it so it’s not entirely irrelevant. The trackpad is large and responsive with a good click, the screen, running at full 4K res, is a delight, and smart no-reset switching between APU and GPU is a neat touch which goes some way to saving battery, too. Sure, you can work on the Alienware m17, if you can bring yourself to.

Let’s at least try to offer up the tiniest of nitpicks. Could the otherwise wasted space at the edges of the keyboard have accommodated a numerical pad? Yes, almost certainly - but given the m17’s primary purpose we’re glad the main keyboard layout wasn’t compressed. Could the trackpad have been central? We’re sure there’s some reason that it’s shifted slightly to the side, but it’s close enough to the middle that it didn’t bother us. Could the m17 have incorporated a better webcam? Again, yes: grainy 720p just doesn’t cut it, although our review machine also incorporated an IR sensor for Windows Hello support.

  • Performance score: 5 / 5

Alienware m17 R5 AMD Advantage test unit on a table

(Image credit: Future / Alex Cox)

Alienware m17 R5: Battery life

  • Unspectacular longevity…
  • …but probably slightly better than you’d expect

Battery life assessment feels relatively irrelevant for a big hefty desktop replacement. We’d often come to this point in the review and make some kind of half-hearted apology for the machine in question, accepting that you’re going to get three hours and like it.

This bucks the trend: six and a half hours in our movie-looping test was a big surprise, and while (clearly) you’ll not get anywhere near that when stressing the GPU, this lasts long enough that it’s not disappointing. Three hours of gaming isn’t out of the question.

  • Battery life score: 3 / 5

Should you buy the Alienware m17 R5?

Buy it if...

You’re a hardcore gamer
You’ll have to be hardcore to reach as deep into your pocket as you’ll need to, but this has both the looks and the performance to suit those who need the full experience on the move.

You’ll appreciate a big, high-res screen
The higher-spec tiers of the Alienware m17 probably offer more pixels than your games truly need - but whatever the resolution, this is a bold, beautiful panel that refreshes fast.

You have a small desk
The ports of the Alienware m17 are brilliantly laid out - compact gaming is far easier without cables getting in the way. And who needs a bulky desktop and monitor combo when you have this?

Don't buy it if...

You value portability
You could sling this in a bag. You could. But we’d paint that as an occasional indulgence at best because although the m17 isn’t over-heavy it’s most at home in the home.

You’re wary of AMD
To be clear, you shouldn’t be. This package shows just what the red team can do. If you’re dead set on an Nvidia card, though, a different spec of the m17 would suit you better.

You’re concerned about your budget
This is no-compromises gaming, with a price tag to match. If you’re willing to sacrifice just a little, you can spec this lower - or buy a completely different gaming-friendly laptop.

Alienware m17 R5: Also consider

If our Alienware m17 R5 AMD Advantage review has you considering other options, here are two laptops to consider...  

How we tested

We pride ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing process, offering up long-term attention to the products we review and making sure our reviews are updated and maintained - regardless of when a device was released, if you can still buy it, it's on our radar.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed March 2023

Lenovo Legion Pro 7i review: this powerful desktop replacement lets us down in one key area
3:00 pm | March 12, 2023
Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets | Tags: , , , | Comments: Off

Lenovo Legion Pro 7i: Two-minute review

As the next-gen GPUs are upon us, there are plenty of gaming laptops releasing this year that are already taking advantage of the powerful mobile cards. The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i is one of them, outfitted with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 GPU, a 13th-gen Intel Core i9-13900KF, 32 GB DDR5-5600MHz RAM, and 1 TB SSD M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 TLC storage. This is an absolute beast of a gaming laptop, made to be a desktop replacement with its extremely high specs and gaming performance.

Design-wise, this is a visually below-average laptop. It comes in black, the most overused color in the market, and thick and bulky, which is par for the course for most desktop replacements. Due to the large screen size and thickness to accommodate the RTX 4080 inside, it’s pretty heavy to lug around as well. 

There is a slight cool factor in the way the chassis is cute, lending it a sci-fi aesthetic that saves it from being downright ugly. However, its build quality is pretty high not to mention eco-friendly, with a metal chassis made of 50% recycled aluminum on the bottom cover and 30% post-consumer recycled polymers on the top cover.

There’s a healthy port selection: four USB-A 3.2 ports, one USB-C port, one Thunderbolt 4 port, one HDMI 2.1, one RJ45 ethernet, one power input, one electronic e-shutter switch, and one 3.5mm audio jack. What stands out, in particular, is the amount of USB Type-A ports this laptop has, which is a rarity nowadays. And the sheer variation means that you’ll always have a port for whatever need you may have.

Sound quality is quite solid as well, with large speakers on the sides of the laptop. The webcam is 1080p as well, also a rarity in laptops nowadays. The keyboard has some gorgeous and customizable RGB lighting, with nice wide keys for easy typing and a num lock pad for extra convenience. The trackpad is also large and nicely sensitive.

Not only does the 16-inch Quad HD display give you some impressive screen real estate of over 90%, but it also has an incredible refresh rate of 240Hz and an unreal screen brightness of 500 nits. 

Paired with excellent specs and performance, this is a true gaming machine that’s ready to go right out of the box. The customizing software is easy to use and especially good for adjusting fan speed and overclocking, though I noticed that when I actually tried to overclock, the GPU was throttled and the framerate dipped tremendously for some reason.

Lenovo Legion Pro 7i: Price & availability

black gaming laptop with rgb lit keyboard

(Image credit: Future)
  • Starting at $2,299.99 (around £2,085 / AU$2,800)
  • Available now in the US, UK, and Australia

Pricing for the Lenovo Legion 7i Pro is a bit high as expected of a hardcore gaming machine. Its starting price is $2,299.99 (around £2,085 / AU$2,800), which is steep but not bad considering that it’s still packing an RTX 4070 GPU and a 13th-gen Intel Core i9-13900HX CPU. The review model I received is a bit pricey at $2,749.99 (£3,499.99 including VAT / AU$4,759), but this version comes with a 13th-gen Intel Core i9-13900KF CPU and an RTX 4080 GPU.

Availability is excellent as well, as you can purchase this laptop in the US, UK, and Australia with little difficulty. However, only the more expensive models are available in UK and Australia, with only the US having a lower-end one with the 4070.

  • Price score: 4.5 / 5

Lenovo Legion Pro 7i: Specs

closeup of stickers on laptop

(Image credit: Future)

The specs for the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i review unit sent to me are as follows:  Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 GPU, a 13th-gen Intel Core i9-13900KF, 32 GB DDR5-5600MHz RAM, and 1 TB SSD M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 TLC storage.

The lowest possible specs for the Lenovo Legion 7i Pro are available in the US and feature a 13th-gen Intel Core i9-13900HX CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU, 16GB DDR5 RAM, and 1TB SSD storage. Interestingly enough, the base model in the UK has 512GB of storage but with all other specs matching the review model that I received. 

My review model featured a 13th-gen Intel Core i9-13900KF CPU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 12GB GDDR6 GPU, 32GB DDR5 RAM, and 1TB NVMe M.2 PCIe SSD storage. This bad boy is enough to run pretty much any game well above 100fps but if you want an even more impressive rig, the most powerful model has a 13-gen Intel Core i9-13900KF CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 24GB GDDR6X GPU, 32GB DDR5 RAM, and 1TB NVMe M.2 PCIe SSD. In all three regions, you can’t upgrade past 1TB of storage, which is a little disappointing, but at least that’s enough to last you quite a while until you need to invest in external storage.

You can only upgrade your laptop in the UK and Australia, with the US having pre-set models instead. This wouldn’t be such an issue except for the fact that US models tend to sell out quickly, meaning if you can’t get your hands on a beefier laptop, you’ll either have to settle for a slightly weaker one or wait for a restocking. Despite that, there’s a nice amount of variety all around, with even the lowest model having impressive components.

  • Specs score: 5 / 5

Lenovo Legion Pro 7i: Design

closeup of rgb lit keyboard

(Image credit: Future)
  • Excellent port selection
  • Not very attractive
  • Solid build but ugly

If you’re looking for a gorgeous laptop that’s guaranteed to stop traffic, the Lenovo Legion 7i Pro is not for you. It prizes performance over looks, which shows in spades. The laptop is all black, the most common and boring of any laptop color, with nary a highlight or contrasting color to liven it up. 

It does have a cool sci-fi aesthetic going on that saves it from being truly hideous, and the chassis itself is built sturdy enough to withstand some punishment. The best part is that it’s made of 50% recycled aluminum on the bottom cover and 30% post-consumer recycled polymers on the top cover.

Its port selection is extremely healthy: it has four USB-A 3.2 ports, one USB-C port, one Thunderbolt 4 port, one HDMI 2.1, one RJ45 ethernet, one power input, one electronic e-shutter switch, and one 3.5mm audio jack. This is easily one of the best selections I’ve ever seen on a laptop, gaming or otherwise. And this laptop having four USB Type-A ports alongside two Type-C ports is an absolute boon.

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back view of black gaming laptop with rgb lit keyboard

(Image credit: Future)
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side view of black gaming laptop with rgb lit keyboard

(Image credit: Future)
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side view of black gaming laptop with rgb lit keyboard

(Image credit: Future)
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closeup of rgb lit keyboard

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closed black gaming laptop

(Image credit: Future)

The size and weight are somewhat doable with the right bag to carry it in, but between the 16-inch display and it weighing over six pounds, it’s very difficult to lug around. Unless you really need to transport it, this laptop is best at its duty of being a stationary desktop replacement.

One benefit of the larger size is the full-sized keyboard, a feature I can always appreciate. Not only does it have larger keys that make typo-free typing a breeze, but it also has a numlock pad. And the touchpad, while nothing particularly special, is a great size and sensitive. Speaker quality is also high. Whether playing games or complex orchestrated pieces, the sound is sharp and can reach a loud volume while sacrificing very little clarity. 

I wish the webcam quality was a little better, though being 1080p does improve image quality quite a bit as long as you have solid lighting. Anything less will result in a graining image, especially since there’s no real way to adjust the lighting and image quality on the laptop itself. There's also a handy switch on the side that controls the shutter, but it's not a physical one which is bad for security.

  • Design score: 4 / 5

Lenovo Legion Pro 7i: Performance

black gaming laptop with cyberpunk running

(Image credit: Future)
  • Gaming performance is incredible
  • Blows away all benchmark tests
  • Do not try to overclock it
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i: Benchmarks

Here's how the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

3DMark: Night Raid: 70,196; Fire Strike: 29,766; Time Spy: 18,366; Port Royal: 11,897
Cinebench R23 Multi-core: 29,766 points
GeekBench 5: 2,028 (single-core); 20,580 (multi-core)
PCMark 10 (Home Test): 8,247 points
Battery Life (TechRadar movie test): 2 hours, 30 minutes
Total War: Warhammer III (1080p, Ultra): 133 fps; (1080p, Low): 324 fps
Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p, Ultra): 123 fps; (1080p, Low): 87 fps
Dirt 5 (1080p, Ultra): 83 fps; (1080p, Low): 209 fps

Performance-wise, the Lenovo Legion 7i Pro really does earn its desktop replacement designation. It blows away pretty much every benchmark test, getting scores much higher than gaming laptops released last year that still use 3000-series GPUs and 12th-gen CPUs. While the GPU scores have reached ludicrous numbers, the CPU test scores should be higher than they are. 

But that could be due to throttling, thanks to the powerful graphics cards. Something similar happened to the Alienware Aurora R15 gaming PC, but it remains to be seen how other gaming machines will score in that regard. But it’s no cause for concern, as it performed productivity tasks quickly and efficiently, making it a solid work machine as well.

In terms of gameplay performance, this throttling has very little impact on it as framerates continue to exceed expectations. For instance, on Ultra with all graphical settings maxed out, Cyberpunk 2077 maintains an excellent 87fps. When you enable DLSS 3, that number shoots up to 137fps on average. Dirt 5 also maintains a great 81-83fps on Ultra settings and Total War: Warhammer III is at around 133fps on Ultra Run. 

Other titles like Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered run butter smooth on the laptop. With maxed-out graphical settings and ray tracing on, there’s no noticeable stuttering or slowdown, even during web-swinging or hectic action scenes. It doesn't hurt that the refresh rate is a ludicrous 240Hz, which ensures that latency issues are a literal non-issue.

There is a problem I noticed with ventilation. Despite having three large vents located on the sides and back of the laptop, there’s still an overheating problem. Nothing drastic enough to burn your lap or affect gameplay, but it does get very warm after being on for a long while. However, this is easily fixed by adjusting the fan settings through the excellent Lenovo software. 

That same software can let you adjust overclocking as well. However, I highly recommend that you don’t bother with it. First, games run perfectly well without doing so, and second, if you do overclock framerate drops dramatically. In Cyberpunk 2077, for instance, it dipped from 87 to 27, and even with DLSS 3 enabled the framerate refused to rise over 30. But as long as you don’t bother overclocking, you’ll have no performance issues whatsoever.

  • Performance score: 5 / 5

Lenovo Legion Pro 7i: Battery

closeup of battery and date/time

(Image credit: Future)
  • Horrible battery life
  • Fast charge time

Like any other desktop replacement gaming laptop, the Lenovo Legion 7i Pro has an awful battery life. This is by far the worst battery life I’ve seen on a gaming laptop, lasting barely over two hours. This is clearly made to be plugged into an outlet and never let off AC power, because even under basic use, the battery will die in no time.

The good thing is that said battery doesn’t drain much if you’re carrying it around, so at least you can expect to have plenty of time to get it to a charger. It also charges very quickly - as in full battery charge within 30 minutes.

  • Battery score: 1 / 5

Should you buy the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i?

Buy it if...

You want a desktop replacement gaming laptop
This is the ultimate in desktop replacement, a gaming laptop that has one of the most powerful GPUs on the market and delivers in performance.

You want a powerful gaming machine
The performance on this machine is beyond outstanding, able to play any PC game on its highest settings and maintain incredibly high frame rates.

Don't buy it if...

You're on a budget
Even the lowest configurations here are expensive, and the highest configurations approach the very premium mark.

Lenovo Legion Pro 7i: Also consider

If the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i has you considering other options, here are two more gaming PCs to consider...

How I tested the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i?

  • I tested the Lenovo Legion 7i Pro for about a week
  • I tested PC games at both low and high settings
  • I used a variety of benchmarks as well as general gameplay to test performance

First, I tested the general weight and portability of the Lenovo Legion 7i Pro by carrying it around in a laptop bag. After I set it up, I ran several benchmarks to test out both the processor and graphics card, as well as in-game gameplay performance. Finally, I stress-tested using titles like Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered and Cyberpunk 2077 in various settings to see both overall performance and ventilation quality.

The Lenovo Legion 7i Pro is a dedicated desktop replacement gaming laptop, which meant the brunt of my testing revolved around checking game performance and looking for any ventilation issues. I also tested out battery life to see how long it could last off AC power.

I've tested plenty of gaming PCs and laptops, making me more than qualified to understand benchmark test results and how to properly stress test machines to see how well they work during both casual and intense gaming sessions.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed March 2023

Alienware Aurora R15 review: this next-gen gaming experience comes with a hefty price tag
9:21 pm | March 4, 2023
Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets | Tags: , , , | Comments: Off

Alienware Aurora R15: Two-minute review

The Alienware Aurora R15 is the latest refresh in the Aurora line of PCs, coming after the Alienware Aurora R13. The latter was a performance monster, so much so that the weak CPU cooler couldn’t keep up and caused massive overheating issues. Thankfully, that’s not the case with the R15.

Alienware is Dell’s premium brand of gaming PCs and laptops, and for good reason too. Not only do the gaming machines have some of the most unique and visually appealing designs and color palettes out there, but they’re also some of the best performing with the highest quality of specs out there. 

The Alienware Aurora R15 is no exception to this golden rule, and it has received substantial upgrades. Notably, the cooling and ventilation system has had a massive overhaul. It now features 240mm liquid cooling that’s upgradable to 240mm Cryo-tech liquid cooling, five 120mm fans, a hexagonal side-venting for better airflow, and voltage regulator heatsinks on the motherboard for better cooling. 

Long story short, I haven’t experienced a single issue with overheating or even just regular heating. The PC could be running Cyberpunk 2077 for three hours, and it wil still maintain an excellent internal temperature.

Its other specs are quite impressive — even the lowest priced one at $1,399.99 (around £1,175 / AU$2,085) has a respectable 13th-gen Intel Core i5 13400F, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050, 8GB of DDR5 RAM, and 256GB of SSD. The one I received for review is the most powerful version, which is priced at a whopping $4,499.99 / £4,799.00 including VAT (around AU$6,700) and features a 13th-gen Intel Core i9-13900KF, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and 1TB NVMe M.2 PCIe SSD (boot) along with 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s (storage). 

And while the pricing is outrageous, it matches the premium quality of both the absolutely stunning side glass chassis and the components themselves. The PC comes in two colors: Dark Side of the Moon and Lunar Light, which are both equally gorgeous and solely depends on your aesthetic preference. 

Thanks to its specs, it is a bit on the heavy side, but it is surprisingly tame compared to other slightly larger PCs. It also has an impressive port selection that fits any possible need you may have for this PC. And thankfully the front batch of ports is not on the top of the PC, so less of a chance of getting dust in them.

Alienware Aurora R15: Price & availability

Alienware Aurora R15 on a table

(Image credit: Future)
  • Starting at $1,399.99 (around £1,175 / AU$2,085)
  • Available now in the US and UK

Dell’s Alienware line has always been premium in both price and quality, and the Alienware Aurora R15 is no exception, as most configurations are quite expensive. However, Dell does offer one that, at the time of this writing, is a solid deal at $1,399.99 (around £1,175 / AU$2,085) - at least for those in the US. The UK only has the two most expensive configurations available, and Australia has none at all.

The unit I received for review is the most expensive model you can purchase, costing at the time of this writing $4,499.99 (£4,799.00 including VAT / around AU$6,700). This version comes with top-tier specs including a 13ᵗʰ Gen Intel Core i9-13900KF processor and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card.

  • Price score: 4.5 / 5

Alienware Aurora R15: Specs

Alienware Aurora R15 on a table

(Image credit: Future)

The specs for the Alienware Aurora R15 review unit sent to me is as follows: 13th-gen Intel Core i9-13900KF processor, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 24GB GDDR6X graphics card, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and 1TB NVMe M.2 PCIe SSD storage. As you can tell, this is the highest possible configuration that you can get for this unit, and it chews up and spits out any PC game on the highest settings.

If you’re in the US, you can also purchase a much cheaper model with a solid configuration, though you’ll probably have to upgrade the RAM and storage space. This model comes with a 13th Gen Intel Core i5 13400F processor, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card, 8GB of DDR5 RAM, and 256GB SSD storage.

There are also several other models in the US to choose from, with my personal favorite for those who want to have a powerful gaming machine without breaking the bank too much. This configuration comes with a 13th-gen Intel Core i7 13700F processor, an AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics card (which is nearly comparable to the RTX 3070), 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and 512GB SSD storage, and it’ll set you back $2,249.99 (around £1,883 / AU$3,344). 

  • Specs score: 5 / 5

Alienware Aurora R15: Design

Alienware Aurora R15 on a table

(Image credit: Future)
  • Striking design with a daring oval-shaped chassis
  • Nice port selection
  • Extensive cooling

One of the most prominent features of nearly any Alienware device is how striking and downright stunning each PC and laptop design is. The Alienware Aurora R15 continues this trend with a daring oval-shaped chassis complemented by both a glass side and one of two gorgeous color palettes to choose from. 

The oval chassis not only creates a stark contrast to the more mainstream box look but also helps to shave off pounds from the overall unit. While it’s still a bit heavy, it’s more than possible for a single person to lift on their own, which I tested out by moving it around my apartment.

Alienware Aurora R15 on a table

(Image credit: Future)

The overall port selection is quite excellent, with several USB Type-A and Type-C ports available for use in both the front and back. However, I do wish more Type-C ports were placed in the front, at least two of them versus only one since having to use the three in the back can be a bit annoying. 

There are tons of other ports like a headset port, audio/microphone port, optical S/PDIF port, coaxial S/PDIF port, ethernet port, several HDMI ports, center/rear/side surround ports, an external antenna port, and line-in/out ports. There are also two slots for security: a Kensington security-cable slot and a padlock slot. There’s a port for pretty much any need you could possibly have.

A huge shoutout to the massively improved ventilation system on this PC. As I mentioned before, the previous R13 model has significant overheating issues due to the weak CPU heatsink. But this time around, Dell has gone above and beyond in its efforts to prevent this with 240mm liquid cooling that’s upgradable to 240mm Cryo-tech liquid cooling, five 120mm fans, a hexagonal side-venting for better airflow, and voltage regulator heatsinks on the motherboard for better cooling. 

While it seems a little over the top, if you’re purchasing the model with an RTX 4090 graphics card, you need the extra cooling since a not-less-than-zero percentage of those cards like to catch on fire when overheated.

  • Design score: 5 / 5

Alienware Aurora R15: Performance

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Alienware Aurora R15 on a table

(Image credit: Future)
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Alienware Aurora R15 on a table

(Image credit: Future)
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Alienware Aurora R15 on a table

(Image credit: Future)
  • Performance beyond incredible
  • Ventilation keeps PC cool at maxed-out settings
Alienware Aurora R15: Benchmarks

Here's how the Alienware Aurora R15 performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

3DMark: Night Raid: 92,439; Fire Strike: 44,258; Time Spy: 30,392; Port Royal: 25,124
Cinebench R23 Multi-core: 35,033 points
GeekBench 5: 2,176 (single-core); 22,813 (multi-core)
PCMark 10 (Home Test): 9,609 points
Total War: Warhammer III (1080p, Ultra): 201 fps; (1080p, Low): 488 fps
Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p, Ultra): 154 fps; (1080p, Low): 155 fps
Dirt 5 (1080p, Ultra): 183 fps; (1080p, Low): 254 fps

The performance of the Alienware Aurora R15 is beyond incredible, blowing any gaming PC outfitted with previous-generation hardware out of the water with ease. I compared the R15 with another desktop PC I recently reviewed, the Acer Predator Orion 7000, to see how current-gen components would fair in benchmarks, and the differences in performance are like night and day.

Keep in mind that the Orion 7000 is no slouch, outfitted with a 12th-gen Intel Core i7 processor and an RTX 3080 graphics card. But for instance, when running the Cyberpunk 2077 benchmark on both PCs on Ultra settings, the Orion 7000 averaged at a great 63FRS while the R15 ran at 154FPS, nearly twice the framerates (this was without DLSS turned on). Comparing Dirt 5, the former averaged at 82FPS and the latter managed 183FPS, over 100 points difference.

Deciding to push things a little further, I tested out both Cyberpunk 2077 and Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, the latter of which is a technical marvel on PC, to some excellent results. I completely maxed out graphics settings on Cyberpunk and set the framerate requirement to about 240, then ran the benchmark with and without DLSS. The latter managed to stay at a consistent 27FPS, while the former immediately shot up to and stayed at an average of 59FPS. 

Meanwhile, maxing out Spider-Man’s graphics with DLSS on and setting the framerate requirement to about 160FPS, I tested out web-swinging through the metropolis and combat on the hardest difficulty with tons of civilians and gun-wielding bad guys around. The former scenario saw the framerate stay above 100FPS, and in the latter, I never saw the framerate dip before 150FPS. It was staggering how incredible the graphics and performance were while running butter smooth all the while.

And the best part was that ventilation made for an experience that kept the PC running nice and cool. It seems that Dell took to heart the missteps of the R13 and created a cooling system that could fully support the power of its components.

  • Performance score: 5 / 5

Should you buy the Alienware Aurora R15?

Buy it if...

You want a beautiful gaming PC
Between the gorgeous oval chassis that comes in two colors and the side glass panel that lights up to showcase the components, this is a showstopping PC.

You want a powerful gaming machine
The performance on this machine is beyond outstanding, able to play any PC game on its highest settings and maintain incredibly high framerates.

You need top-notch ventilation
Learning from its past mistakes, this PC has several fans, liquid cooling, and improved vents around the chassis to ensure it never overheats, even during intense sessions.

Don't buy it if...

You're on a budget
While the cheapest option is nice to see, it's still not a budget machine and the highest configurations are eye-watering in cost.

Alienware Aurora R15: Also consider

If the Alienware Aurora R15 has you considering other options, here are two more gaming PCs to consider...

How I tested the Alienware Aurora R15

  • I tested the Alienware Aurora R15 for about a week
  • I tested PC games at both low and high settings
  • I used a variety of benchmarks as well as general gameplay to test performance

First, I tested the general weight of the Alienware Aurora R15 by lifting it up and around my apartment. After I set it up, I ran several benchmarks to test out both the processor and graphics card, as well as in-game gameplay performance. Finally, I stress-tested out titles like Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered and Cyberpunk 2077 in various settings to see both overall performance and ventilation quality.

The Alienware Aurora R15 is specially made as a gaming PC, which meant the brunt of my testing revolved around checking game performance and looking for any ventilation issues.

I've tested plenty of gaming PCs and laptops, making me more than qualified to understand benchmark test results and how to properly stress test machines to see how well they work during both casual and intense gaming sessions.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed March 2023

Acer Predator Orion 7000 (2022) review
11:33 am | February 19, 2023
Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets | Tags: , , , | Comments: Off

Acer Predator Orion 7000: Two-minute review

 

The Acer Predator Orion 7000 is an absolute beau of a gaming machine, with gorgeous RGB lighting and exquisite cable management. Of course, its massive size and heavy weight are also nothing to sneeze at, making it difficult to move around or lift without a second person. Once it’s in place, however, the massive chassis will be most likely under your desk meaning that it shouldn’t be an issue. And it’s designed to pull apart easily for tool-less access to the insides.

The internals aren’t just for show, though they make quite the gorgeous one, as the state-of-the-art fans and liquid cooling system ensure that this PC will never overheat even when overclocking it with high-end titles. And if you need a handy way to overclock and ramp up the fans in response, the PredatorSense feature allows for precise control over both.

Acer Predator Orion 7000 Key Specs

Here is the Acer Predator Orion 7000 configuration sent to TechRadar for review: 

CPU: Intel Core i7-12700H
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080
RAM: 32 GB DDR5
Storage:  1TB M.2 PCIe Gen 4 SSD and 2TB 7200RPM SATA III hard drive
Optical drive: 2.5-inch USB 3.2 Gen2 Type C hotswap drive bay
Ports: 6 USB 3.2 Type-A, 2 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, 2 USB 2.0 Type-A, 1 Universal Audio Jack, 1 HDMI 2.1 port, 3 DisplayPorts 1.4a
Connectivity: Intel Wireless WiFi 6E AX211, Bluetooth 5.2

In terms of pure performance, the Predator Orion 7000 is a top contender for the best gaming PC you can buy off the shelf out there, with some truly solid benchmark performances. For instance, it completely blows away the Maingear Turbo in both the Geekbench5 and CinebenchR23 benchmarks thanks to its more powerful processor, and it more or less matches the Turbo across the 3DMark suite of GPU tests. 

However, those same impressive scores don’t translate to improved gaming performance, since even though the general performance is excellent it doesn’t reach the standards of the Turbo’s extremely high framerates playing the best PC games. But gaming is still effortlessly smooth on the Orion 7000, even when pushing it to the max, so only those running endless benchmarks will notice any nuances in the performance

For all these premium specs and features built into the PC, you’re sure to pay a premium price for them. The setup we were sent will set you back $3000 and includes an Intel Core i7-12700H, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, 32GB DDR5 RAM, and 1TB of storage. 

The configurations being offered in Australia and UK are quite different from the US ones, with the former offering an Intel Core i9-12900K, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, 16GB DDR5 RAM, and 512GB of storage. The latter has an Intel Core i9-12900K, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090, 32 GB DDR5 RAM, and 1TB of storage. This means that the configurations outside the US are more powerful and expensive machines at the cost of more choices in the configuration.

But considering what’s under the hood, the starting prices are mostly a steal. As, despite falling prices for the best GPUs and best CPUs, these prebuilt and customizable PCs are the best value ways to get your hands on some top-tier specs.

Acer Predator Orion 7000: Price and availability

An Acer Orion 7000 on a desk

(Image credit: Future)
  • How much does it cost? $3,000 (£3,300 / AU$5,500)
  • When is it out? It is available now
  • Where can you get it? You can get it in the US, UK, and Australia, though it's difficult due to low stock

As expected from a high-end gaming PC, the Acer Predator Orion 7000 fetches a pretty penny on the market. In the US, the one we received is $3,000, while the cheapest ones in the UK and Australia respectively are priced at £3,300 and AU$5,500, with prices going as high as AU$7,200 for the latter region. 

However, considering the chips, cooling system, and aesthetics we would argue that this is a PC worth investing in if you want to essentially future-proof it.

  • Value: 4.5 / 5

Acer Predator Orion 7000: Design

An Acer Orion 7000 on a desk

(Image credit: Future)
  • Stunning RGB lighting and see-through chassis
  • Great port selection and cable management
  • Too heavy

Watching the glow of the RGB lighting illuminate the RTX 3080, fans, and beautifully managed cables never gets old. Then there’s also the fact that said chassis is built for practicality as well, as it can be pulled apart without the use of tools.

It’s a well-made machine, with a sturdy chassis that houses an excellent port selection. It includes six USB 3.2 Type-A ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports, two USB 2.0 Type-A ports, one headphone jack, one microphone jack, one HDMI 2.1 port, and three DisplayPort 1.4a. Even better, three of the Type-A, one of the Type-C, the disc drive, and the headphone/microphone jack are located at the top front of the chassis for convenience.

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An Acer Orion 7000 on a desk

(Image credit: Future)
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An Acer Orion 7000 on a desk

(Image credit: Future)

The only real complaint against the Orion 7000 is its size and weight. This is a gamer’s gaming PC and as such all that hardware, including the state-of-the-art fans and liquid cooling system, plus the size of the casing itself makes it bulky and hard to transport. We found it requires at least two people to safely move the PC around.

With the powerful combination of fans and liquid cooling, near-perfect circulation is all but guaranteed. We didn’t notice as much as a whisper of heat coming from the PC, and this was on the standard settings without using the PredatorSense tool to further modify the fan speeds. The sound while wearing headphones is phenomenal, crisp and sharp audio that’s perfect for picking up subtle cues or for feeling dropped right in the middle of all the action.

And the fact that it comes with a decent gaming keyboard and mouse is just icing on the cake.

  • Design:  5 / 5

Acer Predator Orion 7000: Performance

An Acer Orion 7000 on a desk

(Image credit: Future)
  • No game can stand against it
  • No overheating issues
  • Has ray-tracing, HDR, and more
Benchmarks

Here's how the Acer Predator Orion 7000 performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

3DMark: Night Raid: 75,573; Fire Strike: 32,056; Time Spy: 16,938
Cinebench R23 Multi-core: 21,288 points
GeekBench 5: 1664 (single-core); 14,050 (multi-core)
PCMark 10 (Home Test): 8874 points
Total War: Warhammer III (1080p, Ultra): 97fps; (1080p, Low): 272fps
Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p, Ultra): 63fps; (1080p, Low): 126fps
Dirt 5 (1080p, Ultra): 82fps; (1080p, Low): 255fps

The Acer Predator Orion 7000 is a beast when it comes to playing PC games, no matter how demanding the task is. For instance, we completely maxed out every option in Final Fantasy VII Remake including 4k resolution, HDR, ray-tracing, and 120FPS. 

To our extreme surprise, the Orion 7000 exceeded all of our expectations, performing at max 256FPS with all those settings turned on. Meanwhile, it runs Hitman 3 butter smooth, at 84FPS on average for the Dartmoor benchmark, and a whopping 103FPS on average for the Dubai benchmark.

Then there’s the PredatorSense tool, which allows you to both overclock your PC and increase fan speeds to overcompensate for it, to your exact specifications. It’s a great feature that’s incredibly easy to use and customize.

The Orion 7000’s configuration, which is equipped with the RTX 3080 and Core i7, churned out some phenomenal benchmark scores. Not even the Maingear Turbo, which uses a stronger graphics card, could beat this computer. 

It’s interesting how the mostly tied or superior scores didn’t translate into superior framerates for the suite of PC games we benchmarked with, compared to the Turbo. Though considering the slight improvement in the chips department it makes sense.

That said, the Orion 7000 is still a high-quality, high-end gaming PC that eats demanding and poorly optimized games for breakfast. And thanks to the well-constructed cooling system, it keeps running smoothly without turning into a furnace under your desk.

  • Performance: 5 / 5

Should you buy an Acer Predator Orion 7000?

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  • First reviewed February 2023

How We Test

We pride ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing process, offering up long-term attention to the products we review and making sure our reviews are updated and maintained - regardless of when a device was released, if you can still buy it, it's on our radar.

Read more about how we test

Dell XPS 17 (2022)
2:40 am | July 26, 2022
Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Laptops Windows Laptops | Tags: , , , | Comments: Off

Editor's note

  • Original review date: July 2022
  • Newer Dell XPS 17 with updated components now out
  • Launch price: $1,749 / £2,099 / AU$3,999
  • Target price: $1,599 / £1,599 / AU$2,999

Update: January 2024. The model we reviewed here is almost two years old now, but it still remains one of the best laptops you can buy. This is because its powerful components are still very good, and the slim and light design remains one of the best you'll find on a 17-inch laptop, which can often be big and bulky due to their larger screens. This particular model is no longer sold directly by Dell, but can be found at other retailers, often with a nice price cut that makes it better value. Dell has also released more modern models of the XPS 17, so if you fancy getting this larger laptop with even more powerful components, you've got that option as well. The rest of this review remains as previously published.

Dell XPS 17 (2022): Two minute review

If the Dell XPS 17 looks familiar, that’s because it is. Physically, this revised 2022 model is a dead ringer for last year’s XPS - and the one from 2020, too. But that’s no bad thing given this is one of, if not the slickest and sleekest laptops around. 

What actually is different can be found inside, most notably Intel’s latest 12 Gen CPUs. Our review unit is rocking the Intel Core i7-12700H, which packs six performance cores plus eight efficiency cores and turbos up to 4.7GHz. 

Honestly, it ought to be enough CPU for even the most demanding users, making it one of the best laptops around for productivity and business users. But if you really insist you can pay extra - and an awful lot extra because the upgrade typically forces more expensive components in other areas - for Dell to stick in a Core i9-12900K, which has the same core count but peaks at 5GHz. We wouldn’t bother, since you’ll barely feel the difference, if at all.

Dell XPS 17 (2022) Key Specs

Here is the Dell XPS 17 (2022) configuration sent to TechRadar for review:
CPU: Intel Core 17-12700H
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050
RAM: 32GB DDR5
Screen: 17-inch 3,840 x 2,400, 500 nits
Storage: 512GB NVMe SSD
Ports: 4 x USB-C with Thunderbolt 4, 1 x 3.5mm combo jack, 1 x  SD card reader
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2
Camera: 720p with IR
Weight: 4.79 lbs | 2.17 kg
Size (W x D x H): 14.74 x 9.76 x 0.77 ins (375 x 248 x 20 mm)
Battery: 97WHr

Elsewhere, one thing the XPS isn’t is an out-and-out gaming laptop. Our configuration runs an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 GPU with 4GB of graphics memory. It’s dandy for a spot of casual gaming and will also add some welcome grunt to GPU-accelerated productivity and content creation apps. But it’s not a 4K powerhouse, nor is the RTX 3060 chip offered as an upgrade, which it ideally would need to be given the specification of the XPS’s screen.

Indeed, we’ve got the optional upgrade panel which packs 3,840 by 2,400 pixels - more than standard 4K thanks to the taller 16:10 aspect ratio. It’s a stunner of a screen rated at a punchy 500 nits and with 100 percent coverage of the Adobe RGB gamut, so it’s fully capable of content creation workflows. It also supports HDR, but isn’t a new-fangled mini-LED panel, so keep expectations in check. The HDR experience is OK rather than eye-popping.

The screen looks all the better thanks to those signature Dell XPS slim bezels on all four sides. It’s a design feature that keeps this two-year-old design looking bang up to date, and also minimizes the laptop’s overall footprint. It’s not just the screen that stands out, so does the sound quality. The XPS 17 really packs an audio punch, with remarkably dynamic sound including decent bass, good stereo separation and strong volume.

Rounding out the best bits of this revised 2022 model of the Dell XPS 17 is battery life of over 10 hours during light workloads, which is outstanding for this big a beast. On the other end of things, this isn’t anywhere close to being as portable as the best Ultrabooks, but no 17-inch laptop will ever score very highly in that regard. 

But if you do take it with, you can genuinely get a day’s work done away from the mains, which makes it one of the best student laptops for anyone about to head off to uni in a couple of months.

So whether you're a student, a content creator, or just want a gorgeous device, the Dell XPS 17 (2022) retains its place as possibly the best Dell laptop ever made that's not called the XPS 13.

Dell XPS 17 (2022): Price and availability

A Dell XPS 17 (2022) on a table

(Image credit: Future)
  • Starting price looks appealing
  • Quickly gets pricey with options

The Dell XPS 17 (2022) kicks off at $1,749 in the US, £2,099 in the UK and AU$3,999, the apparent discrepancy outside of the US accounted for by a higher spec base CPU. Anyway, if that’s not exactly cheap, things only get worse when you add upgrades. 

The gorgeous UHD+ touchscreen, for instances, adds $300 / £300, doubling the RAM to 32GB will sock you for $150 / £200 and the 1TB SSD costs an extra $100 / £100. All told, as configured here, you’re looking at $2,749, £2,599 in the UK and AU$4,798 down under.

  • Value: 3.5 / 5

Dell XPS 17 (2022): Design

A Dell XPS 17 (2022) on a table

(Image credit: Future)
  • Super slim bezels
  • Gorgeous build quality

The design of the Dell XPS 17 (2022) is a dead ringer for last year’s model and the year before, but we're grateful for that. 

The XPS is super sleek and beautifully built, with the main chassis and screen cover in machined aluminum and the palmrest in carbon fiber. It still looks modern too, thanks to ultra-slim bezels on all four sides of the display. And that despite still squeezing in a 720p webcam up top with Windows Hello facial recognition support.

The chassis is very solid and the keyboard bed fairly stable, though a little flex is present. The large trackpad is about as good as it gets on a Windows laptop. Only Apple’s MacBooks do trackpads better. 

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A Dell XPS 17 (2022) on a table

(Image credit: Future)
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A Dell XPS 17 (2022) on a table

(Image credit: Future)
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A Dell XPS 17 (2022) on a table

(Image credit: Future)

Of course, this is still a big machine weighing in at well over 2kg and measuring in excess of 14 inches across, but that's the case with all of the best 17-inch laptops; they're simply never going to be compact. That said, the slim bezels ensure about as small a footprint as possible and ensures that if you've got to have something this large you at least get the absolute most out of its size. 

The XPS 17 is about as haulable as 17-inch laptops get, with the possible exception of the featherweight LG Gram 17, which is slightly wider in terms of footprint but much lighter at 1.35kg.

If we do take issue with the XPS’s proportions, it’s how they map to the port selection. On the one hand, the quartet of USB-C ports all support full Thunderbolt 4 functionality with power delivery and DisplayPort alt mode, which is great. 

There’s also a full-sized SD card slot and an audio jack. But that’s it. There’s no USB Type-A, no full sized HDMI socket nor a LAN port, but that's the price you pay for the slick looks and chiselled chassis sides.

  • Design: 4.5 / 5

Dell XPS 17 (2022): Performance

A Dell XPS 17 (2022) on a table

(Image credit: Future)
  • Grunty 12th Gen Intel CPUs
  • Good cooling
  • Not a true gaming laptop

With six performance cores and eight efficiency cores, the XPS 17’s Intel Core i7-12700H has as many cores as the top Core i9 processor from Intel’s latest 12th Gen Alder Lake CPU family. It just runs at slightly lower clockspeeds, but not that you’d notice. 

As CPU performance goes, this laptop has everything you could ask for. It’ll tear through everything from video encodes to 3D renders with ease. Alder Lake’s world-beating single-core performance also guarantees that this laptop feels snappy in day-to-day tasks like web browsing. 

Indeed, with fully 32GB RAM, you’re rarely going to run out of memory, which makes multi-tasking a breeze. With that much RAM, swapping application data to the SSD will hardly ever happen. Even if it does, there’s a fast PCIe Gen 4.0 SSD ready to minimise the performance hit of disk swapping. Overall, it really is a very speedy machine, this XPS 17.

Benchmarks

Here is how the Dell XPS 17 (2022) performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

3DMark Night Raid: 27,398; Fire Strike: 11,908; Time Spy: 5,439
Cinebench R23 Multi-core: 17,747
GeekBench 5 Single-core: 1,682; (Multi-core) 13,725
PCMark 10 (Home Test): 6,810
Battery Life (Techradar movie test): 10:14
Total War: Warhammer III (1080p, Ultra): 48 fps; (1080p, Low): 121 fps
Dirt 5 (1080p, Ultra): 44 fps; (1080p, Low): 96 fps

If there is an exception, it involves graphics performance and gaming. As tested, our review unit runs Nvidia’s GeForce RTYX 3050 mobile GPU with 4GB of video memory. It is a big step up over plain old integrated graphics, to be sure. As our benchmarks show, you can get playable frame rates at 1080p in modern games. But only just. It’s not a truly high performance gaming GPU.

You can optionally go for the RTX 3060, which will improve your frame rates. But even that GPU isn’t nearly powerful enough to play games at the XPS’s native 4K-plus screen resolution. Even Nvidia’s fastest mobile GPU, the RTX 3080 Ti, is only just capable of that.

Anyway, the point is that the XPS is certainly up for some casual gaming. But if gaming is one of your top priorities and you can afford this class of laptop, we’d recommend going with one of the best gaming laptops instead with at least an RTX 3070 GPU, something which is certainly available at this price point.

  • Performance: 4 / 5

Dell XPS 17 (2022): Battery Life

  • Impressive battery life for a large machine
  • Full workday battery life is doable

Large powerful laptops like the Dell XPS 17 (2022) used to be nailed-on certainties for awful battery life. Not these days. In light workloads like watching video and web browsing, you can expect over 10 hours of battery life. That’s true all-day performance. 

Admittedly, if you do anything remotely demanding, that number will tumble dramatically, despite its ginormous 97WHr battery. But this certainly isn’t one of those old-school desktop replacement rigs that had you worrying about battery life the moment you unplugged from the outlet. This thing has legs.

  • Battery Life: 4 / 5

Should you buy a Dell XPS 17 (2022)?

A Dell XPS 17 (2022) on a table

(Image credit: Future)

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

Dell XPS 17 (2022): Report Card

  • First reviewed July 2022

How We Test

We pride ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing process, offering up long-term attention to the products we review and making sure our reviews are updated and maintained - regardless of when a device was released, if you can still buy it, it's on our radar.

Read more about how we test

Acer Nitro 5 (2022) review
8:00 pm | June 23, 2022
Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Gaming Computers Gaming Laptops | Tags: , , , | Comments: Off

Editor's Note

• Original review date: June 2022
• Launch price: Started at $999 / £1,099 / around AU$1,600
• Target price now (updated model): Starts at $999 / £999 / AU$1,500

Update – July 2024: Acer's Nitro budget gaming brand is still truckin', though the humble Nitro 5 is no longer the star of the show as new Nitro 16 and Nitro 17 laptops have now arrived on the scene.

The exact Core i5 model from 2022 reviewed here is no longer available to buy directly from Acer (although it can still be found at some third-party retailers), though there are newer models still available - hence the lack of a significant price drop in the above target pricing. The current-gen configuration comes with a newer Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 graphics card, making it a straight upgrade without a bump in price; always a welcome sight.

While the Nitro 5 isn't the best laptop on the market, it was never trying to be. Instead, it aims to be the best cheap laptop - and indeed, for a while in 2022 it occupied the 'best budget' spot on our ranking of the best gaming laptops. It might be starting to show its age a bit now, but the Acer Nitro 5 is still a solid choice of gaming machine for buyers on a budget.

Acer Nitro 5 (2022): Two minute review

The Acer Nitro 5 (2022) is an excellent option for anyone looking for a budget gaming laptop, considering how the current market demand for more affordable gaming PCs and laptops has soared in recent months.

For the most part, the Nitro 5 is one of the best cheap gaming laptops around thanks to its great performance, offering a well-rounded gaming experience for its price point. In terms of specs, the Acer Nitro 5 sports some beefy specs for a budget machine, which means it runs most games at 30 FPS at least with maxed-out settings and much higher under more reasonable settings. 

Jump to

Price and availability
Design
Performance
Battery Life
Should I buy?

The screen is a 15.6-inch display with thin bezels to maximize the space but unfortunately no anti-glare, which means it’ll be that much harder to game when you’re outside in direct sunlight. The keyboard is simple but smooth and easy to use, with wide keys and a tenkey numpad on the right side. It’s also backlit for easy gaming in the dark or dimmer lighting. The touchpad is also smooth and very responsive with no noticeable input delays.

The chassis feels solid and well-built and while it’s not thin and lightweight by any stretch of the imagination, it’s still lighter than many other bulkier gaming laptops and relatively easy to carry around. It’s also well ventilated, using a dual-fan and four-exhaust setup to keep the temperatures low.

Its battery life is easily the worst feature, as it runs out of power in about four hours with regular, non-gaming use. The cable it comes with is a very slow charge, so you’ll have to splurge for a fast charging one yourself to take advantage of the built in Thunderbolt 4 support. The second worst is the 720p webcam with an average-at-best clarity, but unlike some other budget laptops you at least have one built in.

It supports Wi-Fi 6E, which means a much faster internet connection whether at home or on the go. This is a great option for streaming games when you can’t tether your laptop, though it does hinge on whether the Wifi used supports it.

The Acer Nitro 5 is a well-rounded gaming laptop that has some solid performance falling right in line with its competition, except when it comes to its below average battery life. Though not the sexiest, it’s fairly portable with a large screen size and very affordable as well, which is a definitely a bonus nowadays.

Acer Nitro 5 (2022): Price and availability

An Acer Nitro 5 sitting on a desk

(Image credit: Future)
  • How much does it cost? Starting at $999/£1,099
  • When can you get it? It is available now in the US and UK.
  • Where can you get it? You can get it in the US through Best Buy, and in the UK through the Acer online storefront.

The Acer Nitro 5 is available in the US through Best Buy and in the UK through the Acer online store, with Australian availability yet to be announced. The configuration on offer features a 12th-Gen Intel Core i5-12500H, Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti dedicated graphics, 16GB DDR4 RAM, and a 512GB PCIe SSD. Look out for any Acer promo codes that could bring the cost down.

  • Value: 4/5 

Acer Nitro 5 (2022): Design

An Acer Nitro 5 sitting on a desk

(Image credit: Future)
  • A very no-frills, sturdy design
  • Well-designed and practical keyboard

When you think of the best gaming laptops, the first thing that pops in your head might be one on the thicker side, with a simple black metal exterior, and a bezel that’s thin but nothing out of the ordinary. In other words, a fully functional design that does little to stand out. And the Acer Nitro 5 fits that to a T.

Spec Sheet

Here is the Acer Nitro 5 (2022) configuration sent to TechRadar for review:
CPU: Intel Core i5-12500H
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti
RAM: 16GB DDR4
Screen: 15.6-inch IPS, FHD, 144Hz
Storage: 512 PCIe SSD
Ports: 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, 1 x Thunderbolt 4, 1 x power port, 1 x HDMI 2.1, 1 x SD Card Reader, 1 x Combo Jack, 1 x Kensington Slot
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2
Camera: 720p
Weight: 5.51lbs | 2.5kg
Size (W x D x H): 14.19 x 10.67 x 1.06 ins | 360.4 x 271.0 x 26.9 mm
Battery:  57WHr

It has a sturdy and high quality build that’s fitting for a gaming computer. It has a good amount of heft to it, so you’ll definitely feel its weight if you carry it around with you, but its size isn’t excessive enough to cause genuine stress either. As long as you have a good quality laptop bag with some decent space, it doesn’t take up too much room and won’t overburden you either.

If there’s anything about the Acer Nitro 5 that stands out, it’s the keyboard. The keys are black with a white outline, lay mostly flat, and are wider than a standard keyboard’s keys. This gives it a very distinctive look that may be visually polarizing but serves a more practical purpose, which is to make typing on them much easier for those who have thicker fingers or generally shaky hands. 

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An Acer Nitro 5 sitting on a desk

(Image credit: Future)
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An Acer Nitro 5 sitting on a desk

(Image credit: Future)
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An Acer Nitro 5 sitting on a desk

(Image credit: Future)

The smooth and flat surface also means it’s easier for fingers to glide from key to key, which is extremely important when in an intense gaming session that requires fast input. There’s also a numlock pad on the right, putting number keys in an easy to reach position.

The thin bezels are somewhat notable, as they help to maximize the screen real estate while also preventing the screen itself from having to increase in size and make the whole laptop larger and clunkier.

Its port selection is standard but in a good way, with a nice variety of ports and slots to suit most needs. There are three USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-As and one Type-C, an HDMI port, an SD Card Reader, a headphones jack, and a Kensington Slot for added security. It also comes with a Thunderbolt 4 port, which is excellent for fast charging though you’ll have to purchase the cable yourself.

  • Design: 3/5 

Acer Nitro 5 (2022): Performance

An Acer Nitro 5 sitting on a desk

(Image credit: Future)
  • Performs well graphically for its configuration 
  • Good quality HD screen 

One of the most important yet underrated features of any gaming laptop is the circulation. No matter how cutting edge the specs are, if the airflow is terrible your PC is heading down to crash town. But the Acer Nitro 5 has a solid setup which includes dual-fan cooling, quad exhausts located on each side, and even an upper air intake situated above the keyboard. This translates to a very well cooled machine that hasn’t overheated in the countless hours I played around with it.

Benchmarks

Here is how the Acer Nitro 5 performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

3DMark: Night Raid: 35,782; Fire Strike: 13,238; Time Spy: 5,831
Cinebench R23 Multi-core: 11,085 points
GeekBench 5: 1,691 (single-core); 8,596 (multi-core)
PCMark 10 (Home Test): 6,536 points
PCMark 10 Battery Life: 2 hours and 31 minutes
Battery Life (TechRadar movie test): 3 hours and 56 minutes
Total War: Warhammer III (1080p, Ultra): 52 fps; (1080p, Low): 130 fps
Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p, Ultra): 76 fps; (1080p, Low): 135 fps 

In terms of performance during a gaming session, it runs most graphically demanding titles pretty smoothly. We tested it using both Total War: Warhammer III and Cyberpunk 2077 and without any of the magic of ray-tracing and integrated graphics, both games are able to maintain about 30-50 FPS in Ultra settings and between 70-130 FPS in Low settings. And considering that this laptop’s benchmarks are actually a bit higher than two of the other budget competitors, it makes sense that it’s able to hold its own.

Complementing the visuals is a competent sound setup made of dual 2W speakers. While not groundbreaking in any way, the music and sound effects are immersive and support the graphics well. The keyboard is smooth, responsive, and feels satisfying to use; not to mention the red backlight is always a nice touch, especially during late night gaming sessions.

Also complementing the visuals is the 15.6-inch QHD screen, with a resolution of 2560 X1440. This is further supported by the 165Hz refresh rate and 3ms response time, meaning that not only do the graphics look nice but the visuals are crisp and smooth.

The webcam is nothing to write home about, as it’s a substandard 720p resolution that looks okay but not super crisp and clear. It’s good for Zoom meetings and will manage during streams, but don’t expect anything polished either.

All around this laptop performs pretty well for a budget machine, passing nearly every benchmark handedly. Framerate is better than you’d expect from the hardware it has, which is no doubt the CPU carrying its full weight. It has a great circulation setup, which no doubt contributes to its overall performance, and the sound supports the visuals perfectly with no breakups or other quality issues.

  • Performance: 4/5 

Acer Nitro 5 (2022): Battery Life

An Acer Nitro 5 sitting on a desk

(Image credit: Future)
  • Does not last long at all
  • Has a Thunderbolt option for charging 

If there’s one thing that weighs down the Acer Nitro 5 and it’s the abysmal battery life. Even under normal working conditions the battery can’t seem to go past a few hours before needing a recharge, and the charge time itself is rather slow. Do yourself a favor and buy a Thunderbolt 4 charger instead.

When we ran a standard 1080p movie test, which involves looping a movie at normal settings until the battery life runs out, the battery didn’t even make it to the four hour mark before dying. The results of the PC Mark 10 Battery Life benchmark were a bit more surprising, as the laptop matched its two competitors pretty closely with its score of 6536. This is despite the other two laptops having a battery life of at least eight hours.

  • Battery life: 1/5 

Should I buy an Acer Nitro 5 (2022)?

An Acer Nitro 5 sitting on a desk

(Image credit: Future)

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

  • First reviewed June 2022
Asus ROG Flow X13 review
10:02 pm | March 24, 2022
Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Gaming Computers Gaming Laptops | Tags: , | Comments: Off

Editor's Note

• Original review date: March 2022
• Launch price: Starts at $1,699 / £1,499 / AU$2,999
• Target price now (updated model): Starts at £1,749 / £1,699 / AU$2,059

Update – September 2024: The Asus ROG Flow X13 has enjoyed a major specs bump since we reviewed this model back in 2022, with the base configuration leaping all the way up from an Nvidia GTX 1650 graphics card to the far superior RTX 4050, with even beefier 4060 models available too - effectively nullifying the need for an external GPU that we remarked on in the below review.

That does mean pricing has crept up a bit in most regions, although strangely Australia has a budget version without a dedicated GPU (it uses Radeon 780M integrated graphics instead) - and while that means a far lower entry price, I would strongly recommend opting for the AU$2,499 RTX 4050 model - that's still cheaper than the older version in Australia.

If you're actually looking for a lightweight work device and only plan to do casual gaming, that 780M model might be fine - but I'd advise checking out the best ultrabooks instead.

Original review follows.

Two-minute review

The Asus ROG Flow X13 takes on a rather unusual look if you’re more accustomed to the usually chunky chassis and large displays seen on other Asus ROG gaming laptops. This 13-inch ultraportable 2-in-1-style gaming laptop actually offers a few interesting benefits though, namely that you can purchase an additional eGPU (short of external graphics card) to bump up the graphical performance of the device. 

A few slim gaming laptops have appeared in recent years, with the likes of the Razer Blade 14 offering power and versilitility, all in a compact design that won't hurt your back to haul around, and eGPUs are hardly a new concept, but seeing the two benefits coexisting is still an unusual sight.

The XG Mobile eGPU doubles as a hub for all your gaming peripherals and gear by including connections for USB, Ethernet and DisplayPort, as well as boosting the GTX 1650 built into the Flow X13 up to Nvidia's RTX 3080. Sadly, our review unit didn't come with the eGPU so this review will be based solely on the performance of the unassisted ROG Flow X13.

The Asus ROG Flow X13 from a front view

(Image credit: Future)

Even without the eGPU, the Flow X13 is a decent little gaming laptop, with emphasis on 'little'. It’s a far cry from the performance you can expect from devices that are natively equipped with more powerful GPUs, but it's AMD Ryzen 9 5980HS processor makes it well suited for demanding applications, and you can happily run low-demand titles with few issues.

Its 13-inch size is uncommon given most folks want more screen real-estate to play games, but if you needed something compact then it could be exactly what you're looking for. It's even a 2-in-1 device, so you can transform this into a tablet to edit images or sketch if you use it with the stylus that it ships with, but the palm rejection is frustratingly bad so you'll need to be careful to not touch the display.

It's quirky, with plenty of unique features that will impress your friends even if they're already pretty familiar with gaming laptops, but that doesn't mean its offering the very best of both worlds. We're unable to test the eGPU, so we can't advise if buying one alongside the ROG Flow X13 makes it a worthwhile purchase, but as a standalone device there are better offerings out there that won't leave you feeling as if you've purchased an incomplete system, like beautiful car with no engine.

Price and availability

Spec sheet

Here is the Asus ROG Flow X13 configuration sent to TechRadar for review:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5980HS
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650
RAM : 32GB 4200MHz DDR4
Display: 13.4-inch 16:10, 3840 x 2400 pixel, multitouch, 60 Hz
Storage: 1TB NVMe SSD
Ports: 1 x USB-C, 1 x USB-A, 1 x HDMI, 1 x headphone jack, 1 x external GPU port
Connectivity: Dual-band WiFi 6 (802.11ax) + Bluetooth 5.0
Camera: 720p HD camera with physical privacy shutter
Size: 11.77 x 8.74 x 0.62 inches
Weight: 2.87 pounds / 1.36 kg

The Asus ROG Flow X13 is available now, from $1,699 / £1,499 / AU$2,999, with the XG Mobile RTX 3080 Laptop GPU priced at an additional $1,499.99 / £1,299. We couldn't find an official price for the RTX 3080 eGPU in Australia, but then, we couldn't find the Flow X13 at all on the Australian Asus website.

If you wanted to buy the two as a bundle, then there's good and bad news. The good news is that the two are frequently bundled together, but both pricing and regional availability for this is all over the place. There are a few different listings for the same variant of the ROG Flow X13 that we reviewed at $3340 / £2899, but ran into similar issues trying to find something for Australia.

It’s also possible to buy the laptop with an RTX 3050 or RTX 3050 Ti GPU and weaker Ryzen 9 5900HS processor, at a similar price to the version running with an older GTX 1650 which could give a little RTX boost to creative applications and games that allow DLSS.

Design

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The keyboard on the Asus ROG Flow X13

(Image credit: Future)
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The keyboard on the Asus ROG Flow X13

(Image credit: Future)

As far as gaming laptops go, the ROG Flow X13 is rather conservative, but that plays in well with it's marketability towards working professionals who need a portable workstation by day and a gaming beast over lunch and when you clock off for the day. At 3 lbs / 1.3kg and just 0.6 inches / 158mm thick, this won't be weighing down a bag on your morning commute and will easily fit into a standard satchel or backpack.

The black design is modern and simple, though it still retains a lot of that iconic ROG styling we've come to love from Asus. The 13.4-inch screen of the Flow X13 is very bright, clear and sharp, with a full HD 1080p resolution and a peak brightness of just under 300 nits. That's not mind-blowing, and you'll struggle to work in bright environments but the the visual quality is decent, with vivid colors coming through in gameplay and while streaming media.

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The ports shown on a side view of the Asus ROG Flow X13

(Image credit: Future)
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The ports shown on a side view of the Asus ROG Flow X13

(Image credit: Future)

There are two display options to choose from, either 3,840 x 2,400 at 60Hz or 1,920 x 1,200 at 120Hz with the latter being the version reviewed here.

There are a few productivity benefits too, such as the display dimensions being 16:10 rather than 16:9 like many gaming laptops still use. The additional space is great as you get noticeably more vertical space with a 16:10 resolution which will result in less scrolling.

The keyboard is comfortable, with generously sized LED-backlit keys for such a small gaming device. There are dedicated buttons at the top of the keyboard control the volume, mute the microphone and launch the ROG Armory Crate control software (required to optimize GPU and other components). You're not getting a numpad, but...well, just look at the size of the laptop and don't ask for the earth.

The touchpad is also large and responsive. We certainly wouldn't suggest trying to use this to play games on, but it does a decent enough job if you're whipping it out on a train to get some work done. Still, consider grabbing a decent wireless mouse will save a lot of frustration, and models like the Razer Orochi V2 also double as a fantastic gaming peripheral if you don't want multiple mice hanging out in your bag.

A view of the Asus ROG Flow X13 from the top down with lid closed

(Image credit: Future)

Sadly, as is usually the case with smaller laptops, you're not getting many ports on the Flow X13. On the right you'll find a single USB-A 3.2 port and a USB-C 3.2 port you use for charging (no support for the newer Thunderbolt 3 or 4). The left side sports a 3.5mm audio jack, an HDMI port, and the proprietary XG Mobile external GPU port that's covered by a silicone cover. 

The power button on the ROG Flow X13 is replaced rather precariously along the side of the device, so as to not interfere with it while in tablet mode but this does have its own set of issues. Though 2-in-1 laptops usually have power buttons on their sides, this was especially sensitive, and we did manage to accidently put the device to sleep on a few occasions.

Performance

Benchmarks

Here's how the Asus ROG Flow X13 performed in our suite of benchmark tests:
3DMark: Night Raid: 27,670; Fire Strike: 7,763; Time Spy: 3,308
Cinebench R20 Multi-core: 4,374 points
GeekBench 5: 1,506 (single-core); 7,941 (multi-core)
PCMark 10 (Home Test): 5,781 points
PCMark 10 Battery Life: 4 hours and 3 minutes
Battery Life (TechRadar movie test): 3 hours and 38 minutes
Total War: Three Kingdoms (1080p, Ultra): 22 fps; (1080p, Low): 87 fps
Metro Exodus (1080p, Ultra): 23 fps; (1080p, Low): 82 fps

The Asus ROG Flow X13 is equipped with some pretty impressive kit for its diminutive size, rocking an AMD Ryzen 9 5980HS processor and a whopping 32GB of speedy RAM. This isn't just good for gaming, it also makes it a pretty good at managing creative applications too, especially those that will lean more on the CPU than graphics.

Even while running 10 tabs in Google Chrome (a browser known to be a memory hog), while also streaming music on Spotify, a muted video on one of the Chrome tabs and then attempting to edit some images on Adobe Photoshop, the Flow X13 keeps up. While the fans do kick in and things can get pretty dang warm, it doesn't appear to struggle with the workload, though we would suggest you don't try this while the device is on your lap. 

We can't speak for how the Flow X13 performs when docked into the XG Mobile Dock eGPU, but that little GTX 1650 runs surprising well regardless. Sure, you're hardly going to be playing brand new release titles like Elden Ring on anything close to an enjoyable framerate if you don't slap the settings on their lowest possible options, but there are still some beautiful games that will run just fine.

Horizon: Zero Dawn manages an admirable 31fps on standard settings, while The Witcher 3 runs along happily at 36fps, and while both are getting on a bit in age, they do show you won't be restricted to just running indie or retro titles.

The usual low-demand Battle Royale games like Fortnite and Valorant will also play well on the system, but that's hardly surprising given those titles are designed to run on just about anything. If you wanted a new laptop for work or school that you can also play a few rounds on during breaks, this isn't a terrible option.

The Asus ROG Flow X13 in tablet mode

(Image credit: Future)

Still, if you're not keen on playing games around 30fps you'll need to buy the additional eGPU or look for something with a little more power behinds it's graphics. As it stands, the Flow 13 has more in common with something like the Dell XPS 13 than other gaming laptops - a powerful, portable workstation, but once that's a tad gutless for gaming.

Our actual benchmarks are...okay for a laptop in this price range given its other features, but you'll certainly get more for your money if you want more power for the same budget. You can buy an Asus TUF A15 for $1,300 (£1,300, around $2,000), and while it gets bested by the Asus ROG Flow X13 in productivity benchmarks like Geekbench 5, with the TUF A15 scoring 1,175 (single-core); 7,708 (multi-core) against the Flow 13's 1,506 (single-core); 7,941 (multi-core) score, It dominates the 2-in-1 at gaming capabilities, and still manages to stay fairly professional looking.

Battery life

Ther Asus ROG Flow X13 in tablet mode

(Image credit: Future)

Many workstation laptops can offer some pretty impressive battery life despite having powerful components, and similarly, we see that some older or budget-friendly gaming laptops can also chug along for a while thanks to them using older hardware that's less demanding on power.

The Flow X13 manages to suck in both of these regards. Battery life is pretty poor, and the 2-in-1 lasts just 4 hours and 3 minutes in the PCMark 10 Battery Life benchmark that simulates a selection of daily activities. Similarly, our looped video test only runs for 3 hours and 38 minutes, and while both scores are fairly on point for a beefy gaming laptop...this isn't.

In actual gaming, it runs dry in just under two hours, which is pretty abysmal. If you're looking for a gaming laptop that can actually run for a while away from a power outlet, consider the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 which in the same looped video test lasts an incredible 8 hours and 10 minutes.

Webcam

The webcam built into the Asus ROG Flow X13

(Image credit: Future)

Webcams on any laptop tends to be a bit lacklustre, but having one included on a gaming device at all is a modern day miracle. Thankfully, the ROG Flow X13 does include a camera, and while its a far cry from anything on our list of the best webcams, the 720p resolution is fine for video conferencing or having a quick chat with friends. 

The sensors are pretty bad though, so you'll want to make sure you're facing a decent light source. In dim light there's a lot of background noise in shot, and even if used in a well lit room the colors can look washy. It also doesn't have IR sensors or privacy shutters, so you won't be able to log in with your face using Windows Hello.

Buy it if...

The underside of the Asus ROG Flow X13

(Image credit: Future)

Don't buy it if...

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